Ep. 324: Growing Slurry: Is It Finished, Yet?

Bookbinding

Yes, I finished Growing Slurry: A Whale of a Love Story. The title is on the spine and there’s a whale on the cover (front, spine, and back). The book is 265 A6-size pages, 17 signatures, with endbands, and a bluish book cloth for a cover.

It took me a while to get the title printed on the spine and then to align the spine part of the book cover on the book boards. Properly. Fortunately, I managed. Practice, I’m told, leads to success.

It takes place over the course of about 12 hours but each character (Sliven, the male; Gina, the female) has flashbacks to the past where their past lives are shown, examined, and explained. 

Throughout the novel, both characters discuss Moby-Dick. In fact, they meet because Sliven is carrying a copy of Moby-Dick; when Gina sees it, she makes the first move, she ignores everything else about Sliven and they strike up a conversation, discussion, romance? – relationship. This relationship deepens with each flashback and what they discover about each other.

Fiction

I’ve started a journal/novel called The Zuihitsu of Mrs Collier. Zuihitsu is a Japanese word that literally means writing from the brush. It is a journal that can include anything the writer wishes to include. The original zuihitsu was The Pillow Book (Makura no Shoshi) by Sei Shonagon who wrote in about the year 1000. She wrote about Heian era court life, the food she ate, the people she met, and lists of things she thought important.

The Zuihitsu of Mrs Collier is similar. There is a bread recipe, observations and comments on recent events, and two fictional stories. When the two stories end, the book ends. 

Video

For your view pleasure there are two videos up about Growing Slurry. One is longer and about the construction of the book and the plot. TDGB 68. The other one is the first two sentences of Growing Slurry. TDGB 67. Enjoy.