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Zine: Moss Piglet

Brains behind it: Becky Nosiara

Place: Melbourne

Genre: Experimental sci-fi

Where to buy: either in Melbourne zine shops or here

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Oli: Moss Piglet doesn’t sound very sci-fi, where did you get the name from?

Becky: It’s actually ~the most~ sci-fi. It’s a nickname for the Tardigrade, a tiny little creature that can remarkably withstand very high levels of heat, cold, pressure and radiation. It’s able to live naked in the vacuum of space with something like 3% body water. It very easily could have come to earth on an asteroid.

And it looks like a pig bear and lives on moss. You can see a drawing of one on the cover of issue #1.

I had no idea that moss piglet was actually a space creature! Was that glowing space whale in Star Trek TNG a giant moss piglet too?

I don’t think so. Or if it was it didn’t look much like one. Plus it was wayyyy too big.

Did you ever consider Space Piglet?

Haha, nah.

Do you headhunt contributors or open for subs?

I just open for submissions. I print out flyers and leave them in zine shops and my work, and sometimes bookstores. Actually, there’s one illustrator that I followed on instagram and then asked to contribute. But I don’t know where to find most sci-fi writers, I think they’re hiding.

I think most sci-fi writers a] don’t care about zines, ha, and b] orbit around mags like TOR, Lightspeed, Black Static etc. Have you tried those ones?

That could be true! I don’t tend to read ones from overseas, even though I could order them obviously, I mean this is the future. But I’m really interested more in the local writers who I can get in contact with, and starting a local scene rather than just joining an already established one overseas. Something in my personality makes me have a childish tantrum when I think about trying to infiltrate things that are already established. It makes me go, “I don’t need your crappy thing anyway, I’ll make my own.” Even if it’s good, which is ridiculous.

Issue 3 had a story I liked about a washing machine that was someone’s child, but it was only 2 pages long. Will there be a sequel? Continue reading →