Sleepy Dragonfly

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)

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

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)

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 . . .

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

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

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

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

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

A Leisurely Sunday Bike Ride And A Snack of Feral Apples

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

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 . . .

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

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)

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

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

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

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?

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

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.