Ep. 213: Clamshell Practice

I made three clamshell boxes in the last week.

On the first, the corners were not covered very well at all; a complete botch up on that. I did some quick Google/YouTube research and, on the second one, did a tad better. The first one has a raised cover, is completely red, and taught me a bit about making clamshell boxes. It was made to contain a book I made called Yes! Moat Banana which is a blank notebook with graph paper, pictures of people related to bookbinding or paper making, and is A6 in size (pocketbook).

 

 

I made a very basic and simple mistake doing the corners again on the second clamshell box but, and this is important, I knew what the mistake was so it I could correct it on the next clamshell box I made. It has raised cover and my latest innovation. It has a concave bit on the fore-edge where you can put your forefinger to open it. A useful addition but difficult to cover properly, although I think I did okay. I didn't do okay securing the book cloth with a sufficient amount of glue so it is loose.

It is, however, good practice!

 

 

The third one was a small box for a small accordion book. The corners were covered well, the measurements were precise, and it worked out well. I measured not only the book board but also the paper I used to cover the boards. Rather than leave it to chance, measurements come in hand. I have not finished it; I have not covered the inside of the  box, as you can see.

The book fits in the palm of my hand so the box itself is small. The book itself is an accordion book which opens up from about A8 to A4. It is blank but it is also a prototype to see if I can make an accordion book, which I seem to be able to. Next comes some content! 

Writing

I wrote on four novels this week: Giapan, Botchan's Bartender, Fear Itself, and Fear Zero. Fear Zero is the prequel to the Fear Trilogy. We learn of Matt's incarceration at ten, his life in prison, and how he survives. For Fear Itself, I added about 2,000 words and moved it along with a little more tension, a little more anger. For Botchan's Bartender, I wrote the penultimate and the last chapter. Now I need to go back and fill in the gap from those chapters to the chapters where I stopped writing; should be... easy? And for Giapan, I added two more chapters. The end is definitely nigh.

Finally, available from iBooks is my murder mystery that takes place in a small Oregon coastal town. City of Cocks follows a man accused of murder. His wife and her friend, an alcoholic poet, have to find evidence that he is innocent. 

The Sequel is coming soon. It is called Feeding Vicki's Corpse. It is about a murder/rape in the same town in Oregon. It pits a retired Boston policeman against the financial and political power of a local family. The characters are the same as in City of Cocks except younger. A 40-year-old in the first book is 15 or 20 in this volume. 

City of Cocks by George Stenson

Available on

Apple iBooks