手取川製本 ~ Tedorigawa Bookmakers

Ep. 279: Works In Progress

Bookbinding

This month we’ve struggled through a couple of books, one of which is practice for next year’s daily schedule. Why is it practice? Because today is Valentine’s Day 2023, a little late for this year’s schedule. The other one is a finished blank notebook. 

It’s about 100 pages, has a chiyogami-esque cover with blue spine and fore-edges. It is A5 (pocketbook) with, I believe, 7 signatures. I’ve sent it off to the customer so I can’t check the precise number of signatures. Each page is numbered with the number surrounded by a snarly Rabbit because 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit. And I didn’t want a cutesy bunny.

The recto (right) side is blank but the verso (left) side is graph paper thus designed so the owner can freehand draw on one side and be more precise on the left; or write descriptive narrative on one side or the other.

The practice schedule is a work in progress as I practice fore-edge corner placement because of the corners. It has the same chiyogami-esque cover with black book cloth to protect the edges. Also with a black spine for the same reason. This schedule has nine signatures, is A5 (pocketbook) in size, with a bookmark, and rounded corners. And that’s why I’m practicing. Putting the book cloth on rounded corners is new to me; I, too, am a work in progress.

Fiction

I have a dozen works in  progress in fiction. No. Maybe less than a dozen. I’ve got:

• a short story collection called My Year of Drinking Kanazawa which will have 13 short stories (currently it has seven) based on characters the narrator encounters in bars (This is similar to my Sakate which takes place in one bar and how the female bartender deals with customers of various degrees of stress while reading various novels). The entire background should be black, not with grey stripes top and bottom.

• The Dancer about a Japanese merengue dancer (a supporting character in the Molly Bright kidnapping novel). He is about to win enough money to get back to Japan in order to swindle elderly women of a few yen, a place to eat and sleep, and teach dance to enliven their lives before running into a kidnapping.

• a mystery novel, my first: The Corpse at Oyama Shrine. A bit of trouble figuring out how to structure it so that the reader won’t be able to figure out the criminal before the big denouement.

• an action novel about intergalactic war that is part four of a three part series that I’ve been working on for decades. Or less.

Okay, maybe four works in progress instead of dozens; it just feels like dozens.

Substack

After a bit of a problem uploading anything to Substack, I have chosen to use a different browser as Substack claims they have no problem using the browser I’m using which means maybe my browser is too old? 

Chapter 13 of Heart of November in which our hero discovers a deadly dealer and talking cat is up and running. Please read and enjoy it. You can also read the previous 12 chapters, of course.

Ep. 278: Two Coptic Schedules and a Short Story

Bookbinding

I have completed two A6 (文庫本 / pocketbooks) books. The first colorful one is a practice coptic binding with colorful covers as practice for the second. Both are, as I mentioned before, A6 (4 by 6 inches for our north American brethren who life south of the Canadian border). The colorful one is 100 blank pages. Suitable for scribbling, drawing, or note-taking. I practiced not only the sewing (with a thread that was new to me) but also cover design (?). Not really design, but variety. On the front with the yellow streak, there are four different ingredients: red, red & snowflake ribbon, washi, the yellow streak, and blue. The back is equipped with only three ingredients: blue, a red square, and a yellow ribbon under the square. The green is part of the book board.

The second book, the one I practiced on the colorful one with, is for a client. It is an A6 (4 x 6) schedule with a yearly calendar, thirteen monthly calendars, and a weekly calendar. A total of 9 signatures with 5 folios each for 180 pages total. Blue book cloth with yellow (can barely see the yellow in the photo) thread. I neglected to include a photo of the end papers which, as this is Japan, a chiyogami style paper; very colorful in greens and florals.

Unfortunately, I finished it January 3, three days after the beginning of the new year. Fortunately, in Japan, nobody is busy doing anything until the fourth or fifth except eating (Osechi ryori ~ food traditionally eaten over the New Year holiday), watching TV (Kohaku ~ a popular singing show with competing red vs white teams), and visiting a local and popular shrine so the client wasn’t upset at all. In fact, I just got a postcard from her saying how she loved it. Before finishing it, though, I changed the yellow thread for a blue one that matches the cover.

As you can see, I got my colorful variety of ingredients passion out of my system before I made the schedule.

Fiction

In Fiction! Amazingly I finished what I thought was going to be a novel but turned out to be a novella? or shorter. Called Satan Râins. It is the inner dialogs of the band members, their engineer, and the floor. It’s called Satan Râins because the lead singer/guitarist misspelled reigns. And it is only 18 pages long. Where was my head when I thought it was going to be a novel; it’s not; it’s an anti-novel. Or a short story.

I continue with The Dancer about Merengue from Molly Bright. He is in the Dominican Republic and about to enter a merengue contest where he hopes to win enough money to get back to Japan after a year or more in Italy.

I have started and am currently stuck on two mystery/detective novels centered on Kanazawa. A group of five samaritans investigate crimes in Kanazawa. In the first two mysteries they’re looking into the murders of two females. Not being an avid reader of mysteries, I am having a slow time of it. I’ve begun to read a little bit more mysteries to wet my writing skills. Wish me luck.

 

Ep. 277: The New Crucifixion - Written, Bound, and Mailed

Bookbinding

I’ve completed a few books. First up is my novel The New Crucifixion. Political intrigue made more complex by religious dogma. For a client for Christmas so it’s been sent out hopefully on time but if not, they can read it during the New Year’s holiday season.

It is A5, 148 pages with extra pages advertising other novels Ive written about here (the first chapters of Growing Slurry, Abacus Longing, and Heart of November). As requested by the client, I hasten to add lest people complain about my using clients as advertising. I’m hoping they will order another book, of course. By the way, you can, too. 

Check out my Fiction For Sale and Handmade Books for Sale on the left of this site. I should probably have advertised this long before Christmas, eh?

Next up is a 2023 schedule for a client. It’s B6 in size with nine signatures. I’ll post pictures in the next podcast, if the client agrees. Finally, if I finish it in time, a graph paper notebook; one of a series of 50 that I am slowly working my way through. I think this is number three. Wish me luck.

Fiction

With fiction I have two thoughts: one, I’m writing a lot. Two mysteries/detective stories set in Kanazawa, plus a novel that I’ve mentioned before: The Dancer. Each gets a little bit everyday. Maybe a sentence, maybe a paragraph, maybe a whole chapter. But work on them I do and they are slowly moving forward.

My second thought is, Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie ventures into magical realism but also creates words, phrases, and runs words together (runswordstogether) for dramatic effect, picking up the pace, and urging the reader to hurry. But this is not a book review site so I will leave it to you to discover Satanic Verses on your own.

Substack

Speaking of Heart of November, my Substack stack has, as of this podcast, Chapter Ten up and running. You can read Chapters 1 ~ 9 as well, plus musings about writing techniques (dialog, fight scenes). If you wish to make a comment on either the writing techniques or the fiction (Earlier short stories of love and ghosts precede Heart of November) please feel free.

Ep. 276: Books, Novels, and Substack, O My!

Bookbinding

This month, you have three items.

First: An A6 coptic schedule for 2023 complete with a 2023 and a 1938 calendar (the birth year of the client), and monthly and weekly calendars. Nine signatures.

Second: an A5 novel of 12 signatures (182+ pages) titled The New Crucifixions for a client whose father is featured on the cover.

Third: a graph paper blank journal (also A5) for your budding graphic artist friend / master doodler.

Fiction

In fiction, you have a plethora of novels in the throes of being written (or, at least, thought about).

First up: The Dancer, the story of a character (Merengue) from Molly Bright; his origin, why he’s called Merengue, and his life in Italy, the Dominican Republic, and scamming elderly women in Japan up until he falls in with Molly and her crew out to save a kidnapped bomb-building surfer.

Second up: The Sound of Fear, the fourth book in The Fear trilogy; a dystopian future of war and rebels. Matt fights for peace and finds deception and lies.

Third up: (an as-of-yet unnamed and not-thoroughly-thought-out) three detective/murder mysteries set in my current peaceful town of Kanazawa (The Other Kyoto).

Substack

I have started a Substack that will include works-in-progress; thoughts about writing, and a possible podcast (one episode is already up; I’m conflicted about inflicting more listening to the viewers.) 

The Lit Fic (literary fiction) section is already up to nine postings, readings, rather. Seven are short stories collectively titled This Giant Frothy Thing: Lust & Terror in Tokyo.

The other postings (8 & 9) are from Heart of November: A Congolese Tale of Love & Murder. From here on out until it is complete, expect more of Heart of November (an homage to Heart of Darkness) in which the hero encounters drug dealers, rapists, and dancers in the Congo. Afterwards, he is assigned Heart of Darkness in his high school English class.

Please have a read of my Substack postings; hope you enjoy them.

Ep. 275: Two More Notebooks Plus Novel Novel

Bookbinding

In the past week or so two things have happened: First, the sun has stopped torturing the northern hemisphere so my studio/house/city/country is not sweltering under 100 degree temperatures any more; this is good, in case you were wondering.

Second, I completed two blank notebooks. Both are pocketbook size (for the American viewer) or A6 (for the rest of the world) with approximately 100 pages. Both have straps to keep them closed. One has a bluish purple-ish cover while the other sports a green cover. The endpapers match the covers in color if not in style. Both are coptic bound so the author/artist who purchases them can use the entire page. 

The blue one has protrudences (outdents?) on the cover for a more tactile experience; three vertical columns and a modified ampersand (&) toward the bottom. 

In addition, I’m sewing up a B6 graphic paper notebook. I’m leaning toward making the cover a centipede cover. Hope I do. I want to see how it turns out.

Fiction

The Dancer, for which I have no cover, the novel about Merengue from Molly Bright, continues unabated! He is learning to dance both the tango and merengue and a variety of Italian-based dances; he excels, according to his dance teacher, in the merengue. He is paired with an Italian high school student who embodies the passion, joy, and spirit of dance; Lucinda by name. First, he dances in Bari, Italy; next he finds a missing CD player while learning bachata in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Also, in a rare bit of perspiration, four books I have already written are being edited (by myself) for speed, flavor, and action. The three are a series with the overriding title of The Fear (Fear Zero, Fear Itself, Fear the Dead, and Sound of Fear.) Yes, a trilogy with four books; not a problem, is it?

Plots:

The Fear tetralogy is sci-fi. Earth is run by a Conglomerate that controls Everything. They are battling the Jeeters from Jupiter’s moon Io. The main character, Matt, was imprisoned at the age of ten for murdering his mother, but now, he’s a master sergeant in the Conglomerate army vs the Jeeters and is charged with finding The Spy! He’s also searching for his friend from prison, Doro Ferrell, who was severely wounded in battle.

Ep. 274: Dancer Plus Three Books

Bookbinding

I have had a productive day, yes! Earlier in my life I folded six signatures of A5 paper into A6 size paper, made some covers, and waited. Yesterday, I put the covers and the paper together to form a blank notebook. Two of them. 

Both have straps to keep the notebook closed. Both have Japanese-style endpapers that coordinate with the covers. One book is yellow with green/yellow/light blue endpapers while the other notebook is red and blue with reddish-blue endpapers.

Meanwhile, earlier I printed out an unusual schedule: it starts in August and ends in March or April. There are only 18 pages (including yearly calendars for 2022 and 2023) and graph papers.

For both the red blank notebook and the yellow one, I used coptic binding because, since they are blank, the user will be able to use the entire page. Unlike Japanese binding which doesn't allow the page to open fully.

Speaking of Japanese binding. I used it for the August-March schedule since it is single sheets of B5. I added a bit of paper on the spine edge to allow the book to open more fully than with traditional Japanese binding.

Fiction

In Molly Bright there is a character named Merengue. He is a Japanese businessman who abandons the Japanese way of life and learns to dance. He walks everywhere and runs into Molly in Miyazaki. I have started a novel about him called The Dancer. He quits his job, moves to Italy and learns to dance. He has adventures as he travels to Cuba and the Dominican Republic and back to Japan where he takes up life as a vagabond/scammer who entices rich women to give him enough money to live on for a few months. 

In The Dancer is an Italian high school student, Lucinda, who learns dancing with Merengue. She becomes a successful dancer and dance teacher. At the end of Molly Bright, she and Merengue meet again.

Ep. 273 Molly Bright - Owari!

Fiction

Yes! I have finished the umpteenth draft of Molly Bright! During my Birthday Month! Yeah, me! I wrote the final four chapters first. Then I filled in the blanks from the previous final chapter to the New final chapter. And matched them up to complete Molly!

However, I discovered a new quirk I wanted to add. Molly and a Japanese person named Arisa have the same interests but they don’t like each other when they first meet. A sort of meet cute scenario but in this case it works out. Now, giving myself extra work, I need to find where Molly & Arisa meet and deepen their connection.

What does this mean for you? If means, if you read this, Molly will be available in the next month, which is August, for your perusal. At least a few chapters will be uploaded.

You may have noticed a lack of Bookbinding on this episode. That’s because nothing is happening because of a certain birthday boy’s laziness.

Ep. 271 Four Blank Notebooks For Doodling

Bookbinding

In the past few days I’ve made four blank notebooks. Small blank notebooks. For those us who have mastered the art of metrics, they are 150mm tall and 100 (approximately) mm wide (A5 in the vernacular). Pocketbook size for the Americans. They are also my first and fourth or more forays into Perfect Binding i.e. glued books instead of sewn. There are six signatures of five folios each for 120 unmarked pages.

All four have bookmarks and straps to close them with. The bookmarks are because there are no pages (as mentioned above), and the closures are in case doodlers want to put scraps of paper or a pencil in the notebook and not have everything fall out. 

They have really nice Japanese-y endpapers, too. Which is pictured upside down here! Fun! 

Fiction

Wow! Molly Bright is zooming! It’s zooming upward and onward in Two Ways!

First way: As I’ve said Many many times before, it is getting closer to the end. The Climatic scenes are approaching! Yes, this is good.

The Second way: I get thoughts about the characters to make them deeper, more real, more interesting, more exciting, and more moving. Subsequently, I have to go back and rewrite chapters, scenes, dialog. This is also Good. It makes, I believe, for a better book.

Bonus Third way: A New Cover! More red! More Osaka-esque! More, dare I say it, Mystery? However, the new cover badly needs a tagline. And fewer exclamation points.

Agnes Grout, not moving so much.

Ep. 270: Agnes & Molly: Their First Sentences

Bookbinding

I worked on two perfect binding blank notebooks. Perfect being a relative term; they are glued on the spine edge with nothing else holding the pages together.
Both are fifty pages complete with bookmarks, but no page numbers. They are 150 x 100 mm (for our metric-challenged American brethren and sisters, that’s about 2  x 4 inches; i.e. small, fit-in-your-pocket small). Both also have a printer’s mark on the upper left corner that are semi-hidden by the cover. 

Fiction

These two novels are coming along slowly but regularly. Agnes Grout is pushing 25 pages and is getting into the meat of the story slash the second act. While weaving Agnes ‘sees’ (or better: foresees) the death of her husband and employer’s son, who she tries to save.
Molly Bright is reaching the climatic end when all the characters smash together to save Sawako and her father and each confronts a life-changing decision.

Perhaps a sample of one or the other would be of interest to readers?

Ep. 269: Beatles Tunnel

Bookbinding

This is my third tunnel book. The first one was years ago and the second was just before I made this one. The second was a prototype for this one

I chose random photos for the content on the first one; this time I chose random photos of an old favorite band.

The outside is decorated with sheet music for “A Day in the Life.” The back page on the inside has the sheet music for “Something,” at least the first few notes. On the front are artist/bassist Klaus Voorman (designer of the Revolver album; he also appears on the Sgt Pepper cover), Buddy Holly, Billy Preston, and original Beatles drummer Pete Best.

Also included are photographer Astrid Kirchherr (influential for the Meet the Beatles cover although she didn’t take that photo) and artist/bassist Stu Sutcliffe (next to John and in front of elder Paul). 

Next up is an A5 graph paper notebook. It has five signatures of four sheets each (100 pages), a bookmark, page numbers, and bumpy covers.

It is one of three blank (or nearly blank) notebooks I will make in the next day or two. Blank, graph paper on the verso, and graph paper on both verso and recto.

These are being made for both practice at improving my bookbinding speed and to make both quick and artistic/error-free books people might like. I want to be fast but perfect with making better books is more important than making them quickly.

Fiction

In the fiction section of this blog, we have the perennial runners up of The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver and Molly Bright.

Both are progressing nicely although Molly Bright changed back to its original name because Kidnapping Osaka sounds like someone is kidnapping a champion tennis player and Surfing Osaka isn’t much better. It’s back to the original for me, then.