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2012: The Year of Finishing Things

2012-01-08T13:24:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about the difference between goals and dreams, probably prompted by a blog post from Dean Wesley Smith (if you're a writer, you should really read his blog and go back and read the archives--there's a lot of gold there).

A Dream:
An objective in the future that is out of your control.
—
A Goal:
An objective in the future that is totally in your control.

It's an important difference, I think. Too often, the goals we come up with (at least I do this) are really dreams, things we can work towards, but which are ultimately out of our control. So this year I'm going to think more carefully about my goals, and not confuse them with my dreams. Which isn't to say I don't have dreams, I have a big one. But I'll actively work on the things I absolutely can make happen and save the dreams for, well, dreaming about.

So my goals this year are fairly simple, and they have to do with two broad concepts:

finishing things I've already started
keeping up the momentum I've already built

And considering how very many things I started in the last few years, I'll have plenty to keep me busy.

Goals for 2012

finish something every week from the things-started pile, whether it's a craft project, a book, or a piece of writing
start new projects only if I can finish them quickly, and then finish them (exceptions are bigger projects I've planned to to do for some time, but haven't actually started on yet, like the new novel)
write every day even if it's just a sentence or two (and not stress if I miss a day, but just pick up again the next day)

I may come up with more later, but those are the main ones. 2012 will be the year of finishing things. I do have some more specific goals, like particular novels to get written, particular publishing goals, and so on, and I may detail those out in a later post(s).

Dreams for 2012
I have a dream, though it's not really one I expect to achieve this year. It's certainly one I can work towards though, by meeting all my goals. That dream is simply to make writing--writing fiction, that is--my full-time job. That doesn't mean I'll stop teaching or bookbinding or letterpress printing, but it does mean that those things will be things I do because I enjoy them, not because I'm scrabbling to find grocery money.

And for those who believe that writing fiction full time is a dream that can only be realized by a select few who sell gazillions of books and whose very laundry lists could generate income, well, maybe you should start reading Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog (also an essential for writers). There is another way to make a living as a fictionist, and that is by having a lot of things available for people to buy. The new publishing paradigm that's developing, with e-books at the forefront and more writerly control, is perfect for the mid-lister, and that's a fine place for me. I don't need to be a blockbuster seller. In fact, I think I'd rather not be.

So, onward. I've got goals to hit.

2011: Achievements

2011-12-31T15:56:00.001-04:00

Way back at the beginning of the year, I wrote a post boldly proclaiming my goals. I'm pretty sure I didn't hit any of them. But let's look back:

I will write one new short story a month
I will write fiction for at least an hour, 5 times a week.
I will blog at least once a week, but aim for three times.

Yep, I failed on them all. Except "failed" is not really the right word. No, I didn't meet any of the three goals, but if you look at the intent behind all of those goals, it was primarily to get me writing regularly again. And at that, I was actually very successful. It just took a lot longer to get back in the habit than I had thought.

At the bottom of that same post, I also mentioned some immediate goals:

put together a simple but eye-catching cover for short story #1: "Come-From-Away," either photo-based (it's set in St John's, NL) or something I drew.
Get the story formatted properly for e-pub.
Get myself registered on the appropriate sites and publish away.

Not only did I get that done, I did it over and over for 12 short stories, two mini-collections (one of two and one of three stories), three YA/middle-grade novels, and a collection of eleven stories. And that's only what I did under my own name. Under two pen names, I also got five serial novel chapters done, published, and published again in a magazine (well, three of them so far in the magazine), finished a novel, and wrote substantial parts of two novellas.

In another post a couple of weeks later, I added another goal to stop sending out the same short stories over and over and e-publish them instead, clearing the decks, so to speak, for new work. And that I did.

So I actually got a lot done this year, especially if you add in that I taught several letterpress and books arts extended studies courses, did a whole lot of letterpress printing and even (finally) got some of it into shops in Halifax and Mahone Bay, had some litho and intaglio prints in a group show in New York (okay, Brooklyn, but still), did a lot of freelance writing and little bit of freelance editing, and got considerably more comfortable using Adobe Illustrator.

There are still a few things I'd have liked to have accomplished, like getting the second issue of Fey into print form, and doing the same for the novels, but those are now at the top of my list for next year.

Pop-Up!

2011-12-31T15:16:00.000-04:00

The last class I taught this year for NSCAD Extended Studies was a pop-up holiday card workshop over a whole weekend. I ended up with only three students (though four registered), so it was an intimate class, but it meant I was able to give each student more one-on-one time if they wanted it. I'm notoriously bad at taking photographs of my classes, but I did take some pictures of a prototype I started during the class--at first to demonstrate the process and then for something to do when the students reached the point where they didn't need my immediate help (I love that, but it does make me feel a little useless).

Because I wanted this card to be the sort of thing that the recipient could use as a holiday decoration year after year, I needed it to be able to lay flat and stay flat when opened. So instead of cardstock covers, I built it like a book. That also allowed it to be a more substantial-seeming gift, and meant it didn't even need wrapping.

I was cutting this quite quickly from a very rough sketch (so I didn't bore the students while they watched the process), so a lot of the final shape is more-or-less freehand. So the deer are a proportioned a little oddly. You can also probably tell that my knife was not quite as sharp as it should have been.

I really like, though, how the simple white shapes layer on each other to create something with depth. You can, of course, use coloured paper, or draw or paint on the shapes, but I wanted something simple and elegant. White-on-white is simple and elegant, right?

More New Books, Plus a Kickstarter Campaign Worth Supporting

2011-12-28T09:51:00.000-04:00

New Book: Frisland Stories: Eleven Tales of Folk Magic

Frisland is--or was once--an island in the North Atlantic, created by the gods of the sun and moon on a whim, and full of subtle magic. Now and then, there are dragons, but more likely you'll encounter magical foxes who are really fairy folk, people who can turn into reindeer, or a woman who built her beloved a pair of wings so he could fly.

Frisland Stories: Eleven Tales of Folk Magic includes all eleven Frisland short stories, including the two previously published in Two Tales of Frisland:

Hollow Bones
Remembering to Fly
Sealskin
Sharper and More Fragrant
Cobbleshore Knit
Daughters of the Sea King
Fox Point Dragon
Perilous Child
Raven's Wing
White Foxes, Full Moon
Great Skerry

Buy from Smashwords
Buy e-book from Amazon
Coming soon in paperback from White Raven Press.

New Book: Vixen

Su just wants to sit in a dark corner for a quiet drink when she spots a newborn vampire across the bar. He's confused, and he's starting to draw attention to himself. And he's hot.

So Su decides to give him a few pointers. Then she realizes that the reason this baby vamp is wandering around without a protective escort is that she killed his parent vamp earlier that night.

Now Su feels responsible. A newborn vampire is helpless until he regains his memories and learns how to act like a vampire. Su knows enough about vamps to be able to teach him that. But Su has her own problems. She doesn't have much of a memory, either, and while she's not a vampire, she's not exactly human.

Su doesn't know what she is, and she doesn't have a kindly stranger in a bar to tell her.

Buy from Amazon
Coming soon in paperback from White Raven Press.

Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders Kickstarter Campaign

Doc F's is the magazine that publishes my (as Calliope Strange) serial novel Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective. They're trying to raised enough cash to have the first issue of 2012 offset printed, to avoid the enormous cover price the POD magazine costs. There's lots of great fiction in here besides mine, plus articles, reviews, and more on steampunk-related topics.

Support Doc F's Kickstarter

Book Review: Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey

2011-12-27T13:23:00.001-04:00

I meant to have this posted ages ago. My, how time flies. Anyway, here's my first (and so far only) review for Self-Publishing Review, which describes itself thusly:

Self-Publishing Review is a central site devoted to self-publishing news and reviews. It is also a social network where writers, readers, and everyone can join and connect. . . . The aim of the site is to improve the attitude toward self-publishing and help authors find readers.

Book Review: Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey

First impressions are vital with self-published books, especially first novels with few user reviews. Unexpected Destiny has a fairly bland cover, rendered unfortunately dark and murky by Lulu's printing process. The interior layout is mostly professional-looking, with a few odd formatting choices (most notably in the way non-human dialogue is set, which is not only strange, but inconsistent). Typos are mercifully few, and though I did notice a slight increase the farther I got into the book, I've seen much worse in mass-market paperbacks from top publishers.

But I don't expect you really care that much about the physical book, as long as it's not distractingly badly done. You probably really want to know about the story, the characters, the writing. Curiously, those things, the things that make you want to read a book or not, mirror the book's physicality. By which I mean, there's a lot of heart in Unexpected Destiny, but it's very apparent that this is a first novel.

Ms Dickey has no lack of imagination. The pages of this book are bursting with colorful characters, made-up fantasy species (and some that are more obviously based on myth or folklore or previous authors of high fantasy), and lovingly-imagined locales. The plot proceeds at a breakneck pace, sending the three main characters off on a quest and putting them in harm's way immediately--a different sort of harm on every page, it sometimes seems.

Our three heroes, Ely, Colin, and Faythe, are the latest reincarnation of the Blessed Ones (yes, in caps every time). It is their destiny to free their world from its tyrannical king and the depredations of some nasty gods and their even nastier minions, or to die in the attempt. Which makes me wonder exactly how their destiny is unexpected, since we (and they) know about it in the first chapter. The heroes have a magical map they must follow in order to meet said destiny, and it takes them from place to place where they save people, get attacked by people, kill a lot of people (both on purpose and by virtue of others trying to help them and dying), and learn how to harness their Blessed powers. It often feels like the writer also had a map, or a plot outline, that she followed from incident to incident, in as much of a hurry to get to the next plot point as her characters are to get to the next location on their map. Quite often, I wished she would just slow down, breathe and enjoy the journey.

Unexpected Destiny certainly isn't a bad book, but I can't quite say it's a great one, either. I give it 3 out 5 stars because though there's a lot of promise here, it's promise a good editor could have gone a long way towards bringing out. The writing is grammatically competent, but there are too many stock phrases and clichés, too much telling and not enough showing, for it to ever become truly absorbing. And though the story does reach a sort of resting place, it's not over, as this is the first in a series. To get the whole story, you have to read the rest of the series, which isn't out yet. I certainly wish Ms Dickey the best with her writing, as I think she could produce some fine stories if she's willing to put the work into developing her craft.

New Book: A Madness of Kentaurs

2011-12-14T15:06:00.001-04:00

A Madness of Kentaurs

Octavian wants two things: to see the kentaur herd pass by on the plains, and to have a horse of his own. Ixion is a kentaur shaman-in-training, considered special by his people, but also set apart from them. During the season of madness a runaway horse brings the two together, where they learn that humans and kentaurs have more in common than they thought, and that their nightmares are connected.

It is the time of year when once wild things become wild again, still wild things become wilder, and civilized things shut their doors and pretend they had never been wild.

During the season of madness, the kentaurs of the Pelion foothills—those half-horse, half-human creatures that humans call “centaurs”—journey from their home villages to the sacred lands across the Acheron River. Horses find the kentaur herd irresistible and often run away from their human masters to join the herd. One day, Octavian, stable-boy and floor cleaner at the local inn, gets carried off by the innkeeper’s horse, and ends up trapped in the kentaur herd. He is placed under the charge of Ixion, a young kentaur shaman-in-training, who begins to teach him that kentaurs are not the barbaric, half-sentient beasts he had thought they were.

And then the dreams begin. Dreams in which ancient, cold things with too many teeth steal the boys’ tongues and threaten to steal their sanity. Now Octavian and Ixion both have to learn enough about the otherworld to make it though a grueling initiation ceremony across the Acheron, River of Woe. But first, Octavian has to gain acceptance from the kentaur herd.

Buy from Smashwords

Buy on Kindle

Coming soon in paperback

December Giveaway

2011-12-13T22:41:00.000-04:00

I still seem to be trying to catch up with life post-craft-fair (how do people do multiple fairs several times a year?), and can't think of a good giveway for this month, so, in the spirit of the biggest commercial holiday of the year, and the tradition of leaving offerings for the fairies (or something), I've decided to give everyone something this month. Happy Holidays (or insert preferred greeting here)!

So from now until the end of the year, both my short YA fantasy novels are free to anyone who uses the appropriate code on Smashwords (you'll find formats for all e-readers and computers). So download one, the other, or both, and if you like it how about leaving a review? (but don't feel obligated to leave a review--please download and read anyway).

The Coming of the Fairies

Click here and enter coupon code CK38P at checkout for 100% off the cover price. Coupon will expire on January 1, 2012.

Milk Sister

Click here and enter coupon code YK42K at checkout for 100% off the cover price. Coupon will expire on January 1, 2012.

November Winner

2011-12-06T14:39:00.000-04:00

And the winner of November's giveaway is (according to Random.org):

stampernancy

Yayyyyyyyy!!!

I'll send you an email shortly, and if I forget you can send your choice of eBook and your mailing address to me at anagramforink at gmail dot com.

(Sorry Jade, I know you wanted this one . . .)

A new giveaway will be up soonish.

November Giveaway: Do You Love Books?

2011-11-18T11:42:00.001-04:00

Eep! I didn't realize how late I was getting this posted. But here is the prize for this month's giveaway:

It's 9 by 19 inches, letterpress printed from wood type and a linocut in two colours. By me. And if it hasn't sold, I'll throw in the last copy of this card (which I will eventually reprint, should you wish to buy one):

It can't remember the size off the top of my head, but it's about 4 by 6 inches or somewhere in that vicinity. Also letterpress printed, from hand-set metal type and an old printer's cut. (Little trivia aside: the quote is actually, "So many books, so little time." I couldn't find a period in the typecase, so I had to change it to use a comma instead.)

And finally, the winner gets a digital copy of either The Coming of the Fairies or Milk Sister, both of which have books as important items in their stories (and so does the novel I'm working on now, come to think of it).

Leave a comment to enter, and make sure I'll be able to contact you.

October Winner

2011-11-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

So the winner of October's giveaway is (as decided by Random.org):

Jarreds1

Yaaaaay! Shoot me an email with your mailing address and I'll see if I can get your prize in the mail in a more timely manner than I got this giveaway wrapped up.

And stay tuned for November's giveaway.

My Week in Books (October 30-November 05)

2011-11-05T12:35:00.000-03:00

My headlong reading spree has been checked somewhat by my considerably increased writing output (not just for NaNoWriMo--I've been building toward this for a couple of months anyway), so there aren't quite as many books on this week's list.

New Books in the House
I've taken on another freelance gig (yes, another one) reviewing indie-published books for Self-Publishing Review, and got my first review book this week.

Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey (available from Lulu)

Currently Reading

The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
The Art and Craft of Handmade Paper by Vance Studley (non-fiction)
Unexpected Destiny by Ariana N. Dickey

Recently Finished

The Eerie Book edited by Margaret Armour (fiction anthology)
This was my Hallowe'en reading. It's a 1980s reprint (or facsimile, really, because the type and everything appears to be the same and illustrations are intact) of an 1880s (I think; I don't have the book to hand) anthology of eerie stories. There was (of course) some Poe, a lengthy extract from Frankenstein, traditional ghost stories, and various other spooky tales. It was the perfect book for All Souls' and would only have been better if it was the original edition.

Experiments in Papermaking: Goldenrod

2011-11-02T12:01:00.000-03:00

So after several years of not making much paper, a request from a client got me working on it again. I ended up making a big batch of recycled paper from 100% cotton rag printmaking paper--mostly proofs and misprints, with a stack of book pages I had done and then decided not to use to round it off. The result was a lovely, soft, speckled-grey paper then took letterpress printing beautifully. I know I've already showed this photo, but here's the result of the job I did for the client.

But I decided that if I'm going to start papermaking again, I want to do some real papermaking, starting with raw plant materials and ending with paper. So I looked around my property and decided we had plenty of goldenrod and tall grasses in the back field. Goldenrod is also a dye-plant, and Nova Scotia has 19 native species. I think I had two different species in what I harvested. I've showed this photo before, too, but here's what I had after an hour or two of cutting plants.

The next step, once the plants are thoroughly dry, is to cut them into pieces, about an inch long or so. When I was done, this blue plastic bin was just about full (for size comparison, it's about half the size of the big bins in the previous photograph). You may notice that even dry, goldenrod stays green.

Then comes boiling. Lots of boiling. I boiled even longer than my book recommended, as the plants just didn't seem to be breaking down at all. Then I rinsed--lots of lovely golden brown water that I'd do something with if I knew anything about dyeing (an experiment for a later date maybe: hand-dyed bookcloth). Then a shorter boil. Then I drained the plants until I'd have time to blend them.

Still quite green, you'll see. And for those curious about the results of my canning-pot quest, I found this one at Value Village. It's even bigger than the one my mom always used (and still uses) for preserves.

Then comes blending. I didn't take a picture of either that or the resulting pulp. But it stayed very green. Dark, lovely, grey-green. Something to do for next time, perhaps, is to file the blades of my blender so they beat rather than cut the pulp.

I tested out the pulp when I did the demo for the awards gala. I mixed it half and half with my recycled rag paper pulp, because I hadn't had time to blend all of what I had boiled, and I wasn't sure how quickly I'd go through it.

Even mixed with the other pulp, the goldenrod still looked very dark when formed into a sheet, so I was glad I hadn't used it for the menus. However, by the time it dried, it became much lighter, and much less green. it's hard to tell from the photo, but the final paper is a greenish grey with straw coloured inclusions (mostly stem pieces) and darker speckles (the larger, greyer ones are from the recycled pulp and the smaller, darker ones are goldenrod).

I still have half a bin of dried goldenrod, plus a pot full of boiled waiting to be pulped, so next I'll try pure goldenrod pulp. At some point, too, I'm going to try boiling with a little bit of lye, to see if it breaks down better and eliminates more of the stem chunks. I'll be making a new postbound book to keep track of my experiments, with a sheet of the resulting paper and a plain sheet with notes on what I did. It'll probably be nicer than this sample book I made sometime in the late 90s.

The next thing I'm going to do, is make a two-colour linocut of goldenrod to print on this paper to make greeting cards. I just have to decide if I'll print directly on the paper, or print on a separate sheet and tip the illustration on. More experiments, I guess.

Folklore: Food Offerings to the Fairies

2011-10-31T20:23:00.000-03:00

I was going to write up a blog post about Hallowe'en fairy lore, but I'm so stuck into getting my latest short story written that I don't want to take the time. So here, instead, is an extract from my MA thesis (completed in 1999) on food offerings to the fairies. How is this relevant to Hallowe'en? Because the Celtic festival of Samhain was one of the two most active times of the year for the Good People (the other was Beltaine, or May Eve), and thus a time when humans had to be most cautious about fairy encounters. A traditional Irish Hallowe'en fairy offering was a plate of mashed potatoes--the first to be served up from the pot--with lots of butter.

Leaving a food offering for the fairies is usually a domestic event, occurring within the home. The offering is commonly left in the kitchen, either in a bowl on the table or hearth, or in the case of some beverages, poured on the hearthstones. Less commonly, domestic offerings are left outside the door of the house. Non-domestic food offerings, left outside the domestic sphere in liminal areas closer to the fairy realm, may be placed in the barn, at the edge of the woods, or in the sea. These liminal offerings are usually given to specific beings or for specific purposes. Liminal offerings often consist of household provisions like bread, but certain kinds of fairies may require specific food items. Beverages are offered in a bowl or hollowed stone or are poured on the earth, since “all liquids spilled on the ground are supposed to go to their [the fairies’] use” (W. G. Stewart 124). In some cases, it is believed that the fairies eat the food itself, but in other cases it is thought that they “extract the spiritual essence from the food offered to them, leaving behind the grosser elements.” For that reason, food that has been put out for the fairies “is not allowed to be eaten . . . by man or beast, not even by pigs. Such food is said to have no real substance left in it. . . “ (Evans-Wentz 44). Food that has had its essence consumed by fairies may even make humans and animals ill (Evans-Wentz 164).

It is often important that offerings not be made obviously. Fairies are “shocked at anything approaching to the name of a bribe or douceur, yet . . . allow [their] scruples to be overcome if the thing be done in a genteel, delicate, and secret way” (Keightley 358). Though Keightley indicates that some types of food and drink were inappropriate as offerings, it is more important here to note the results of the way the food is given:

. . . offer Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted the place forever; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never knew anything of them. (Keightley 358)

In the one case the item is obviously offered, and in the other it is quietly left. Drawing attention to the offering can be seen as bragging on the part of the offerer, and gives it the connotation of charity rather than hospitality. Briggs writes about how, in the case of brownies, “the housewife was careful not to offer the tidbit to the brownie, only to leave it in his reach. Any offer of reward for its services drove the brownie away; it seemed to be an absolute TABOO” (Dictionary 46, caps in original). There are also indications in other stories that leaving an obvious offering, especially of clothing, constitutes payment, after which the employment of the fairy is at an end, and it departs.

I've decided to make my thesis available as an ebook, but who knows when I'll get to actually formatting and posting it. At least I have located rtf files of all the chapters, so I know I can actually do it.

My (Two) Week(s) in Books (October 16-29)

2011-10-30T14:34:00.000-03:00

I guess I'm not so good at these weekly update things. I keep being late or forgetting altogether, like last week. Then again, I have been awfully busy in the last month or so. But enough of that, here's what I've been reading the past two weeks.

New Books in the House
I made a trip to Value Village recently and could have brought home a huge pile of books, but I was carefully restrained and only picked up a couple of urban fantasies.

Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (fiction)
Greywalker by Kat Richardson (fiction)

Currently Reading
I'm still juggling a pile of assorted non-fiction (mostly), which you can see in previous book posts if you're really curious, but what I'm actively reading most right now are these:

The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
The Eerie Book edited by Margaret Armour (fiction anthology)
The Art and Craft of Handmade Paper by Vance Studley (non-fiction)

Recently Finished

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones (YA fiction)

A book by Diana Wynne Jones never, ever fails to cheer me up. The main character in this one is a very bookish girl, which puts me on her side right away. Also, there are improbable houses, odd creatures, a magic dog, and lots and lots of books. Also, Howl, Sophie and Calcifer (from Howl's Moving Castle) put in an appearance. Yay!
Common Wild Flowers and Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
There's not a whole lot to say about a book like this. It's a good introduction to the plants of NS, which was exactly what I was looking for. It told me that the woody shrub taking over much of what used to be landscaped garden in my yard is a native plant called sweetfern (which, incidentally, smells like pot if you burn it), and that there are 19 species of goldenrod native to the province.
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley (YA fiction)

This is rather different from what I expected, based on the many Robin McKinley books I're read, but so, so very good! I don't often have books directly affect me in real life in a tangible way (in intangible ways, they affect me all the time), but this one gave me dragon-headache-dreams (you'll have to read the book to find out what those are). If you think dragons can't be done well any more, read this. These dragons are good.

Updates of Various Sorts

2011-10-29T20:10:00.000-03:00

This was going to be a long long post will all kinds of exciting things (and pictures!), but I'm coming down with some form of sickness and I want to get in some fiction writing time before I fall asleep sitting up. So here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to (with a couple pictures).

Letterpress
I finished reprinting the fox-catching-snowflakes and the blue jay cards (my two biggest sellers), and got a brand new design done, which I've titled "Misquoth the Raven" (anyone want to guess where the title comes from?

I also printed a menu for a client, a photo of which you'll find in the next section (I only have two to show you, so I have to spread them out).

I still have two more cards to reprint (the Pirates Santa) and one to print that I have plates for, plus two more I have film but not yet plates for (the rest of the seasons). I would still like to do a calendar, but it's looking less and less likely. I have a grand idea, but no actual designs, let alone film or plates. I suppose I could see if I can re-use a past year's number plates and do a basic wood type with numbers and maybe add images if I get time.

My intro letterpress class has ended, and my pop-up book class (not letterpress, but I won't have a bookbinding update section because I haven't done much of any recently) just got cancelled. Poo.

Papermaking
My experiments are progressing slowly (slowly because all my time seems to be taken up with doing things for other people) (yes, I get paid, but still). I've had some success with recycled printmaking rag paper, on which I printed the menus for a recent awards gala.

And speaking of said gala, I was there in the reception area for a while, demonstrating papermaking. I have a photo of my set-up (and also of paper-marbling-demo-er Rhonda Miller), but it's still on my phone and I'm too lazy to go get my phone and plug it in (didn't I tell you I'm *sick*).

For the demo, I used a mix of recycled paper pulp and the all-new goldenrod pulp. The goldenrod didn't break down as much as I hoped with boiling, and I was beginning to think I might have to buy some lye (I might still, to do this as a proper experiment). But once I ran it through the blender, the big twiggy bits were minimalized, so maybe I don't need lye. Of course, my blender is rather new (thanks, Canadian Tire, for your fake money that I saved up until I had a huge fat wad that the poor cashier had to count), and therefore sharp, and probably cut up the pulp more than it should have. So another future part of the experiment will be filing the blades dull.

Oh, and a trip to Value Village on the way home from Halifax one day netted me the most enormous canning pot I've ever seen (and my mother has been canning since before I was born, so I've seen canners). It is now my pulp-boiling pot and is currently full of boiled, wet goldenrod waiting to be blended.

The paper resulting from the recycled-goldenrod mix isn't dry yet--maybe I'll take an iron to it if I feel less lazy later--but it's quite dark, and really a rather nice mossy green. I was expecting paler, and golden-browner, especially after seeing the dark gold-brown liquid I poured off after boiling. But it has stubbornly remained quite green through drying and boiling and pulping and papermaking.

Maybe tomorrow, if I am feeling more capable, or less lazy, I will photograph some of this.

Writing
I seem to have stalled with Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective. I have chapter five waiting to be edited and had hoped to have chapter six written and edited by now. If I can get editing-for-other-people done quickly, maybe I'll get caught up before, well maybe not before the end of the month, but soon.

So Calliope Strange is lazy, and Niko Silvester is anxious to get A Madness of Kentaurs formatted and covered and out at least as an eBook, but that is also stalled, mostly due to lack of time. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am too lazy, but then I actually list all the things I get done in a day and realize that I don't really take any time off except a few times a week to watch TV (even my videogaming is mostly for work these days), and for an hour or so before bed to read. (I rather feel that read should be capitalized. Read. It's very important to me.)

Nic Silver, on the other hand, while not caught up to where he should be (yes, alter ego Nic is a boy--didn't I mention that?), has been writing a fair bit. Brother Thomas's Angel (which will soon have a new title, once I can come up with one) has become insanely long (considering it was originally meant to be a short story), and is still not done. I have about one and a half sections to go, but each section has been around 10 to 15 thousand words. Well, the ones word processed, anyway. The last several are in longhand and will have to be typed. Also he has begun writing "A Pearl Beyond Price" which will be the spooky story the winner of this month's giveaway gets, assuming it is done. I think it's about halfway. Or at least 1/3. I hope. Also it's not so much spooky as kind of creepy. And it will get more creepy, and maybe not in such a good way.

Okay, this ended up being pretty long after all, so I will stop there and apologise for the headlong blather. I have a books to finish now. One that I'm reading, and also one I'm writing. Or several I'm writing.

Oh, wait, one more thing. I have decided that by the end of 2012 I'd like to be making a living solely from writing fiction. Or, rather, making enough from my fiction that I could at least scrape by. Because I don't intend to stop letterpress printing or bookbinding or papermaking or teaching all of the above, but I do intend to stop freelance editing and freelance writing and freelance reviewing and freelance whatever-elsing and the sooner the better. Yes, it could all go wrong, but I have to try. I've always thought of myself as a writer--a fictionist--first, and a maker-of-things-related-to-books second.

The Seasons Cards (All 4 This Time) Digital Proofs

2011-10-19T23:06:00.000-03:00

I posted the finished version of the summer card a few posts ago, but here are all four designs in digital form (colours are not final--I generally mix them right before printing and tweak them as I go until they look right.

Spring: oak and hare

Summer: bamboo and fox

Autumn: maple and grouse

Winter: spruce and raven

As mentioned, summer (fox and bamboo) is printed. I have the plates made for winter (spruce and raven) and may start printing tomorrow before I teach, though my time will probably go mostly toward reprinting the winter holiday "Catching Snowflakes" fox card and the blue jay card, as they're my best sellers and the first colour on both is a soft black. As for spring (oak and hare) and autumn (maple and grouse), I've just sent the files to film, which (if I'm lucky) might come back tomorrow so I can make the plates. But we'll see.

My Week in Books (October 9-15)

2011-10-17T16:24:00.000-03:00

Yeah, yeah, late again. But here's what I've been reading . . .

Currently Reading

Common Wild Flowers and Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)

Recently Finished

The Search for the Red Dragon by James A. Owen (fiction)

I think I liked the first book in the series better, but this one is still pretty great. If you love books that include real historical people--in this case many, many favourite writers of fantasy from days past--in stories that didn't actually happen (but what if they did?), you should check this out. I won't spoil it and tell you who the three main characters actually are (if you read much, you should be able to figure out two of them, and if you know those two, you should be able to get the third, and if you don't, you need to read more), but if you've read Here, There Be Dragons, you'll already know. Actually, so much of the joy of this book (and this series) is figuring out who everyone is before it explicitly says, and having all the connections snap into place, that I don't really want to say much at all. If you can, though, get the hardcover, because it's beautiful, and the illustrations benefit from the higher quality paper.

The Pan-Chronic Adventurers Guild

2011-10-16T23:46:00.000-03:00

Here's something I seem to have spent most of the day working on (and which has confirmed the fact that I really need a new computer as every little thing I did seemed to take a million years for my poor little old Macbook to process).

There are still things I'd like to tweak, but I wanted to finish it for a contest that ends tomorrow, and I was getting frustrated with how long everything was taking, and I still can't figure out where all the weird grey cloudy bits in the dropshadow are coming from, because (I thought) I got all the weird stray bits of colour out of the original image (results of a background mistake early on). But anyway, for now, it's done.

Once the files are done processing, it'll be available for purchase through Indy Planet (where you can also get issue 1 of Fey).

I do want to do another version, because I was especially happy with how the satyrs' feet turned out, but then I ended hiding them behind the text in this version. Here's just the satyrs so you can see what they look like uncluttered:

The colours are actually rather brighter in the pre-adding-to-Blogger versions, but whatever Blogger does to compress images always seems to dull and blur them a little.

Things Printed and In Progress

2011-10-15T13:04:00.000-03:00

It's only mid-October, but the Halifax Crafters winter sale will be here soon, so I'm madly trying to get at least some of the things I had planned finished and ready to sell. I still don't know if I'll get a calendar done or not. I hope so, and I have a great idea, but with so many other things to finish . . . well, we'll just have to see how it goes.

But I did get one of the four seasons cards done the other day. I still have to trim and fold them, which I will do this evening while I'm hanging out in the printshop for Nocturne (if you're in Halifax, stop by; we're open 6 to midnight and will be doing demos, selling our wares, and helping folks print a keepsake on a vintage Vandercook Universal 1 proof press). I have the plates made for the winter card, and almost have the files for autumn and spring ready to send to film, but summer, at least, is printed:

My letterpress class has been going really well, and last class we had reached the stage where the students don't need my help very often. So while they were busy setting type, I assembled some wood type for the first in a series of fun and silly posters I have planned. I decided to use some of rather venerable, already-cut paper that's been around the shop for eons, and just throw the type on the press and see what happened. Because one press had black ink on it and the other had red, those were the colours I used. Then I added the linocut at home yesterday.

If I were to print this again, I'd shift the red type to the left just a little, to line it up with the black type, which would also put it just about in the centre of the page. I'd probably also print it on off-white paper, but I like the black and red--very bookish colours. Both this poster and the summer card will be for sale tonight, and eventually in my Etsy shop.

And one more fun thing that won't be ready for tonight, but will be done for the Halifax Crafters sale, is this (ignore the smudged line of type--I was trying to proof without actually setting up my press, so it shifted):

It will be available both as a little print on my own handmade paper, as above (it's just a little smaller than half letter size), and on the cover of hand-bound blank pamphlet journals. Also, the type won't be smudged or crooked. It's a linocut with hand-set wood and metal type.

I have lots more in the works, but that's all that's ready to show you.

Sleepy Dragonfly

2011-10-09T23:20:00.000-03:00

Because I am too sleepy from all the food I cooked and ate today to post a papermaking update, here is a picture of a dragonfly taking a break on one of the felts I use in papermaking:

My Week in Books (Oct 2-8, 2011)

2011-10-09T11:23:00.000-03:00

Oops, I meant to post this yesterday. Also, it looks like Blogger has disabled the Amazon widget permanently, for various reasons having to do with revenue and them not getting any from it. If I can remember how to paste in links manually, I will, so there will at least be pictures.

New Arrivals
No new books came into the house this week. I'm still working on my pile of library books from last week.

Currently Reading
All of the same books as last week, plus this one:

The Search for the Red Dragon by James A. Owen (fiction)

Recently Finished

Plain Kate by Erin Bow (fiction)

I loved this book so much I hardly know what to say about it that isn't gushing. I picked it up because I liked the colours on the cover, and added it to my pile to sign out because I liked the mention of folklore and a craft (woodcarving) in the blurb on the flap. The description reminded me a little bit of Patricia McKillip's work. And after reading, McKillip is still the closest comparison I can think of, though Erin Bow definitely has a voice of her own, and it is lush and heartbreaking and lovely. Not so many things in fiction make me cry anymore, but Plain Kate had me in tears no fewer than three times. I read a lot, and this book is the best thing I've read all year. Maybe the best I've read in several years. I believe Bow just won an award for it, too, which is richly deserved. (One very, very tiny nitppick: horses don't have collarbones.). Just read this book. Please.
Zombies vs Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (fiction)

At first glance, it seems like a silly, though definitely fun, idea for an anthology. But every single story in this book is good. I picked it up because I love editor Holly Black's fiction, and it turns out she's a great editor (or co-editor), too. Though some stories are better than others--a couple of them were superb!--there's not a stinker in the bunch. Read this if you think either (or both) zombies and unicorns have been done to death in fiction.

And I discovered I had actually already read The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer, though I don't recall where or when. Rather than re-reading, I'll look for the sequel (I think there is one) next time I'm in the library.

So that's it till next week! What are you reading?

October Giveaway: Quoth the Raven

2011-10-03T19:16:00.001-03:00

I didn't get this month's giveaway up right away, because I was trying to decide what the prize should be. But now I've decided.

The winner gets:

A matching set of "Quoth the Raven" and "Nevermore" lithographs. Before you get too excited, these are proofs on Mayfair paper, not final prints on heavy rag, so they're not as archival, though they still look nice. I'd love to give away a set of editioned prints, but I only have three sets, and they're all earmarked for an artist's book. They're about 8 by 10.5 inches.
An ebook copy of a Nic Silver spooky Hallowe'en story I haven't written yet. It may be called "A Pearl Beyond Price." Or it might not.
Some other little goodies that may or may not include letterpress postcards, magnets with art on, little books, etc.

So leave a comment and get your name in. You have until Hallowe'en, but don't leave it too late.

Also, there's a new coupon code for a free short story on my Facebook page. This time it's "Sealskin," a selkie story.

My Week in Books (25 Sep to 01 Oct 2011)

2011-10-01T22:29:00.000-03:00

Since I don't really get that many books in the mail these days, but I have started going to the library again, I thought I'd turn "Monday Mailbox" into "My Week in Books" and put it at the end of the week instead of the beginning. I'll post the books that came into my house, via purchase, library, or friends, and I'll write a few lines about whatever I've recently read.

Note: My Amazon Associates doohickey doesn't seem to be functional right now, so I'll add links and pictures later on, assuming it ever starts working again.

Arriving Via Mail
I did get one book in the mail this week, from a fellow BookMoocher in Ontario. Of course, I have now used up all but 0.8 of my points, and my budget's still a little tight for mailing books out (if you're not in Canada, you would be shocked and appalled at the cost for mailing books within the country), so I'll have to wait a while before I can mooch any more.

Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles deLint (fiction)
There was a time when I would run out and buy every new CdL book as soon as it came out in hardcover (of for the days of nothing but books to spend my money on), but over the years I've been a little less excited at each new release. I do still enjoy his books a great deal, just not as rabidly as I once did. Anyway, this one I hadn't picked up yet, and I got a very nice hardcover for my mooch point.

From the Library
I hadn't been to the library in some time, as I had a fine. My fine turned out to be a whopping fifty cents. Heh. So I paid it, and now I'm going to the library again. This trip, I ventured more deeply into the newly re-arranged kids' section. I was disappointed by the selection of graphic novels, but the YA book section turned out to be pretty good. So all the fiction this time is from the YA section. But I did bring home a few non-fiction, too. Also, I was disappointed to see the shelf of for-sale discards was gone. Maybe they'll do a once-a-year sale instead?

The Fossil Cliffs of Joggins by Laing Ferguson (non-fiction)
Common Wild Flowers & Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right by Pat Shipman (non-fiction)
The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer (fiction)
Plain Kate by Erin Bow (fiction)
Zombies vs Unicorns edited by Holly Black (fiction)
The Search for the Red Dragon by James A. Owen (fiction)
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (fiction)

Currently Reading
I actually have quite a list of in-progress books, many of which are non-fiction of the dense and scholarly type that I tend to set aside for long periods at time, or else read in frequent, short chunks. Every now and then, though, I find one so well written I speed through it like it was a novel. I love those ones.

Common Wild Flowers & Plants of Nova Scotia by Diane Larue (non-fiction)
Meanwhile, In Another Part of the Forest edited by Alberto Manguel (fiction)
Song of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake (facsimile edition; poetry)
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (non-fiction)
Into the Mummy's Tomb edited by John Richard Stephens (fiction and non-fiction)
Servants of Nature by Lewis Pyenson and Susan Sheets-Pyenson (non-fiction)
Artists on Comic Art by Mark Salisbury (non-fiction)
Illustrators of the Eighteen-Sixties by Forrest Reid (non-fiction)
Written in Bones edited by Paul Bahn (non-fiction)
Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction by Gary Westfahl (non-fiction)
Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds by Gregory S. Paul (non-fiction)
Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature (3rd Edition) edited by Sheila A. Egoff (non-fiction)
Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic edited by Alberto Manguel (fiction)

Yes, that is a lot of books. But this is the time of year I look with dismay on all the books I started and set aside for one reason or another, and start making an effort to finish them before the year is over. I don't usually manage to get them all back onto their proper shelves by the new year, but I generally get through quite a few of them.

Recently Finished Reading

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (fiction)
If you saw my Twitter/Facebook rant yesterday, you might be expecting me to say some not very nice things about this book. But aside from having the characters' archaeologist parents discover some decidedly palaeontological fossils (if you don't know why this is annoying, I shall just point out that archaeologists study past humans. It's palaeontologists who study other--often much more ancient--fossil life), and a few other details that jarred me out of the story (really, I don't think anyone still used Altavista even in 2007 when the book was first published), it was actually quite good. Good enough, anyway, that I'll see if the library has the next one in the series. Also, though this is the first fiction I've read my Mr Scott, I have read some of his work on Celtic myth.
The Fossil Cliffs of Joggins by Laing Ferguson (non-fiction)
We were supposed to go to Joggins and Parrsboro for my birthday, but between car trouble and a very lean summer, it never quite happened. As soon as the weather gets better in the spring, though, I am determined to go fossil-hunting. In the meantime, this little booklet about the cliffs was a good bite-sized introduction to the geology of the area. I'll see if there's a new version out when I finally get the the Fundy Geological Museum.
The Secret Supper by Javier Sierra (fiction)
This was a pretty good book, though definitely not a quick read. It reminded me a lot of The Name of the Rose, though not quite as dense. Monks, art, secret heretical religions, codes. Leonardo da Vinci.

September's Winner Is . . .

2011-10-01T15:31:00.000-03:00

The winner of my September giveaway--a choice of copper pendant, choice of ebook, and some other thing(s) I choose as I pack the prize for mailing--is . . .

Jen!

Jen, if you're reading this, please leave a comment or email me at anagramforink at gmail dot com with a way to get in touch with you so I can get your address and send you a coupon code for whichever ebook you'd like (see them all on Smashwords).

I'll post a new giveaway soon, so if you didn't win, I hope you'll come back and try again (and if you did win, you're still welcome to enter again). Also, you can enter from anywhere in the world (unless you live somewhere Canada Post doesn't deliver, in which case you can enter, but I won't be able to mail your prize).

Thanks to Random.org for choosing a winner.

Giving Back

2011-09-25T12:09:00.000-03:00

Just a quick post today, because I have a manuscript that needs editing, and it's going to be a lot of work (not my manuscript, but one for one of my many part-time jobs).

I've been thinking about better ways to use this blog. Mostly I've been using it to keep people updated about what I'm doing, in writing, in craft, in art, and in my house. Most of my family and friends are far away, and this is a way to keep in touch. But I also want to give something back to the folks who've supported me, with comments and encouragement, with purchases, with gifts, with love. My monthly giveaways are about that, too, of course, but I also want to write useful things for folks who stop by.

And I've noticed that the one post of mine that gets consistent traffic is the gothic medieval bookbinding post. So one thing I'm thinking of doing is adding how-to posts. How to make a pamphlet, how to print a linocut without a press, that sort of thing. Stuff people can try for themselves.

The other thing I just thought about today was little folklore articles. I have an MA in the subject, so I might as well do something with it. Also, this is something I can do for the readers of my fiction who might not be interested in printing or bookbinding, but who might want to know more about the creatures and tales I draw on to make my own stories.

So, to that end, I'm going to attempt a weekly short how-to (for more complicated topics, the instructions might spread out over several weeks) and a weekly short folklore article. Of course, this could all end in failure, as anyone who has read many of my posts will know I tend to try to take on too much for any one person to accomplish, but I'll try it and see how it goes.

Also, for those of you who are readers, as soon as I get myself a little better organized, I'll be posting little articles, comments and reviews on pulp adventure fiction, serial novels, and other fun things (like rayguns!) as Calliope Strange over at Raygun Gothic (and I may also change the title of that blog as it doesn't fit as well any more), and as Nic Silver I'll be writing about urban fantasy, dark and creepy stuff, and maybe a bit about human sexuality at Lies Through Silver.

4 Seasons Cards (Well, Two of Them): Summer and Winter

2011-09-23T23:39:00.000-03:00

Here are some digital proofs for cards I've been working on lately. You may recognize one of them, though I've changed the colours (they're not quite right yet, but I'll work them out when I actually print them).

Summer:

And Winter (the raven may be a little smaller in the final version):

Of course, I still have Spring and Autumn to go, but it's taking longer than anticipated to do the foliage images. I also realized that I'm not happy with the oak trees I drew for spring, so I'll have another go at it later--hopefully in time to send the files when I send the one for the papermaking/printing job I have coming up in late October.

Then I just have to find time to print them all (Summer is 1/3 done, at least).

Experiments In Papermaking 2: Plant Materials

2011-09-21T14:15:00.000-03:00

So it looks like I'll be doing a papermaking demo and providing letterpress-printed-on-handmade-paper menus for an event in late October. While the client would be perfectly happy with made-from-recycled-paper paper, I'd like to make something rather more special. Plus, if it turns out, I can add a new product to my shop(s).

So a few minutes ago I came back in from cutting this from my back field:

That's a whole lot of super-tall grass (and there's an even bigger whole lot still uncut if I need more), and (I think) two different plants which are both locally called goldenrod. Although, they're similar enough that it's possible one could be a later-flowering variety of the other. My knowledge of local plants really isn't what it should be, so while these are drying, I'll be researching to find out exactly what they are, so I can include that information with whatever I end up making.

So now I have to let the plants dry (for now they're out in the sun, but if it threatens to rain, I'll move the bins into the shed). Later, they'll be cut up and boiled for a very long time to break the fibres apart. Then comes the blender. Oh, for a proper paper mill! Maybe someday, after I build my printshop (I am very good at dreaming).

And for anyone wondering what the place looks like these days, here's the hill leading up to the back field:

And here's the house with some lovely blue sky and the tree that rattles on the roof in the wind and drops fat water drops on the roof after it rains:

Step 2: Satyrs in Colour

2011-09-20T21:55:00.000-03:00

Just the flat colours, which is why they look, well, flat. I still have to add shadows and highlights. Plus, these aren't necessarily the final colours. I'll probably still tweak them a bit.

Work In Progress: Time-Travelling Satyrs Illustration

2011-09-17T22:55:00.000-03:00

A Leisurely Sunday Bike Ride And A Snack of Feral Apples

2011-09-11T19:47:00.000-03:00

I was going to write a nice long blog post about the bike ride B and I took along the Cobequid Trail bike/hiking path between Old Barns and Truro today, with some of the many photos I took, but I just made and ate a tasty supper and now I'm too sleepy to concentrate. But there was much pedaling, and red Nova Scotia mud, and birds and cows and sea grasses and blue sky. Also feral apples, shaken from a tree and eaten in the sun (and a whole bag of them now in the fridge). And it'll be Fall Cleanup time soon, when people haul out all sorts of big heavy things for the garbage trucks, and we scored a battered old globe on the way home. It still has the USSR on it and the stand kind of flops over, but hey, it's a free globe! So instead of that long post and many photos, here is one photo, of a handsome fellow I met on the path:

(Click to make him big and see his weary, tattered wings.)

September Giveaway: Pretty, Shiny Thing Plus Secret, Mysterious Extra Thing

2011-09-02T12:39:00.000-03:00

OK, it's time for my September giveaway! This month I'm going to send a copper pendant to one lucky winner, plus their choice of any story or novel of mine from Smashwords, and some other mysterious item I will decide on at the last possible minute.

The winner can choose an OsteoSophy animal skull pendant, either one I've already made, or a custom one of their choice (or they can opt to have a bracelet or brooch or keychain instead).

See more of these in my Etsy shop.

OR

The winner may choose a copper feather pendant instead -- again, either an existing one, or a custom-made one. These are larger than the skulls and made from thinner copper.

More are currently in my other Etsy shop (it made sense at the time).

To enter, just comment on this post with your choice of pendant--tell me which you'd like and what animal or bird. Tweets and Facebook posts and the like are much appreciated, too, but not required.

August's Winner Is . . .

2011-09-01T17:11:00.000-03:00

Rad Hall

who chose Milk Sister as the prize ebook. Yayyyyyyy! (insert Kermit the Frog arm-waving here)

Soon, a nautilus mini-print and some other prize I still haven't decided on will be on their way to their new home.

Now I have to post a new giveaway. Hmmmm . . . Maybe a copper OsteoSophy necklace? Another print? If I don't post it later today, I will tomorrow for sure.

Thanks to Random.org for picking a winner for me.

Writing Wednesday: Little by Little

2011-08-31T18:47:00.000-03:00

I don't really have much to report. I've mostly being trying to get caught up and ahead on freelance (which is to say, reviews and non-fiction) writing lately, before I start teaching (Intro Letterpress starts next Thursday!). The requirements for my main gig change starting September (which is tomorrow!), and though I'll have more to do each month, I'll also get paid more, so I'm quite pleased about that.

As far as fiction goes, I haven't written much, at least not as Niko Silvester. As Calliope Strange I've finished chapter 4 of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective, and have realized that the story is not going to be wrapped up by chapter 5. I always intended it to be a series of short novels (a series of serials?), but it looks like this one is going to be a little longer than I originally planned. Maybe not a lot longer, but I'm not sure yet.

I've also been writing a little as Nic Silver. I've edited the the first two parts of Brother Thomas's Angel and am just about ready to write the next part. I needed to make sure it was really necessary (it is) and from whose point of view it would be (Simon's), and what exactly needs to happen (more time in the police station, alas, and Dr Sutter will make a return appearance). I also have a story outline (I hesitate to say "short story" as Nic can be a little long-winded) (yes, I am talking about my alter ego in the third person, but no, I am not crazy) (it's just clearer for me to think about my different writing styles that way). And chapter two of Newborn is about to burst from my head. I have an interesting experiment in mind for launching this book, but more on that later, when I have a better idea of how I'm going to approach it.

And speaking of Newborn, here's the latest version of the cover. I think it may be very nearly done.

Monday Mailbox (4), On Tuesday (Again)

2011-08-30T17:55:00.000-03:00

Nothing actually arrived in the mail this week (well, nothing bookish), but I did pick this up from the "donate to breast cancer research" table at my bank:

It's classified (rather to my surprise) simply as "fiction" on the spine, but I'd say it fits better in the urban fantasy or paranormal romance category. I'm not really a romance reader, but the similarity of paranormal romance and urban fantasy (in subject matter, if not in style) has tempted me on occasion. The last one I tried, though, I didn't get more than a couple chapters into and I gave up. And it was a struggle to get that far. And I am super stubborn about finishing even books I don't really like (every now and then, I even end up liking them in the end). It was a case of really great back cover copy masking a truly, truly mediocre book. It really does show that good marketing can sell just about anything. Usually, I read the first page or so before buying a book, but it was on the library sale shelf and only 50 cents. Well, at least I supported the library.

I'm very tempted to link it here, so you can see how the back cover blurb made it seem really funny. And I could see where it was meant to be funny. Only it wasn't. Also, the writer used the word "cybersex" way too many times in the first few pages. Does anyone even say "cybersex" anymore? I don't want to be mean, though. I bet the writer has lots of fans who find her hilarious, and maybe it's just a case of me not liking that particular brand of humor. Or logical inconsistencies. Oh, hell, this is the book:

Unlike the book above, The Renegade Hunter was a decent read. Not an "add this author to my faves and immediately track down everything she's written" good, but definitely "pick up more in the series if I find them in a charity sale or at the library" sort of read. Good bulk reading with a few interesting twists (sci-fi vampires, for example--not totally original, and not really even necessary to the plot, but a nice effort at making vampires a little bit new). There were two things that really bugged me, though. one was that there was never any reason given for why the bad guy was after the main character in the first place. After she meets the love interest, there's good reason, but a line or two explaining why he was after her before that, when she just happened to be in a fenced and guarded and difficult-to-get-into house rather than her usual not-guarded-at-all apartment where she had been mere hours before.

The second thing that bugged me, even more than the first, was that we find out at the end that the love interest has been declared innocent of the crime he was accused of and on the run for for fifty years, but we are never told what actually happened! We know why he was accused and what people had thought he had done, but at the end the two main characters are told he's absolved and he'll be told shortly what really happened, and then the book ends. What! I wanted to know too!

But maybe that's in the next book. If so, it's a cheap trick to get the reader to read the next volume. Anyway. End of rant. Aside from that, the writing was competent, the plot decent, and the characters enjoyable. Good pulpy bedtime reading, in other words.

A Couple of Covers

2011-08-21T23:27:00.000-03:00

I haven't got anything exciting to report, alas, though I have a lot of things on the go. My alter ego, Calliope Strange, did finish writing chapter 4 of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective, though, and it's now in edits. Here's the cover:

And my other alter ego, Nic Silver, has been working on a new urban fantasy that's probably going to be a trilogy. But first the first book, then we'll see. I posted a cover mock-up in an earlier post, and I've been playing around with some other ideas. Things to make it more obviously urban fantasy, mostly. The painting in the image is by Franz Marc, and German Expressionist whose work I have recently fallen in love with. He was a painter and printmaker in the late 19th/early 20th century who was (rather obviously) influenced by Cubism and Futurism. Anyway, this is the current version, but it still needs some tweaking:

Yeah, the blacks in the photo are too green, and the type needs something yet.

Monday Mailbox (3), On Tuesday

2011-08-16T20:50:00.000-03:00

I meant to write this yesterday, but it's just as well I ran out of time, because a new book arrived today. Here's what's new this past week or so.

As I speculated last week, this one did ship separately from the first in the series, even though I purchased them in the same order. I'm very excited to start reading them, but first I want to finish the book on the Natural History Museum (London) that I'm currently reading.

This is a book I got because of a random library book card I found in a box of miscellaneous stuff the NSCAD library was disposing of. You can read about the card and how it intrigued me on my bone blog, where I'll also post more about it, now that I have the book in my hands.

Writing Implements

2011-08-12T19:53:00.000-03:00

I've been puttering about at various things without much exciting to show for it yet, so here are some pictures I drew today to illustrate an article I'm writing for one of my freelance gigs.

Would You Read This Book?

2011-08-10T14:18:00.000-03:00

Su just wants to sit in a dark corner for a quiet drink when she spots a newborn vampire across the bar. He's confused, and he's starting to draw attention to himself. And he's hot.

So Su decides to give him a few pointers. Then she realizes that the reason this baby vamp is wandering around without a protective escort is that she killed his parent vamp earlier that night.

Now Su feels responsible. A newborn vampire is helpless until he regains his memories and learns how to act like a vampire. Su knows enough about vamps to be able to teach him that. But Su has her own problems. She doesn't have much of a memory, either, and while she's not a vampire, she's not exactly human.

Su doesn't know what she is, and she doesn't have a kindly stranger in a bar to tell her.

Small Progress

2011-08-09T18:03:00.000-03:00

I spent most of the day on freelance writing assignments, but I did get a little bit done on the next Porthole Specimen book. Yesterday I sewed the text block, then realized I'd forgotten to do the endpapers first.

Depending on the style of endpapers one is doing, they don't necessarily have to be done before sewing--for example, it's very common to just attach them by pasting a narrow strip along the spine edge and adhering them to the first and last pages in the text block. But I like to do what's called "made endpapers" when I go to the effort of sewing on cords, as I am with this book.

Made endpapers are pasted to the first and last sections over the entire leaf. In other words, one side of the endpaper will eventually be pasted to the board, as with most endpaper styles, and the other side is pasted back-to back with the end leaf of the text block, so you end up with a free endpaper ("free" as in not attached to the board) that's decorative paper on one side and text block paper on the other. If that makes any sense. I'll try to remember to photograph the endpaper so you can see what I mean, once it's dry.

Anyway, you generally attach made endpapers (ie. you make them) before sewing, or even piercing for sewing. But I forgot. It is possible to do it after sewing, it's just much more likely that one or the other of the papers will cockle and ruin the whole thing. But I've managed it before, so I gave it a shot. They're drying under pressure now, with tins wrapped in waxed paper between them to (hopefully) keep everything flat and to keep things from sticking to things they shouldn't stick to.

And that's about as far as I'm come with that. Once the endpapers are dry, I'll cut the cover boards, and lace them on, then deal with leather. I'm going to have to sharpen my knives before I attempt to pare, and paring is definitely going to be necessary as any lumps show up that much more on a tiny book.

Monday Mailbox (2)

2011-08-08T14:47:00.000-03:00

Not much in the mail this week, as finances are tight this summer. But here's one thing I got:

I ordered the sequel at the same time, but this one arrived separately, though the website says they both shipped. Hmm. Hoping they shipped in separate mailers, and not that one got forgotten.

I also got some comics from a Kickstarter campaign I supported ages ago. I don't have a photograph, but you can read about them on their website:

Chronicles of Van Helsing

And that's it for my exciting mail from the past week.

OsteoSophy Business/Care Cards

2011-08-07T15:05:00.000-03:00

I can't seem to concentrate on words today (I suspect too much mucous and not enough sleep), so instead of finishing an article or documenting the adventures of Aeryn Daring and Huxley Grave, I'm working on some craft stuff. Specifically, my copper skull jewellery and the bits and pieces that go with it.

I want to include basic care information with each piece, so people will know what to do when their jewellery starts to tarnish and how to fix it, or even prevent it, and I'd like to have a business card for OsteoSophy, too. It seems to make sense to combine the two--business card design on one side, care info on the other. So I've come up with four different (some only slightly different) designs for the front. I may also include more contact info on the back. If I ever get part of my website set up for these, I'll change the URL on the front to that instead of the Etsy shop.

For the care info, I'll print it on "natural" parchment bond paper and laminate it to the white business card, so it will be a different paper on the back. (This could go awry terribly, but I have laminated different papers before, so it should be OK, unless the glue seeps through and makes the ink bleed, because I sadly don't own a dry mount press.)

Anyway, I'd love some feedback on these. Is there one that especially stands out?

Assorted Stuff

2011-08-06T14:58:00.000-03:00

I haven't blogged much because I'm sick, and it's an effort just to get though the "must do" tasks each day, but I did want to say, "I'm not dead."

Things in progress but without much to show yet:

Chapter 4 of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective is coming along. I'm working on that today and hope to get at least half done.
I've started another "porthole specimen" book, this time in a brass-coloured tin lined in red velvet. I discovered that the big erasers I used to used for making stamps are no longer made (or are at least really hard to find), so I may have to buy a block of the stuff they actually make for printmaking, as regular-size erasers are just a little too small for what I want.
I'm getting antsy to be working on prints again. Lots of ideas and no energy or time due to this cold. Sooooon.
More copper skull jewellery is coming soon. I have four ready to cut, but have had to set them aside to get actual paying work done (now, if they'd start selling like hotcakes, I'd have a good reason to work on them instead).
There are probably about six other things I've forgotten.

I also found out I'll be teaching 3 multi-week classes and one weekend workshop for Extended Studies at NSCAD this fall. Full courses are: Introduction to Letterpress, Youth Letterpress, and Pop-Up Books. Weekend workshop is Pop-Up Cards. Go here for more info.

And finally, I put the Nautilus Specimen book up for sale on Etsy. I almost put the price much higher, as I'd be quite happy to keep it. But then I have bills to pay, and I can always make another one for myself later.

August Giveaway: Mini Print + eBook + ?

2011-08-03T11:18:00.000-03:00

So I've decided to have a giveaway here on my blog, every month. It'll run from the first of the month (or whenever I get it posted) to the last day of the month, and to enter all you have to do is leave a comment (see the end of the post for more specifics). I do hope you'll pass this on to your friends via Twitter, Facebook, etc, too.

Also, later today I'll be putting up a coupon code for a free short story download on my Facebook page. "Like" my page and you'll be able to get the code. The story will be available all month, and then next month a new coupon for a new story will go up. This month, the coupon will be for "Hollow Bones," which is the first story in the Frisland series of interconnected stories. If you stick around long enough, you could get the whole series free!

So, the prizes for this month's blog giveaway. . .

First, you'll get one of these:

Second, you'll get a choice of one of my YA/middle grade eBooks. Either The Coming of the Fairies

It is the summer of 1941, and fifteen-year-old Morgan Reilly has just moved to Newfoundland from New York to be with her father, an officer in the US Army stationed in St. John’s. Morgan adores fairies and has a collection of Victorian children’s books, so when she meets John O’Brien, nephew of her new landlords, she is intrigued by his story of being taken by the Good People when he was a child.

As the war escalates, Morgan and John are sent to the small community of Ferryland to stay with John's grandparents. It was there that John says the Good People kidnapped him, and soon after they arrive, he becomes withdrawn and strange. Morgan is more concerned with her own problems to worry too much about John--her father may soon be called into active duty if the US enters the war, and her brother has run away to England and joined the Royal Air Force.

Then Morgan has a fairy encounter of her own and it is up to John to find and rescue her. The Good People of Newfoundland are not the pretty winged beings of Victorian picture books, and Morgan is in real danger.

Or Milk Sister

Maddy has always been able to see things that other people can't, but she didn't know it might have something to do with the mother who died giving birth to her. Now her father has decided to move back to Scotland, and for the first time in her life, Maddy has a chance to learn about her mother's family and the strange circumstances surrounding her own birth.

Maddy was born on a fairy hill--the same hill that the the 17th century writer Robert Kirk wrote about in his book The Secret Common-Wealth, and just like Kirk, Maddy's mother may not have died there. Like Kirk, she may still be alive, living in the Otherworld, and Maddy may even be able to see her.

If Maddy can rescue her mother from the fairy hill, maybe her father won't be so sad all the time. But what if her mother doesn't want to be rescued? And who is the mysterious dark-haired boy who calls Maddy "milk sister?"

Third, you'll get some other little goodie that I'll decide on later, because I like to do things in threes and I like surprises.

So to enter, leave a comment saying which of the two books you'd like and include some way for me to contact you. And don't forget the free coupon on my Facebook page that'll appear later today. And you can follow me on Twitter @anagramforink. Please share with your friends--everyone likes free stuff, right?

Specimen 1: Nautilus Mini Print

2011-07-31T12:04:00.000-03:00

For anyone who's curious, here's a scan of one of the finished prints.

You can see how the texture of the paper affects the coverage of the ink. On a letterpress print printed from a more solid element (like lino or polymer or metal), one could use enough pressure to eliminate the affects of texture, but because this was made from a glorified rubber stamp, it's just not possible to get that much pressure--the rubber just compresses. That's why one usually rubber stamps onto smooth paper. But here the effect is intentional--I wanted to make it look a little aged. Or something.

Anyway, these will be up in my Etsy shop in a little bit.

In other news, I started another porthole mini-journal yesterday. I have the tin finished--brass colour with a whole bunch of little silver "rivets" around the top. The bottom is covered in textured black paper to go with the black leather I'm planning to cover the book with. Inside it has a black satin ribbon to help with removing the book, and it's lined in very plush red velvet.

The book will be the same construction as the first one, but in full leather. On the cover will be a shell cross-section in silver on red. That might have to wait until tomorrow as I don't have any large enough erasers to cut something in the size I want. I'm thinking about a sea urchin cross-section, even though there's not much in the middle of an urchin. Lots of bumps and spines on the outside, though.

Nautilus Specimen Mini Prints

2011-07-30T19:03:00.000-03:00

Because I love my little nautilus cross-section ~~rubber stamp~~ printing element so much, I decided to do a small edition of mini prints, printed in rubber-based ink on some very nice rough watercolour paper. I hand-embossed a border around the image area to give it a little more focus. The edition size will be 9 (plus an artist's proof), and I'll be selling them for the princely sum of $5 (check my Etsy shop in a day or two, once they've had time to dry and I've had time to list them).

Easy Do-It-Yourself Printmaking: Hand-Cut Rubber Stamps

2011-07-29T13:49:00.000-03:00

Really, using rubber stamps is a form of printing, so all those rubber-stamping enthusiasts who frequent the aisles of Michaels and other craft stores are really printers. To qualify as printmakers, though, I think they have to be using rubber stamps they cut themselves (or at least ones they had made from their own art).

But making your own rubber stamps (aka tiny printing elements) isn't really that hard. If you can draw passably and handle a craft knife (or lino-cutting or wood-carving tools), and if you can either think backwards or figure out how to transfer a right-reading image to another surface so it comes out backwards, you can make your own rubber-stamps. If you're already a printmaker, all you have to do is think smaller, and maybe get used to a softer medium than, say, lino.

Those white plastic erasers (the ones that are actually useful for erasing pencils marks, unlike those horrible pink ones) are the perfect medium. They come in various sizes, and you can even buy large sheets of a similar material at art stores that's intended for easy printmaking. Unless you intend to go really big, though, I'd stick with erasers, because you can buy them cheaply (try your local dollar store, even).

Here are a few I made over the years (along with an eraser of the most common size for scale). Most of them were cut with just a knife, though for the tiny details on the nautilus cross-section, I did resort to my smallest v-cutter that I use for linocutting, and I used a shallow u-gouge to clear out some of the open area.

You can also see that I've mounted some of them. I'll probably cut some masonite to mount the rest on, as having a solid support helps reduce instances of the flexible eraser bending and printing areas that shouldn't print.

I'm planning to do more shell cross-sections and other "specimens" for some books I'm making (if you check back a few posts, you'll see where I used the nautilus on a recent book). I just need to buy some more erasers!

Milk Sister: A YA Novel of Fairies and Family

2011-07-27T17:19:00.000-03:00

While I'm still not 100% sure this is the right cover, I do rather like it, and I wanted to get Milk Sister uploaded this week, so I decided to just use it. I can change it later if I get ambitious.

You can get the ebook version right now, in various formats for just about any ereader, from Smashwords for a mere $2.99. It'll be available on the Kindle store once it's done processing.

Maddy has always been able to see things that other people can't, but she didn't know it might have something to do with the mother who died giving birth to her. Now her father has decided to move back to Scotland, and for the first time in her life, Maddy has a chance to learn about her mother's family and the strange circumstances surrounding her own birth.

Maddy was born on a fairy hill--the same hill that the the 17th century writer Robert Kirk wrote about in his book The Secret Common-Wealth, and just like Kirk, Maddy's mother may not have died there. Like Kirk, she may still be alive, living in the Otherworld, and Maddy may even be able to see her.

If Maddy can rescue her mother from the fairy hill, maybe her father won't be so sad all the time. But what if her mother doesn't want to be rescued? And who is the mysterious dark-haired boy who calls Maddy "milk sister?"

This is the second novel I wrote (The Coming of the Fairies was the first, though it really only qualifies as a novel because it's "middle grade"--or maybe YA. It's a little over 30, 000 words), and (I think) much better than my first. It uses a lot of the research I did when writing my Master's thesis and originally I hadn't intended for there to be so many fairy folk in it. In fact, as originally conceived, I was going to leave some events rather vague so the answer of whether or not the fairies were actually real would be left up to the reader (which is more or less what I did with The Coming of the Fairies). But the bloody fairies took over, and I think it's actually a rather better book for it. If you go through my blog archive, you can read a blow-by-blow of the writing process (look in past Novembers--I wrote the first draft for NaNoWriMo).

Also, my serial novel Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective, written under the pen name Calliope Strange (chapters available on Kindle) is also appearing a chapter at a time in the very cool steampunk magazine Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders. I believe it will be online for free soon, but you can also purchase it right now in e-format and hardcopy, here.

It's worth it for the super-cute illustration of Aeryn and Madman alone.

Nautilus Specimen Mini Porthole Steampunk Notebook

2011-07-26T20:37:00.000-03:00

How's that for a long title? I was trying to think of what I would call this if I were to list it in my Etsy shop (which I might do).

I worked on this on Sunday (it's Idea Two from this post), and finished it up last night. It's a tiny round blank book, hand-bound in deep blue goatskin and decorative paper, with a silver-on-blue embossed nautilus shell on the cover (I hand-cut a rubberstamp that I used to print the design--I meant to include a photo of it in this post, but forgot, so it'll have to wait till a future post). The endpapers (which I alo neglected to photograph) are a mottled blue with gold marbling.

The binding is medieval sewn-on-cords (hence the raised bands on the spine), so it's super-strong. It includes a recycled tea tin, lined with midnight blue velvet and embellished with faux rivets to make it look like a porthole.

The bottom is lined with brassy metallic paper and decorated with another nautilus embossed in silver on dark blue paper.

The book nestles snugly inside the tin.

And closed, it's like viewing a specimen through a porthole.

I think, if I do this again, I will make the book a solid colour and mount the "specimen" closer to the middle. The division into two colours detracts from the nautilus in a way I didn't intend. And that's why I might not list it in my Etsy shop just yet. I might make a new book for it first. Or I might just keep it for myself--at least until I have the supplies for another tin (I have an empty tin, in brass colour, but the only "rivets" I have are also brass, and I want a contrast).

It *is* terribly cute.

Also, I think I need some more large size white plastic erasers to make more shell cross-section stamps.

Monday Mailbox

2011-07-25T22:52:00.000-03:00

I had intended to blog about the book I made yesterday, but it's not quite finished. Instead, I'm stealing a meme from . . . um . . . somewhere. I saw this on a book blog (sorry to whomever I stole it from that I can't remember who you are), and basically you post the books you got in the past week, not necessarily in the mail (but somehow those are the best ones). Since I actually *did* get books in the mail today, I thought why not share them and make you all envious.

So, first, a few I picked up at the local mall bookstore last week. I went in to kill time while B got a haircut and ended up with an armful of remainders, all for less than $20. What I got:

Yes, mostly fiction, and mostly YA. I have read two and three in the row, and have been busy reading the two that come before the first one in the row (if that makes any sense).

Today, I stopped in to use the washroom at Chapters after dropping B off at the truck repair place so he could go to work, and of course I had to look around. I was good and only bought two books, one remaindered and one remaindered and then discounted to a whopping $2:

Then on the way home I stopped at the post office to mail a print to the Netherlands (the last of my Steam Ichthyosaurs) and pick up a parcel from Powell's containing the books I ordered almost two months ago with my birthday money (which got hung up in the post-strike/lockout backlog). In it was:

You may have noticed that two of the above have "cabinet of wonder" in the title. I have a peculiar attraction to cabinets of curiosity and own a few other books with similar titles. No doubt I will acquire more, by and by. Also, most of the ones that aren't YA are natural history, which should come as a surprise to exactly no one.

Tomorrow I hope to have that post about the very cool book I have almost finished.

Plotting to Commit Artists' Bookery

2011-07-24T12:46:00.000-03:00

I'm having one of those jittery days when I can't quite sit still at the computer for too long, which means I have do do something. Make something. So that book cover I'm working on in Photoshop and Illustrator will have to wait a bit.

I've decided to tackle a couple of my Ideas from earlier in the year, which I hadn't started on because I don't have all the bits I need. I've adapted them so I do have all the bits, and I'm going to start on prototypes as soon as I finish this blog entry. When I started writing this post, I had planned to combine the two Ideas into one, but in the process, I've decided to do them as two separate things again. (So I've just re-written a bunch of this post).

Idea One: If you've been reading this blog long, you may remember some posts I did a year ago with photographs of some of the moths that are attracted to my porch light (here's one here, if you want to refresh your memory). Well, we have lots of moths again this year--including a few I didn't see last year--and that has me all excited again. So I'm going to make an edition (possibly an open one, so I can make them as I feel like it, instead of all at once) of little albums. Sort of like mini photo albums. Then I'll print out the moths--maybe as close to life-size as I can manage, or maybe just at a size I like--cut each one out carefully by hand, and mount it like a specimen in the album.

I've done a little bit with moths and specimens before, so this fits with my previous work. (Such as this moth intaglio print here, the discards of which I've been cutting up and mounting in hand-built Riker mounts to look like real specimens, sort of--pics of that soon, once I have some more made (and there's another project to work on . . .).)

Idea Two: I drink a lot of tea, and one of the places I buy really good tea packages it in round tins with a plastic window on top. I thought they looked a bit like portholes, and so I came up with the idea of "specimen journals." They'll be little round leather and fancy paper books that fit inside the tea tin. It'll have a sea-related "specimen" mounted on the front cover (maybe something cut from copper, maybe a hand-drawing, maybe real shell fragments, or maybe something else). The tin will have faux rivets added around the lid to make it look more like a porthole, and it'll be lined in paper to match the book, or maybe velvet. I only have a couple of these tins, but I keep drinking tea, so soon I'll have more.

I also had ideas of expanding this into books cased in hand-built wooden boxes with round windows, with other sorts of specimens on the covers. I even bought a few clock glasses to use as windows, but of course, I don't have the materials to built the boxes, so those will have to wait.

So that's what I'll be up to today. We'll see how far I get.

Book Cover Woes

2011-07-23T16:35:00.000-03:00

So I re-titled The Secret Common-Wealth to Milk Sister, which puts the emphasis on the main character instead of on a book she reads (though the contents of the book are rather important to the plot). Also, it doesn't sound like some sort of political treatise. And I decided I don't like the cover I made as much as I like the book, so I decided to re-do the cover from scratch. The first cover looked like this:

It was a fun experiment, if not entirely successful. But I wanted something with the main character, since the title now refers to her. I thought I could do worse than starting with the intaglio print I blogged about yesterday as a background image. There's an enchanted tree in the story, too, so it's not just a random image.

I started by adding colour in Photoshop. The layer blending I chose gave the image some nice darks around the edge, though the intensity of the background may be part of the problem I'm having now.

Then the main character. I rummaged around for a photo I could edit and use and came up with one of myself at my sister's wedding. I was seventeen and my character is only fourteen, but I think it's OK. The fact that I'm working with an image of myself might also be part of the problem. It's too weird.

So, first attempt:

Then I tried to fix a few things and make more of the background visible:

Then I tried to fix some other things:

The hair on her shoulder (badly Photoshopped as my hair was back in the original) was really starting to bug me.

And at this point, I'm not even sure what it was I thought I was fixing. And that's where it remains. With me really beginning to hate it, but without any clue of what to fix or where to start if I started over.

The part I quite like is how the title sits on top of the background (it looks better when bigger--you can click on the images to make them a bit bigger). So yeah. I think I need a break. I was really hoping to be able to upload the ebook on Monday, and I *can* always change the cover later, but still.

Liminal

2011-07-22T16:35:00.000-03:00

An old friend from graduate school recently purchased one of my prints and asked for more information on the process, so I wrote this big, long detailed thing. Then I realized it might make an interesting blog post. You can read Jade's comments on the print after she got it in the mail on her blog.

"Liminal" is an intaglio print (specifically line etching, drypoint and aquatint), hand-printed on cotton rag paper.

The process begins with coating a copper plate in hard ground (essentially a pigmented wax suspended in a solvent that dries to a relatively hard coating on the plate). Then I hand-drew the lines into the hard ground with an etching needle. The plate was etched in a solution called "Edinburgh etch" (ferric chloride and ascorbic acid, I think, though I'm not certain of the proportions). Some lines were filled in and the plate re-etched, and so on, creating deeper, darker lines where they were etched longest, and lighter lines elsewhere.

The aquatint was added second and begins by cleaning the plate of hard ground and grease and sprinkling it with finely ground resin, which is then adhered to the plate with heat. Then the plate is stopped out with hard ground so that only the exposed areas with be etched. As with the lines, the plate is again alternately etched and stopped out to create areas of different tone. The resin creates a fine dot pattern on the plate, which prints as tone--different amounts of etching give different tones.

Finally, I added the cross-hatching by directly scribing lines onto the plate with an etching needle in a technique called "drypoint." This creates a fuzzy look on the lines, where the ragged edges of scribed copper also retain ink.

Then the plate is cleaned again, and de-greased. Then etching ink--in this case a very dark brown--is spread over the entire surface. Then the plate is wiped using tarlatan (a stiff, loosely woven fabric something like heavily starched cheesecloth). The final wipe is done with small pieces of newsprint. This leaves the plate clean of ink where there is bare copper, but inked below the surface of the plate where there are lines or aquatint.

A variety of papers can be used for intaglio printing, but heavy cotton rag gives very good results. The rag paper is soaked and then blotted, so it is consistently damp. The plate goes on the bed of the press, then the paper, then some newsprint, then three layers of press blankets, and the whole sandwich is cranked through at high pressure. This forces the paper into the recessed lines of ink and creates the distinctive raised ink and embossed plate border seen in intaglio prints.

For reasons that probably made sense at the time, I didn't edition "Liminal" but only made a few unnumbered proofs. Then I re-worked the plate--mostly the background--and printed it again, this time as "Interstitial," of which I also made only a few proofs.

Much of the background was removed simply by stopping out the image area and letting the acid eat away the detail. This results in something called "openbite" with is usually a mistake, but can also be used as part of the design. It produces large featureless areas and a dark line of ink around any areas that were protected from the etch.

Latest Covers

2011-07-19T21:37:00.000-03:00

Warning: Contains writerly stuff. If you're here for bookbinding or letterpress printing or pictures of Nova Scotia wildlife, you might want to skip this entry.

So a few days ago, I posted the last of the Frisland cycle of short stories to Smashwords and Kindle. The penultimate story, "Raven's Wing," I had started but never finished, so I finished it. Here's the cover:

The image is one of a pair of lithographs with Celtic raven imagery that I did a few years ago. I think it makes a rather handsome, if minimalist, cover. Actually, a lot of my covers are minimalist, as most of them will only ever be ebooks, since they're for short stories.

The very last story, "Great Skerry," got a photographic cover:

The photo was taken near Burgeo, NL, which was one of the inspirations for Cobbleshore, where many of the Frisland stories are set.

Now that they're all done, I'll be publishing a collection of all 11 stories in ebook and paperback, but first I want to get novel #2 done and out, plus The Coming of the Fairies in paperback. In case you missed it, the cover for that looks like this (I think it looks less good as a little ebook cover, so if you want to see it looking better, click on it to make it bigger):

So the last few days I've been working on getting The Secret Common-Wealth, my second YA/middle grade fantasy novel (also about fairies), formatted and ready for e-publication. Originally, I had planned a watercolour cover, but I'm not so sure my limited skills are up to the task (then again, they might not have been up to any book covers, but I did them anyway). I started playing around with scanning hand-bound books and adding gold-looking text, and ended up with this:

Which sometimes I like, and sometimes I don't. My biggest issue is, I think, that there aren't any of that sort of fairy in the book. No sparkly little winged women, no matter how fierce. The fairies in this book are Scottish sidhe, tall and elegant and amoral. (Also, the image really belongs to my comic, Fey, which I write/draw as nico.) But when I first made the little fairy woman gold, it looked so cool. Anyway. I don't want to take weeks to finish the cover, like I did with Coming, so I think I'll use it for now, and maybe work on it and make it better between now and whenever I manage to finish the paperback formatting.

Next on my list of writing to finish is chapter 4 of Aeryn Daring & the Scientific Detective. Then the third and final section of "Brother Thomas's Angel," which may very well bump it up from a novella to a novel, which is perfectly fine with me. Next to edit and make a cover for and publish is The Madness of Kentaurs (or is it *A* Madness? I always forget), and of course Frisland Stories.

Experiments In Papermaking

2011-07-10T11:27:00.000-03:00

I was asked recently about doing a papermaking demo in the fall, so my brain started thinking about handmade paper again. It's been quite a while since I've done any papermaking, and when I did do it, I made pulp primarily from recycled paper (with fibres and various plant materials added for colour and texture). I passed on the name of a local papermaker to the folks who requested the demo, but if she's not available I'll probably be doing it.

A book of handmade paper samples I made many years ago.

Whether or not I end up doing the demo, I do want to add handmade papers to my inventory, and they would be a good way to add more greeting cards to my stock--the right paper can make a card on its own, without any other additions, or can be the foundation for something more elaborate. And letterpress on handmade paper is just devine.

So I've got out my book on papermaking (I'd like to say "books" plural there, but with half my library still on the other side of the country, I only have one on the shelf), and I'll be reading and experimenting with making paper from raw fibres and (I hope) recycled cotton items.

Printmaking Progress . . . Or Lack Thereof

2011-07-01T14:54:00.000-03:00

This morning I had to check and make sure I still had some copies of prints available before renewing them in my Etsy shop, and that led to making a proper list of all my prints and edition sizes and which copies were left (I still have to go through the Giant Box of Prints to double-check what's left). In the process, I discovered it's been a dismally long time since I did any real printmaking.

The last lithograph I made was in late 2007. I'm not the biggest fan of lithography, though it is certainly a great way of printing book contents. (And when I say I'm not a fan, it really just means it's not my favourite printmaking process; I still like it very much.) That was The Evolution of Flight:

The most recent intaglio (etching/aquatint/mezzotint/drypoint/engraving/etc) print I made was Variations on a Sea Jelly, in 2008. Intaglio I miss quite a lot, and a recent idea I had for a big series of prints would be intaglio, on copper, and the plates would actually become part of the work, too. I'm not quite ready to say more about it, because I'm still working it through in my brain, and trying to figure out how to make it happen.

I do have one in-progress intaglio project I can work on in the meantime, because it's printed and just needs some hand-colouring, but it's a small project and will be quickly completed. Just before I did the sea jelly above, I also did a series of tiny zinc-plate etching/engravings with hand-colouring, and when I printed them, just for fun I did a few on soft brown paper in dark brown ink. All six of the fish are on one page, and instead of separating them as I did in the coloured versions, I'm thinking of leaving them as-is, and then just adding either shading all in browns, to keep the sepia theme, or else is very, very muted colours (suggestions are welcome).

As for relief printing, the last thing I did that wasn't entirely letterpress was WANTED: Wm Morris, in 2008. Of course, I have done a lot of letterpress images that count as printmaking, even if most of them also happen to be in the form of greeting cards.

I dug around in my in-progress stuff and pulled out a few linocuts that I started and haven't finished. One will be a triptych of eight-inch square prints inspired by some gorgeous photographs by Rosamund Purcell. They're going to be reductive, which means I do minimal cutting and print the first colour (in this case, a pale cream), then cut, print, cut, print, all from the same element, until I have as many colours as I want. This set will all be in a range of siennas (I think--too lazy to go dig out the tin of ink I bought especially for this project), starting with paler and working to darker. It's hard to see what I visualize, but here's the first bit, set aside right as I was ready to print it:

I think I can print this at home on my little proof press, though it would certainly be easier and faster to do it in the Dawson Printshop. I may take these with me the next time the Letterpress Gang meets and see if I can take a bit of time to print colour 1.

I also have a linocut I started as a demo piece for the kids' printmaking summer camp I taught last year. I worked at it on and off during the week, but only when the kids were busy with their own stuff, so I didn't get it finished. I planned a second plate with a simple repeating pattern to sit in behind, only where the dragon is, to give it colour. I've left this out on my worktable for now, in the hopes I'll steal some time to work on it.

And finally, a bit of sillyness: a t-shirt idea I did during the same summer camp that I didn't get a chance to actually print on a t-shirt (I did another one that says "professional geek" that I did print on a t-shirt; I wore it at the last craft fair I did and got a nice complement).

I call it "apeshirt."

New Copper Shiny Thing

2011-06-16T14:57:00.000-03:00

Totally not book related, except it's made from an old intaglio printing plate:

This, and others like it, will be available in my Etsy shop once the Canada Post situation is resolved. Oh, and it's a thylacine skull (the pendant, that is; the actual skull it's sitting on is a whitetail deer).

Still Alive

2011-06-15T14:33:00.000-03:00

Oops. I seem to have forgotten to post much lately. Anyway, the news in short, with writing, letterpress, book arts and everything all mixed up:

Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective will be serialized in Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, beginning with the June issue, due out June 20th. I believe they may have a print edition in the works as well as the online magazine. AD will continue to be available chapter-by-chapter on Kindle, thanks to Doc F's very writer-friendly non-exclusive rights contract.
I just finished binding more exhibition catalogues for the lovely Sandra Brownlee, a local textiles artist. That's one of the things that has kept me busy.
Last week I did a super-basic lunch hour bookbinding workshop for Extended Studies at NSCAD, for a huge turnout of around 25 people. It went well, I think.
I will be teaching more Extended Studies classes at NSCAD in the fall. So far, the tentative lineup is Intro Letterpress (adults), Intro Letterpress (teens), Pop-Up Books (adults) and a weekend Pop-Up Holiday Card workshop (adults).
I'm still listed to teach the credit Intro Letterpress for NSCAD in the fall, but it is in serious danger of being cancelled as of this coming Friday. If you or anyone you know wants to take it, please sign up right away.
Paperback layouts for The Coming of the Fairies and the print version of Aeryn Daring chapter 1 proceed slowly, but are coming along. Ebook formatting for The Secret Common-Wealth is coming along quickly, but the book still needs a cover.
I need some summer income. If you know of any writing/proofing/editing jobs, illustration jobs, or other work you think I might be able to do, please let me know. I work hard and I work fast.

Smashwords is Anti-Serial

2011-05-28T12:20:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I happily uploaded chapter two of my serial novel, Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective (written under the pen name Calliope Strange), to Smashwords. This morning, I learned that Smashwords doesn't allow serials.

Here's the relevant passage from the Terms of Service:

9d. You further warrant the book represents a complete work:
• this is not a work-in-progress;
• the uploaded file is not a partial sample or sample chapter, or is not a collection of sample chapters
• the uploaded book represents a complete story with a beginning, middle and end;not a short serial

I suppose I can understand why; they don't want unhappy customers who've bought a chapter or two of something, only to find that the rest of the work never appears. On the other hand, serials have a long history and it seems a shame not to allow them to flourish. The age of ebooks seems perfect for the serial: bite-sized bits of fiction to read on the morning commute, which over time add up to a complete work.

I'm also publishing this book on Kindle, but I haven't found any similar restrictions in their Content Guidelines, so unless they tell me I can't do it, I'll keep posting them there.

So what now? I'm glad I can keep publishing on Kindle, but I want the chapters to be available on other platforms, too. But I've got a few ideas. First, I can publish each chapter on my own website (once my website has actually got some substance), as well as selling the printed version on Etsy and ArtFire (and on the website). Or I can find an online publication that might want to publish it as a serial. Then, once the whole work has appeared, I can publish the whole book on Smashwords, Kindle, and wherever else (plus a POD print version).

So here's my To Do lost for Aeryn:

get website up
add individual chapters in various formats for purchase via PayPal
format and print cheapo print versions
print deluxe versions, complete with letterpress covers and colour insert

Any suggestions are welcome, too.

New Cover

2011-05-22T11:33:00.000-03:00

It's not Wednesday, but I'm going to write about writing anyway, because this is now finished:

It's the cover for my YA/middle grade urban fantasy short novel The Coming of the Fairies. The eBook version will be out very soon--just a couple of small tweaks to the manuscript and some front and back matter to add. The print version will be a little longer--aside from an entirely different format, it needs a back cover and spine, plus the ISBN application has yet to be sent in because the web page isn't finished and I need somewhere to send the ISBN folks when I apply.

But, yay! This one's almost out of my hands in into the world.

Something I'm Working On

2011-05-13T13:53:00.000-03:00

Just a little sneak-peek of something in progress. If you go to the Wayzgoose tomorrow, you might get to see something more finished. If I get it more finished by then . . .

Letterpress: Wayzgoose and Sea Things

2011-05-10T15:52:00.000-03:00

If you're in Halifax this coming Saturday, how about stopping by the Dawson Printshop (right at the end of Granville Street, in the N block of the NSCAD campus) for our Wayzgoose?

There will be food, possibly music, presses running so you can try your hand at printing a souvenir, and lots of cool stuff for sale, including our brand-new limited edition printing press posters.

I'll also be selling some of my letterpress stuff there, including the finished sea things cards:

Nautilus above, and octopus below.

All of them are hand-letterpress printed (from polymer plates made from my own drawings), then hand-watercoloured.

Sea anemone above, sea jelly below.

I'll also be adding these to my Etsy shop shortly (unless the unlikely happens and I sell out this weekend).

Foggy Porcupine

2011-05-09T16:18:00.000-03:00

For those of you curious about what's going on at the homestead, here are a couple of fairly recent photographs.

First, around mid-April, our resident porcupine decided to take a wander through our yard to nibble on some of the new plants.

You can see that even just a couple of weeks ago, the grass was quite brown (though the coltsfoot was busy popping up its yellow dandelion-like flowers). A more recent photograph, from last week, shows how things are greening up around here.

They're even more green now. Pretty soon, the maples will have dropped their flowers and come out in full leaf. The buds are just about ready to burst now.

Morgan in Ferryland

2011-05-06T20:17:00.000-03:00

Just a quick post to show you something I'm working on (I know, I still haven't posted the final sea things cards images). It's an image for the cover of my YA/middle grade novel The Coming of the Fairies (bonus points if you know where I swiped the title from).

(Even more bonus points if you know who was in the photo I used as a reference for Morgan). (Yet more if you know what camera that is.) Anyway, just inks so far. I drew it in pencil, then traced onto vellum to get a clean image, inked with technical pen and brush/india ink, then scanned and adjusted the levels. I still have a bit of touch-up to do on the linework, then I'll start colouring.

I plan to try digital colouring, but if it's a disaster, I'll re-draw on watercolour paper and go analogue.

Writing Wednesday: Sharper Pearls

2011-05-04T16:40:00.000-03:00

So yeah, I didn't quite get around to posting the final sea things cards update, but I'll get to it soon. I also have some pictures of our resident porcupine wandering around in the front yard to share. But it's Wednesday, so it's writing update time.

I got my story "Sharper and More Fragrant" added to Smashwords and Kindle (it's up now at Smashwords, from whence it will be distributed to various other venues; the Kindle version should be live in the next day or so). This is the story that eventually led to the novel I'm back at work on, formerly known as "White Foxes, Full Moon" (which title I'm now using solely for the short story that I later expanded into the first third of the book), and which is now probably going to be called Reindeer Girl, Fox Woman. Maybe.

I also formatted and posted "Cobbleshore Knit" but it's still in conversion. It should be completed by later today at Smashwords, and in a day or two on Kindle. "Cobbleshore Knit" was originally written with a completely new character, but I re-wrote parts of it once I realized the drowning man was actually Torin Danickson, the young man who captured the selkie girl in "Sealskin." It's a standalone story (at least I hope it is), but obviously connected.

And that puts me nearly halfway through the stories that make up the Frisland cycle. Unless I write more. I'm trying now to complete a half-written story that connects "Hollow Bones"/"Remembering to Fly" with "Great Skerry" (and also, in a background sort of way, to "Fox Point Dragon").

Phew. Sorry about all those titles all at once.

In non-Cobbleshore news, but still in Frisland, I should soon have the second part of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective written (under the pen-name Calliope Strange). The cover is nearly done, too, largely because it's the same as the cover of chapter one, but in a different colour with a different flying machine image. I'm lagging a bit on the printed versions, as they require an entirely different sort of formatting, and also because I want to include an image in each chapter that will be full-colour in the deluxe (letterpress-printed cover) version and greyscale in the cheapo (photocopied cover) version. And I have yet to draw them.

And in completely non-Frislandish news, I have a new story in my head called "A Pearl Beyond Price." It's a fairytale thing with sentient dolls (creepy), weird sex (really creepy), and possibly incest (really, really creepy). All the creepiness means it gets to be by Nic Silver, instead of by Niko Silvester, because despite the fact that Nic and Niko are both me, Niko writes nice things and Nic writes weird shit. Nic Silver also wrote Brother Thomas's Angel.

Writing Wednesday: Remembering and . . . Something Else

2011-04-27T14:04:00.000-03:00

Just a quick update today as I have a million things to do for a craft fair this weekend, and still have to keep up with my PSP gig. So, point form.

another short story, this time "Remembering to Fly," is available on Smashwords, and eventually in the Kindle, Nook, Sony and iBookstores. It's currently listed at 99 cents, but I may add a coupon to make it free, because it's really very short (around 1500 words).
I am falling behind in my short-story-a-month goal. First "Brother Thomas's Angel" turned into a novella and then I got busy with other things. So I have about 3 stories to write in May to catch up.
I'm also falling behind in my writing 5 days a week goal, but I'll make that up as soon as this craft fair is over (they have a tendency to take over everything for a while, no matter how carefully you plan ahead).
I have now caught myself back up on White Foxes, Full Moon and am about to write brand-new stuff and get this thing finished. I'm also probably going to change the title to distinguish it from the short story that I expanded into the first part of the novel. For now, I'll use Reindeer Girl as a working title, until something better presents itself.
I'm no longer writing about anime/manga and folklore for Mania.com. My last articles should be up early in May if they aren't already. They're cutting back on freelancers, and while they're happy to keep publishing my stuff, they won't be able to pay me anymore. And while I love writing and anime and folklore, I can't afford to work for free. So.
Still haven't heard back about the reviewer job I queried about.
Applied for another freelance gig, but I won't say what it is until I know if I really have any chance. My application was good, but we'll see.

And I think that's it for today. Back to working on letterpress and bookbinding stuff for the craft fair. An update on that tomorrow or Friday, I think.

Another Sea Things Cards Update

2011-04-25T15:26:00.000-03:00

Almost done with these, I promise.

So there's the octopus, and here's the sea jelly:

And the sea anemone:

Tomorrow I should be able to get them cropped on the guillotine during the Letterpress Gang meeting, and then I just have to fold, sign and package them. Unfortunately, I don't have very many of the envelopes I wanted to use--they only had a few left last time I ordered, and I haven't been able to put in an order recently--so I'll have to use different ones for some of them.

More Sea Cards Progress

2011-04-24T12:14:00.000-03:00

Since I'm actually remembering to photograph these as I go, I'm going to bombard you all with the pictures. Don't worry, I'll be done in another day or two and then it'll be back to my regular blabbing about writing.

So these nautilus cards--all 30 of them--are done and ready to crop, fold and package. It'll be good to have some new (non-wintery) stuff on my table at the Halifax Crafters spring market, which is next weekend. If you're in Halifax, why not drop by and say, "Hi"? It's 11 to 5 (I think) Saturday and Sunday at the Olympic Centre, corner of Hunter and Cunard.

Sea Things Cards Progess

2011-04-23T12:04:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I managed to get the background wash--the part that represents the water--done on all 30 nautilus cards, 28 of the octopus cards (1 got mixed in with the others) and 8 of the sea jellies. I'll finish up the jellies (and the one remaining octopus), as well as the anemones today, and then get started on the actual sea creatures themselves. Which could take longer . . .

Letterpress: Hand-Coloured Cards in Progress

2011-04-22T13:36:00.000-03:00

Here's what I'll be spending my long weekend on:

All of these cards--just under 30 of each--need hand-colouring before I can crop, fold and package them.

Don't worry, though, I'm not going to be spending hours on each one. Just a couple quick washes of watercolour, or else I'd have to charge so much no one would buy them.

I letterpress printed them on good-quality watercolour paper and left the paper a bit big so I'd have room to paint.

You may recognize the images from this year's calendar Tentacle & Carapace. I figured I aleady had the plates, so I might as well use them.

And living in a coastal city, sea things are popular year-round.

Writing Wednesday: You Know, Stuff

2011-04-13T19:19:00.000-03:00

Not much to report, really. I finished part 2 of "Brother Thomas's Angel," bringing the whole story up to something like 24,000 words. I think it's done, and I'll be sending it some first readers just as soon as I do the copyedits. If anyone reading this thinks they'd be a good first reader, let me know. I can't pay, but I can offer editing in return, or maybe some kind of barter.

I'm also seriously considering publishing "Brother Thomas" under a pen name (as I may have mentioned before). Not because I want to hide authorship (I wouldn't be blogging about it here, if I did), but because most of the fiction I have published under the name I use in real life ("Niko Silvester," if for some reason you didn't already know that) is either YA/kids' fiction, or it's nice, melancholy, not-too-horrifying fantasy. "Brother Thomas's Angel" isn't too, too much darker than some of what's out under my name, but it does have a lot of things some people would consider offensive (especially if they're homophobes, Christian fundamentalists, or uptight about sex). In other words, I'd be a little worried about someone picking up "Brother Thomas" and expecting to get something along the lines of "Hollow Bones."

Depending on feedback, I may or may not add another part. It's a bit weird, because usually when a story is finished, I know. It's very clear. But with this one, I'm just not sure. So I'll see what my first readers say, let it sit for a bit, and then decide. In the meantime, I'll work on a cover image. And start the next story, of course (actually, I will probably get back to working on White Foxes, as it's the next closest thing to being finished).

Quick Update on Letterpress, Writing and Everything

2011-04-10T21:23:00.000-03:00

Well, OK, maybe not everything, but I'm trying to get caught up on about six million projects. So.

Letterpress

Class goes well, I forgot to take pictures again.

The university diploma project fell through and it sounds like they'll end up with digitally-printed certificates designed by students instead of letterpress-printed diplomas designed by, you know, a professional (not me, one of my old teachers).

I quoted for another small job, and it was a lovely design, but too many colours + too few pieces + individually personalized = astronomically expensive, so they said no.

In the next three weeks I need to print spring card designs (three new ones, plus images from the sea calendar for hand-colouring), cards for jewellery packaging, and maybe a few other odds and ends for the Halifax Crafters Spring Fling (or whatever it's called). April 30 and May 01 at the Olympic Centre, corner of Hunter and Cunard in Halifax.

Writing

After an inexcusable lapse in regular writing, I've boosted "Brother Thomas's Angel" part 2 to almost 9000 words, bringing the whole thing to about 22,000. So definitely not a sort story any more, Or even a long story. It could end up as a short novel, but I'll just let it become what it needs to be.

My latest folklore and anime article for Mania.com is up. It's called "Unicorn of the East: Kirin in The Twelve Kingdoms." My latest creator spotlight got lost in email and I re-sent it yesterday, so it should be up soon. And I've almost got the next one ready to send, for posting early in May.

I wrote a guest post on anime and religion (or lack of same) for Christian anime blog Beneath the Tangles. It's called "Hard-Wired for Storytelling."

I sent in a query about becoming a book reviewer for an sf/fantasy online magazine. It's a magazine I quite like, and they've always had nice things to say about the stories I've sent them, even though they were still rejections. Fingers crossed (figuratively, as I am not the least superstitious).

And, best news of the week, I have another story up from White Raven Press in various eBook formats. This time it's "Sealskin" and you'll find it here at Smashwords and here at Amazon Kindle. I'm considering a coupon for a free story for people who "like" my Facebook page. I'd change up the coupons now and then, so fans could conceivably get lots of free stories. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

OK, that's it for today. I've been sitting at my computer all day except for a quick trip to the mailbox (because I neglected to check on Friday), and my shoulders ache. I'll be writing the next bit of "Bro. T's Angel" sitting on the couch.

Writing: Angels, Anime and Steampunk

2011-04-02T12:05:00.000-03:00

So my actual writing of new fiction isn't going spectacularly well. This past week was long and busy with letterpress rather than writing. But, I do have a few things to say (and didn't say them on Wednesday because I was out much of the day and got home very late and very weary, and the same thing happened on Thursday). I have managed to write a couple thousand words on "Brother Thomas's Angel"-- part two. I can't tell how long this part will be, but I'm starting to have some of the other characters' voices come clear, so it's possible that one of them may take over for a part 3 once the angel is finished with his bit. I'll figure that out when the time comes.

Another bit of not-so-new news: I've been writing a couple of columns for the media/pop culture site Mania. I'm doing a "Creator Spotlight" series on anime and manga artists/writers/etc and I'm doing articles on the sources of anime and manga in folklore and myth. Here's what's posted so far:

The next two are submitted and should be up this week or next.

And finally, the first chapter of the serial novel Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective (under my steampunkish pseudonym Calliope Strange) is now up on Smashwords and processing at Amazon Kindle. Apple iBooks will follow in a few weeks, as well as Sony eBooks and a couple others. For now, you can find all the various formats on its Smashwords page.

Artist-in-Residence and New Card Design

2011-03-27T10:03:00.000-03:00

I forgot a couple of things in yesterday's post. First, here's the poster for the artist-in-residence, Jenner-Brooke Berger:

And, my latest card design, which you may recognize from the cover design I posted a few posts ago:

It'll be two colours, but I'm going to hand-roll the ink with a brayer so I can get a sort of mottled effect something like that in the above image (which was done in Photoshop, of course).

Letterpress & Bookbinding Update

2011-03-26T14:51:00.000-03:00

Hey, look, a post that's not about writing! First, here's the finished poster I wrote about last time (this one's not quite registered right, which is why I still have it):

So lately I've been teaching an Intro to Letterpress class, focused primarily on metal type, for Extended Studies at NSCAD. We just finish week 4 of 7 (Thursday evenings) and I think it's going great. Everyone seems to be getting the hang of things, and we're at the point I like best--when everyone is working away on their own and I can drift around the shop and help here and there and advise as I'm needed, but I don't have to speechify in front of them and I'm not running around like a madwoman trying to be everywhere at once.

One project I'm having them do is setting a page--it can be anything they like, long or short, big type or small--that will go in a class book. We'll print lots of copies so that they each get 2 or 3 to take home (and I get a few, too), and everyone will have a nice souvenir of the class. With luck and time management, they'll each have a small project or two of their own as well (in fact, a couple of them already do).

Of course, I have forgotten my camera every single class. And I forgot my camera earlier this week when I did a four-hour bookbinding workshop for a foundation print and paint class. I showed them how to make a simple accordion book with a hard cover, that they can use for the small prints they're doing in class. And because it's so simple, it's also very customizable, so hopefully they'll be able to make them to their own specifications for other projects down the road. At the very least, I inspired several of them to run out and sign up for a whole credit class in book arts. Maybe one or two of them even signed up for my letterpress class.

For things coming up, I'll be helping an artist-in-residence (joint project between NSCAD's Dawson Printshop and the Eyelevel Gallery) to print some posters next week. It could be very hectic as time is short now. I also have a job printing diplomas, but time is also getting short on that and there are apparently some hang-ups on the design end of things (which I have no part in--I'm just the printer), so it could still fall through. They'll have till the end of next week to finalize everything or else there won't be time to process plates, print, dry and deliver to the other side of the country. I'm still hopeful that it will go ahead, but if not, that's how it goes.

And finally, more classes. Extended Studies at NSCAD has asked me to teach the Intro to Letterpress again in May/June (info here), since we had such a good turnout this time. And I'll be teaching the Intro to Letterpress credit class in the fall (info here) so Joe can do two Intro Book Arts classes in hopes of filling up an Intermediate Book Arts in the spring. It'll be my first credit class, but I hope the first of many. I'm very excited and hope I get enough registered for it to go ahead.

And that's it for me in letterpress and books this week. Next post should be on natural history things around my neighbourhood.

Writing Wednesday: A Week Already?

2011-03-23T22:57:00.000-03:00

Wow. That week went by fast, and I managed not to post any non-writing posts, too. Sorry about that. I even have non-writing things to talk about. Soon, really.

So in writing news, on a long drive home one day I realized that "Brother Thomas's Angel" is not finished yet. It needs at least another long part, this time narrated by the angel. I know most of what needs to happen, and I've almost got the angel's voice down. But I have not managed to write any of it yet. Still, today/tomorrow's to do list is almost all crossed off, so I hope to make a really good start on that in the morning, if I don't get to it tonight (fading fast now, though, and thinking about bed with a book and then zzzzz).

I also heard the latest on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award late yesterday, and The Secret Common-Wealth didn't make it to the next round. Oddly, it's kind of a relief. I have other plans for it that I can now carry on with.

And finally, as I write this "Three Variations on 'Sleeping Beauty'"--a mini-collection of three short fairy tales that together barely equal the word count of a hefty short story--is processing at Smashwords and awaiting approval in the Kindle store. The iBookstore will follow eventually. I'll post links here next week, probably.

Oh, and speaking of iBookstore, "Come-From-Away" and "Burnt Offerings" are both available there now, with "Hollow Bones" to follow shortly. I don't have a direct link, but go to iBooks on your device, and search for "Silvester" in the iBookstore and they'll come up at the top.

And one final thing--really--I have an official Niko-Silvester-the-writer page on Facebook now. If you go and "like" it, I'll be posting free story coupons soonish. I'd like to offer free stories in exchange for a review on Smashwords or wherever.

Writing Wednesday: Novella Length!

2011-03-16T15:35:00.000-03:00

Heh. In case you were worried, this post is not going to be novella length. Actually, nothing is novella length at the moment, but the story I've been working on for . . . a month? maybe, is getting pretty close.

According the the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America), to which I do not belong, the official lengths for stories is as follows:

short story: less than 7500 words
novellette: 7500 to 17, 000 words
novella: 17, 500 to 40, 000 words
novel: more than 40, 000 words

Personally (and I am aware I am currently firmly in the "nobody" category as far as writers go), I prefer the term "long story" to "novelette" because it's more obviously related to "short story" which it is essentially just a longer version of. I'm also pretty sure most other bodies with any claim to being "official" specify that a novel should be at least 50, 000 words unless it's YA, in which case it can be shorter. But what do I know?

Anyway, there's no real reason for this rambling, except that I just finished transcribing "Brother Thomas's Angel" from my longhand notebooks, and it's just under 13, 500 words. So approaching, though not yet at, novella length.

But the thing is, though the story is finished in the sense that it has a beginning, middle and end, the characters grow somewhat and the central problem in their lives has reached some resolution, there is still more to tell. The problem that *seems* to be the central one (but isn't, exactly, though it is a big one) does not get resolved. And I think the secondary main character (the angel of the title, who may or may not really be an angel) needs to narrate.

So the story is finished for now. Until I start writing the next bit. But I think I need to write some more of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective first.

But before I do that, I have an article about anime and folklore to finish up and hand in.

And for anyone wanting to read about bookbinding and letterpress and the beasties in my woods, I apologize. I'll post about the stuff later in the week.

Writing Post Not On Wednesday Again: Finished, Sort Of

2011-03-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

So this time I didn't write about writing on Wednesday because I didn't have much to report. I had a rather unproductive week, I'm afraid. But since then I've finished the longhand draft of "Brother Thomas's Angel."

Incidentally, I don't really recommend writing longhand. Some writers, like Neil Gaiman, for example, write a longhand draft first and then do initial edits as they transcribe that draft to a word-processed one. That's what I always used to do. Until I had to write some stuff under deadline and simply didn't have time to do it twice. And I discovered that I don't write any differently when I compose on the computer. But besides simply writing speed, there's also physical health to think of. I essentially have permanent tendonitis in my right wrist from many, many years of madly scribbling longhand. I've been writing since I could hold a pencil and make the shapes of letters, and it's hard on the bod. My wrist has a noticeable bulge on the top where the tendonitis has formed a ganglion. I could have surgery, but it doesn't bother me much most of the time. When I refrain from doing everything longhand. Typing has its own problems, of course, but they're generally not as bad, and are more easily preventable.

But anyway. A draft of my latest story is done and I'm working on transcribing it. I'm not really sure how long it is, but I'm almost at 2000 words, and I still have a long way to go. It may be a novella.

On the print front, I submitted a few stories to magazines recently and got a couple rejections back (not unexpected ones). I'm still waiting to hear back about two stories.

And in ebooks, I haven't put anything else up yet, but I'm working on covers for a trio of short stories based on the Sleeping Beauty fairytale and for part one of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective (the serial novel based on my in-limbo comic The Fabulous Forays of Aeryn Daring). The individual parts of Aeryn will probably get simple typographic covers and then when the whole novel goes up it'll have a more elaborate cover and will also be available in print from White Raven Press. And it'll be under a pseudonym. Not because I am trying to hide authorship, but because of the way it fits into a larger body of ongoing work that includes printmaking, metalwork, bookbinding and whatever else.

And I think that's it for fiction. For non-fiction, you can read my latest article for Mania, "Laputa, Atlantis and Floating Islands: Ancestors of Ghibli's Castle in the Sky," here.

Books and Letterpress: Writing, Poster, Class

2011-03-08T15:50:00.000-04:00

Writing Notebook
I recently used up all the pages in my writing notebook and found myself in need of another one (if anyone's curious, I usually have three or four separate notebooks on the go for different things, plus at least one sketchbook for drawing--currently I have a fiction notebook, a less-used non-fiction notebook, a bookbinding notebook, and a notebook for one of my side blog projects).

As a bookbinder, I of course wanted to make one. Usually I have several on hand, but none of my current stock was a good size or structure. I like simple, utilitarian hardcovers within a general size range for my writing notebooks. Finally, after digging around, I found one that would do in a bunch of sewn-but-not-covered unfinished projects. It's a little smaller and a fair bit thinner than I would have liked, but with no pages left and a story half-done and insisting on being written longhand (not something I do that much anymore, as my gimpy right hand/wrist can't take it), I couldn't be too picky. I ended up starting to write in it before it was done, anyway.

I have a small stash of those lovely craftsman-esque brass moths that I haven't done anything with (partly because I don't like selling things that aren't all my own work), so even though it would get away from the entirely utilitarian, I added one to the front. The cloth is a polyester (I think) bookcloth that looks like silk, with just a touch of coppery bronze in the black. For endpapers, I used a burgundy with a gold pattern that reminded me of William Morris's work.

Poster
My latest print job was a poster for an Art Gallery of Nova Scotia event. It's two colours in hand-set wood and metal type, and meant to look like an old boxing poster. Here's the fist colour on, about to be run through for the second colour:

And here's the type inked up in red for colour number two:

And finally, the Dawson Printshop's Vandercook Universal I proof press with the red type and the paper about to go through its second run:

I don't have any images of the final product, but I did keep a copy for my portfolio. It's still in the shop, but when I bring it home I'll try to remember to post it here. This was a fun job, despite some frustrating and time-consuming difficulties with the first press run, and the client was very happy with the results.

Introduction to Letterpress
And finally for this past week, I taught the first of seven evening classes for NSCAD Extended Studies in Intro to Letterpress (metal type). It's another great group and I don't think I bored any of them too awfully much with my babbling. Next week they'll be setting their own type and from there on it's setting and printing all the way, with as little talking as I can get away with. I didn't think to take any pictures, but maybe I'll manage it this week.

Ichthyosaur
Oh, there was one other thing. Several of my art prints (some litho, some intaglio) have been in a show in Brooklyn called Retrofuturology. The show ended recently, but I got an email from one of the organizers, saying their group wanted to buy the little Steam Ichthyosaur. This means I have only one left for sale (plus two that will be bound in an artist's book). The other three pieces should be on their way homeward soon.

Writing (Not) Wednesday (Anymore): Angel and ABNA

2011-03-04T20:46:00.000-04:00

Not counting the last few days, since B is home and distracting (sorry, dear, but you are), I've been writing pretty regularly, pecking away at a new story based on an old idea titled "Brother Thomas's Angel." It was originally going to be an urban fantasy short story, but I'm not quite sure what it is now. Except not finished. It's turned out to be rather longer than I had expected, and I've been writing it longhand (not the best idea in the world, but I like writing in bed), so it's also taking longer than expected to finish. But it's getting there and it feels good to be getting close to done. It'll feel even better when I have a new, finished story in my hands.

And a bit of a surprise the other day. Just over a month ago, I entered my short YA (or maybe middle-grade?) novel The Secret Common-Wealth in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, in the YA category. I meant to go back and write a better pitch, but completely forgot about it, until a few days ago I got an email saying the 1000 entries from each category had been chosen to advance to round two and I should look at the official pdf and see if I'm on it. I entered A Madness of Kentaurs last year and didn't get past the first round, so I expected the same this year. Much to my surprise, my name was on the list. Round two is over in another month-ish and will be judged on an excerpt (round one was judged solely by the pitch). My plan is to forget I entered again. The contest is, of course, to Amazon's benefit because you enter my getting a Createspace account, and every participant gets a coupon for free proof from Createspace, in case you might want to self-publish via POD. It's also to Penguin's benefit, because they can use the process to sort through some slush and find them something (or perhaps more than one something) good to publish. The "prize," besides the honour of winning, is a standard publishing contract with Penguin. Curiously, the summary of the standard contract made no mention at all of electronic rights, which are a big deal right now what with e-books becoming ever more popular.

And finally, speaking of e-publishing, I've got another short story up (or it will be very soon) at Smashwords and Kindle via White Raven Press. This time it's "Hollow Bones," and the cover looks like this:

That's one of my linocuts on the cover.

Book & Print Friday: Posters, Intro, Secret Possibility

2011-02-25T12:06:00.000-04:00

Alas, I can't think of anything to alliterate with "Friday" that means "books and letterpress printing."

As usual, I have a big backlog of half-finished bookbinding projects. I started working on a larger version of my "steambook" blank notebooks, but I need to get some longer eyelets to finish them. Alas, I'm on a somewhat restricted budget at the moment, so ordering those will have to wait, especially as I want to order an etching tank from the same retailer. I do have the fish skins now that I needed to compete the other 2 of the edition of 3 of my little book of improbable fish prints, so I hope to get those done shortly.

In the "things completed" category, I've finally finished all 9 in the edition of Waterlily books I printed over a year ago. They're letterpress printed from hand-set metal type with three classic Japanese haikus about water, hand-folded into origami lilies and hand bound in hard covers with chiyogami paper on the covers. I haven't managed to get them listed in my Etsy shop yet, but it's on the to-do list.

As for letterpress, I haven't done much since the holidays. I have polymer made up for a fox and bamboo card (that's the digital proof, below), and I will be using the sea things plates from my calendar (which is nearly sold out) to print cards on watercolour paper that I will then hand-colour.

Next week I start teaching an Intro to Letterpress class for Extended Studies at NSCAD. It's Thursday evenings for seven weeks. The last class I taught (on wood type) was an absolute blast, so I'm really looking forward to this one. It will necessarily be a little bit more technical than the wood type class, but I still plan to focus on printing printing printing. I'll probably be teaching the same class again in May/June, but I'll post again when I know for sure.

And finally print jobs for other people. I originally had a job lined up for a repeat customer to be printed in early January, but they ended up needing it much earlier--right when NSCAD (and thus my printing space) was closed and I was on my way out west for the holiday. Fortunately, I know some other letterpress printers and was able to pass the job on to Micheline Courtemanche of Betty & Bing. For the immediate future, I have a small run of posters to do next week from hand-set type. It should be fun, even thought the timeline is a little tighter than I'd like. And I have one other potential job that I'm pretty excited about, but which may not go ahead, so I won't say anymore. Well, I will say it will have me printing on St Armand handmade paper, which is one of my favourite things to print on ever.

And that's it for the moment, I think. I used up my writing notebook two days ago and have to make a new one. I found one in my stash that's sewn, but has no covers yet, so I've been writing in that. Maybe today I'll get some time to put a cover on it.

Writing Wednesday: More Goals, e-Publishing, Words

2011-02-23T14:10:00.000-04:00

Hey look, it's my first Writing Wednesday post. If you come here to read about books or letterpress or craft or the birds in my backyard (which probably occupy most of the photos I've posted in the last year or so), go ahead and skip this entry. The next one, in a few days, will be all about crafty things (and maybe a bird or two).

First off, some announcements. Two of my short stories are now available as e-books for $0.99 each from White Raven Press. At the moment, they're only available via Smashwords, but eventually you'll be able to get them from Barnes & Noble and Amazon as well, and maybe iBookstore. There are a bunch of different file formats, so you can read them on just about anything, from Kindle to iPad to Nook to Kobo to your computer screen.

"Come-From-Away"
Newfoundland is thick with fairies, if the old stories are to be believed. So what happens when a graduate student from away follows an old folklore text to a peculiar rock formation known as Puck's Chair? Will she return a poet or a madwoman? Originally published online in a little semi-pro zine called Fables in 2001 or 2002.

"Burnt Offerings"
Frank Swann is a celebrated poet who only ever writes a single copy of each poem. He holds his audience enthralled as he reads it to them, and then he burns the original, destroying the poem forever. What compels him to destroy his work, and what would happen if he stopped? Originally published in Quantum Muse when it was a semi-pro market in 2001 or 2002, it's a sort of sequel to "Come-From-Away" in that it shares a character, but both are stand-alone stories.

Friends who want to read these but don't want to shell out the 99 cents let me know and I'll see if I can figure out the coupon system for Smashwords. If you want them in print, you'll have to wait until I have enough stories for a collection, at which point they'll be available in trade paper.

Also, I just got my printed copies of Fey: Drawing Borders chapter 1, and they look great. Two copies en route to the National Library as soon as I get them packed and get out of my hermitage to a post office. They're available from Indy Planet, and I hope chapter 2 will follow in a month or two (depending on how good my time management is). The whole story will eventually be available as a paperback, but first I have to finish writing and drawing it, something at which I am notoriously slow.

And now, a progress report. I've managed three straight days of an hour of writing, and on day three I did two hours. Then I missed yesterday. I don't know how many words that is, because I had a false start on the word processor and switched to longhand (the intention was to do it temporarily so I could more easily write in bed, but it sort of stuck). It looks like a lot of pages on "Brother Thomas's Angel," an old story idea I started over with. So far not a lot has happened--not even the discovery of Brother Thomas's body (his angel was discovered in the first sentence, fortunately), so it's looking like this is going to be a long one.

I also turned in my second "Creator Spotlight" for the anime/manga section of Mania. I'm not sure when that will go up. My second folklore/myth article will be finished by the end of today.

And finally, a few more goals and decisions. First off, I realized I've been sending the same stories out over and over again, and while I haven't actually exhausted every possible magazine and website that might pay for them, I think that might be contributing a little to me not writing much new. So, I addition to my writing at least 5 out of 7 days a week and producing at least one new story a month, I've decided I need to clear the deck. So as soon as the last couple stories come back with rejections (or, you never know, acceptances), I'll retire them all from print submissions, and have them come out via White Raven Press and e-books. Some of them, I think, I will release as chapbooks or artist's books because my dream has always been to make books--words, pictures and binding all.

Then I won't have any stories sitting around waiting for someone to magically publish them, and I'll have to write more. Some of them may be suitable for magazines, and some will go straight to e-books where they won't be required to fit a specific genre or mold.

And that ended up being a much longer post than I intended, so I'll stop. Next time: what's happening with Niko and letterpress printing and how are all those bookbinding projects coming along, anyway?

New Writing Goals

2011-02-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

While I've always been pretty good at self-motivating, even I need goals and deadlines sometimes. So, I've decided to give myself some writing goals. Not just the usual general "work more on such-and-such" sort of thing I usually do, but solid goals I can actually make myself stick to. So here they are:

I will write one new short story a month. Sometimes they will be very short, and sometimes more like a novella. Sometimes they might even turn into a novel, which will make the monthly goal a little unrealistic, but I'll deal with that if it ever happens. But every month, a new story.
I will write fiction for at least an hour, 5 times a week. I actually think this is a fairly modest goal, but I figure it's better to start small and find myself exceeding the goal than to aim to high when I'm out of practice at regular fictioning. Sometimes this will go towards the monthly story, sometimes toward a novel, and occasionally I might switch from fiction to creative non-fiction, but it will all be personal work (as opposed to my paid reviews and articles).
I will blog at least once a week, but aim for three times. Why three? Because I know different friends and followers read this blog for different reasons. Some are interested in my bookbinding and letterpress, some in other craft, some in writing and some in personal stuff. My ultimate goal is to do one round-up sort of post on what I've been doing in each of writing, bookbinding/letterpress, and miscellaneous craft/life in general. So expect more frequent posting from me, but mostly shorter posts. I will also try to post pictures more regularly, because everyone like pictures.

There are other things I'm aiming for, too, like getting my website properly updated. And I've decided to venture into indie publishing (or farther in, really, as I've done little chapbooks and artist's books from time to time over the years, under my "White Raven Press" name). I plan to start with those short stories that are sitting there on my hard drive. Some were published in small or semi-pro e-zines and others got very nice personal rejection letters from big magazines. I'm going to make them available in electronic format. My idea is to have one free one every month, changing it each month. The others will be 99 cents. Once I have enough of them up, I'll release them as a collection as an e-book and POD.

I'll probably go a similar route with the YA/middle grade books I have done, but I'll figure that out as I go along. I'm not planning on making pots of money, or any money, really (though that would be nice).

So, since this post is already longer than I thought it would be, I'll end with my immediate plans:

put together a simple but eye-catching cover for short story #1: "Come-From-Away," either photo-based (it's set in St John's, NL) or something I drew.
Get the story formatted properly for e-pub.
Get myself registered on the appropriate sites and publish away.

If all goes well, it may be up by the time the weekend is over. Or it might not. But eventually, watch for "Come-From-Away" by Niko Silvester on Kindle, Sony eReader, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and maybe others. For free for a month, then for 99 cents.

Some Thoughts on Self-Publishing

2011-02-14T22:56:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about self-publishing a lot lately. I'm old enough to have a definite prejudice against it, at least for prose books--especially fiction. But I'm also old enough to have seen how self-publishing in comics produced some of my very favourite books. ElfQuest, for example, a series which won critical acclaim (and which had more influence than just about anything else on my drawing style--something I have been trying to overcome for ages (though not because of the quality of the original, simply because anyone who looks at my drawings can see the influence immediately) ), was self-published.

Back then, self-publishing was hard. Now, it's easy. For some people, it means that self-published books are even more a sea of crap than they ever were, which is perhaps a reasonable argument for sticking with traditional publishing. One the other hand, readers will read what they want to read and work of mouth is a powerful thing, so good books will eventually become known and bad ones avoided, however they were published.

So. Last month I released the first chapter of my still-unfinished comic series Fey on the print-on-demand indie comics site Indy Planet. I also made it available on the Comics Monkey site, which distributes to the wholesale market. Except for the copies I bought myself to have on hand, I haven't sold a single copy yet, but that's OK. I haven't promoted it either. I just wanted to get it done and out there. Indy publishing in comics has a longish and fairly well-thought-of history. At some point, I'll get organized and actually promote and see if I can sell some, but I want to get back into drawing it first, so I can be confident that it will, in fact, actually be finished some day. To that end, I'm almost decided on getting a table in artist's alley at this year's Hal-Con science fiction convention.

My aversion to self-publishing my fiction remains, but it's decreasing every day. There are a lot of downsides to it. For me the most significant is promotion. I can handle the writing, I can find people to read it and give feedback, I can make reasonable cover art, and thanks to this latest degree, I can even design a passable (though not brilliant) book cover. But promoting myself and all those other little tasks a traditional publisher is supposed to do. . . . Well, I guess I can learn. And I think I just might give it a try. The worst that can happen is my books rot in obscurity like thousands of others.

I started writing because I wanted to tell stories, and also because I wanted to make books. I learned hand-bookbinding, printmaking, letterpress printing, design and even photography for the same reason. And self-publishing will let me make my own books. If other people like them, that's cool. Heck, if I could make a living doing it, that would be great. But I won't count any chickens before I even have a basket to put the eggs in.

Things that got me thinking (more) about self-publishing:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's post on the changing business of publishing, especially the one on new writers
Dean Wesley Smith's posts on the myths of publishing, especially the one on "Self Publishing is a Bad Idea"
an email from friend and teacher Heinz Insu Fenkl in which he suggested self-publishing as an increasingly legitimate path for many writers

So You Think You Can Sew

2011-01-17T15:31:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I was away for a couple of weeks, then sick, then, well, out of the habit of regular posting, I guess. I've got a tonne of cool things planned for the next few months, though, so I hope to blog lots.

First, here is something cool I got for Christmas from my mom:

It's a Cricut Expressions die-cutting machine. They're aimed more at scrapbooking and "arts and crafts" (not in the William Morris sense) folks, but there's third-party software that allows you to cut your own designs. I haven't attempted that yet, though it is my ultimate goal, and being able to cut my own designs is really the only reason I wanted one. But I have tried the cartridge that came with the machine, and was able to make some little envelopes for some letterpress valentines I printed ages ago, complete with a heart on the flap. I didn't take any pics, but I'll put them in my Etsy shop soon.

Another cool-but-useful thing I got this year is a fancy new Dremel rotary tool (from BillyZ). I did have a no-longer-produced "Wizard" rotary tool made by Mastercraft, but this one is so far beyond that . . . Anyway, I have lots of little tasks that will be made easier, plus a whole pile of new ideas.

This particular model even has attachments that will turn it into a jigsaw and a planer (I don't have those yet, but they're on my list--right after the router attachment). I can envision wooden book covers made easier, plus little wooden boxes. I love boxes! I might have to make a trip to Home Depot for some wood soon.

And none of this is what I was going to write about when I started this post. What I was going to write about, and what the title refers to, is this:

Every once in a while I get it into my head that I can sew. Or that I can sew well, I mean. I've been puttering with sewing machines since I was six (or somewhere thereabouts) when my mother let me use scraps of fabric to make little purses and bags and simple Barbie clothes (that last one required the assistance of my older sister). But I'm not exactly gifted with a needle.

Anyway, my sewing machine (which I sold to a friend and then bought back when she moved away) had been sitting untouched for a year when I suddenly got Ideas (yes, with a capital "I"). So I made a pattern for a stuffed octopus (yes, out of my head--one of my other occasional hallucinations is that I can make 3-d shapes from my Ideas). Then I cut it out of some fabric I'm not likely to use for anything else, and attempted to sew it together.

In retrospect, a different order of assembling the pieces would probably have helped with some of the pointy seams, but it turned out rather well, considering. A few tweaks and I think it will be done. Alas, it takes to long too make up to be able to sell as a toy, though maybe with some different fabric and hand painting (or hey, hand-printing . . . hmmmmmm) I might be able to market it to the "art doll" folks. Or maybe I could sell the pattern, though I'd have to learn how to draw a pattern properly.

Things to fix: the part where the legs join the head needs work. It's fine and the front and back, but too difficult and not so nice looking on the sides. Not too difficult a fix, though (I think, maybe). Also, the legs. I like them, but I think I should have made the left and right sides different, instead of mirrored. Also more curl in some of them. Again, not too hard to fix.

Back at the Ranch

2010-12-19T11:48:00.001-04:00

A couple of days ago it finally snowed and as soon as my load of laundry was done, I went for a walk. It looked like this out the front window when I left:

When I got back, the light was waning and my house was all glowy:

Tentacle and Carapace

2010-12-07T23:37:00.000-04:00

"Tentacle and Carapace: a letterpress printed calendar of sea creatures" is my hand-printed calendar for 2011. I'm so glad I had it finished before the Halifax Crafters fair this year, as I sold quite a few (last year I only had a few pages done of my flying machines calendar and though I had them on display, I couldn't actually sell any).

All of the names of the months are printed from vintage wood type in the collection of the Dawson Printshop at NSCAD, where I still do most of my printing.

The days of the week and dates of each month are printed from polymer plates. The type is Eccentric, with Cochin for the subtitle on the front.

The sea creatures were also printed from polymer plates, made from my own drawings. (If you read this blog much, or follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, you may remember me writing about working on them.)

If you'd like to purchase a copy of the calendar, you'll find it on Etsy and ArtFire, or you can email me at anagramforink at gmail dot com.

Making Progress Slowly

2010-11-28T13:40:00.000-04:00

The Halifax Crafters Winter . . . um, I can't remember what it's called this year, but it's the funkiest craft fair in town, and it's coming up very soon (next weekend) so I am in a mad frenzy to get everything done. I've spent the last couple of days working on a big batch of book jewellery, and it's still not done!

Here's what it looks like so far:

Those are the Japanese bindings, all done and ready for their hardware. It looks like such a tiny pile, now, but there are 26 pendant size and 34 earring size tiny books in there. Here are the English bindings, not done:

I'll be changing gears a little bit today, to print some more gift tags on my Kelsey parlour press here at home, and getting paper ready to print business cards and book jewellery cards in the Dawson Printshop tomorrow before the Letterpress Gang meeting.

As for cards, I've printed all I'm going to get done this year, and am just waiting on envelopes and polybags (fingers crossed that they will make their way swiftly from Ontario to here, or else I will be stealing bags and envelopes from other, non-holiday, cards). The calendars are printed and just need their final trim and hole-punch, which will happen tomorrow. They need polybags, too, which are also on order.

The other task this week is to build some kind of card display for my table, probably out of foam core (they make a nice black with black core that won't even need covering if I cut it well). I used to borrow the spinner rack from the Dawson Printshop, but I find that most people only look at what's in front of them, and don't actually turn the rack.

So that's what I've been doing. Phew! If I make it through this week, and next weekend, then I just have the Letterpress Gang Holiday Printers' Bazaar to prep for, but I'll mostly be using the same inventory I already have. I may try to print one more quick card in the intervening week, but I also have an xmas present for a friend that I want to get done so I can deliver it before I take off for the west coast on the 21st, leaving boy and cat to fend for themselves (well, technically boy will also fend for cat, but you know what I mean).

Octoberpus! Also, a Fox.

2010-11-25T17:57:00.000-04:00

OK, I promised a sneak peek at the new calendar I've been working on, so here's a terrible iPhone photo of the October page.

Once I do the final trim I'll scan all the pages and take some artsy photos for my Etsy and Artfire shops.

The other big bit of holiday printing is this year's card design, the snowflake-catching fox. Here's a scan of the front of the printed card.

It's so hard to give any real idea of what a letterpress-printed card is actually like in person. Neither a scan nor a photograph can do it justice. It's something you have to touch. I love the tactility of letterpress, but it's so hard to convey to online customers . . .

Jewel Books and Jewel-Tone Thread

2010-11-03T19:39:00.000-03:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I can say I've been very busy, but when am I ever not busy? At the moment, I am working on turning this:

Into a whole bunch of traditional European style tiny books for pendants and earrings, and this:

Into a whole bunch of Japanese 4-hole bound tiny books, also for book jewellery. And, as luck would have it, and with perfect timing, today's mail brought this:

6 new colours of waxed linen thread, perfect for traditional Japanese-style bindings (and other bindings with exposed stitching, like cross-structure and coptic). The green is not as bright as I had hoped (I just got the sample card with my order, so I was looking at computer screen images), but it's still a great colour I'm sure I'll use over and over. Of course, now that I have the sample card, I want one of each colour! And also, my thread box (a very nice wooden sliding-lid box that used to have a bottle of Alberta Springs whisky in it) is no longer big enough. So I shall have to be on the lookout for a replacement. Or an addition. Or else making a new one will go on my to-do list once the holiday rush is over.

And that reminds me--I went and signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but after 3 days and only 750 words, I realize I have too many projects to finish and too many things to make for the craft fair to start writing a new novel, so once again I'm going to quit before I've really got going. I have the consolation that I've already successfully done NaNo twice. What I really need to get done is the re-scanning and re-lettering of issue 1 of Fey, as I got a nice letter from the National Library of Canada asking where their two copies were, since they gave me an ISSN ages ago.

Letterpress at the Homestead

2010-10-30T19:36:00.000-03:00

While I generally have done most of my printing at the Dawson Printshop in Halifax, I've also been slowly working towards setting myself up to print here at home. My studio space isn't huge, and I have to do downstairs to get water (the tap in the photo below is currently non-functional), and since it's on the second floor, I can't have anything too heavy. Eventually I hope to build an outbuilding of some sort with a concrete floor and then acquire a bigger press.

What I do have in here is a small proof press--the bed is cast aluminum, I think--that I was given by a friend. My first experiment of the day was to attempt to print a random assortment of mostly wood type (given to me by B's dad in Pennsylvania). It was a not-entirely-successful attempt, and though I ended up with some usable sheets of printed paper, they weren't quite what I was aiming for, and I can tell I'm going to be doing considerable trial and error with makeready to make this press work as well as I'd like.

The problems I was having are, I think, a combination of issues with the press itself (primarily the cylinder and the fact that I can only lock up type on one direction, which is not the direction of travel of the cylinder, so the pressure of printing works the type loose) and issues with the type (being old type, it's all different heights, and being a random assortment, it's extremely difficult to get it to lock up tightly). Still, it was a worthwhile experiment, and I am not giving up.

I also have a little 5x8" platen Kelsey parlour press. I've had it for a while and puttered about at getting it running (all it really needed was rust removal and lubrication). I finally got serious a month or two ago, and today got the packing in and some gauge pins on. I still need to adjust the platen some more, but I printed up a whole pile of little holiday candle images which will be cut and folded into gift tags. I might ink up in red tomorrow and do some more. I also have a Santa and some holly I'm going to combine with "to" and "from" in type and try printing those.

Miscellaneous Things

2010-10-19T15:36:00.000-03:00

My brain seems to be scattered all over the place lately. I'm about to head in to Halifax to teach my last wood type letterpress class for the semester, and I'm waiting to deliver two print jobs and get paid for another one. And I've had one binding job almost certainly canceled and one probably going ahead but I don't know quite when yet. And I have a craft show in early December to prepare for, holiday cards to finish, supplies to order and shops to visit for potential wholesale orders.

And if that's not enough, I'm still working on some copper jewellery, some ATCs, some ilustrations and various and sundry other things. Oh yes, if ever I have free time, I very soon fill it up with things to do.

Other things going on: a truck in need of repair before it's driveable and a letterpress workshop I'll do if the truck is fixed in time. An anime website/blog I started and am waiting to move to its permanent domain before promoting. Collapsing offshoot blogs back into this main blog because I have too many things on the go. I promise I'll write something that makes a bit more sense next post. In the meantime, here are the latest ATCs I did, with manga/anime as the theme (and yes, that's yet another version of my foxgirl).

Tsukiko has a Fox Mask

Yuki Makes Foxfire

Dragon Hurricane Oolong

Snowblind

I tried colouring with markers again, which was harder than expected at such a small size. Plus I'm not that practiced with markers. So I'm not entirely happy with the results. But the sketches were originally much larger than ATC size, so I plan to ink and scan them, and then colour digitally (well, except for Tsukiko, which I've already done).

[BFG] Recent Reading: And 2 Makes 50

2010-10-06T17:15:00.001-03:00

One more book I forgot to put on last post's list, plus one I just finished.

The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath (non-fiction) buy from amazon

I got this one from the library partly because I just like to learn new things, but also because I had a new project in mind (yeah, like I need *another* new project). You can see a sneak peek over on Anagram for Ink. The book isn't really in-depth, but it has really good basic introductions without getting into too much detail (which is the problem I'm having with the other jewelery book I signed out), and the pictures are nice (and colour!). I may look for a copy, or something similar, to add to my own library.
The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon

This third book in the series starts off much more slowly than the other two, and it's rather more confusing at the beginning (partly because it uses a lot of substantial flashbacks, which I wasn't expecting after having just read books one and two). Still, once the various details began to come together, it became a wothwhile segment of the larger story.

So, now that I've reached 50 books with a few months left to go in the year, should I just keep going and see how far I get, or should I try for 50 fiction and non, plus 50 graphic novels? Or go on a reading frenzy and try 50 fiction, 50 non-fiction and 50 GNs? (I did that last one the very first year I tried the 50 Books thing, but I had a lot more time to read that year.)

Just out of curiosity, I think I'll list each category below and see how far away from 50 I am in each one . . .

Fiction

Zeppelins West by Joe R. Lansdale
Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder
The Blue Girl by Charles deLint
Swim the Moon by Paul Brandon
Widdershins by Charles deLint
The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich
The Swiss Family Robinson by Jean Rudolph Wyss
Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser
Good Blood by Aaron Elkins
Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Once by James Herbert
White Cat by Holly Black
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono
The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas by Fuyumi Ono

Non-Fiction

Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet by Stephen Jay Gould and Rosamond Wolff Purcell
The Complete Guide to Prints and Printmaking ed. John Dawson
Mangaka America ed. Steelriver Studio
Video Game Art by Nic Kelman
The Boilerplate Rhino by David Quammen
Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch
The Decorative Illustration of Books by Walter Crane
How to Spot a Fox by J. David Henry
Anime Explosion by Patrick Drazen
The Nature of Coyotes: Voice of the Wilderness by Wayne Grady
The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath

Graphic Novels

Mouse Guard by David Petersen
The Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Samurai Crusader: Sunrise over Shanghai story by Hiroi Oji, art by Ryoichi Ikegami
Spice and Wolf Volume 1 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume
Shaman Warrior Volume 4 by Park Joong-ki
Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith
American, Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
xxxHolic Volume 9 by CLAMP
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 9 by CLAMP
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 10 by CLAMP
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Volume 11 by CLAMP
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
Foiled by Jane Yolen, art by Mike Cavallaro
Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little
Hellboy Animated: The Menagerie by various folks, based on Mike Mignola's character
Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff
Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi
Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century by Rick Geary
Spice and Wolf Volume 2 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume
Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

OK, it seems a little unlikely that I can get to 50 of each, especially non-fiction, but you never know.

Sneak Peek

2010-10-04T00:36:00.000-03:00

A little something I've been thinking about for a while and finally got some time to work on this weekend: copper jewellery made from recycled intaglio printing plates. These will appear in one of my online shops later in the week when I've had time to take better photographs.

For the first few, I simply cut out shapes and let the original etching from the business side of the plate serve as decoration. Alas, not all my old plates are going to be as nice, so in future I'll use intaglio platemaking processes to make new designs. I also plan to experiment with patinas. But I think I made a good start, and ended the weekend with four finished pendants, and one that needs soldering (because I didn't want the hanging apparatus to be visible from the front).

[BFG] Recent Reading: Lots of Comics, Some Novels, One Non-Fiction

2010-10-03T23:11:00.001-03:00

Since I seem to be neglecting this blog, and the idea of keeping my geekiness separate from the rest of my life is less appealing these days, I'm thinking that I'll probably merge BFG back in with Anagram for Ink sooner or later. Especially since AforI has an awful lot of geek posts in its early years. But anyway . . . On to the books.

I've been working my way slowing through the Truro Public Library's collection of comics a few volumes every three weeks or so. A pile of them are in this update (though not every GN in this list is a library book; a few I paid money for). I've also begun reading Japanese novels in translation quite voraciously. I wrote about Vampire Hunter D and its awfulness previously--I'm happy to say the "light novels" in this post are far better.

The Nature of Coyotes: Voice of the Wilderness by Wayne Grady (non-fiction)

We have coyotes in this area, so I thought I'd find out more about them than their osteology. I don't know what the current consensus is, but according to this book coyotes are more ancient than wolves, and wolves evolved from coyotes. Also the two sometimes hybridize. The other thing I learned is that coyote populations tend to increase when they are aggressively hunted because under normal circumstances only alpha pairs reproduce, but when they are under pressure, lower-ranked females will also have litters.
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

Three lovely short stories from this duo who also makes comics solo. The title story had a somewhat unexpected, but satisfying ending.
Foiled by Jane Yolen, art by Mike Cavallaro (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

Not the most original idea for a story, but Jane Yolen can take the most overdone story and make it shine, as she does here. This would make a good pick for "middle grade" readers. (Is it me, or did middle grade used to be included in the assumed audience for "young adult" fiction? Is it really helpful to divide up audiences in to smaller and smaller marketing categories?)
Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

There really wasn't anything new or startling here, story-wise, but Little's art is so nice to look at--deceptively simple-looking--that it works anyway. Not that it's a bad story, it's perfectly serviceable, but it's the drawing that's the reason to pick this one up.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (fiction) buy from amazon

I've had this book on my shelf for ages, and only just got around to reading it, and when I did, I devoured it. Sometimes it's like that with books, You just have to wait for the right moment.
The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren (fiction) buy from amazon

This is one from my pile of things started and not finished, and now finished. I read almost half of it before getting distracted by other books, and read the rest a few chapters here and a few there. It's good, and well worth reading, it just didn't grab me by the throat. Sometimes it's like that with books. (It took me *years* to get through Foucault's Pendulum and I was so glad I finished it.)
Hellboy Animated: The Menagerie by various folks, based on Mike Mignola's character (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

I adore Hellboy. Love the original comics (though I must admit, I haven't read very many of them yet), and love the movies. Hellboy Animated is a lighter series, with a stylish animated look. There were two animated movies (straight to DVD, but I think still worth watching), and three comics (as far as I know). This one is the third. It's not nearly as dark or as serious as the main comics, and it's pretty darn short, but it's still a fun read. The main story features an odd mix of Asian and European folklore, and the backup story is all about Abe (I heart Abe Sapien).
Slow Storm by Danica Novgorodoff (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

This book is kind of hard to describe. It's about a woman firefighter in rural Kentucky and an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and it's about the great things and the awful things that people do. The loose ink and watercolour drawings are especially effective at depicting the looming feeling of the world just before a storm.
Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

It's been years since I read Persepolis the first, but it felt like just the other day as I picked this one up and got right back into the story. It's simple bio comic about a woman growing up in Iran told with simple black and white pictures, but it adds up to some incredible richness. This is the kind of book you give people who don't read comics to show them that comics *are* worth reading.
Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century by Rick Geary (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

I got this one from the library just because it was there, not because I thought it would be good. I expected either some dry educational book, or an overwrought dramatization. I especially had low expectations because the book has a whole list of other books in the series, all retelling crimes and murders. But this book is neither dry nor overwrought. It's a simple telling of the known facts with clean drawings and diagrams, and it somehow ends up being a thoroughly gripping tale. I don't know how Geary pulled it off, but I will definitely be looking for more of those books listed in the front.
Spice and Wolf Volume 2 by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

I got all the way through this book and still didn't know why it had a warning for explicit content on it. There's some very tame partial nudity and one small, blurry aftermath of a rape image, but nothing really graphic. At one point the two main characters are in a suggestive position in bed together, but they're fully clothed. So I don't know. It continues to be a fun read, and somehow the bits of economic theory even work and never feel boring. But I have to admit, I read it mostly for the pretty wolf goddess.
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon

This is the first of seven in a series of light novels. (I've been trying to think of the Western equivalent for the Japanese light novel and I haven't quite managed it. In many ways, it fits the same niche as young adult fiction in the West, though that's not an exact fit.) So far, Tokyopop has brought out four of them in English, and I hope they bring out the other three. I had to go through considerable effort to get this one, as it's out of print and apparently collectible and so selling for outrageous prices. I finally found a reasonably priced copy at a bookseller in the UK, purchased via the bibliophile's fried, ABE. I bought it because I like the anime based on it, but I didn't know if it was any good. Turns out it's very good indeed.
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind by Fuyumi Ono (fiction) buy from amazon

This one is book two in the series, though it takes place before the events in book one. (If you read them, do try to read book one first, though--I think the series works better narratively that way.) When I saw the stupid prices book one was going for, I jumped on Amazon.ca and grabbed two, three and four while I had the chance to get them for retail price. And happily, one that was listed as a paperback turned out the be a hardcover when it got here. Alas, Amazon's crappy packaging came unstuck and it was only luck and a flimsy rubber band that kept all three books in there. Oh, and this volume I sat down to read one evening and ended up reading straight through in one sitting.
Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (comics/graphic novel) buy from amazon

I picked this up on a whim because I thought the art looked nice and it had a blurb from Jeff Smith on the back, guaranteeing I'd be hooked in three pages. Mr Smith was right, though it may have been less than three pages. At first I thought the characters looked too cartoony next to the lush backgrounds, but I very quickly changed my mind. The art just works, and the story is delightful. If you've read Spiderwick, the beginning (after the prologue) may feel awfully familiar, and the story is really good, like Spiderwick. But it's nothing like the same story once the kids make their discovery in the old family home they've just moved into. I'm going to get Book Two at the earliest opportunity.

And look at that, I'm almost to 50 books. When I hit 50, I guess I'll see if I can do 50 this year, not counting graphic novels.

Merry Foxmas

2010-09-30T23:45:00.000-03:00

Cards! Banners! Miscellaneous other things!

First, a new card design that I'm counting as a spring 2011 design, because it's kind of spring-ish and spring 2010 is long past.

It came about when I was working on (finally) finishing my fox girl banner design for my soon-to-be-something-you-can-look-at anime project. First, the banner:

Which then became a digital illustration (which was supposed to be neatly sized to work as a card that would fit in a standard business-size envelope, but looking at it now, I think I put the dimensions in wrong):

Then I realized the bamboo would be lovely as a letterpress element. I added a fox design that started life as an illustration for a intaglio project (as yet unfinished, though the actual prints are done--maybe I'll get it done in time for the holidays), then got adapted for a jewellery project I'm planning to attempt (the bits are laid out on my worktable, but I haven't tackled them yet). Now it's a card element. I'm thinking about maybe using the fox with other background elements to make a seasonal series. Maple for fall, snowy bare branches for winter, tall golden grass for summer? Yes, I think I'll do that.

And, speaking of foxes, I finally remembered to take an in-progress shot of the snowflake-catching holiday fox. Here's a few of them on my messy table, with just the black.

In a normal printmaking situation, I'd actually print the black (or key [hence the K in CMYK]) plate last, but because the red and blue plates don't register to each other and I don't want to waste the amount of cardstock necessary to add registration marks, I need the black down first so I can see where to put the other two. (In printmaking, you generally print lightest to darkest, though that can vary depending on how you want the colours to lay on top of one another.)

Other than that, I have a print job to be paid for, one to deliver, and one coming up to order paper for (which I really ought to have done today, but forgot). Also possibly a binding job (which I was supposed to email someone about, and also forgot). Three more wood type letterpress classes, during which I hope my students will have time to do a second small project once their cards are done. (And I know that was not actually a sentence.)

And two more images: the small, acrobatic thief who raids our bird seed.

Teaching and Foxes and Other Things

2010-09-24T12:19:00.000-03:00

So one of the things that's been occupying my time lately is teaching. I'm teaching a wood type letterpress class at the Dawson Printshop for NSCAD Extended Studies. We've had two out of the six weekly classes so far and I'm having fun. I hope my students are also having fun. I haven't had the presence of mind so far to remember my camera or even snap some photos with my phone, but one of my students and fellow Bookbinding Etsy Street Team member (and also fellow Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild member, I believe) Rhonda Miller has some posts about the class on her blog here and here.

If all goes well, I should be teaching an intro letterpress class (metal type, I think, though I don't know for sure yet) in the winter/spring semester). I'm hoping this is the start of a regular schedule of classes and workshops at the Dawson.

And speaking of the Dawson Printshop (and CBBAG), we'll have a table at Word on the Street in Halifax this Sunday, so if you're in the Spring Garden Road area, drop by and see us (and hope it doesn't rain). I think there will be a small tabletop press going with some of the cuts from the collection available to pint your own keepsake.

I've also made a little progress on my fox girl illustration (which I had hoped to have finished ages ago). I'm still getting used to colouring in Photoshop, as you can no doubt tell. The background is a placeholder again, until I figure out what I actually want to do with it (probably something fairly plain, as it's going to be on a long top-of-the-page banner on a website). The background image is a photograph by Brian Jefferey Beggerly of the Fushimi Inari Shrine (used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license), processed in Photoshop (yes, using a filter--how tacky).

And in other news, I finally got a rejection letter from Cricket magazine for a story I submitted a million years ago.