Ep. 299: I Did It Again

Bookbinding

Not much in the way of bookbinding this week, but I have an excuse: heat and laziness on my part. I did, however, purchase several tenugui that I will eventually turn into book covers. The latest (and second overall) book cloth I made came out very wrinkled. I attempted to iron it flat but I should've ironed it flat Before I added copious amounts of glue and backing (shoji paper, in my case.)

Fiction

Fiction‽ What can I say about fiction? I’ll tell you what I can say about Fiction! Creation and Forgetfulness.

First, the Creation part.

I started writing two novels simultaneously. One is progressing nicely while the other is kind of in the doldrums. The first is called Ferrell Baits Ferrell: The Autobiography of Doro Ferrell; Based on a True Story. It’s about the author who wrote The Fear Trilogy. This author is fictitious so it’s appropriate he has his own autobiography complete with AI-produced portraits (younger and older).

The second, doldrum-bound novel is called The Autobiography of Agnes Grout, Death Weaver. I’ve written about her before (Ep. 297). The reason it’s fallen off the charts is because I need to do more research into 1800s Lowell, Massachusetts factory workers, history, and environs. Not that it takes place in Lowell, MA but because Lowell is easier to research because people post a lot about it on web pages.

Now, the Forgetfulness Part

I’ve written before that I thought I finished a novel (Heart of September, about a high school kid’s tragic adventures in the Congo), but had not. I wrote the last chapter, but not several chapters before the last one. Having written the last chapter, my pen moved on. Going back to print and bound Heart of September, I discovered the missing chapters. And I finished them. (See Ep. 290.)

Well, I did it again. I was editing a novel called Growing Slurry. I got to the Twelfth Chapter and it was going smoothly and as I was about to check the Thirteenth Chapter I made a discovery: it didn’t exist. Nor any subsequent chapters. Again! I hadn’t finished a book I thought I finished! 

It gets worse. It gets worse in two ways.

First worse way, I remember writing a section about the main character of Growing Slurry doing some sleuthing in either Costa Rica or Guatemala. I can’t find it. I searched using the title and the main character and fraud and sleuth but I can’t find it on this or my other computer.

Second worse way, while looking for a chapter I remember writing for Growing Slurry, I found another novel I don’t remember writing. At all. Nada. Zip. And it’s 250 pages! How can I not remember writing a 250-page novel‽ 

First on my agenda, write the missing chapter and finish Growing Slurry. Second on my agenda, edit this new novel I don’t remember writing. Third, continue with Ferrell Baits Ferrell. Fourth, read more about the weaving industry in 18th-19th-century New England.

I’ll keep you posted.

Substack

In this month’s issue of Substack by Tedorigawa, ie me, we have Chapter 19 of Heart of September, in which a pygmy woman who is bought and raped wreaks vengeance upon the sinner, Tip Tipu, the slave trader. There is violence.