Episodes
Saturday Jan 07, 2017
Episode 149: Flexagon
Saturday Jan 07, 2017
Saturday Jan 07, 2017
No pictures today as we - you and I - are stepping outside of the box marked Comfort Zone and trying something different. I speak, you listen, and you attempt to make the flexagon book that I describe. Easy? Not so much. Fun and Challenging? That’s the whole point, eh? Let me know how it goes.
Also, in the future, we might have this same lesson on making a flexagon book in another language. In my case, Japanese. Now, that should be fun.
Next time: The Semi-Tunnel Book, also without pictures. Throw that comfort zone to the wind, my friends.
Saturday Nov 26, 2016
Episode 148: Zine Fest in Osaka
Saturday Nov 26, 2016
Saturday Nov 26, 2016
Last month I took myself off to a Zine Fest in Osaka and learned a bit more about producing a zine. I don't mind making the content, or formatting it for a zine, I really don't like printing it out. There are not a lot of options: Xerox, risograph, off-set printing, silkscreen, woodblock printing or doing everything by hand (esp. drawings).
At the zine fest I learned most people either printed a few copies off their home printer or Xerox it at work or use risograph. Problem with risograph is the minimum is 200 copies which might cost anywhere from ¥25,000 ($250) to ¥40,000 ($400) depending on number of pages and colors.
Since the ZineFest was sponsored by a risograph printing company, I talked a bit with its representative / saleswoman / technician (small company). I thought the template for the printed matter could be used multiple times - nope. Surprisingly, the cost in Osaka is cheaper than the one here in town, a much cheaper city to rent space in. They both had a 200 copy minimum though. Can I sell 195 copies of anything I put together? Hmmm. Good question.
The festival was fun; lots of creators. Easy to see in one day. Many creators speak more than one language. All were willing to explain their work, of course. Plus, it was exciting—invigorating—inspiring to be around people who do what I do; to learn from them; to see how they create or show their work.
Now I'm more likely to finish making ebooks and advertising my bunch of zines collectively title:
The Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly
(Too much curiosity for only nine lives.)
Maybe we'll see more of them here in the future?
Friday Apr 24, 2015
Episode 132: What I Do.
Friday Apr 24, 2015
Friday Apr 24, 2015
My novels tend to be heavy on characterization and light on the plot although one novel (The Venetian Slime Woman) is plot heavy. Another one (Tristram's Printer) is plot light. Both, I believe, are character-driven. Yet a third (The Idiot Runs) has time travel - a character goes back in time. A fourth (Calvado) has time travel of another sort - the tale of the two main characters is told in jump-cut time-slipping fashion (We meet them, then we see them younger, later a bit older, then back in their lives).
The fifth novel (The Priests of Hiroshima) also has time travel. In fact, it has two stories: one in the present (kind of) and one in 1453 Mainz, Germany. It also has nothing to do with the priests who survived the atom destruction of Hiroshima (although one of the main characters is Japanese.).
Bookbinding is my other occupation. I write, edit, print, and bind my novels (and other topics, of course) thus improving my binding skills and having a solid soft- or hard-cover copy of my novel. A nice symbiosis. The problem is when I read the novel I find way too many mistakes which means I go back to the computer to fix (hopefully) most of them, reprint and then Yes! I have another book to bind. Currently I have about six novels waiting for my bookbinding persona to show up and work on them.
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Episode 130: Jealousy and the San Francisco Center for the Book
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Regardless of my jealousy and frustration, I am making a book about soup. It is not merely a history of soup but includes characters such as Bishop Ussher, Hunt & Tony Sales (musical sons of Soupy), the last soups of famous people before they died (Julia Child had French onion), Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers, and soups in movies (Tom Jones comes to mind), and, of course, the Soup Nazi and his first appearance (Sleepless in Seattle.) It will be Japanese stab bound as is the red book in the photo at left.
The pages for the Soup book, titled: Soup: A Seasoned History, have been aged in tea & coffee and burnt around the edges. It is B6 in size and has 55 pages. Profusely illustrated, of course. I'm waiting to find a coffee bag to finish of the covers before I can sew it together. Maybe next year I can learn Japanese stab binding better at SFCB.
Tuesday Nov 05, 2013
Episode 116: Blank Bridge
Tuesday Nov 05, 2013
Tuesday Nov 05, 2013
On the other hand, I've also made two roundback books in the last couple of weeks. Both Frankenstein and Dracula were roundback and Frankenstein had my first attempt at sewing headbands. But the thing that really makes a book a Book in the minds of mere muggles is the cover design. Do I really want to start learning how to design a book cover well? That's definitely a rabbit hole one can fall down.
That said, here are two covers of two of my novels that I have designed. One, Tristram's Printer: A Typographical Love Story, is available from Smashwords.com. It's about art, love, bookbinding, and artists. Calvado: A Deadly Love Story, is being edited for clarity and consistency. It's about love and murder.
But I think the covers, the headbands, the roundback all contribute to a good-looking book that would be easier to sell than even a coptic binding, even if the coptic binding were excellent. The fact that it doesn't 'look' like a book. I, of course, would have to show the buyers the advantages of a coptic binding vs a perfect binding.
Friday Oct 25, 2013
Episode 115: Live Recorded Voices
Friday Oct 25, 2013
Friday Oct 25, 2013
This is not the book I was rounding (this is a blank notebook with rough edges, I believe ~ this is an example of a roundback book). I was attempting to roundback my copy of Frankenstein. This follows last week's attempt at a round back Dracula. The Dracula worked out well. The Frankenstein is still in production. I hope to finish it before Halloween, of course.
If the audio sounds weird, remember I was sitting in a conference room with a text block between my knees and a microphone balanced on a sweater on a chair. But, enjoy nonetheless.
Tuesday Apr 30, 2013
Episode 105: Check's in the Mail
Tuesday Apr 30, 2013
Tuesday Apr 30, 2013
I've been supposedly working on my novel Calvado to get it ready to print, bind, sell on Smashwords, and enjoy. Supposedly. Odd, isn't it, how something can always be found to put the real work off? Today I found yet another timeline error: Person A is supposed to be 17 but she's in the part of the book where she's 27. Or vice versa. It just means more time on the computer adding, subtracting, editing, and enjoying my life. A short excerpt:
"Now, as you gentlemen and ladies can easily observe, I have a naked body on a metal slab behind me. The police, bless their hearts, found him very early this morning, I had the privilege of doing the site analysis at about 3:00 AM so my middle name is Cranky today. Since our patient had absolutely no identification on him what-so-ever, we cannot contact his next of kin. The police then hauled his ass in here. Now, this John Doe is dead. Am I right?"
Twenty-five medical students nodded their heads.
Dr. Henrietta 'Hank' Slovensky shook hers. "No, you morons, John Doe is Not dead. And do you know why he is Not dead? Because you haven't checked to make sure he's dead. You can Not look at a patient from across the room and tell if said patient has croaked or not. For crying out loud, if you saw the chief of staff asleep in his office would you immediately assume he was Dead? My goodness, the hilarious consequence of that error are immense. Okay," Hank surveyed the group searching for the one she knew would faint at the sight of a blade inserted into the dead man's sternum. "You," she pointed at a pale-looking female with her long brown hair smashed under a surgical cap. "Get your over-educated butt over here and tell me what you see."
The long-haired medical student looked around to see if, by hope and chance, the medical examiner meant someone else, someone other than her.
"You!" No, she didn't. The med student shuffled slowly to the cadaver. "What's your name?"
"J...J..Jennifer."
"Well, J, J, Jennifer, educate the rest of us over-achievers what you see on the slab this morning." "Well, ah, er. I see a man." Jennifer said. She glanced at the man's face but couldn't look at him for long.
"Very good. So, we have a John Doe who, as Jennifer has aptly pointed out by examining his genitalia in detail, a man. What else?"
"Hmm, his chest seems to be, uh, damaged."
"Ah, yes," Hank agreed. "The old damaged chest ploy. J, J, Jennifer, honey, if you ever want to get through this autopsy, and by ever I mean sometime in the next, oh, 28 minutes, you're going to have to speed up your examination. Gather round, my little ducklings, gather round. Now, as Jennifer as ascertained, our John Doe has a penis and a crushed chest cavity. What does that indicate? You," Hank pointed at a male student.
"He got hit by something heavy?"
"He did?" Hank questioned.
"I mean, uh, he might have gotten hit by something, like, heavy?"
"Is that a question? Jennifer, was that a question? It sounded like a question. Voice raised at the end of a sentence, like, you know? Clear precise speech, ducklings, clear and precise speech, if you don't mind. As it turns out, our Mr. Doe met the steering wheel of his car." "Excuse me, Dr. Slovensky?"
Hank turned to the questioner: a tall, dark-haired woman with the looks of a fashion model. She held a clipboard to her ample breasts; her hair was tied back in a severe bun. Probably, Hank thought, to suggest studiousness instead of slutishness.
"Yes?" Hank asked.
"I, uh, I think I know this, uh, John Doe."
And thus, we meet the main character: Model/Medical student Calvado who will embark on a model love affair with the John Doe and attempt to learn who he is.Monday Apr 15, 2013
Episode 104: The Width of the World
Monday Apr 15, 2013
Monday Apr 15, 2013
When it comes to putting a book together there are quite a few things that perplex me. The one that constantly perplexes me is the width of the book boards for the front and back covers. I've run across a few formulas and they, of course, all differ.
Formula One: The width of the textblock plus the square of the book minus the thickness of the book board times two. Whew. So, a textblock that is 12 cm wide and a square of the book at 2mm with 2mm-thick book boards would result in: 120 + 2 - 4 = 118.
Formula Two: The textblock - 2mm. In the example above the 120 - 2 = 118. Same answer as above, eh?
Formula Three: The textblock + the square of the book - the hinge. The hinge is either 3.5 times the thickness of the book board or 2 times the thickness of the book board, depending on who you ask. So, in our example:
(Hinge = 3.5 x) 120 + 2 - 7 = 115. Or, (Hinge = 2 x) 120 + 2 - 4 = 118. Hmm. There seems to be a consensus of 118, if you follow the 2 times the board thickness.
Personally, I'm not sure which is best but I always go for the simplest to remember. In this case that would be the textblock - 2 mm. (If the board is 2 mm thick.) I hope if there is a simpler or more accepted formula, someone can teach me but so far I think I'll have to stick with the minus 2 mm for my width measurements.Monday Mar 18, 2013
Episode 102: Cloth for Books
Monday Mar 18, 2013
Monday Mar 18, 2013
I know in Episode 101 I said I was going to talk about how I think I make covers for the books I have sewn and glued together but in the short space between that episode and now I ran across a street fair full of artists, beer salesmen, zakka goodies, and antique dealers selling their wares. Naturally, I had to look at the older women (and, yes, they were all older women) selling cloth.
And I was seduced into buy some. Here are two photos of the bundles of pieces of cloth I was suckered into purchasing. Fortunately for not much cash because the women couldn't guarantee how big the pieces of cloth were. For the most part, I can make A6-sized books with a lot of the cloth and use some of the narrower scraps for the spine in other books.
Now, of course, I'm totally in trouble because now, of course, I have to start backing these bits of cloth with paper to make them all usable for book cloth and then I have to make books that fit. And this after I told myself not to buy anymore book cloth until I have used up all I have now. I never listen to me.
Next week: The Cover (maybe).
Tuesday Mar 12, 2013
Episode 101: What I do?
Tuesday Mar 12, 2013
Tuesday Mar 12, 2013
This episode will be about what I think I do when I make books. A few years ago I started hauling around a bunch of junk that I need to make a book. This included only the essentials like: thread, two curved needles, a triangle, and a beeswax candle. (If the power goes out, I'm good.) I usually always have my keys with me – or they're lost somewhere in plain sight – and my key chain is a small surfboard which works perfectly as a bone folder. I also have a plastic red bone folder just in case I lose my keys. But before sewing the signatures, I need to print them out.
The printing process uses two or three computer programs. First, I slap the text into InDesign. This is where I manipulate the text, add photos, and create superfluous decorations. I export the document as a PDF and open CheapImpostor, which imposes the pages. CheapImpostor makes two files: Odd and Even pages which open in Preview. (All of these programs are on my Mac. If you use Windows, your mileage may vary.)
After Preview opens the odd and even pages, I print them out and, if I put the paper in the printer correctly, they come out in order. I fold the resulting imposed pages into signatures. Then I use my triangle to align the signatures and determine where I want to punch in the holes. I draw a line, and then, using one of the needles, punch the holes in. I used to use an awl and a block of wood to make the holes in the signatures but sitting in a coffee shop pounding holes with an awl is a tad disturbing to the other customers and baristas so I switched to a silent needle.
Then I measure out the thread, wax it with the candle, thread it through the needle and I'm all set to sew the signatures. An eight-signature textblock takes me about 45 minutes. Bigger textblocks take longer, of course. Usually I try to sew it in one sitting but if I can do 20 minutes here and there, it works out, too. After sewing the signatures, I'm reading to glue, add mull, add endpapers, and other finishing touches on the textblock. This I do at home so I end up sometimes with four or five books to be glued at the same time. Once I had seven or eight books waiting to be glued. Good times.
Next week: The Cover