ISSUE 3 of Writing the Circus, coming right up! (Patreon)

The third issue of Writing the Circus is upon us! The SPRING edition.

I'm stapling these zines together as we speak! They'll be released out to the world for purchase on May 1st, at the end of the week.

Patrons in my higher tier categories, rest easy: you already know that you're getting one of these sent automatically to you! Look for the pretty 6"x9" envelope with the "Strange Wonderful Creature" stamp on the front. The digital copy of this issue of Writing the Circus will be posted at the end of the weekend, for all you mobile readers!

Patrons who are in my $5 digital tier, as always this zine is available to you for 50% off! Use this discount code –      PATREONFIVE50     – to order your copy before I open it up to the public on May 1st. You can head to the store by clicking anywhere on this paragraph. Use the password PATREON (all caps) to get in before May 1st! After that, the password restriction will be removed.

This project still feels young enough that each issue is a chance to be something new, something different. As I wrapped up the final edits and submitted the draft of Slow Circus earlier in the year, there were many pages of writing languishing unseen in my Google Docs folders.

As you folks know, there was a hard page-limit for Slow Circus (well...hard-ish. I mapped out the project as being sustainable at a 50-page limit, and then still couldn't help myself and added 2 or 3 more pages to it. It cut into the thin profit margin of it all, BUT I got the essays, acknowledgments, and photos in there that I couldn't do without so – call it even).

What to do with all those lonesome, meandering thoughts?

They've found a home in this third WTC issue.

I've also included some of the photos that you folks didn't think made the grade for the big beautiful coffee table book! A zine seemed like a good home for them. They're cool; but not cool enough to print on super fancy paper at super fancy resolutions with super fancy ink. Boom. Tidy.

It feels mildly self-indulgent to make an entire issue of this zine about the VACUUM project, but I just need to get these ghosts out of my attic so I can move on with new ideas, if you know what I mean. There's a short introduction/overview bit in this issue, for folks who aren't familiar with the work or have come into my strange, wonderful universe after the creation of SLOW CIRCUS (for context).

Essay titles this time around include:
- "Staring"
- "Modern Freakshow"
- "Liveness & the Dark Side of Virtual Voyeurism"
- "Otherness"

There's also a short, 2-page creative non-fiction piece titled Breathe that was originally slated for SLOW CIRCUS and was cut in the final round of edits. I had originally wanted something in the coffee table book written in first-person that would help a reader feel like they were inside the vacuum tower. It will live in this zine issue, now.

I hope you're all having a lovely start to your week!

More from me soon,

XO
Ess