Episode 89: 2013

In Episode 87 I talked about the prototype for my 2013 Diary/Calendar. Well, here is the finished product. Green book cloth with lighter green thin paper underneath so that the year would stand out. It is a handy fit-in-your-pocket A6 (41/2" by 6+") in size, it has a bookmark and six signatures of five sheets each for 120 pages. The first 40 pages are both a yearly and monthly calendar going from January 2013 to April 2014. 2013 and 2014 yearly calendars bookend the monthly calendars. Why April 2014? The school year in Japan starts in April. The final 80-some pages are lined in green ink (to match the cover's greens) with translations in Japanese and English for your educational outlook. Many of the words are nouns:

• monkey = 猿 (saru)
• bamboo = 竹 (take)
• squirrel = 栗鼠 (risu)

some are word play:

• キュウリ (kyuuri - cucumber) = キュリー (kyurii - Marie Curie)
• 剣道 (kendo, the sport) = 県道 (kendo - prefecture road)

and some are phrases that will come in hand for the paranoid traveler:

• I broke my leg. = 足を折った。(ashi (leg) o otta.)
• I'm lost. = 道に迷いました。 (michi (road) ni mayo imashita.)
• Please call a police officer. = 警察官を呼んでください。 (keisatsukan (police officer) o yonde kudasai.)

Everything about this book is what I wanted except for the way I failed to glue down the edges of the numbers. I either didn't get enough glue on the edges or the edges refused to accept it. In either case, the edges have come unglued. And that means, if you were to put this in your pocket, the possibility of tearing the cover at a number is quite high. Starting today, I'm going to rebuild it. And cut the numbers out. I think I need both a steadier hand and a sharper knife or scissors.

Tristram's Printer: A Typographical Love Story

A lovely young woman accidentally stumbles into the world of book arts, art, and papermaking. She learns the basics of all three arts and finds herself in love with a printer twice her age. Is he in love with her or in love with the image of his dead daughter? Literary fiction with love, divorce, art, drugs, laughter, death, and creativity. The first book of the Calvado Pentalogy.

You can download this novel via smashwords.com ($2.99) or you can email me at tedorigawa.bookmakers@gmail.com and I will hand make one for you. Thanks. And yes, that's much of my face on the cover.