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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

• Creator Spotlight: Moto Hagio
• Creator Spotlight: Kazuo Koike
• Folklore and Mythology as a Source for Anime and Manga
• Laputa, Atlantis and Floating Islands: Ancestors of Ghibli's Castle in the Sky

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.