Book 77 and 78 ✅ ✅ were copies of Courage [it couldn’t come at a worse time] by @veilofimag. I was immediately totally captured by this story and absolutely had to bind it. Then it ended up on my bench for months because real life 😮💨 but we got there and USPS came through and everything is delivered so I can share!! I am SO happy with how this marbled paper inlay worked out on the cover and how smooth the vinyl lays on the Japanese bookcloth. And, of course, with the fic inside. Everyone go read Shane actually getting to make up his own mind and choose Ilya on purpose.
Two author copies delivered! Both for @bropunzeling (AO3 here).
More photos and info under the cut!
I actually did my copies of these a while ago--both in February, one in 2024 and the other in 2023. collide the spaces that divide us was one of my earliest attempts at social media formatting, and one of the last books I ever made with my inkjet printer. I did end up fixing a few things on that one's typeset, but it's nearly identical to my first copy. You may also notice in the photos that I chopped off a bit too much off the edge--I didn't yet know how to use my guillotine, and in all the time that's passed since then, it's become defunct (sharp enough to cut off a hand, but not sharp enough to cut through a stack of paper lol)
It's neat to see such a clear example of how much I've improved as a bookbinder in a year and a half--my copy on the left, author's on the right:
Also, a comparison of color ink (left) vs color laser (right):
Like this, it's easy to see how much more vibrant color toner is than ink. Ink works much better for complex images, but since I don't print a lot of photos, but do make a lot of social media typesets, this works much much better for my purposes.
Soon after that, I bought a black-only laser printer and had a whole new set of challenges. It was in this era of printing that I made only fools rush in. It has one of my most complex title pages to date, as they're not really my forte.
Below are my copy, the title page, and an example of how I did texts in this particular typeset.
My copy has a cloth spine and a different cloth as the cover, with a strip from the endpapers to hide my sins act as a bridge between them. This is one of the binds from last Binderary that I'm most proud of.
The title page is in several different pieces--sort of jigsaw-puzzled together from vectors, Google Drawings, and a few different fonts.
Black-toner-only printing meant adjusting how I did social media formatting, and this is one of my favorite ways I solved that problem. I like the simple, almost minimalist formatting that sets the texts apart but doesn't steal the show.
I'd been meaning to offer author copies for these books for as long as I'd had them, but it's hard to understate how little I wanted to use my inkjet once I got a laser XD It's both slower and more expensive to use an inkjet, so as soon as I got my color laser printer set up, I sent the DM!
I organize my handbound fics by ship--that is, every ship has a set spine cloth and title color--so one of my favorite things about author copies is that I get to be a little more creative about covers!
I can now finally post this because this book (plus an extra friendship bracelet) has made its way to its new owner
this is my first "re"bind of a book I've done, specifically because the author @saltandbees asked me for a copy and my perfectionism kicked in! Im overjoyed to send out my first author copy!!
I've bound this little fic a few times over the course of making this book, including a sad copy currently on my bookshelf that I cased in badly and thus is a bit awkward to open - good enough for me, but definitely not to send the author
I learned quite a lot doing this, and I'm super happy with how good the paper label came out, since I drew it by hand!
I loved Spinning Silver, and had a blast reading Blake's fanfic spin on it. Mirrors play an important role in the story, and I couldn't shake the idea of embedding a mirror into the front cover of the book.
To make a bind as extravagant and lush as befits the story, I etched the mirror with fluoride salts using a stencil and foiled the rest of the silktex moire cover. I vector edited decorative lettering from a font by Alit Design for the title page and used full bleed spreads in the typeset. With careful coaching from Duran binding, I marbled the textblock edges.
I was so happy to gift this book to the author at yallwest this weekend.
Got my author copy of Sherlock is a Girl's Name from Improbable Press!
The anthology
What would the Great Detective be like if Sherlock Holmes was a woman? That’s the question answered in Sherlock is a Girls’ Name, an anthology imagining Sherlock Holmes as female, in tall tales that follow the great detective across time and even space.
The stories in this collection, selected by long-time Sherlockian editors Narrelle M. Harris @221b-hound and @atlinmerrick, imagine Holmes in deep space, 1990s Russia, Victorian London, contemporary USA, worlds of magic and more.
Holmes’ many Watsons include ghosts, robots, a young boy who doesn’t speak, a teenage tuba player, a stranger on a plane – and that’s just to start. In each story Holmes and her Watson do what they do best: solve crimes and have adventures!
Amazing cover art by Andrea L. Farley.
My story
The Case of the Man Who Wasn’t Dead: Modern-era medium Sherlock Holmes solves the murders of the dead who contact her via her spirit guide, Jane Watson, a nurse who died in 1944.
“You don’t have to be so rude,” Jane said. The light from the kitchen window didn’t affect her, didn’t set her red curls aglow or brighten her pale skin. But she was unfailingly lovely all the same, in that white sundress, with her hair swept back from her face and her lips bright red. If Jane were alive today, Sherlock thought, she’d probably be a fan of glitter lipstick, going around looking like she’d kissed one of Dorothy’s ruby slippers.
Sherlock did attempt not to make a habit of thinking about Jane Watson kissing things.
(Sherlock has a Crush.)
DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers
Three copies of @nightmares06 and @neonthewrite's Bigfoot's a Hoax! One for me, and one each for the authors.
For the moment, they're all tucked into my bookcase, but soon they shall be on their way to their authors' bookshelves!
Neon will also be receiving the original painting from which the covers were made. I figured that since it's mostly a painting of her character Jacob, I'd give her first dibs if she'd like to have it, and she said she would.
As I mentioned in my post about the first copy, the typeset for this book was done by a fellow Renegade member, for the 2022 typeset exchange. Ruby did a fabulous job with the typesetting, and I particularly love the accent font she picked for the dropcaps.
BEHOLD MY BOOK BABY - author copies from Canelo came in!
Features asexual and aromantic monster man, genderfluid sapient house, and the doomed woman sucked down a rabbit hole of supernatural eldritch shenanigans.
