Having strong friendship
helps two UNL students
to publish own magazine
By Anne Steyer
Staff Reporter_
The real life world of publishing can be a
vicious circle. It’s dog eat dog out there, and
little things like friendship don’t stand a chance.
But when UNL students Michael Okerlund
and Sean Doolittle got together to create “Vi
cious Circle,’’ a small press magazine publish
ing stories about the darker side of life, their
friendship is what held it all together.
Okerlund, 20, a junior philosophy major
from Cortland, and Doolittle, 21, a senior En
glish major from Norris, have turned their
shared love of reading into a business venture.
“Vicious Circle,” published by their new
company, Garlic Press, features horror, science
fiction and dark fantasy. But in the first issue,
horror is the obvious winner.
“The magazine has stories with traditional
trappings, others that do not, but have horrific
undercurrents,” Doolittle said.
“Supernatural, too,” Okerlund added.
They said they have known each other most
of their lives, and the slaying influence of their
relationship is obvious.
But their friendship didn’t take offuntil they
came to college, they said.
“Sean scared me in high school,” Okerlund
said with a laugh.
But eventually his view changed.
“We realized we were each a liule more
interesting than the other had previously
thought,” Doolittle Mid, “and now Michael is
in mv wedding.”
The magazine’s evolution moved from the
“wouldn T it be neat” stage to actual solicitation
of manuscripts, to editing and finally publish
ing.
They started talking about it last October,
and the magazine went to press the first week in
February.
“It all went down really fast,” Doolittle said.
The total cost, without postage, ran about
$350.
They typeset the whole magazine them
selves on Okerlund’s Macintosh and did their
own paste-up. They sent it off to a printer, and
it came back square bound without staples on
glossy cardstock.
Okerlund said they read 200 to 250 submis
sions, some from as far away as England, before
narrowing it down to the 10 fiction pieces and
10 poems that were published in Vicious Circle.
He said the narrowing down wasn’t all that
difficult because “some were just plain bad.”
They spent a lot of lime searching for a name
for the magazine, Okerlund said.
“We wanted a name that would provide a
balance between wonderment and h< »rror, some
thing that reflected the world as we saw it,”
Dooliule said.
“Mike looked up from the dishwasher one
day and said * ViciousCircle’ and I said, ‘Ahhh.’”
“Ahhh," Michael echoed with a smile.
Doolittle is the more reserved of the pair,
with a calm, self-satisfied smile. Hepunctuatcs
his comments with an occasional furrowed
brow.
Okerlund talks less, but moves about more.
His enthusiasm for the magazine translates
itself into physical energy.
Okerlund said although his parents sup
ported him, he was nervous about them reading
a couple of the pieces in “Vicious Circle.” His
father is a minister, he said, and some of the
printed material has more than a slight religious
undercurrent and many have an obvious sexual
undertone as well.
But Okerlund’s dad will take it in stride,
Doolittle said.
“He’s a hip guy,” Doolittle said. “He’s not
your average man of the cloth.”
Robin Trimarchi/DN
Michael Okertund and Sean Doolittle own, operate and edit Vicious Circle.
Magazine makes reader flinch
with eerie stories and poems
“Vicious Circle”
Garik Press
"Vicious Circle: The Magazine that
Doesn’t Flinch.”
So says the inside page of "Vicious
Circle,” a small press magazine, published
by UNL students Sean Doolittle and Michael
Okerlund and released last week from Garl ic
Press publications.
The magazine, printed on high-quality
paper with a glossy cover, is filled with
strange and wonderful stories that explore
the horrific side of humanity.
From the lone of the varied selections, it
is obvious the magazine’s editors didn’t
flinch.
The magazine contains 10 stories rang
ing from topics such as murder and schizo
phrenia to alien life forms and things that go
bump in the night
The 10 poetry selections are varied also,
with poems talking about dinosaurs, lust,
corpses, homicide and the Los Angeles ri
ots.
A few of the selections fly overhead and
rereading them doesn’t help, either.
But the overall feeling of the magazine
inspires an eerie atmosphere — turn the
phone off when reading so you don’t jump
out of your skin when it rings.
_ — Anne Steyer
bnan sneflUo/DN '^pr
Rollicking, insane adventures continue
in Hitchhiker’s Guide’s latest installment
“Mostly Harmless”
Douglas Adams
Harmony
“Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes
something else to happen, causes
something else to happen. Anything
that, in happening, causes itself to
happen again, happens again. It
doesn’t necessarily do it in chrono
logical order, though.”
So begins “Mostly Harmless,”
writer Douglas Adams* fifth book in
what he calls “the increasingly inac
curately named Hitchhikcr’sTnlogy.”
The insane adventures of Arthur
Dent and Ford Prefect continue as
Adams picks up where he left off in
“So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.”
Arthur Dent is still trying to find a
world to live on that matches up with
Earth. His Hitchhiker’s Guide is mal
functioning, so he looks for advice
from several oracles who spend more
time ridiculing him than helping him.
Meanwhile, Ford Prefect returns
to the offices of the Hitchhikcr’sGuidc
to the Galaxy, only to find that
InfiniDim Enterprises has bought out
the Guide and his new job is to write
the restaurant column.
Dent eventually finds happiness as
a sandwich maker on a remote and
Bob-fearing planet, inhabited by
primitive people and perfectly nor
mal beasts. Of course, it is just too
good to last. During Ford’s efforts to
save the Guide from InfiniDim, he
finds Dent
The ending is hilarious and unex
pected, as you might expect from
Adams.
Old characters return and new ones
are introduced as Adams keeps the
insane humor up to the level of the
first four books.
The cynicism and sarcasm of
Adams characters, coupled with his
mockery of reality, make this book a
fine follow-up in the most popular
science fiction/humor series ever—a
scries that spawned a computer game
and a British television show.
“Mostly Harmless” is a must for
the Hitchhikers Trilogy Ians and could
be enjoyed even without reading the
rest of the scries, since there is so
much crazy stuff going on.no one can
keep track of it all.
—- Joel Strauch
Breaking out of routine can be risky
I really should get out more often.
It seems that every day is pretty
much the same. Most times I am home
only long enough to sleep and shower.
To save time, I even cook most of my
meals on the job.
Yet every now and then, the desire
to break out of the routine slowly
builds and gets suppressed until it
finally erupts in an ecstasy of release.
I skip classes, shun work and run
naked in the woods or drink cheap
wine and scribble haiku on suburban
garage doors until I pass out at dawn.
Well, not exactly. The actual high
light of the entire semester was a brief
ice-skatins excursion. I*m not much
of an ice skater in the first place, and
I foolishly waited until the last day
before all the lakes thawed.
It came over me one day in a flash
— an overwhelming urge to go out
and Do Something, to live life fully
and strongly and leave behind the
sedentary comfort of my room.
Once there, I found about an inch
of water covering the ice, which made
it even harder to try to skate for the
third time in my life. Still, I was
caught up in the rapture of the mo
ment and would no longer be a namby
pamby hostage of caution and re
straint.
I struck out. Hailing and wobbling
about, gaining at least 10 feet before
each fall. So Igol up again. And fell
again.
After only a few minutes I was
soggy and embarrassed and ready to
spend the rest of my days shut away in
a quiet, secure house with whiny
French novelists and desultory vol
umes of Kant and Nietzsche surround
ing me. My resolve melted in the early
spring sun, which bore down upon me
with unusual force. Never again would
I venture out to Do Something. No.no
— the patterned life of order and
routine was for me.
Then a little girl about S years old
zipped past and laughed uproariously
as she drenched me with water.
No, no, no, I thought. I would not
be beaten down and stumble back into
the routine. This was my moment of
rapture and release, and I would rise
and soar and exult.
Igoltomy wobbly fcctand labored
a good 10 yards before falling again
and hearing menacing laughter. 1
looked up and saw them. They formed
a pack, dressed in wild costumes and
padded to twice their normal size,
each with ruddy checks and shiny
skates: The Hockey Gods.
They slashed, looped and arced
across the ice, slapping a puck about
and occasionally trying to body check
me. I scrambled toward shore but
seemed to be moving in slow motion,
almost like I had fallen through the ice
and was trying to run through the
water.
They finally let off and 1 scrambled
to shore, pledging never again to go
out into the great world of adventure
and excitement but to confne myself
instead to the security of order and
routine.
Of course, I forgot the pledge not
long afterward. Who could be bound
m laTrrmwimwTwwiiri'ii.
by such petty, hasty oaths when the
First hints of spring arrive?
I had not gone out for weeks after
the skating incident, but could not
restrain myself one day earlier this
week. The sun was out, the air was
crisp, and my daily two pieces of toast
tasted just a little belter than usual. I
watched the squirrels and the birds
frolic in the trees, and knew that this
was it — that all life lay ahead of me
and that I had only, once again, to go
out and Do Something.
I pul my homework aside and went
outdoors clenching a book by some
sappy English Romantic poet. I would
commune with the spirits of nature
and be visited by one of the Muses.
I fell asleep and woke to Find the
backs of my pants and shirt soaked in
soggy mud. The sappy English guy,
too, had become soiled. I was thor
oughly chilled and devoid of all inspi
ration, and I knew then that I most
certainly — no matter wh&t people
tell me — should not venture out to
Do Things.
— Bryan Peterson
David Badderl/uN