🎄🎁 DEAD INK ADVENT DAY 16 🎁🎄 "Analog collage was something I turned to during pandemic lockdown when I was suffering from a bout of writer’s block. Initially, it was everything that writing fiction wasn’t: an escape from reality (rather than an attempt to make sense of it), a visual language, freedom from the anxiety of a blank Word document. Now, it’s a practice that compliments my written work—a different way of processing ideas. This piece incorporates visual elements inspired by the US and UK covers of Mystery Lights, as well as images from the stories themselves. I love using a combination of old and new magazines for my collages, and sources for this one include, among others, an issue of Texas Highways I found in my apartment building’s free pile, a 1960s ‘Teen magazine, and an early color photograph of outer space from a 1959 issue of National Geographic." -- LENA VALENCIA, author of Mystery Lights 🛸 #bookoftheyear #adventcalendar #bookadvent2024