I’ve long loved dollhouses, and a 1978 TOMY Smaller Home and Garden, which I had as a kid, figures prominently in a recent short story I just finished.

As the story’s really personal and takes place between the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters–a pretty intense, very sorrowful and terrifying time for any teenager, let alone one who’d just lost her mom–I’ve decided I’m not going to try to place this. It’ll be this year’s holiday chapbook instead.

Problem: how to convey in the cover art that these horrific events play into the story without being too insensitive? One of the things I loved about my dollhouse was all of its tiny: tiny forks, tiny board games, tiny magazines, tiny records. I thought it’d be cool to take two of the most famous headlines from those events, make them into tiny newspapers, and set them next to the dollhouse’s Bentwood rocker replica (which I ordered, but hasn’t arrived yet, because YES! you can still get the stuff on Ebay). The rocker also figures prominently in the story.

This idea later became “why not make a set of these newspapers for each of the chapbooks?” So … the making of 800 tiny newspapers begins. As of today, I only have to make 636 more! It’s actually very Zen. When I’m home from work and done writing or working on the magazine for the day, it’s very calming to sit and focus on this while listening to a TV show.

The plastic bags arrived yesterday. Here’s a preview!

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