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Now… on to the fun stuff!

I made you a zine!

Because The Medium is the Message I’ve given up weekly blogging and I’m making monthly zines instead.

Here’s how it works.

First, I noodle around with an idea. I type up a few notes on my phone and mull it over.

I might browse are.na to find some images or I might use a photograph.

Next, I do 2-3 rounds of edits. This process is powered by my kid’s hyperfocus when playing Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Then, I go out to my studio and load up my 1950’s Underwood typewriter.

Unless there’s a big problem (like above: when I loaded my typewriter ribbon backwards) I do my best to type the zine in one go. The mistakes and typos are part of the zine aesthetic and show it was made by hand.

I actually love when the letters print twice or a little crooked. It feels punk rock in a world with AI.

Then I add any images with double stick tape. I’ve decided to go full analogue and not do any digital touch ups.

I Xerox the final product on my laser printer and send physical copies to my patrons (pledges starting at $3 on Patreon.)

But you don’t have to pay to read. I’ll be sending a virtual zine every month to YOU.

If this works.

I’m not sure how well the zine will read on phone screens so this is a bit of an experiment. You may have to pinch and zoom.

Or read on a computer. You can click here to read on archive.org. It’s pretty cool over there because you can flip the pages and see the spreads as they were designed.

Otherwise I’ve popped the images directly below.

Accessible Version (for screenreaders)

Bibliography (all of my research linked on are.na)

Algorithm Free Portals

Websites cost money. If we don’t pay directly they are making their money by selling our attention (ads) or mining our data (for advertisers or to train AI.)

Here are some algorithm free websites I have been enjoying. I am happy to chip in my support for the services they are providing.

are.na 

Like Pinterest for art nerds. I started with a free account and quickly fell in love. There’s also an educator discount.

Here’s a peek at the mood board for my fantasy novel.

micro.blog 

A simple microblogging platform. This is the passion project of Manton Reece, author of Indie Microblogging. He created micro.blog as a simple solution to own your own microblogging content. I could write a whole post about how great this is (for $5 a month), but I’ll try to keep it short. You can use it to build a website, make a blog, or microblog (like a Twitter or Instagram alternative.)

I am playing around with a photo blog which automatically publishes to Bluesky. You can also subscribe to it via RSS.

micro.blog is the way the web should work. It can be integrated with so many different things. I’ve even set up Beehiiv to automatically archive itself at sarahshotts.blog 

Yes, I did mention bsky.app.

Bluesky is a public benefit corporation with the mission to “to develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.” (Source)

This is a radical experiment in prioritizing the open web over commercial success.

You have so much control over your experience there and you can even follow Bluesky feeds through RSS or on other platforms (like the micro.blog app).

I’m going to be honest I’m mostly there for Wheel of Time (Season 3 is coming SOON y’all!) But I also made an artist / writer account and we’ll see where it goes. If you sign up let me know I’d love to connect with you there. Another cool thing about it is that they use domain names (if you have one) so I am https://bsky.app/profile/sarahshotts.com.

Come on over to blue skies. Claim your name at least!

My biggest frustration the last time I tested Beehiiv was the friction in the comment system. But I overlooked the simplest solution.

I’ve turned comments off.

Just hit reply to message me directly (or text me if you know me.)

So much cozier.

P.S. I should probably port over my “ways to support” banner, but it’s nearly midnight and we are drowning in sales emails this month anyway. I’ll put it back in January.