Raw Material

It's a Wonderful Lifestyle Cover

Candi Strecker,
It's a Wonderful Lifestyle

Age: 41

Selection: "Why the Seventies?" (page 42)

Recent review (from Inquisitor): "Candi's zines are definitely at the top of the zine pile."

Sample: $4 from P.O. Box 515, Brisbane, CA 94005 (checks: Candi Strecker)



When did you launch your zine? What inspired you to do so?
Around 1990 I was obsessed with accumulating and making sense of all sorts of info and memories about the 1970s, but couldn't figure how to condense it all down into 16 or 18 pages, my typical issue size. A wise friend suggested I start a zine, which therefore could be any size or length.

Why publish a zine?
The zine form has turned out to be the perfect medium for what I have to say and who I want to say it to, and fits my personality. I'm a bit shy, a bit of a perfectionist, a bit obsessed with reading and clipping tiny bits out of old and new magazines and trying to find connections among them.

Any general tips for aspiring zinesters?
Don't be afraid to charge enough to break even on Xeroxing and postage! Because originally my zine was only intended for friends, it took me years to get it through my head that it was perfectly valid to charge total strangers for my work.

What's your favorite part of doing a zine?
For about a month after I do an issue, my mailbox is full of letters telling me I'm wonderful, brilliant, etc.

In my other life, I'm a:
Freelance writer and almost-full-time mother.

Fan Mail


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