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Creating Handmade Books and Writing Fiction in Kanazawa, Japan 金沢市
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Thursday Feb 28, 2019
Thursday Feb 28, 2019
I have completed two more schedule books. They start in April 2019 and continue until April 2020. They are both Coptic-bound with seven signatures. They include 2019 and 2020 calendars plus 13 monthly calendars/
They are personalized in that the clients sent me photos they wanted included. I have duly included them and now, for a very small fee, they have unique schedule books unavailable to the common person on the street.
However, you, too, can have a personalized schedule book - for a small fee. Just email me at tedorigawa.bookmakers@gmail.com and include the following:
• size: A5 or A6 (pocketbook) The red and black book with the red pen is A5.
• binding: Codex (looks like a real book, like the book with the red pen) or Coptic. The blue book is coptic bound. The advantage of a coptic-bound book is that it can be opened completely. They can be opened 180˚ which makes them very useful for artist’s books or diaries.
For details (in Japanese at the moment), go to For Sale on my website.
You can send up to 10 photos (jpg) and I will include them somewhere in the schedule book for free. Over ten and we need to discuss pricing.
The second book I finished uses a recycled box. It is also coptic and A5. It has photos but is primarily a blank notebook with graph paper. It is also light weight as the client wanted something they could carry around on long trips without getting tired.
Finally, I am writing a novel that takes place in 1600 Spain. A nun is escorted to her home town by two violent bodyguards and accompanied by a young Japanese artist. The novel is loosely based around (not on) Cervantes’ Don Quixote in that some characters in Cervantes’ book show up in my book. Plus, both books are episodic. Now, a poet Cervantes’ knew was Barahona. Barahona wrote romance-style novels and Cervantes called him on of the best writers in Spain (they actually met, I believe.) Naturally, one of the characters in my novel is called Barahona as well. For two reasons: One, Cervantes knew the real Barahona. Two, bara in Japanese means Rose (the flower) and hona is very close to hana, which means Flower in Japanese.
Caraculiambro is a giant in Don Quixote, although he never appears; Don Quixote just tells Sancho Panza about him. He appears in my book which, by the way, is called Giapan.
Saturday Feb 09, 2019
Saturday Feb 09, 2019
My one mistake from last week: My short story In A Quiet Little Bar on the Coast is not free on Amazon et al but free on YouTube as an audio short story. You can find it here: Quiet Little Bar. Please enjoy.
Last week I also finished an A6 (pocketbook size) blank notebook that includes Spanish-English-Japanese vocabulary for a Japanese client who is studying Spanish while being fluent in both of the other two languages. The title of the blank notebook is español.
It is one hundred pages. The recto is completely blank while the verso is lined. Or vice versa. Each blank side has a Spanish word and that word is then used in a sentence in Spanish but not in English or Japanese. The client has been instructed that she must translate them or understand them on her own as she learns more and more Spanish.
Sample Sentence. In Japanese there is a phrase Even a Monkey can Do it. (猿でも出来る). Meaning, of course, not that monkeys are intelligent enough but that the task is simple. Even a monkey can do my job, for example, shows that the person speaking doesn’t think much of his or her job. According to Dr Google, this is translated into Español as: Incluso un mono puede hacerlo. I hope that is close to being correct.
I have also finished one of three schedules for 2019. Fortunately, the two I haven't finished start in April. I want to finish them soon as I won’t have much time in March to work on them. One wants a coptic binding, which I always enjoy making. The other wants a codex, which is sometimes frustrating. However, they both want pictures that they have taken in the interior. A personalized, not-available-in-stores schedule! What could make a finer gift?
The Merchant of Venus & Other Stories is available on
Saturday Feb 02, 2019
Saturday Feb 02, 2019
I have distributed all of my Hunting Kanazawa language & guide books including giving five to a souvenir shop to give to customers. I hope the souvenir shop likes what they see and the customers enjoy the book, which includes a 2019 & 2020 calendar.
I have also finished and shipped a 2019 schedule book to a client who liked it so much she ordered another one for 2020. Nice. At the same time, another person emailed me and requested an April-to-April 2019 schedule book. Also nice.
That is what I have accomplished in the last week. What I have not accomplished includes not editing my City of Cocks murder-mystery novel which I wanted to upload and sell online. I need/want/desire to get it up as soon as I can. Not accomplishing things also includes not finishing two more April-to-April 2019 schedules and my edition of Don Quixote. This I hope to finish and give away (I don’t own the translation rights and don’t want to rip the translator off; it’s a lot of work translating.
And for you?! Free short stories that I hope you can enjoy. On AppleBooks:
and
The Merchant of Venus & Other Stories on AppleBooks Amazon
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
First, a little self-promotion. Check out my two collections of short stories on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Nook. They are The Merchant of Venus and Other Stories and This Giant Frothy Thing: Love & Terror in Tokyo. Two stories from The Merchant of Venus and Other Stories are available for free.
Speaking of online sales promotions: I hope this month to have a murder mystery novel up on the usual places. The City of Cocks (think Biblical roosters) takes place in a small coastal Oregon town where everyone knows everyone else. A local citizen is accused of and arrested for a murder. It is up to his wife and her best friend (a drunken poet) to save him. This will, with luck and perseverance, be followed by Feeding Vicki's Corpse, a murder mystery novel of the same people thirty years later.
What have I “done” this month so far? I have completed a 2019 schedule book with perfect binding. I have received an order for a coptic-bound 2019 schedule book that runs from March to March. I am working on two other 2019 schedule books that also run from March to March. I am InDesigning Don Quixote, a one-off singular novel that I will probably give away. Finally, I am writing, rewriting, editing, procrastinating my first science fiction novel: The Sinking of the Saavedra Maru (which, obviously, has a bit to do with Don Quixote's author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.) Another novel that takes place in the 17th century (Giapan) has Señor Cervantes as a character. And a Quixote character as a character.
Monday Jan 14, 2019
Monday Jan 14, 2019
First, let me remind you that I have two collections of Short Stories on Apple Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Nook.
This Giant Frothy Thing: Love & Terror in Tokyo
and
The Merchant of Venus and Other Stories.
Next, I have finished binding all 15 copies of my Hunting Kanazawa A Language & Guide Book. I have given the stores mentioned in the book a free copy with the hint that I’m willing to sell copies to their customers. So far, praise (which I’m happy to get), but no sales as of yet.
Next on my agenda is to design, print out, and bind two 2019 Schedules with the year starting in March. I hope to finish both of them by the end of February. One requires a special cover; one that is both special and especially difficult to make.
Speaking of covers, I’m looking for a cover designer for my science fiction novel (The Sinking of the Saavedra Maru). Unlike literary fiction, I realize that covers for SciFi novels need to have the required images & tropes. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let me know.
Monday Dec 24, 2018
Monday Dec 24, 2018
Just too late for your Christmas shopping, I have uploaded a new book of short stories titled: This Giant Frothy Thing Love and Terror in Tokyo. There are two ghosts and a whole lotta love. Minor characters in one story meet their true love in another story, for example. A coincidental meeting during an altercation in a coffee shop land a hairdressing student and a paramedic in love, for another example. And in another story, a kyudo (弓道) bow and arrow apprentice meets a man trapped in an office job whose passion is making and selling jewelry.
This book is available at all the usual places meaning, of course, Apple Books, Amazon, Nook, and Kobo. For the price of a frappuccino (a giant frothy thing, see what I did there? In each story someone orders or is drinking a giant frothy thing.) you can enjoy love, ghosts, and getting lost in the back streets of Tokyo.
In any case, check out the free sample, purchase a copy for your winter holiday reading pleasure, and Have a merry Next Year and a Festive Holiday!
Wednesday Dec 12, 2018
Wednesday Dec 12, 2018
I distributed copies of my Hunting Kanazawa: a guide book and language text to several (okay, six) of the restaurants and coffee shops in the book. First, of course, I measured and cut the endpapers, the book boards and the book cloth. Second, I glued the endpapers to the text block, and glued the book cloth the the book boards. Next, I glued the text block to the covered book boards. Sounds simple enough but it’s amazing how long it can take. I did ten in one day and have six more to finish. Only, so far, one mistake (the day a restaurant is closed.)
The Covers! Five of the covers are regular light blue (looks white in the photo, but it’s not) and dark blue. Both have the opposite colored marker on the front of the book. The marker mimics the title piece on a Japanese-style book: rectangular and vertical. Each Hunting Kanazawa is A6 in size. (148 mm x 105 mm. About 6" x 4" for you USA-centric readers; i.e. about the size of a paperback.) They are approximately 100 pages so suitable for carrying around in your pocket. Also, there are 38 pages available for doodling and scribbling notes to yourself or others.
The Other five covers are ripped from two different kimono. One is a darker and thicker cloth which is fun to hold. A very tactile cloth. The other four kimono covers are silky and thin. I gave all the shops a choice of kimono-clad book or regular book cloth-clad book. I was surprised that most chose the kimono-clad one, because I was told re-using kimono cloth was not something done. Maybe they were talking about expensive kimono, not the ones I can afford to buy.
A mostly positive response from those who have seen and read bits of it (except for the one error. I hope there’s only one.) The language section was praised in that the waiter can point at the Japanese and the non-Japanese customer can read the English equivalent, assuming they can read English and vice versa.
email: tedorigawa.bookmakers@gmail.com
YouTube: Tedorigawa Bookmakers
Facebook: Tedorigawa
Instagram: Bookbinder 2015
Wednesday Dec 05, 2018
Wednesday Dec 05, 2018
This year’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) say me drop 20,000 words short of the 50,000 word goal which will result in me working through the novel during December and offering you, my loyal listener, a free book. My first novel in a genre I didn’t really like when in high school despite the fact my father had hundreds of the things lying about the house. I’ve read some (Heinlein, Asmiov) but never really was too interested in them.
Until 2018! When I started
The Sinking of the Saavedra Maru!
TSSM takes place in outer space, of course, on a multi-generational ship to populate another planet. The main focus of the crew is Guzman89, Flynn, Markus, Kokkei, Wade, Williams, and the captain, Gynere. Guzman89 is the 89th version of a cloned person and she is in charge of the cloning/medical coma section of the ship. The others range in age fro 20 to about 140.
Rather than put people in deep freeze until they need to be thawed out (something most interstellar novels include), they are put in a medical coma and given anti-aging chemicals as discovered by Nobel-prize winners May-Britt Moser and Carol Greider (not together or in the same year).
However, Gynere is attacked and Flynn & Markus are ordered to find the attacker. They must question everyone including their boss (Guzman89), their subordinates (Kokkei, Wade, Williams) and others.
Also on board are two very strange comatose patients. One, called the Hermit by others, is very old. He was, perhaps, involved in a war on his home planet but deemed valuable enough to save by the rulers. He’s dipped in a coma until his injuries can be healed.
The second is a brain-dead young woman whose organs continue to function normally. With no blood. Why would the spleen clean and recycle blood that no longer circulates in her body?
Success! For you. My plan is to finish The Sinking of the Saavedra Maru before the end of the year and make it available online for three or four people to read, if they wish. A Free Book! For you! If you want it.
I will make the appropriate announcements when the novel is finished.
Saturday Nov 24, 2018
Saturday Nov 24, 2018
Spent a few hours cutting and gluing some endpapers on Hunting Kanazawa (a guide book with Japanese language lessons and restaurant recommendations) but have 10 more to go and I need to speed things along. Samples of these books need to be in store owners’ hands before December as there is a 2019 calendar included. I’m really really late, I know. Let’s consider these as samples of what to expect Next Year (2020) and hope next year I manage to finish by October or earlier. I’m thinking of dropping the restaurant recommendations for two reasons: one, they disappear quite quickly either because they don’t have the customers or the owners have decided to quit or move on to another adventure. Two, there are too many to seriously cover in such a small book.
This Giant Frothy Thing: Love & Terror in Tokyo is the next book I will have for sale both digitally in all the familiar places plus as a real book made by me. It is six stories. The main characters of each story experience either love or terror. They also run into at least one character from another story. Usually, but not always, at a coffee shop. They all order a giant frothy thing; something Starbucks has opted to name a frappuccino.
For example, in Obayashi, Obayashi, a woman who just graduated from college, after drinking, goes to a coffee shop with a male and very drunk female fellow graduate. The female tells Obayashi a secret, which upsets, irritates, and saddens Obayashi. The man makes a move on the female, going so far as to cope a feel and expose her in the coffee shop. Obayashi and the man get into a fight (not a shouting match; coffee is thrown). The coffee shop manager calls an ambulance for the overly drunk female.
Three things happen. First, Obayashi storms out of the coffee shop. She rushes across a park to grab a taxi. In the park, she runs past a man composing music. She jumps in a taxi and discovers the driver loves playing shogi and Bottecelli. As does Obayashi. They decide to get together to play shogi and talk art. Second, the man in the park gets his own short story (Aikawa) and we learn what he does and who he meets. Third, the coffee shop manager gets her own short story (Suehiro) after she meets someone who has the same love of travel as she has and we learn what happens to them.
As you might be able to tell, I don’t have a cover for This Giant Frothy Thing that I am comfortable with. Any suggestions? Let me know.
Don’t forget: The Merchant of Venus & Other Stories is for sale on Apple Books, Amazon, Nook, and Kobo.
email: tedorigawa.bookmakers@gmail.com
YouTube: Tedorigawa Bookmakers
Facebook: Tedorigawa
Instagram: Bookbinder 2015
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
I’m deeply involved in making 16 books, all Hunting Kanazawa, a guide/language book for tourists to Kanazawa who speak or read English and want to use/learn a bit of Japanese. Or people who read Japanese and want to read in English about this fair city.
I’m also hoping to get an ebook up before the end of November. This one is called
This Giant Frothy Thing: Love & Terror in Tokyo.
People in their daily lives run across other people, ghosts, disembodied voices, and love in Tokyo. Hopefully, a couple of stories will be listed either here or for free on all the old familiar shopping sites such as the fruit that keeps a doctor away and the Brazilian river one.
This week you can see a short (if you consider 18 minutes short) video of the ocean as I say my In a Quiet Little Bar on the Coast short story from my short story collection, The Merchant of Venus & Other Stories. If you can cast your mind back to last week, the audio of In a Quiet Little Bar on the Coast was featured here. Now, on YouTube, it has visuals to go with it (mostly waves. And a seagull.).
The video is here: In a Quiet Little Bar on the Coast.
The book from which it was taken, The Merchant of Venus & Other Stories, is on sale here:
By the way, you can ask me if you want to know how I make my audio for this podcast and/or the videos for my YouTube channel. Or even, how I make my books — my Real Books. (Hint: It involves an iPad, a desktop, InDesign, and my brain. Ouch, on that last one.)