Writing Wednesday: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo starts in a few days, and I'm planning to do it again this year. I'll be writing the next Others book (unless I change my mind at the last minute). In the meantime, I'm working on a story -- maybe a novelette or novella -- about a big old museum on the odd people who work there. I was hoping to have that done by the end of October, but with only a few days left, and one full 8-hour shift at the video game store (I usually do 3 or 4 hour shifts as a part-timer), plus a variety of errands and a dog to entertain, I don't think that will happen.

So I'll be trying to finish "The Curator's Tale" (working title, and probably won't stick), while also starting Koldun (book 4 of the Others series). This could be disastrous, because I also have a lot to do throughout November for the Halifax Crafters winter market, and I'll be getting more hours at the video game store because of the holidays. And I'll be looking for a regular freelance gig to replace my About YA Books writing, when ends at the end of this month.

In related news, my novelette "Ichneumon" (under my Nic Silver pen name) is now free on all the Amazons and will be until the end of day on Halloween. It's a creepy story and not for everyone, but if you like that sort of thing, here are the links:

Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Amazon Australia
Amazon India
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Italy
Amazon Japan
Amazon Brazil
Amazon Mexico

Remember that you don't need an actual Kindle to read Kindle books -- most devices these days have a Kindle app that works just as well (you just have to buy through the website and not through the app). But if you have a Nook or a Kobo, let me know and I can send you an epub version.

Now I need to get at those errands so I can do some writing this afternoon.

Writing Wednesday: End of an Era

Okay, maybe "end of an era" is a tad hyperbolic, but it kind of feels like it. As some of you may know, I've been a freelance writer for many years, and my main gig, the one I could always count on, was writing for About.com. Over the years, the pay has ranged from pretty good to pretty bad, depending on the contract (there were quite a few different ones, using different ways to calculate monthly compensation) and how much web traffic I was able to generate for my articles and reviews. But I always got something for my work.

I started writing for About way back in ... er ... 2001, I think. I took on the Creative Writing for Teens site, and did a lot of work I'm really proud of (some of which I hope to edit and re-use at some point in the not-too-distant future). In 2005 the PlayStation Portable site became available, and since I was feeling a little burned out writing about writing, and had been reviewing games part time anyway, I applied. It was a brand new site, and I built it from scratch. It was fun. But if you play videogames, you know the PSP was never the success Sony had hoped, and it wasn't too long before people just weren't reading about it -- or its follow up, the PS Vita -- any more. Lucky for me, the Young Adult Books site was created in 2012, right when I was feeling most discouraged about the future of the PSP site. I applied, and got it, and once again, I built the site from nothing.

It's been tremendous fun reading, reviewing, and writing about YA books. But my contract comes up for renewal at the end of this month. About has a new (ish) owner, and I knew the contract was going to change. I expected I'd be making less money until -- one hoped -- I could build more traffic. I didn't expect my contract to not be renewed at all.

But, hey, "expect the unexpected" and all that. I'm writing for About YA Books until October 31, and then that's it. I could speculate about why my contract isn't being renewed, but I won't. About.com was good to me for 13 years or so. I'll probably apply to write for another one of their sites, though I don't expect to get the job. But you never know. I may not have a huge socila media presence (yet), but I can sling words.

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a writer -- I know lots about books, writing, assorted forms of art, comics, videogames, nature, and all sorts of miscellanous stuff -- let me know. I'm going to need the work.

Writing Wednesday: Back on Track… ish

Just before I sat down to write this, I found out that I got the part-time retail job I applied for. It means I'm likely to have less time for writing and drawing unless I sacrifice something else. And since I'm determined to keep writing fiction and making comics, it may be this blog that suffers. But it's only a part time job, at least for now, so maybe I'll be able to keep juggling everything else. At any rate, it'll mean being able to pay the bills every month, which is a huge relief.

But not all is lost. I've managed to write a couple more parts of the odd story I started, so I'm up to about 3500 words (hand-written, so my estimate is probably a little low). It's not a prodigious amount, but it feels good. And I'm excited to see what happens to my characters.

I've also been working on a little mini-comic or zine, with monsters reconstructed from fossils -- based on the idea that ancient peoples interpreted huge fossil bones as giants and dragons. It's pretty fun, and silly, and I hope people will like it. And of course, I'm slowly pecking away at the dragon faux natural history book. I've set a goal of November for having that done, but there are a lot of illustrations yet to do, so we'll see.

And, as if I don't have enough to do, I'm tossing around the idea of doing an occasional webcomic about being an almost-middle-aged woman working at a mall video game store. I'll have to see if I have anything interesting or funny to share from the experience first, I guess.

Busy, Busy

(This is the second time I've written this post, and I'm stuffed up and groggy, so it's going to be even shorter than the first time (damn you, Blogger for iOS, for dumping my post when I switched to Safari to look up a URL) (yes, I should have saved a draft first, but I really shouldn't have to) (also typing while annoyed) (and too many parentheticals) (I need more cold medication).)

What was I saying? Oh yeah. Busy with craft fair stuff, teaching, and sick, so not posting much until a few weeks hence. There was more detail and better sentence structure, but my ears are starting to ring, which means I need to rest, so I'll leave it at that. Here's a picture of some of what's keeping me busy:

Oh, and this is for the Halifax Crafters spring market, the first weekend of April, at the Olympic Centre. If you're in Halifax, stop by. There's no admission fee, but there is food and chocolate and cool crafts.

Writing Wednesday: Stalled, and Practical Musekeeping

Since I started a (hopefully regular) Saturday post called "Stamp Saturday" I figured why not make Wednesday about writing. Since, you know, "writing" and "Wednesday" both start with "w."Or something. Plus, some people come here to read about writing, and some about art/craft, and some about whatever else happens to fall out of my brain. So on Wednesdays, I'll try to say something meaningful about writing.

So. I haven't been writing much lately, except for necessary work things. My fiction writing has been completely stalled. Why? I don't know. I don't actually believe in writer's block; I know all I really need to do is sit down and start typing. But I haven't. Fear, maybe? Loss of enthusiasm because nobody has noticed that I've written anything? Maybe, and maybe. Or maybe it's because I'm a little contrary by nature (subtly -- most people would probably find me accommodating rather than contrary) and the more I berate myself for not writing, the less likely I am to write.

But not writing does weird things to my brain. I feel strange and wrong in ways I can't really describe, and which don't really have a source. Except I only feel this way when I'm not writing. So I obviously need to get writing again. And I find myself remembering an article I wrote a million years ago, when I was in charge of the Creative Writing for Teens website at About.com (don't go looking for it; it no longer exists and you'll be redirected to the Fiction Writing site). I re-published it more recently on one of those content sites (Suite 101 maybe? Associated Content? I can't remember) when I was trying to see if I could get more writing work (I concluded those sites aren't really worth the effort). Apparently, it got picked up by "Yahoo Voices" which I have apparently been part of since 2009, though I don't recall signing up. I might have done, and forgotten. It's the sort of thing I would do. More likely, Yahoo bought out whichever content site it was I had written it for, and transferred me and some of my content over. Anyway, here is "Practical Musekeeping" which may or may not help with writer's block…

Practical Musekeeping

The Role of Inspiration in Writing

You've heard the old saying that something is "one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration" (or, as Marion Zimmer Bradley put it, "ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work"). It's true for writing, too, but that isn't to say that inspiration -- the Muse -- has no role in writing.

Getting inspiration, finding your Muse, is important, but it's even more important to know that you can't just sit around waiting for a Muse to show up. Muses aren't interested in writers who sit around not writing, Muses are interested in working writers, writers struggling to find the words to express their own vision of the world. Become one of those writers and soon enough you'll have a Muse whispering story ideas and perfect phrases into your ear as you write.

Feeding the Muse

As Ray Bradbury pointed out, it is necessary to offer a Muse sustenance before you can expect one to come to you.

It may seem a little silly to feed something you haven't got yet, but it works. If you really are meant to be a creative writer, you've probably already got a Muse hanging around, waiting for an invitation. Offer her something tasty and she may just let you see her.

So what do you feed a Muse? All sorts of things, really, but primarily experience. But before you get dismayed, thinking you're young and haven't got much experience to offer, you should know that experience comes in many forms. You're alive, so you've had experience. You've felt things, done things and learned things. And you've read things.

To provide your Muse with plenty to eat, go places and do things, but most of all, read. Read everything. Read poetry (even if you think you don't like poetry; sometimes you have to do things because they are good for you). Read non-fiction; that's where odd ideas come from. Read fiction. Read in and outside your genre. Read classic literature (it's good for you). Read junk (it's tasty). All these things will be filtered through your own perceptions to feed your Muse.

Enticing Your Muse

Once you've attracted a Muse (or discovered one you already had), you'll need to get her to come out and play now and then, to help you with your writing (exercise is very good for Muses). To do this you must sit down and get to work. Write something, anything. Don't wait for the Muse to tap you on the shoulder and tell you to get working; Muses are basically lazy and won't bother very often. But once you're stringing words together, your Muse will get curious. She'll think, "There's a better way to say that," and then she'll come out and tell you what it is.

Remember also that Muses are shy, so don't try to force her out. Just go about writing that poem or story, and let her venture out on her own. She will, and the more often you entice her out, the more easily she'll arrive next time.

Do Not Neglect Your Muse

The worst thing possible for a Muse is neglect. If you ignore her by ignoring your writing, she'll go away and it can be very difficult to get her to come back (not impossible, though). If you don't keep feeding her with new experiences and new things to read, she'll begin to repeat herself and you find you write the same boring stuff over and over. Be attentive to your Muse, fulfill her needs and she'll help you with your writing for the rest of your life.

Further Reading on Musekeeping

If you don't feel quite ready to accept the responsibility for keeping your own Muse, try reading some of these fine publications. You can never have too much information, though Musekeeping is really quite a simple and natural process.

Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury (Bantam Books, 1990) contains the very useful essay "How to Keep and Feed a Muse (and was the main inspiration for my article). "It isn't easy," Bradbury writes. "Nobody has ever done it consistently. Those who try hardest, scare it off into the woods."

"Waiting for Inspiration?" Ha! is a short but useful commentary on Inspiration (another name for the Muse) by Beth Mende Conny. (Note: this used to be available online, but I can't find it anymore. If anyone finds a link, please send it along and I'll update.)

Things Accomplished This Week

I'm afraid this week's post isn't going to be very exciting. Just a list of stuff I wrote and published this week. I'll probably, eventually, do a separate weekly update post at the end of the week and put up something more interesting on Wednesdays. But I'm lacking in sleep this week, so this is all you get.

• Review of See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne
• Review of Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton
• New chapter of Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective @JukePopSerials
• New page of Fey (actually an old page, but new in this current re-launch)

I've also thumbnailed and pencilled the next four pages of Fey, but haven't quite managed to get them inked yet.

I've also been reading a lot, and I'm thinking of keeping track of what I've read again in a new 50 Books challenge. Except since I know I'm going to read more than 50 YA books this year, on account of work, I'll aim for 50 YA books, 50 adult fiction, 50 non-fiction, and 50 graphic novels. That's only a little more than I've managed in previous years. Sure, maybe it will be too much, but I'm more curious about how many I'll get to than in actually hitting the goal.

So, here's what I've read so far:

YA Books

1. See Jane Run by Hannah Jayne
2. Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton

Non-Fiction

1. Artists on Comics Art edited by Mark Salisbury
2. Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe by John Bell

Graphic Novels

1. The Tomorrow Girl and Other Stories by Aaron Diaz (aka Dresden Codak)
2. The Replacement God by Zander Cannon

Hunh. Six books in one week. That's kind of a lot.

And that's it for now. I'll try for something more exciting next week.

Updates of Various Sorts

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.

Giving Back

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.

Still Alive

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.

Re-Post from My Other (new) Blog, BFG

Once upon a time, I used my blog to write about everything. I blathered on about writing, reading, my art, comics, craft, and my life. It was kind of a public journal for my friends and family to keep up to date on what I was doing, because I have a tendency to pick up and move to the other side of the country with little or no warning.

Now that I'm trying to become a little more serious about my letterpress printing and bookbinding business, it seems that craft and art have taken over Anagram for Ink. And I realized that the people who read my blog for my writing about art and craft might not be interested in video games, or comics, or anime. But those are still things I love and things I am around every day. Also, even though I can use my work blog to talk about videogames, my job is really supposed to be PlayStation Portable specifically, so I can't really babble about the great anime I watched the other day.

It feels a bit like I'm separating myself into two different personalities, but this way the people who want to read about bookbinding and printing can go to Anagram for Ink, and the people who want to read about comics and videogames and SF can go to BFG. And my poor friends and family will just have to read both. But then some of them think I don't blog often enough, anyway.

Latest Writing: Flying, Books, Words

• Leaf By Leaf: The Beauty of the Book Form (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  Can the way a book looks (and feels and smells) influence your experience of reading it? I think it can, and in this installment of my column, I tell you why. (Books and photo by GILD Bookbinders on ArtFire.)





• Sunday Word Find: Painterly Pursuit (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  I use BillyZ's easel in the living room as inspiration for the latest word find. Because the puzzle has switched from Wednesday to Sunday, I made a new graphic. It's still not ideal, but just changing the text from Wednesday to Sunday actually makes it work a bit better.





• Leaf by Leaf: It's What's Inside that Counts (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  So after using one column to talk about the outside of books, this time I talk about the insides, and include a bit about my process of artist's-book-making. (Photo and artist's book by AnnaHawthorne on ArtFire.)





• Sunday Word Find: Drawing Dreams (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  My latest word find is all about drawing, since a lot of art and craft beings with sketches and jotting down ideas. Of course, drawing is also an art of its own.






• Complete Guide to Flying Games for PSP (AboutPSP.)
  
  I love to fly, and I like to play video games. There aren't all that many flight sims for PSP, so it was a reasonable goal to make a guide to them. So I did.

Recent Writing

It looks like I got a bit behind with my writing updates. So here's what I've been up to for the past few weeks:

• Leaf by Leaf: Hi, I'm Niko, and I'm a Bibliophile (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  
  This is the introductory article for my new column at Handmade News. In which I introduce myself and the column. Not much else to say about that. (Books and photo by Niko Silvester.)





• Leaf by Leaf: Getting Started With Bookbinding (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  
  The second installment of my column addresses the difficulties for people wanting to start making books, when there aren't many resources around. I provide a few links to get people started, and suggest a simple pamphlet binding to start off with. (Pamphlets and photo by Hannah on ArtFire.)



• Leaf by Leaf: It Starts With the Paper (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  
  This is the third article in my regular weekly column on books and paper. As you probably figured out from the title, it's about paper--how wonderfully inspiring it can be, how easy it is to buy too much just because it's nice, and how to choose paper for a project. (Handmade paper and photograph by paintingpam on ArtFire.)



• Glorious Gemstones Word Find (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  
  This time, the word find was inspired by my rockhounding trip to Scots Bay (which you can read about in the archives. I included all the names of gemstones I could think of, and naturally thought of a whole bunch more really good ones after the puzzle was finished and submitted. I also made a quick little graphic to use with every word find. As you can see, it's not the height of design, but it'll serve its purpose until I can make or find something better.



• Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II Review (About PSP)
  
  Niko tackles flying games. And despite the mediocrity of this game, I think I miht be hooked. Flying is fun! (Alas, no image for this one--I didn't even have screenshots to post with the review.)

I'm also working on some articles for Suite 101, but I'm trying to do a set of related articles and post them together. I really need to get going on that, though, as I'm several weeks behind.

Latest Writing: Groucho, Knockoffs and Words

Here are the things I've published in the last week or so:

• Quotes for Craftspeople: Groucho Marx and His Dog (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  I often have that Marx quote "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend . . ." stuck in my head, and I thought it would be fun to see if I could turn it into an article for Handmade News. It was fun. I think I'll do more Quotes for Craftspeople articles in the future, and maybe even make some of them more serious.




• Wost. PSP Knockoff. Ever. (About PSP)
  
  I found this fantastically awful dollar store toy made to look like a PSP, and of course I had to buy it. I photographed the thing from all angles and made an image gallery / mini review. As terrible as the "Fun Tech Water Toy" was, I had a blast, and am going to keep my eyes open for more PSP knockoffs to review. Anyone seen any they want to send my way?


• Bookbinding Bonanza Word Find (HandmadeNews.org)
  
  I thought it would be fun to try my hand at making a word find, and bookbinding seemed a natural topic to start with. Turns out, it's harder to make a word find than I thought. I could buy software to do all the hard work, of course, and if I do very many of these, I might. In the meantime, though, figuring out how to fit the words together is--I think--more fun than doing the actual puzzle.



• PSP Blue Raspberry Sours and PSP Cherry Sours Review and PSP Sours Novelty Candy Tins Image Gallery (About PSP)
  
  My fascination with things that look like PSPs but are not PSPs may have started with these PSP novelty candy tins I found at Freak Lunchbox. I also have a Nintendo NES controller tin and Nintendo magic Mario mushroon tin made by the same company. What can I say? I like videogames, and I like candy.

My goal, I've decided, is to get two significant pieces of work done each working day, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. "Significant" is subjective, of course. Some items, like small image galleries, might only take an hour to do. Some articles will take four hours or even more. (Anything that takes more than four hours counts as two things, at least). Any time left in between morning and afternoon jobs will get used for things like promo blogging (like this) and tweets, tweaking my online shops or adding product, business emails, and miscellaneous tasks that don't take very long.

So far today, I've accomplished my morning task (the PSP knockoff toy thing, above), and am currently doing the promo blogging stuff. In a few minutes, I'll get myself a cup of tea and a snack (possibly even lunch, though I'm not that hungry yet). Then I think this afternoon's task will be wrangling some tiny book earrings. I was intending to do some more writing--I have a number of articles to knock out for Suite 101 to get caught up--but my desk seems to be located in the warmest part of the house, and the heat is making me sluggish and headachey. Bleah. Plus, I intend to add some "what I did on the weekend" stuff to this blog later today, so I need a break from the computer.

Oh, Wait . . .

In all my blathering the other day about the terrible state of my finances and the fact that I might not get the Handmade News job after all (oh, poor me), I completely forgot: my editor at Handmade News (or the woman who will be my editor) is in New Zealand. This means me being in Canada shouldn't be any sort of problem at all. I just have to get the right bits of paper to fill out. Yay!

And today's mail brought my paycheque from About PSP, which means I can pay a few bills and things without having to get out the old VISA. The coolest thing about said paycheque is that, because About, Inc. is owned by the New York Times Company, the envelope is New York Times letterhead. So it looks like I write for the NYTimes, which is pretty darn cool.

And also in today's mail, I got the last part of my print order from deviantART. A while back they had a sale where members could order prints of their own stuff for the same price as Premium Print Account members do, which is more-or-less at cost. I was curious to see what the quality was, so I could decide if I want to offer prints of my stuff through dA. They ship different items separately, even though they only charge a single shipping fee, so I've been getting bits and pieces of my order every week or so. The two images I chose are my two digital illustration pieces (the only ones I had enabled as prints at the time).


I ordered postcards, small magnets and a small print of each one. The magnets arrived first, closely followed by the postcards. Then the 8 x 10 photoprint of "After Hokusai" (above). I couldn't get anything much larger, because the resolution of the original isn't high enough.


For "Orpheus and Eurydice" (above), I ordered an art print, matte on paper. It's 12 x 18 inches, which I think is the smallest I could get. That's the one that arrived today, and it looks fantastic. Woo hoo! I have to say, though, my very favourites of the things I ordered are the magnets. Now I have fridge magnets of my art! Just like I was a famous dead person whose work is cannibalized to raise money for art museums. Okay, it's nothing like that, but they are really, really cool. At some point, I'll order copies of the things I've since enabled as prints, to make sure they look good, too, but first I have to sell some stuff.

Oh, and on selling, the buyer for the last book I sold paid after I sent the invoice, so SteamBook 04 is on its way to Norway! I think I might get a world map and stick pins in it for eveywhere I've sold stuff. Or maybe I'll make a virtual one on my website, whenever I eventually get my website together. It would be cool if I could have one where you could click or mouseover a pin and an image of the item sold popped up. Yes, that would be cool. I wonder how I could make such a thing?

Links for prints: "After Hokusai: 37th View of Mt Fuji" here
"Orpheus and Eurydice, After Dulac" here

Pretty Things

I've just added a new piece of book jewelry to my Etsy shop. I really like this one, and considered keeping it for myself. But I figured I could always make another one.


In not so good news, I discovered this morning that National Student Loans took a $400 payment out of my account that they told me they weren't going to take. I'm supposed to be applying for some new repayment program that doesn't start till this month. Since my repayment started in July, I was told they'd suspend my payments until I could apply for the new thing. But when I talked to CIBC student loans, they informed me I should still have been directed to apply for interest relief for July. So I ended up having to make the July payment on my CIBC loans, too. That's about $600 in payments I had to make because of some telephone lackey's bad information. At least I knew the CIBC payments were going to happen. The other one was a surprise, and one I really couldn't afford. Hence the applying for repayment assistance. I'd really like nothing better than to pay off those loans, but it's not going to happen until I get some more work. Sigh. So I guess my credit cards get wracked up this month. Again.

In better news, though, I applied for a freelance writing gig with Handmade News, a website that does crafting news and articles. I didn't hear anything for ages, and ended up submitting a guest article (unpaid) because I happened to have one already written. Anyway, I just got the contract to sign yesterday! Problem is, all the tax forms are for the States. That's not been a problem for my About.com contract, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem here. I'm kind of worried that it *will* be a problem though. I'd really hate to find out I can't have the job after all. Even if I didn't need the added income, it would suck to lose out on this. I was so excited when I found out I got it yesterday. Keeping my fingers crossed (figuratively), even though it won't do any good.

Updating and All That

Man, I really need to get my ass in gear. About the only thing I've been keeping up with is my deviantArt page. And Facebook. Evil, evil Facebook.

I ran across the very spiffy blog of an old friend (and ex-boyfriend) Tim Rast, and it looks like he's doing really well. I started making books around the same time as he started flintknapping, and his business is so far ahead of mine it's . . . um, I don't want to say "it's not even funny" but I can't think of a better phrase at the moment. I really need to do some real writing. I'm out of practice. Anyway, he always was way more focused than me. I've often wondered where I'd be now if I weren't so easily distracted. But whatever. Go look at his blog and be amazed. Fine work, that.

And it occurs to me that I really haven't been keeping those of my friends and family that still happen by here very up to date, and the whole purpose of this blog was to let everyone (mostly those of you far far away) know what I was up to. That and make a public record of my writing and art so I'd be shamed into working hard. I'm not sure that's worked.

That said, here are some updates, starting from now and working backwards. More or less.

Okay, actually starting from the future, because the first thing I'm going to write about is tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm off to work in the studio of my former teacher and mentor, Joe Landry. I've been helping out off and on for a big government project called "Democracy 250" which is a celebration of 250 years of democracy in Nova Scotia. To commemorate the event, they put together a big volume of reproductions of documents relating to the history of democracy in the province. And I do mean big. If I remember, I'll write down the dimensions tomorrow, but it's something in the range of 12 inches by 18 inches. Maybe? I'm not very good at estimating measurements. And about an inch and a half thick or thereabouts. So big. And heavy.

I'm not sure who did the compiling and note-making and design and all that for the book, but the 12 copies (plus one extra "proof" copy) were all printed by Image House using special water-based inkjet inks. The scanning is top-notch and the printing looks fantastic. Okay, it would look better if it was letterpress, but I'm a little biased. Inkjet printing always has that slight fuzziness around the edges where the ink seeps into the paper. I think the technical term is "dot gain" but I could be confusing my jargon. Anyway.

The paper was handmade by Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montreal. It's based on their Old Masters line (one of my favorite lightweight papers for both intaglio and letterpress), but it was actually made especially for this project, because the paper needed to be a little more opaque than their usual.

Once the printing was done, the sheets came to us. We had to fold and collate (actually, I missed out on most of that since at the time I was madly trying to finish Dawson Printshop jobs before they shut us down). Then we had to trim them to size, which only meant slicing off a little from three sides on the board cutter. Then collating again, because we were paranoid about something being out of order, which happened in the proof copy due to a printer error. Then I spent a rather long time poking the sewing holes. Then sewing.

I'm afraid I'm getting a little tedious here, and I wasn't even going to go into this much detail. But it's too late now.

Because the books were so large, we had to sew them on a sewing frame. It's just too hard to handle big books with six million tapes (actually, I think there were maybe seven tapes) without the support of a frame. I ended up doing almost all of the sewing, but I got to use Joe's conservation frame, which is designed to make it a whole lot easier to get your arm around the uprights and the text block than a conventional frame, which hasn't changed much since Victorian times. If I were any good at woodworking, I'd make up plans and build my own. It's not a complicated design. Alas, I make books, not tools. If I could make it out of eska board, it would be no problem.

After the sewing, Joe rounded and backed them all and began lining the spines. Joe did all the rounding and backing because he can do it at lightspeed. It would probably have taken me as long to do one as it took him to do six. Or more. After that, Chris (Dunnett) and I sewed the endbands. We used a three-colour pattern, which requires one to have three hands. Or so it seems. Luckily, endbands is something I'm actually pretty good at, so I managed with just the two hands I've got.

After that, Joe glued on the false bands and I cut and sanded them into a nice curve. Then I disappeared into some other work for a while and Chris stained the leather. Joe did the paring--each book took a whole calfskin, and each calfskin costs several hundred dollars. While my paring skills have improved considerably, there's no way I was going to put a knife to those skins.

Again, I was off doing something else when the books were covered and sprinkled. The binding style is Cambridge Panel Binding (click on that and you'll see a photo--the different tones in the leather are achieved by sprinkling more or less or no dye on different parts of the book). Today, Joe was planning to finish up the gold tooling.

Which is a really long-winded way of coming around to what I'm doing tomorrow. I'll be lining the insides of the boards with thin card to fill in the area not covered by the turn-ins of the cover leather. That way, you won't see the usual ridge when the endpapers are put down. Once the boards are all lined, then we'll put down the endpapers. After that, we've got to finish the boxes, as each very expensive book is being housed in its own protective box. The boxes are all done, but they need to be built up inside to custom-fit each book and lined with soft felt. Then they need to dry. I think the goal is to get the bulk of the work done by the end of Friday, so things can dry over the weekend. Then they'll take the books away Monday. Then we can get paid. Which, since the Dawson Printshop is closed and I'm out a job, is a very welcome thing indeed.

Because, of course, this is the month the car insurance is due. And the month I'm supposed to start repaying my student loans (if I believed in god, I'd be thanking him for interest relief right now). Also, there's next month's car payment, and the house insurance (or, rather, the tenant's insurace), credit card bills, etc etc etc. So getting paid is good.

But now I've gone on much longer that I intended and I didn't even include any pictures. So I'll stop now. But I think I'll immediately post again with some images of new work.

The State of the Dawson Printshop

Er, yes, it's been a while since I blogged. I had such good intentions of keeping up with it and all that. My plan, you see, was to start an almost-daily blog post about the goings-on at the Dawson Printshop. But then they shut us down. While I wasn't precisely depressed, I felt I needed to be away for a bit. So I spent some time working at home and with my book arts teacher Joe at his studio. But Thursday I went back to the shop to finish up a few things. And I was back again yesterday. I feel better now.

So the Dawson Printshop has "suspended operations." NSCAD is in debt for various reasons (the new Port Campus is apparently only one of several reasons). NSCAD seems to be really, really in debt, and taking cost-cutting measures all over the place. The Seeds student gallery was scrutinized, but apparently came close enough to breaking even on a regular basis that it was spared. The heat was turned off early (it's *still* freezing in the shop). The Dawson Printshop was given The Eye. Instructors and students and friends from the community rallied and wrote letters to the President of NSCAD. Vince, the co-manager who was still around (Carley having returned to BC at the end of her contract), prepared a projection that showed how we had steadily been increasing the amount of money coming in and would probably continue to do so in the months to come. In a bad economic climate we were getting pretty close to breaking even for the month, and we hadn't even been open a full year. We did our best and we did remarkably well selling an expensive luxury product (because digital reproduction is way cheaper than letterpress). In the end, the Powers That Be at NSCAD decided to "suspend operations."

There was talk of finding sponsors for us. There was talk of maybe opening again in a year (and starting all over from nothing as our clients would have moved on to other options, and our word-of-mouth promotion would have stopped spreading). A group of instructors got together and discussed. Even if the shop were never to re-open as a commercial concern, there really, really needs to be a technician in the shop, they concluded. If classes--letterpress, book arts, printmaking and design included--are to keep using the space, the equipment, the type, someone needs to be around to oversee things, to clean up, to help students. At least part time. So said instructors sent a recommendation to the school that this should be so.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed (metaphorically, of course). Vince has gone home to Ontario, but I think he's keeping his fingers crossed too, and so is Carley. So are a lot of people. Obviously I want there to be a technician because I want the job, but it's also because I love the Dawson Printshop. It's one of the main reasons I chose to stay on in Halifax (the other, of course, is a certain cute boy). I'm hoping that someone with the power to actually do something about it will realize the need for a technician and actually decided to hire one. I'm hoping that will be me. But even if it's not, at least the Shop will have someone there.

In the meantime, I'm loitering around, finishing up a few last things, like a couple of greeting card orders from local retailers. And I'll be taking on a few jobs myself. If I have to, I'll pay studio fees to the school. Otherwise, I'll just spend some time putting away (other people's) type, organizing, cleaning the presses and the space, and generally keeping things from descending into the chaos it could so easily become.

The Daswon Printshop is dead. Long live the Dawson Printshop.

What I've Been Working On

It's an edition of 25, hand-set wood type from the Dawson collection, hand-cut lino, printed on a Vandercook Universal I proof press. Get yours from the Dawson Printshop (and, yes, we will mail it). Oh, and it's 15 x 22 inches, on mould-made St Armand paper with 2 deckle edges.

One More

Yesterday I polished off Introduction to Bookbinding and decided that while it's a reasonable book in its descriptions of how bookbinding is done, it's not really one I could recommend to someone wanting to actually try bookbinding for the first time. Not nearly enough diagrams, for one thing. You kind of already have to know what the guy is talking about in order for it to make sense. Anyway, some interesting differences between what he says and what I learned.

In addition to books, I tend to accumulate unread magazines, which I've also been working to catch up on lately. I'm totally up to date on Fine Books & Collections and the CBBAG newsletter, though I still haven't read the CBBAG journal (first issue!) yet. I'm working on the latest Wired (which I subscribed to a couple of months ago), but haven't cracked the latest Mac World yet (boy got a free short subscription when he bought his iMac). At least I'm not behind on it yet. I have an issue or two of Skeptic, which is a thick tome and tends to get left till last. And then there's a year's worth of Scientific American from when I had a subscription (2006, maybe?). I just got a couple of back issues of Biblio on eBay that I'll start soon, though I'm trying to decide if I should grab a couple full years worth from another seller, even though it means I'll end up with doubles of about six issues (it would also mean having all 3 years worth of the magazine). I have to decide on that soon, as the auction ends late tonight. And finally (maybe--there may also be unread magazines lurking about in here that I'll find as I organize) I have two and and half issues of Book Collector to get through. It's only quarterly, but it's a thick, text-heavy journal that takes me a while to plough through. Even though I could never afford to actually collect most of the books they cover, there is all sorts of useful information for bookbinders and scholars-or-books in there. They used to have actual bookbinding articles, but I don't think they do that much anymore. It makes it worthwhile to look for back issues on ABE, though.

So anyway, aside from reading, I've basically been taking it easy this summer. Probably drinking a bit too much cider, but at least I've been getting lots of sun and bicycle exercise. Today has gone and got a bit overcast, and last week I had to take the bus once due to rain--I'm hoping the sun comes back so I can avoid the bus to work and ride my bike for the rest of the summer.

Work is good. I'm working on a series of "wanted" posters for famous figures in book and print history. Of course I started with William Morris. I did some proofing on Thursday and stuck one of the early proofs up on the shop wall. Apparently, two people asked about buying it, and one was serious enough that she left her card and wants us to post her one when they're done. I hope she's not disappointed that the final poster isn't the same brown ink on off-white laid paper as the proof. Instead it'll be red text and black image on a sort of soft grey almost-handmade St Armand paper. I'll get started on the final printing on Wednesday.

In other news, the boy and I are contemplating a road-trip to the States near the end of the summer. I really need to get to BC to visit everyone there and sort out my stuff that's in storage, but as it turns out, Bill hasn't been to visit his people in longer than it's been since I've visted mine. Plus his best friend will be visiting his family in the same area around the same time and he lives in Japan, so this could be the only time in a long while that Bill would be able to see him. My only hesitation is the cost. Though we will have people to stay with.

The idea is to rent a car here and drive down through New York State, hang out in Brooklyn for a few days (the boy has grandparents and other relatives there), then proceed to Pennsylvania for a bit, where we'd meet up with Scott-the-friend-from-Japan and his wife and kids, and also with boy's dad and littlest sister. Then we'd load up the car with a nice rug and some old type (boy's dad deals in antiques) and head back in time for school. The fall break or the winter holidays, then, would be visiting BC time.

First, though, I have a digital camera to finish paying off.

Bird's-Eye View

Some of you may have seen this already, if you check out my Facebook profile:


It's the big room shared by the Dawson Printshop, where I work, and the NSCAD Design Printshop. Taken with my cellphone camera. From the top of a very tall ladder. That white wall you can see just to the right is no longer white, it's grey. I painted it.

You can just see our replica common press at the top of the photo. It was used to print the replica of the first newspaper ever printed in Canada. It's not that different from what Gutenberg would have used.