I’m gonna be in Chi this weekend promoting issue #4 at AWP. Come stop by booth 791 and visit me if you’re one of the 23 people living in Chicago who read this blog (Google Analytics knows all). In between not selling anything I’m going to be celebrating Sheebs’s b-day and going to see Joe Meno, ZZ Packer and Dorothy Allison read tomorrow night. Should be a wicked nerdy/fun time. See you there!

We’re having a party at the end of the month to celebrate the release of issue #4. Everything you need to know is listed above. We’re gonna try to turn this into a monthly event if people like it. Do I even need to ask you to come out? I think we both know the answer to that question.

Annalemma #4 Preview from chris heavener on Vimeo.

So this thing is here, though I don’t have the big shipment yet, just a rush box. Pre-order now! I can just tell this issue is going to sell faster than ice tea at a sweat lodge.

We were lucky enough to have Chicago small press stalwart Anne Elizabeth Moore contribute a little something to issue #4. Anne edited the now-defunct Punk Planet as well as Best American Comics series. So the lady has chops. Oh, and if you’re the pro-integrity, anti-advertising type and you haven’t read Unmarketable yet then you’re clearly not taking adbusting culture to its logical conclusion.

Just uploaded a new essay over at Annalemma. Stella is a bitter sweet love letter to a ’91 Cutlass Cierra that saw a family through good times and bad, sickness and health, life and death. You Chicagoans may recognize the author, Rob Duffer, from the beer-hazed nights at Sheffield’s monthly reading series RUI. Also accompanying the essay is a stellar soft-focus image by long-time friend Josh Letchworth. It’s all part of our lead-up to the release of issue #4 which is available for pre-sale now!

New and exciting things happening over at Annalemma. We’ve got a new story from Nick Ostdick accompanied by a pretty wicked depth-of-field shot by Mr. Bryan “Bear” Soderlind. All this is just a whistle-wetter for issue #4 which, I might add, just became available for pre-sale. Issue #4 will ship on 2.17.09. Order from the website and you get 25% off the cover price! Can’t beat that deal with a lone baseball’s shadow growing longer in the dusk light symbolizing waning youth.

The Annalemma site is having some technical problems today. I’ll keep you posted as to what’s going on as soon as things get rolling with us. And to thank you for your patience I’m going to be throwing a story from the new issue up on there this afternoon. I’ll be posting one or two stories up there per week until the new issue release date, which is February 13th, btw. Those of you attending AWP will be the first to get your mitts on it.

UPDATE: We’re up and running again. Not sure what happened. I think our host decided April Fools Day came early this year.

If you don’t know anything about Raquel Aparicio then you should strongly consider checking yourself. We were lucky enough to have her contribute some work for the new issue (release date to be announced soon, btw) and it’s phenomenal. While searching for her web address I came across this:

I feel lucky to have met this person, if only through the internet.

Dear friend, Rose, spotted us on a NYC news stand. Pretty cool!

If you’ve submitted to the mag in the past month and haven’t got a response yet, there’s an explanation over at the mag site.

And for the non-submitters, the explanation is followed by a juicy rant wherein I write something I later regret.