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7 days ago
7 days ago
5 min
Bookbinding
Mostly in Japanese bookbinding we have four sewing stations (holes), but it is possible and popular to have more.
I made a five-hole book which, in Japanese, is called 五つ目綴じ (itsutsu-me-toji). The itsutsu (五つ) means five, me (目) means hole, and toji means binding or stitching.
Two things about Japanese bookbinding: 1. The thread might go through a sewing station three times, so make the hole large enough to accommodate that. 2. Keep the thread tight. A loose thread looks really bad on a Japanese binding.
I chose a Japanese binding for this book because the action takes place in a Japanese city; Kanazawa, as a matter of fact. A famous author dies and comes to Kanazawa to learn about life. Very much character driven. It’s called The Dead of Winter; a Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife.
Fiction
I’ve been slack in the fiction writing side of my life. I’m working on three books, slowly. 1. The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver,
2. Dmitry the Scavenger,
3. The Barcelona Bank Fraud Case.
The first is a character-driven story of a woman who lives about 200 years. The second is about a Russian scavenger who wants to go to Sicily to avoid life in Russia. The third is a Marsh Mystery starring Joe and Carmen, private investigators in Spain.
Talkies / Flicks
TDGB 92: 五つ目綴じ is about book I mentioned in the Bookbinding section of this blog. At 9:40, it’s short enough to watch during your morning coffee. Isn’t it?
I tell you in more detail what I’m doing to make a washi cover for a book; make it thicker and less flexible in order to carry the book.
Books
If you like audio books, I have one on Apple Books called The Merchant of Venus. The subtitle is: When females are made to order, Marshall is an artist.
In reality, in the book, females are made with a combination of herbs, spices, and male body parts; usually fingers. Marshall, the main character, ends up with only seven fingers. He falls in love too easily sometimes.
Apple 
Barnes & Noble 
Kobo Jul 5, 2026
Jul 5, 2026
8 min
Bookbinding
This week I made another coptic-bound, B6, 100-ish-page notebook. The right page has lines for writing while the left page is blank for drawings, doodles, and shading exercises.
As you can see, the cover is both purplish-grey and red book cloth with the purplish-grey the same book cloth as my June 5th notebook.
The point of this notebook, like the other previous similar notebook, is to encourage me to do three things:
• practice drawing (which my fifth grade teacher told my parents I was bad at and just drew the same thing over and over, which she didn’t realize was practice),
• practice cursive (which I know I’m bad at which is why I’m practicing it), and
• plot out both daily schedules and long term plans. So far, so good.
A
nd to practice making B6 coptic-bound notebooks; a good investment for someone who claims to be a bookbinder; not me, though, I don’t claim to be a bookbinder except in front of people who don’t know what a bookbinder is or does. i.e. many people.
In my opinion, June 5 is the better notebook as the stitching is tighter than June 22. But June 22’s stitching is much better than previous attempts in the past few years, so, yeah!
Fiction
This blog and my YouTube channel are inspiring me to be more productive. Before I can show you what I’ve done in bookbinding, I have to have done some bookbinding. Similarly, in order to tell you what I’ve written, I have to have written something.
On my desk, I have three books in progress even if you don’t count Caraculiambo which has been in progress for a mere ten years. The three works in progress are:
• Dmitry the Scavenger
• The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery
• The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver
The first two are basically action-driven novels. Dmitry is longer-form and deals with social issues both in Russia and Japan. Madrid is a shorter one, coming in at maybe 60 pages. The last one, Agnes Grout, started maybe seven years ago, is longer and more character-driven. Agnes is progressing nicely; much research is required, though, as it takes place in the US over a period of 200 years.
Talkies / Flicks
TDGB 91 The June 22 Notebook is up for your viewing pleasure. The narration is not necessarily connected to the visual; it’s more about Why create rather than How to create.
Plus this week’s narration is more off-the-cuff than seriously related to the visuals. I hope you enjoy it.
In the not-too-distant future, I will, hopefully, put up an audio book on YouTube of The Dead of Winter: A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife.
Books
I have several novels up for your reading pleasure. Both action-oriented mystery thrillers (Marsh Mysteries) and more character-driven stories such as The Merchant of Venus (both ebook and audio-book) and The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street.
Jun 28, 2026
Jun 28, 2026
5 min
Bookbinding
In bookbinding this week we have, for your visual pleasure, a novel. We have an A6-size, about 60-page, case bound edition of The Dead of Winter: A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. Printed, folded, sewed, and cased in fairly quickly (for me) in a day or two. Most of the time was attempting to align the title on the cover and spine. Properly. I think I succeeded in that endeavor.
Case bound in red book cloth with the titles in black and photographed in front of a coffee shop.
Fiction
In fiction, I’ll talk about the book bound in Bookbinding: The Dead of Winter.
The premise: The Novelist, a famous unnamed novelist, dies and moves to Kanazawa where he’s tutored by Judy, the female owner of a coffee shop, on how to write about females. The Dead of Winter is a very character-driven plot with most of the action in a coffee shop near Kenrokuen, a famous and massive garden here in Kanazawa.
Judy tells The Novelist he doesn’t write female characters very well. Judy’s vivid, vibrant personality sits in juxtaposition to The Novelist’s female characters, which Judy calls ‘cardboard characters with boobs’.
It turns out this version, which I gave to a reader, is the first draft. After giving it to the interested person, I re-read it and found several – I mean Several – things I wanted to change. Not merely typos but entire scenes that neither moved the plot nor developed the characters. These were cut. Some were replaced but others were ignored entirely. But this is what writers should do: re-write. This resulted in the second draft.
I started recording an audio version. As I read I found awkward, illogical leaps, and confusing wordage. I changed them, rearranged them, or rewrote them. I found longwinded passages that were reduced in scope but increased in effectiveness. Again, this is what writers should do. This, then, resulted in the third draft.
Talkies / Flicks
You can watch the creation of The Dead of Winter on my YouTube channel if you’d like. It’s 9:40-ish and includes some talk about writing fiction.
Missing from this visual documentation is the time spent aligning titles on the front cover and spine as that would require too much time and is basically me sitting at my computer and slapping my printer when it fails to function properly, which is often.
I’m hoping in the future to have an audio book of The Dead of Winter. Watch this space.
Books
I have several books from sale on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo which you might like. For starters you can choose:
• The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street
• The Merchant of Venus (ebook & audio)
• The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery
The audio book of The Merchant of Venus is only available on Apple Books. Take a listen to the sample.
Jun 26, 2026
Jun 26, 2026
4 min
Bookbinding
I made a B6-size, Coptic-bound, mostly blank, 120-page, seven-signature notebook for my visual pleasure. Meaning, I made this notebook for myself to use as a notebook, a depository for my doodles, ideas, plans, and to expand my horizons.
One horizon I wish to improve on is cursive writing. People my age were taught cursive in school, maybe elementary school. This has fallen by the wayside in the last 50 years. I want to improve mine.
Plus, I want to practice drawing; mostly people but also landscapes, cityscapes (i.e. a building), and something from my imagination. I realize this will take time. Years. I’m not impatient. Anymore.
To distinguish between the front and back of the book, I added a strip of leftover red book cloth from previous books (i.e.. The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street and Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery)
Fiction
The fiction today leans mostly toward The Dead of Winter A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. I saw the main female character, Judy, in a different light. Rather than be a café shop owner, she is now a more philosophical image; one that the main male character will learn from.
Fortunately, the novel is only 20 pages long so I can go back and fix Judy easily. Hopefully, this will propel me further into the development of both characters and spur me into finishing the novel quickly. Or quicker than before.
Dmitry the Scavenger has been placed on the back burner for a moment but it has an advantage. While The Dead of Winter is character-driven, Dmitry is plot and action driven. This makes Dmitry a little bit easier to write.
Talkies / Flicks / Movies / Videos
Race on over to my YouTube channel to see the latest upload for your audio, visual, and educational pleasure. I think you can learn a little bit about coptic binding. If you’ve never seen it before. Or have never folded a piece of paper. Plus nice music!
Books
First, The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery is available on Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble if you enjoy what used to be called hard-boiled detective novels. This one is less hard-boiled and more aware of his surroundings. body text about books goes here.
It is part of my Marsh Mystery series. Carmen and Joe live in Madrid with her brother. One of his employees kills someone. And with her brother’s pistol. These leads to more complications than in the US.
Joe and Carmen investigate why the employee kill the person and discover something odd.
Second, years ago I published a novella called The Merchant of Venus. (Available on Apple Books.) However, I’m here to tell you that an audio book version is also available on Apple Books.
The Merchant of Venus takes place in another universe; one where females are born as an adult from a body part of a male. The people who make females require a man’s body part, some herbs, and time.
The Merchant of Venus: In a World where Men make Women and the Woman has a set Life Limit, Marshall is an Artist.
The audio version on Apple Books was recorded using AI. This is a requirement of Apple Books.
You can listen to a free sample before deciding to purchase it or not; please check it out and tell me what you think of the AI voice.
Jun 14, 2026
Jun 14, 2026
4 min
Bookbinding
In bookbinding this week we have, an A6-sized, 45-ish page mystery novel completed for a friend who also corrected my Spanish as the mystery takes place in Madrid.
This is the second time I made the same book because I totally screwed up the first one; cover was wonky, endpapers didn’t set straight, signatures were loose. I didn’t like it so I remade it.
The first version was B6 in size. This one is better at A6 because at the larger size, there were too few signatures for a case-bound book. At A6, the number of signatures was just right. Also, to indicate which was the front, I added a triangle of red (which was a scrap left over from another book).
Fiction
I’m working on two pieces of fiction this week. The first one, Dmitry the Scavenger, is progressing nicely with Dmitry in Odessa having evaded or bribed his way past both Russian and Ukranian military guards. It is more action-plot oriented with, of course, strong characterization of the people involved.
After Odessa I have to get him to Japan by ship. It’s about a 40-day trip and I don’t feel like recreating a sea voyage ala Joseph Conrad. Perhaps he can be drugged? For 40 days? Ah, yes, a connection with a Mideast religious leader who disappeared for 40 days and 40 nights. Or a flood. Hmm.
The second is about a famous author who dies but refuses to leave Kanazawa. He befriends a café owner and they hash out life’s little problems, including his writing about women. This one is titled The Dead of Winter with the subtitle of A Novel of a Kanazawa Afterlife. Maybe I should change it to: A Kanazawa Afterlife? or A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife? (without the question marks.)
This is definitely character driven. The café owner is a very strong and opinionated woman in her early 20s and the polar opposite of the male author’s descriptions of female characters in his books.
Talkies / Flicks
For your audio and visual pleasure, you have an ten-minute flick about the making of the second edition of The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery just discussed in your Bookbinding section.
Also, other videos pertaining to bookbinding are up on my YouTube channel. Please enjoy.
Books
Available for your reading pleasure (and some Spanish lessons included) is The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery. This is book 3 of the Marsh Mysteries.
Joe and Carmen investigate another murder. Carmen’s brother, Símon. runs a successful and expensive restaurant. One of his employees is accused of killing her husband. Her defense: he was abusive.
Because Símon’s pistol was used in the killing, he is under investigation, too.
What Carmen and Joe discover saves Símon but his restaurant is tainted; customers dry up. They also throw the police’s case against the employee into a complete freefall. Is she innocent, though?
The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery is available at these fine online locations.
Jun 6, 2026
Jun 6, 2026
4 min
Bookbinding
I made the spine different from the front and back covers. Before last week, it had been about five years or more since I did a quarter binding. For some reason, it was quite stressful.The front cover also has the title. Adjusting the printer, book cloth, and position was an added stress, so the entire book seemed to be a stress-festival. But I accomplished it and felt good about that (finishing it, not the stress).
Fiction
In fiction, The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery continues to be available for your (short) reading pleasure. It comes in at about 60 pages and is full of suspense, conspiracy, and redemption (plus, spoiler alert: some domestic, physical, and fatal violence).
Having finished and published The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery, (available here), I’ve been writing on Dmitry the Scavenger. Avoiding, bribing, and using his charm, he dealt with soldiers on both sides of the war and has arrived in Odessa. He must now seek his ‘friend’ who will arrange a ship to take him to Sicily. He wants to go to a town on the southeast coast of Sicily called Noto, famous for its baroque architecture and wine. Dmitry wants to work in the wine industry, perhaps starting his own brand (?)
Talkies / Flicks
This week we have the partial making of 
the book I mentioned in the Bookbinding section of this blog. It is only partial because, as in last week’s video, I was more nervous and stressed out about making sure the book was cased in properly than filming it.
There’s a full narration about what I’m doing and sometimes why I’m doing it for your listening pleasure. I try to explain the stress of getting the title on the cover. I used about six pages of computer paper adjusting and testing fonts. Fortunately, the printer didn’t eat the book cloth when it printed it out.
Books
The newest of my novels available for purchase at Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo is The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery.
Domestic violence is met with violence, a conspiracy, and escape.
Joe and Carmen Marsh set out to defend one of Carmen’s brother’s employees who is accused of murder. Her defense? Her husband was a domestic abuser, hitting her often, and drinking too much. What Joe and Carmen discover shakes everyone’s lives.
May 30, 2026
May 30, 2026
4 min
Bookbinding
Kanazawa has two rivers. The Saigawa and the Asano-gawa (gawa meaning river). Next to the Saigawa near the Sakura Bridge is a restaurant serving good French-fusion food and wine, whiskey, and beer. It is called Frérot.
I fashioned a book for Frérot called Frérot. It is about 120 pages, 7 signatures, and case bound. The right page is lined (faintly) while the left side on alternating pages has small photos of the food found at Frérot.
It was the first time in a very long time that I made a book with the spine different from the front and back covers (which are the same). It took me awhile to balance everything out.
Fiction
I’ve been working on The Madrid Marital Murder Mystery because I’ve a self-imposed deadline: sometime in June. I want to finish it, fashion it into a B6-size book, and give it to a beta reader sometime in June.
I finished it! And it’s no longer B6 but A6 because at A6 it’s 90 pages and 5 signatures of 5 folios each. At B6 it was 60 pages of 3 signatures; and I didn’t do well in making the B6 version, so I made the A6 version and will deliver it to a customer next week! Let’s hear it for the panic of deadlines.
A man is killed. (In the book, not in my life. So far. Fingers crossed.) He’s known to be physically abusive to his wife. The wife is arrested and her lawyer proposes a domestic violence defense. However, Joe and Carmen Marsh discover the wife has also beaten her husband. They also find out something odd in the coroner’s autopsy report. Who was killed? Who killed him? Joe and Carmen want to find out because her brother’s revolver was used in the murder. He’s in legal trouble; a problem that could destroy his business.
Talkies / Flicks
This week I have a silent – as in me not speaking; there is music – video of the creation of a B6-size, 120ish page, notebook with lines on the right page, photos of food on the left page, and covered in book cloth (not a collage). Yes, it’s the book I made in the Bookbinding section of this podcast.
It can be seen here: What is Frérot?
First, I must apologize. I didn’t film the entire construction. I was more worried about casing in the textblock correctly than making sure I filmed it. So, the winner was a proper casing in rather than a viral video. You can still enjoy the music, though.
Books
Still pushing The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street. Please check out one of these fine distributors of digital books to learn how Rie and Nagi spent a night together without being sexually or physically abusive.
May 23, 2026
May 23, 2026
8 min
Bookbinding 
In bookbinding this week we have, for your visual pleasure, a book One Year in the making.
Solaris Libri. This is, I’m assuming, Latin for Solar Book. (If Google translate is accurate with dead languages.)
It is an A6 blank notebook of five signatures of five folios each for a total of 100 pages. The only printing in the entire book is the title pages: Solaris Libri and under that Exposed April 1, 2025; Re-covered April 30, 2026. It has a built-in bookmark that is a silvery yellow as is the cover, of course, to reflect its connection to the sun.
I made it and then taped book board bits to the front and back covers. Then I taped it to my studio window for a year allowing the sun to do its job of fading the uncovered book cloth while keeping the book cloth under the book board bits their original color.
After a year of staring at the sun, I was surprised how little it changed. The band of original book cloth yellow on the back didn’t look too bad. It changed, but not by that much.
Fiction
I’ve been working on two novels. One is quick and short. One is longer and more involved. The first one is The Madrid Marital Murder Mystery. It’s a detective story of a married couple investigating murders in Spain. So far. They might move soon. He’s an American, she’s Spanish.
The second one is Dmitry the Scavenger about a man who finds things when no one is looking and sells them to whoever wants them. His dream is to move to Sicily where it’s warmer and more
relaxing than Moscow.
If you listen to the Tedorigawa Podcast you can hear the first chapter of The Madrid Marital Murder Mystery.
And, yes, I’m still experimenting with cover designs for both books.
Talkies / Flicks / Videos
We have no new flicks to push today, but a brand new one is in the editing stage but it’s just not ready yet.
You can, of course, check out dozens or more of my other videos at Tedorigawa Bookmakers.
Books
Rie, the 36-year-old electrical engineer, and Nagi, the about 80-yer-old retired high school kokugo teacher, randomly met in January and develop their friendship over the course of a year.
Other people involved are Harumi, Rie’s free-spirited co-worker who wants to marry someone and can materialize wherever she wants anytime she wants.
Tadao is also Nagi’s former student and dated Rie. He’s a manga artist who owns a bar where he does his drawing and writing. His mother, Junko, owns the bar where Rie and Nagi often meet. His manga is about the strangers he meets at his bar.
Available at:
May 17, 2026
May 17, 2026
7 min
Bookbinding
In bookbinding this week we have, for your visual pleasure, the second barf bag book of the month titled: Sumerian Beat Box Tunes (for those who are without sin).
It is seven signatures of four folios each for a total of 112 pages. The right page is lined, the left page is blank. It is B6 in size and link stitched and cased in.
However, unlike most cased in books, this one does not have mull or the paper spine piece. This looks like a regular codex book but opens much nicer and flatter.
The cover includes instructions about how to use 
internet on the plane, my boarding pass with flight number and seat number. Plus, a small photo of the hotel I stayed at. The back has just the vomit bag.
Please note that the interior of the upchuck bag is waterproof so adhering glue to it was not difficult but not as easy as gluing paper.
The book also has black endpapers with a pattern that mirrors the pattern of the 
Waterproof Disposable Bag which for some reason has an International and a Domestic side the only difference being the wifi connection. I suppose if you need to use it as a ‘motion sickness’ bag it doesn’t matter where you’re from.
Fiction
In fiction we have two works in progress. Well, actually more but two this week. (The perennial Caraculiambro is still on hold but not forgotten.)
First, we have Dmitry the Scavenger rolling along quite nicely. He has crossed the Russian and Ukranian borders and veering towards Odessa on his journey to Sicily, or so he thinks.
Naturally, I’m looking for a better cover.
Second, we have The Madrid Marital Murder Mystery, a Marsh Mystery (the third). Carmen and Joe have questions about Rebeso’s neighbor and why Rebeso ran to Símon’s house. Plus, they’ve both been attacked, Carmen seriously. Will she survive?
Talkies / Flicks
TDGB 85 Sumerian Beatbox Tunes is up on YouTube for your listening and viewing pleasure. It covers the creation of the book mentioned in the Bookbinding section of this blog.
With commentary about why I did what I did. And possibly why that was not the best idea.
Books
The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street.
Rin and Nagi cross paths almost 20 years after Rin graduated from the high school where Nagi tried to teach haiku, tanka, renga, Japanese, and waka.
She’s pushing her company to acknowledge females need more restrooms than males; he’s trying to survive his retirement.
As they meet and talk they discover a connection they never thought they would ever have.
A beta reader commented that they cried at the end because of the depth of Rin and Nagi’s relationship.
Available on:
May 9, 2026
May 9, 2026
7 min
We are often urged to recycle and reuse. I did just that recently on a quick trip to Hanoi that netted me some Vietnamese paper and three barf bags from the flight over. And back.
Here’s a small tip. Red-eye flights are good when you land in the evening, not so good when you land in the morning.
I made one A6, 100-page, blank notebook with one barf bag with the creative title Bee Creative Now and the subtitle of notebook for inspiration. 
The front page as a small bee. The title page has a large Japanese kanji for bee: 蜂.
It was coptic bound for ease of opening and using the entire page. And for me to practice making coptic-bound books; always a plus.
The back cover has my boarding pass without my name over the barf bag. The front cover reuses only the barf bag (not used, fortunately).
Dmitry the Scavenger has stumbled into both a logistics problem and a name change. The novel starts in Chernobyl which I knew as in Ukraine and Dmitry drives his modified rusty camouflaged military truck full of contraband from Chernobyl to Moscow. Problem: crossing borders (Russia and Ukraine) in the middle of a war between those two countries in a MILITARY TRUCK! A Russian Military Truck! I need to find him another way out of Chernobyl or another abandoned village to ransack.
I also abandoned the Japanese word for scavenger as it was too obscure for even people who can read Japanese. You may reuse it as you wish.
Also in the works: A Marsh Mystery #3 The Madrid Marital Murder Case. Joe and Carmen investigate the murder of an abusive husband whose wife works for Carmen’s brother, Símon, a wealthy owner of a popular Madrid restaurant.
TDGB 84 Scavenge & Morph is available for your visual pleasure. It is the making of the A6 blank notebook discussed in the Bookbinding section of this podcast episode. At 6:20 (minutes, not hours) it is not taxing or tiring; it’s Enjoyable!
The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street is eager for your attention, being as it is lonely and on a quiet website (Apple Books is quiet?)
A beta reader came back with the following comments: “Wonderful. Great.” and “I cried at the end.”
Find out what Rin Okabe (former high school student, current electrical engineer) and Nagi Shimeki (retired high school teacher) are doing.
Available almost everywhere (Apple Books, Kobo) except Amazon.