The Seminary of Praying Mantis Publishing

Tonight, as I walked around the block, I thought upon three extraordinary times in my life.

I try and walk a mile each night while watching Jupiter, Saturn, and a very bright Venus. I think upon good justice, laws, and love & beauty.

Tonight, I wanted to run away to a time of the streets of Hollywood. I was a young punk who could be found running through parking lots and record stores. Moving strangely and excitedly through clubs and into cars for wild rides. Light and signs above me and loud music filled me. New friends and bright colors. A thrill and wonder beyond explanation.

Then there was when I was a probationer at the Rosicrucian Fellowship. The time of the new moon healing when I entered the living temple on the campus found at Oceanside California. The temple is like the Griffith Observatory. Just as you enter you look up to see the round astrological zodiac. The 12 signs. In the Rosicrucian Temple you can look up and see the full zodiac too. With Leo the Lion in front of the temple podium. Each probationer is asked to sit in their sun sign. An organ played loudly as a barefoot maiden played the healing music. We read the words and sang the songs. I have since never viewed such beauty or felt filled with a inner nimbus of healing energy.

The last is running the hills at night with my friends, we were all about 14 years old. We flew with the wild and sat upon old rocks high in the hills over streets below. Howling at the moon, I swear I saw a young Artemis with bow and arrow whisk by us. Glorious friendships of wonder.

I miss my varied friends of the streets, holy places and wild hills and the freedom that youth often brings. Oh, how I wish to be at those places now as I walk under a dark sky of a Scorpion new moon.

It is great to have a book’s first publication to view and find mistakes and typos before the major publication. To find all the stupid dumb mistakes. Usually, the first draft is an inspiration of thoughts and concepts. Then comes the grammar and spell check and then the Review and Read Aloud.

I have read papers by fifth graders that are perfect. I have read books by bigwig PHD professors that are riddled with mistakes. For me it is a concept and feeling that is always most important. Is there an archetype that I can grasp here?

Many artists and writers make up novel words. Or reuse old words and bring on new meanings.

I remember speaking to Todd Taylor from Razor Cake fanzine how he had several editors go over everything written before publication. At Flipside Fanzine we rarely had the time to edit. As said before when doing things fast and wanting to publish current … mistakes were often made or overlooked.

“Session 5B: Punk Political Economies presented three panelists. What came forth here is that “We should consider continuing to support the cracks.” I enjoyed Kathryn Heffner speaking about women fanzine publishers of science fiction writing. Briefly I can say that I learned about the history of fanzines. She talked about the community formed by fanzines and how they communicated. It is about women and resistance. My heart about jumped out of my chest. She defined so many elements of what a fanzine is all about. It is about community, friends, and a subject.  The punk scene is about friends and the continuity of friendships over time. I did not hear much about this at this conference!  Kathryn did tell a short story about a sister zinester who misspelled a word and made a whole movement out of it. I about jumped up and screamed hallelujah. The point being that with fanzines the information is current and was often printed up quickly to spread like a good wildfire of communication. I knew this to be true.  Her talk gave meaning to my community. We need to keep writing and self-publishing.”

I don’t care if things are misspelled, or that grammar and dates are off. It makes it more valuable to collectors. Yet I understand the need to get things right. Especially when we have all that we need to do so. When I find mistakes in a pompous book it brings me boundless joy. Other wise I read over the mistakes and find the major concepts far more important then the imperfect parts of its sum.