It was August, 2003, and I wanted to advertise for myself as a psychic and for my friend who was a seamstress specializing in Medieval and Renaissance clothing. Of course, we were looking at the cheapest and most effective way to do it. With the help of Microsoft Publisher, I designed a newsletter with both of us sharing the front cover announcing our businesses. We also thought of a few more things to inform people of such as herbs; naming a few an some uses. We included a recipe or two and managed to fill up two whole sheets of paper. We printed out about 50 copies, stapled the two sheets of paper together and went to Bell, Book & Candle the Metaphysical shop in Dover, Delaware. We left twenty copies and handed the rest out to friends. Two days later, the shop called and asked us to print out fifty more as soon as we could. The first supply was completely gone and customers were asking for more! Thus, the Psychic Times was born.
the feedback you received from those who read it? How did this lead to your decision to start publishing the Psychic Times International as a newsletter? I'm not really sure about how many physical copies were distributed, but would guess about 1000 per quarter issue. In our local New Age/ Wiccan shop (Bell, Book & Candle) in Dover, Delaware, we couldn't keep them in stock. But it started there and some people would visit the shop at times just to pick up the latest copy. One fellow emailed me about four years ago. He is from the UK. He introduced himself as T. Stokes and had told me he had discovered a physical copy somewhere in the UK. This amazed us since we had never sent a copy to the UK. T. Stokes became a dear friend to me and one of our regular writers and is still to date. We also received a photo from a gal in Romania, who was photographed while holding a copy of our then, newsletter. It grew faster than we ever imagined until a about a year ago and we went to our on-line magazine. This was to off-set the rising cost of ink and printing.
2) How many copies of your newsletter did you end up distributing altogether? Describe
.3) Describe the first official issue of Psychic Times International, then called the Psychic
1)What year did you start Psychic Times International? What inspired you to create it?
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Times. What sort of articles were published in this issue? In what ways do you believe Psychic Times International differed from other publications in the paranormal community? It was just supposed to be a one-time, inexpensive way for me to advertise for myself and my friend. I found Microsoft Publisher to be most useful for doing this type of advertising. I thought it may be more appealing and people may want to actually read it if it included a recipe and a spell or two. My friend wrote an article of herbs and natural healing and I included a recipe and a few other items. We then printed out two pages and stapled them together. I think it's the fact that we include the Paranormal, New Age, Wicca, Metaphysical and human interest stories. We are open to diversity because we know every individual is unique. 4) Was Psychic Times International always available online? Or, did it start off in physical (paper) form? Where do you see it going in the future? For the past two years our magazine has been available online. We did this to reach a larger audience and our issue had become popular