a pithy description

Since the idea for kindling was conceived (over mango margaritas at Alero to be specific), we have been struggling to come up with a concise way to describe what, exactly, kindling is.

We started with "It's a magazine that's not a magazine" but that seems to lead to more confusion.

Then we got a bit long-winded "You see it's like a literary magazine except it's not pretentious and it's more light-hearted, and it's all short-form and it comes in an envelope." [puzzled look] "You see each piece is on a 4x6 card - and there are 20 cards in each issue - and each one has it's own piece on it and the artist's information on the back. So the whole thing is this unbound stack of 4x6 cards in an envelope."

We talked to our friend Paul at Idle Time Books about our need for a pithy way to describe it. The brain-trust brainstorm went something like this:

"It's a new literature delivery system"

"That doesn't tell people anything"

"It's like a new literature vehicle. Vehicle... vesicle."

"Too anatomical"

"How about envelope lit"

"Pouch lit"

"Too marsupial"

"Let's see...it's an envelope....a pouch...a sheath. Sheath literature."

"But what does that really tell people? It sounds like a weapon, or wheat."

"Envelope....pocket?"

"Pocket rocket!"

[a customer who was probably trying to block us out as he read from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, peers around a bookshelf "You probably want to stay away from pocket rocket."] Wise words.

"Pocket literature!"

"Pocket lit!"

"Yes, because it's in a pocket, and it also fits in your pocket--" [begins doodling on a piece of paper] "See? It's a jeans pocket, but it's also an envelope--"

"Did you just draw an envelope on a butt?"

"Well....yes."

Exactly.