# Alleycats Alcove Zine - Full Content > A collaborative zine with substance > Version: 1.0.0 > Location: Front Royal, VA ## Site Configuration - Domain: alleycats.platphormnews.com - Name: Alleycats Alcove - Tagline: A Collaborative Zine with Substance - Meetup: Fridays 5:30-7:00 PM at Writer's Alcove ## Current Issue Details - ID: alleycats-001 - Title: Alleycats Alcove - Subtitle: A Collaborative Zine with Substance - Issue Number: 1 - Date: May 2026 - Theme: A Letter to A Substance - Total Pages: 10 ## Table of Contents 1. "A Love Letter to Cigarettes" by H.B. Manion (Page 4) 2. "Did You Know That They Make Liquid Cocaine?" by Simone Endress (Page 5) 3. "Town So New, Whiskey So Old" by chris.unkempt. (Page 7) 4. "Champagne Explosion" by Mark Reeves (Page 6) 5. "A Vape is Like a Lover" by Julieta Hernandez (Page 6) 6. "Peach Schnapp'd" by chris.unkempt. (Page 7) 7. "To My Dearest Beloved Disgusting and Vile Mistress Caffiene" by Phil Taylor (Page 6) 8. "Sitting On The Toilet, Waiting To Die" by Sam Rusnak (Page 8) ## Contributors ### H.B. Manion - Pieces: A Love Letter to Cigarettes - Total contributions: 1 ### Simone Endress - Pieces: Did You Know That They Make Liquid Cocaine? - Total contributions: 1 ### chris.unkempt. - Pieces: Town So New, Whiskey So Old, Peach Schnapp'd - Total contributions: 2 ### Mark Reeves - Pieces: Champagne Explosion - Total contributions: 1 ### Julieta Hernandez - Pieces: A Vape is Like a Lover - Total contributions: 1 ### Phil Taylor - Pieces: To My Dearest Beloved Disgusting and Vile Mistress Caffiene - Total contributions: 1 ### Sam Rusnak - Pieces: Sitting On The Toilet, Waiting To Die, Cover Art - Total contributions: 2 ### Chris Kemp - Pieces: Zine Making Guidance - Total contributions: 1 ## Full Page Content ### Page 1: Alleycats Alcove #1 **Type**: cover A Collaborative Zine with Substance --- ### Page 2: Introduction **Type**: spread This zine here comes from a little group calling themselves the "Writer's Alcove". They meet on Friday evenings before Karaoke starts and do their little exercises. One day, they decided, "F#%ck it! Let's start a zine!" and this is the accumulation of some of that. So, welcome to our first monthly Alley Cats Alcove zine, to and from the local literary community. This month's theme was "A Letter to A Substance", where the submissions were influenced by influences. We hope you enjoy and are able to find a little inspiration in these works. Not to use substances... but to write! --- ### Page 3: Table of Contents **Type**: toc Table of Contents 1. A Love Letter to Cigarettes - H.B. Manion 2. Did You Know That They Make Liquid Cocaine? - Simone Endress 3. Town So New, Whiskey So Old - chris.unkempt. 4. Champagne Explosion - Mark Reeves 5. A Vape is Like a Lover - Julieta Hernandez 6. Peach Schnapp'd - chris.unkempt. 7. To My Dearest Beloved Disgusting and Vile Mistress Caffiene - Phil Taylor 8. Sitting On The Toilet, Waiting To Die - Sam Rusnak --- ### Page 4: A Love Letter to Cigarettes **Author**: H.B. Manion **Type**: spread A Love Letter to Cigarettes My Dearest Marlboro, I feel my love for you filling up my lungs grasped between my fingertips making me light-headed first thing in the morning. I love watching the way your sparks hit the pavement through my rearview mirror as I toss you out leaving traces of my DNA everywhere I go. You are always there for me consistent and unwavering guiding me through five minute meditations twenty times a day. My love for you will maybe probably eventually kill me And that's fine by me. H.B. Manion --- ### Page 5: Did You Know That They Make Liquid Cocaine? **Author**: Simone Endress **Type**: spread Did You Know That They Make Liquid Cocaine? The bar was closed now. Ichiro passed me what I thought looked like an essential oil mister and told me to put it up my nose and spray. A faint note of synthetic lavender twisted up my nostrils, belying a more sinister sensation. It was the disturbing chemical absence of smell, the feeling of sterility. Liquid cocaine. For a few hours, I was unburdened by an awareness that I would one day die. I felt flat on my face the way only a toddler or a truly intoxicated person could. And I didn't feel anything. A stunning nothing-at-all. Like I was somewhere else, in a VR headset simulation of a night out. Ichiro walked me home and we stood on the rooftop, watching the polluted sunrise glint against Lady Liberty. We listened to the early Brooklyn traffic trickle. After Ichiro left, all the feeling returned. My entire consciousness was dominated by a thunderous headache. I writhed in bed, pulling a hoodie over my face, wishing I had bothered to buy a curtain. But the light spoiled in relentlessly, intruded and insisted on my suffering. I remembered that whole mess about dying, and was convinced it would be today. It wasn't. Liquid cocaine, you came into my life exactly once. You were haunting and ruinous and probably not worth the trouble. I spent the rest of that day in bed, not sleeping. I think only love and drugs can make you feel like that. Simone Endress --- ### Page 6: A Vape is Like a Lover / To My Dearest Beloved Disgusting and Vile Mistress Caffeine **Author**: Julieta Hernandez / Phil Taylor **Type**: spread A Vape is Like a Lover My world becomes fuzzy for a few minutes, and I cough to catch my breath... And I cough as it exits my lungs, and then I smile at my friend. "You're right. It's delicious." A vape has been in bed with me, nestled into the blankets, always in reach even as I dream. A vape has accompanied me to the walk-in, and joined me in my sigh of frustration... A vape has hid under my couch, giving me the fear of losing a small pet, and the fervor of lifting the couch to check; or the awkward task of asking a friend to check their pockets. A vape has led me by my wallet and my lungs into far tobacco store, asking the woman who works there to help me today's flavors. A vape has made me feel incomplete without the cool berry rush, a smoke let out through one nostril only, like a dragon, or like a God... A vape has put me on top of the world while distracting me from how far I've fallen to the bottom. A vape has hijacked my lungs and taken my breath away. A vape comes to you out of nowhere after a loss introduced to you by an equally weary friend. "You can trust me." An inhalation that sends currents of piña colada through my large limbs, down to a little buzz right at my fingertips... and right back up to a spin in my head. Julieta Hernandez --- To My Dearest Beloved Disgusting and Vile Mistress Caffeine: What the fuck? One moment you're a goddess, and the next, a despicable creature casting me into some esoteric tide of inspiration never before seen, seeing me to heights of desperation caused by your absence as deep as by contrast. You reduce me easily. Your blacks bakes appear gorgeous, all energy and darkness, yet beneath it was cold the touch, I am going and I don't care. There is no way out... ...except perhaps you. You drive me to all of the greatest joy and great purpose. If this is what she sells herself a romantic pose. Phil Taylor --- ### Page 7: Peppermint Schnapped **Author**: chris.unkempt. **Type**: spread PEPPERMINT SCHNAPPED sometimes I like to drink like a hobo and get peppermint schnapped it used to be a hip thing to buy a bottle of Rumplemintz throw it in the freezer and do shots all night long but the 100 proof cheap stuff is half the price and higher the percentage of alcohol sometimes i like to put it in a brown paper bag drink it warm and skulk the alleyways of North Beach San Francisco and pretend to be a 1950's beatnik or better yet a skid row bum whose lost his wife and his talent for writing dooming him to a life of back-alley romances cold, wet San Francisco nights with bed bugs and $20 hotel rooms all thats left is that sweet minty liquid as it passes his crusted lips down his sun-scorched throat and into his ulcerated stomach it momentarily makes him forget all of it all of them... at only $12 a bottle he can beg enough cash within an hour or two of waking up to knock himself out food can wait until tomorrow tomorrow can wait forever he'll worry about tomorrow some other day --- but in reality he doesn't exist its just me and i'm just a normal man who likes my fresh breath inducing intoxicants that ill drink too much of and fall asleep in my kingsize bed watching cable tv or episodes of 'moonshiners' on my laptop computer with a stomach full of black bean burgers because i am a vegetarian and picky about what I eat I may wake up to a hangover but theres aspirin and filter water for that and if its too bad theres usually a little liquor left over I know its too early to drink but I have work to do and I can worry about today some other day chris.unkempt. (pulled from "Unkempt" Document No. Two) --- ### Page 8: Sitting On The Toilet, Waiting To Die... **Author**: Sam Rusnak **Type**: spread Sitting on the toilet, waiting to die... I want to be free from this porcelain prison. But if you're going to sit For a bit why not multi-task? And inside my screen there are multiple things I can swipe between. My favorite way to swipe isn't left or right, but down. If you keep going down there's always more to see... Or not see - blink too fast and I miss the important news, but keep going down and I'll know what new app to get that will stop me from doomscrolling. My legs are falling asleep now, but I'm pretty sure that I'll soon find what I'm looking for and then I can stop. Or, more likely: my savior comes in the form of a sudden hiccup and spasm of black, depth turns to flat. A relieving death that lasts as long as the time it takes to wash my hands and go upstairs where new life is waiting in the form of an umbilical cord that attaches me to my wall. Sam Rusnak --- ### Page 9: Credits & Next Issue **Type**: spread Writer's Alcove Fridays 5:30 - 7:00 Thanks for visiting our May Zine! Next month's theme will be "Wildest Dreams" meaning the strange things you see in your subconscious, some insane aspirations, or... maybe that one dream you had about Billy's mom... Submissions will be due on May 15th and can be submitted to the Writer's Alcove. This month's cover art was hand-drawn by Sam Rusnak. Also a thank you to Chris Kemp for showing us how to make a zine. --- ### Page 10: May 2026 **Type**: back May 2026 "Where's my vape?!" ALLEYCATS ALCOVE ZINE ## Multilingual Support ### English (en-US) - Title: Alleycats Alcove - Subtitle: A Collaborative Zine with Substance - Tagline: Supporting local artists - Read Now: Read Now - Download: Download ### Spanish (es-US) - Title: Alleycats Alcove - Subtitle: Una Revista Colaborativa con Sustancia - Tagline: Apoyando artistas locales - Read Now: Leer Ahora - Download: Descargar ### French (fr-CA) - Title: Alleycats Alcove - Subtitle: Un Zine Collaboratif avec Substance - Tagline: Soutenir les artistes locaux - Read Now: Lire Maintenant - Download: Télécharger ## API Reference ### Health Check ``` GET https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/health ``` Returns service health status and current issue info. ### Zine Data ``` GET https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/v1/zine ``` Returns full zine data including all pages and content. ### Contributors ``` GET https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/v1/contributors ``` Returns list of all contributors and their works. ### MCP Endpoint (AI Agents) ``` GET https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/mcp GET https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/mcp?section=currentIssue POST https://alleycats.platphormnews.com/api/mcp Body: { "action": "getPage", "params": { "pageNumber": 1 } } Body: { "action": "getContributor", "params": { "name": "Sam" } } Body: { "action": "searchContent", "params": { "query": "cigarettes" } } ``` ## Reader Features - Cinematic intro with parallax scrolling - Premium e-reader interface - Swipe/drag page navigation - Reading modes: Dark, Sepia, Light - Zoom controls - Fullscreen mode - Keyboard shortcuts: - Arrow Left/Right: Navigate pages - Space: Next page - F: Toggle fullscreen - Escape: Exit fullscreen/close dialogs - Export formats: PDF, HTML, TXT, JSON ## Future Roadmap - Multi-zine support for community onboarding - Submission portal - Print-on-demand integration - More language support ## Community Zine Onboarding This platform is designed to support multiple community zines. Contact us for onboarding your community's zine. Template configuration available at /lib/zine-data.ts --- Generated: 2026-07-21T17:52:23.157Z Front Royal, VA Support local art. Support local artists.