This zine began life as a short story I wrote for a Reedsy writing prompt back in December 2019. I don’t have the exact prompt anymore, but it had something to do with a store and consequences. That was enough to get me wondering about the kind of choices people make in ordinary places, and how quickly our assumptions can turn a simple errand into something more complicated.
To untangle those ideas, I made a mind map — starting with the basic scenario of finding a shopping list and working outward to all the possible interpretations, from the completely innocent to the suspiciously criminal. The fun was in deciding how my narrator would respond at each step, letting her jump to conclusions based on what she saw (and what she wanted to believe).
In the story, my hero believes the wrong story and turns the list over to the authorities. The uncomfortable truth is that we are often too quick to assume people act a certain way because of our own bias. What we think we “see” is really a reflection of the stories we’ve already decided are true.
For the zine, I re-set the story in the middle of a summer heat wave. The holiday decorations are still there — because stores roll them out earlier every year — but the seasonal shift gave the piece a fun, absurd twist. In a way, I think it actually made the story better.
The Shopping List
If you’d like to read the full zine, you can read it online on Substack, or download printable versions below. It’s short. But like Mat himself, it packs a little more meaning than it lets on.
Please don’t forget to download the printing instructions, as well.
