How excellent was the Collingswood (NJ) Crafts Fair?

Well it was pretty excessively hot with a lot of loud music, but we still stuck it out, looked awesome, and showed our HOOT pride! Amanda, Dorian, and Zana (our newest artist addition!) were even there at 6.30 am to set up!

If that’s not dedication…

—James

Our online issue #9 is up on our website!

The awesome things you’ll be getting in our issue:

• really cool audio versions of authors reading their work
• graphic interpretations of several of our written pieces
• a book review by our very own J-Cans (that’s Janie to the rest of you, and to me too, actually)

So yeah, just a reminder that aside from sending out really awesome postcards as our magazine, we also post multi-media online content for your perusing pleasure!

Get at it!

—James

Amanda is studious! Did you know that in addition to being one of the creative master-forces behind HOOT, she is also a musician?

Question of the day: What’s your favorite smell?

Amanda:

Cedar wood. When we had closets made of cedar I would sit in there often, just to smell them. Also the scent repels moths, which is a bonus.

Dorian:

I don’t really smell.  Clean linen? 

Janie:

Ocean residue on the skin after swimming. Or lilies of the valley during the beginning of spring.

 James:

Nag champa incense and vanilla pipe tobacco.

We are olefactorily diverse! More reasons to trust our creative genius.

—James

This picture is a little wonky, Dorian…but the reason it’s spotlit today should be self-explanatory after the revealing of our interview question of the day:

What’s an embarrassing story your friends like to tell about you?

Amanda:

Are you trying to trick me into telling embarrassing stories about myself?? Well, fortunately for me, my friends are mostly too nice to tell embarrassing stories about me. They might tell them to me, but that’s just called “remembering.”

Dorian:

The saga of Tape Man.  Once I dressed up in Halloween as a shrub, by wrapping myself in duct tape and then rolling around in some leaves and grass.  Needless to say, this didn’t work well.  As the night of Halloween wore on, I discarded my shrub identity and became … Tape Man!  Yes, I was rather intoxicated and all the leaves were gone, leaving only a costume of dirty duct tape. 

Janie:

I am insanely naive despite my worldliness (sarcasm). I am completely gullible because I still have a childlike belief that there is no reason why people would tease or mess with me. So there are endless hilarious tales of my naiveté floating about. There is one that my friends LOVE to share, but I am way too embarrassed to tell that one (you’ll just have to hunt down my friends and ask them), so here is a backup: someone once convinced me that the difference between ketchup and catsup is animal blood.

 James:

It depends which friend you ask. I made the mistake of asking a good friend what the most embarrassing thing was that she could remember about me was (in front of an attractive gentleman, I might add) and she didn’t have to pause for breath before recounting the first time I came to her house (her 6th grade basement birthday party) in matching sparkly tube tops with my best friend. Her very conservative parents were mortified.

We have bared our souls. It’s official— the internet is just one more place to embarrass yourself (oops, I guess we do have all those pictures up…)

—James

amandaonwriting:

Twentieth Century Poets Immortalized

In 2012, the United States Postal Service will be releasing 10 Forever stamps featuring 20th century poets.

HOW COOL IS THIS?! HOOT is going to need to get on this so we can get meta-layer our writing with authors and writing…

You know what I mean.

Also, if you don’t know someone on the list, look ‘em up! I know I am.

—James

Self-validation in a coffee mug! I’m going to need to get on that train, Janie.

Interview question of the day: You used to get in trouble as a kid for…

 Amanda:

Being too cute. (Disclaimer: James totally made this up)

Dorian:

I was a pretty good kid.  My handwriting was terrible.  I also ate with my fingers whenever possible.  I also was a very reckless driver for a while when the hormones were in me.   

Janie:

Being messy and hoarding candy. Not much has changed.

 James:

Hoarding EVERYTHING for “projects”—I once complained to my mother about having ants in my bedroom, and when she traced their pathway, she found a pile of sticky candy wrappers that I was saving for a “candy wrapper quilt.”…I still do these things. Compulsive “I’ll-do-that-later” crafter.

Interesting kids make more interesting people, I say.

—James

Baby raver Jamesy puts in a cameo photo appearance for your viewing pleasure.

Interview question of the day: When you get 30 minutes of free time, what do you do?

Amanda:

I have this very bad habit of being productive whenever possible. Which means, unless someone is around to stop me, about 85% of my free time is converted into unfree time.

Dorian:

Not a damn thing. 

Janie:

What’s free time? In all honesty I do one of my eight million hobbies, or else I get into trouble if left to my own devices. Sometimes I will do ten minutes of yoga and end up falling asleep in child’s pose.

 James:

Use the 30 minutes to watch Mad Men, then use another 20 minutes that I don’t have free to finish the episode.

Apparently sloth isn’t so good? Pfft. We’re easily making up for that one by putting out great mixed media, so…chew on that.

—James