#landwriter

[fishfingersandscarves]

cover for Oaths by @landwriter :) the trinity knot took me forever

[chubsonthemoon]

It is done! This is The Death of Translation, originally written in English by @landwriter, translated into Mandarin by @thirrith. Binding is dos-à-dos, with English version on one side and Mandarin on the other. Bookcloth was handwoven by me, on my rigid heddle loom :3

More under the cut!

Typeset: Fanbinders are Liars

Full stop, this typeset would not have been possible without Eth and all their patience, enthusiasm, and willingness to do even more translating! I reached out to them *checks watch* nearly a year ago in July 2023 (lololol), asking if I could use their translation of TDOT in a surprise bind I wanted to send along with Gloam's author copy of Flower King. They were kind enough to say yes, and even kinder to answer my questions when I reached out six months later in January, when I was finally able to start work on the typeset.

We talked about the many delicious things that are bound to come up when discussing translating not just from English to Mandarin, but also from digital space to meatspace. Some topics I had anticipated, like font questions, translating the colophon, etc. But even with the topics I thought I'd prepared for, there were still things that came up that both surprised and delighted: for example, while AO3's website allows for italics in Mandarin--

--my publishing program doesn't (or at least, it doesn't without needing to manually tilt every character by about 10 degrees). So as a workaround, Eth suggested changing these cases of italics to the font 华文楷体:

Through no one's fault but my own, this ended up being only slightly less work than manually tilting every instance of italics--I wanted to be sure that I got all of them, so I ended up doing a lot of double-checking manually anyway, instead of relying solely on the Search function. There was a lot of cross-referencing with the Word document that Eth was kind enough to provide, as well as squinting and general swearing. I also did the same for the uses of Latin script, manually styling each instance as Garamond to keep it consistent with the English edition:

The only other time I've had to do font surgery this intensive is probably for my typeset for Tell Me About the Big Bang, which I had to port over from a PDF. Folks, hell on earth. Do not recommend XD I remember squinting at my monitor as I had to visually confirm every instance of italics, thinking I will never do this again. Welp, four years later, here were are: fanbinders are liars, LMAO. At the very least, using Eth's Word document at least allowed me to search by styles, so it was a little easier on my eyes. 🙏

Is there a script that I might've been able to use if I was more code-savvy? Probably. But I figured going at it sledgehammer style would be the least hair-pulling way to get the job done, weirdly enough. Still, despite my best efforts, there are a few instances of PMingLiU to Garamond and PMingLiU to 华文楷体 that I know I missed, and I know I missed them because I caught them after I'd printed/cut/folded/sewn/glued (cue more swearing), so Gloam and Eth, my apologies >.< please consider them artifacts of a uniquely handmade object ajslkdjfs

In addition to the fonts, there were also some other fun things Eth and I discussed, like how to translate the notes I usually provide on the colophons! In addition to information on fonts, I also usually include some variation of:

This private, limited edition published by chubsthehamster (Moonham Press, imprint of Renegade Publishing) in 2024. This is chubsthehamster's personal copy. Out of three existing copies, this is the first.

The thing that came up with this, which still tickles my brain to this day, was how Eth chose how to translate "Moonham Press, imprint of Renegade Publishing." To get a better sense of what word to use for "imprint," they asked what the relationship was between Moonham Press and Renegade Publishing, which got me thinking about the relationship between my lil imprint and the wonderful @renegadeguild:

What's all very funny about all of this is that we are now, in fact, going by the name "Renegade Bookbinding Guild," per our most recently updated Code of Conduct. While this renders the wording I asked for out of date (and thus, the wording that made it into the book out of date :'D), I think it's also a testament to how cool the work @renegadeguild is doing--like any artform, fanbinding is alive, with its own evolving language, communities, and ideas about the craft. And I love it, I love it so much. (Was this also a plug for our new-ish website? Perhaps).

There's more I could say here, but this post is already going to be long enough, so I'll move on for now! If you get anything from this section, it's that @thirrith is amazing and very patient and kind, and I'm so grateful that we got to talk shop together. Thank you so much for all your invaluable help with this, Eth! I hope the typeset, though undoubtedly flawed, does your hard work justice!

Binding: Or, SO Much Math. Like, So Much, Guys. (It was worth it, though!)

Whoo, boy! So math was never my strong suit in school, but when I set out to do this bind last year, that wasn't an issue. At first. The dos-à-dos binding, if anything, just requires a little bit of finagling on the usual case-bound format--a bit more math if you want to do an all-cloth cover, like I planned on doing, but nothing I couldn't work out with some trial and error. (My prototype below!)

Then came February, when I took a weaving class with my friend, and then everything kinda exploded.

My original idea was to use some green Duo bookcloth I had on hand (this color, actually)--for those of you not initiated into the Duo cult, Duo is a Rayon bookcloth with a very devoted fan following in Renegade. It's very pretty; the Rayon weave is one color, and the paper backing is usually complementary color, so it has this cool two-toned effect. Duo is in high demand in Renegade circles because sadly, the company that manufactures it went out of business last year. (Although I've heard rumors recently that there's another company making something similar, but the cloth has a really high purchase requirement and is, like, for businesses only I think).

Anyway, I also wanted to have a gold line around the whole book as a kind of bellyband/obi to further connect the two versions of the story (another reason why I chose the dos-à-dos format to begin with heh), as you can see from my scribbled notes here--

But alas! I knew going in that adhering things to Duo is often Problematic, thanks to one very painful experience trying to get some iron-on foil on another bind (the textured surface of Duo just makes it kinda hard to stick or paint stuff on it). So if I wanted a clean, continuous line, the remaining options were to either paint it on a strip of paper that I'd somehow...adhere to the cloth? Or maybe cut different slices of bookcloth and glue them on. I wasn't satisfied with either of those options, though.

Then--the weaving class. I made a scarf, and I love it and I loved making it. But the whole time, I'll not lie, my thoughts were elsewhere.

In short, my decision to weave my own bookcloth kinda came from a few different factors:

The desire to attempt to recreate Duo, that elusive beauty, the one that got away, etc. (I have several yards in my stash, but still). Others have also attempted to recreate it, and I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.

My current spiral into the deep hole that is fiber arts (it started with crochet, then knitting, then sewing, then weaving, then spinning, and now I'm eyeing quilting! Please help me).

The gold line. It kept bugging me. And when I found weaving, I just thought there was something very neat about the process of actually making the cloth for a dos-à-dos binding from scratch, and especially for this binding. I wanted to bind a story about translation (or rather, the death of it, and yet still the necessity of it--how we must try to communicate, despite of, or perhaps precisely because of, everything that gets lost in the spaces between people, and the tragedy of that loss, and the beauty of what makes it through, and the love always present in the effort regardless), and also, the translation of that story. Weaving is a very meditative process, and with every pass of the shuttle, back and forth, building slowly but surely the fabric that would hold the story that Gloam had written and that Eth had translated, I thought a lot about translation, and the gaps between people, and how we choose our words not just when translating, but when we speak at all. From a design perspective, I used the same colors I would've used had I chosen the Duo bookcloth--green and gold--so the design wasn't too altered in terms of color scheme. But I think the choice to weave the bookcloth--the thing that bound it all together--made the project take on a completely new meaning for me, both in process and in scope, one that hadn't been there when I started. I saw the warp, perhaps, as the original story, laying the groundwork for the weft, the translation; or maybe it was the other way around, with the translation providing the scaffolding for its own, new meaning, choices that Eth had to make with this word or phrase or another building something new, something translated, and the original a live, moving thing that wove over and under each word turned phrase turned story; or maybe it was both. Maybe it didn't matter which was which, in the end. And as I wove, the thing that connected them, that gold line that had started all of this, slowly formed.

All that to say: Good God, was there a lot of math. So much math. That prototype pictured above was actually made specifically so I could calculate exactly how much I needed to weave, lol, because while I certainly had enough thread, I didn't want to have to warp more than once. I'd learned the basics in my class, but the training wheels came off here. I wanted to make my own custom fabric, which meant calculating things like ends per inch, picks per inch, loom waste, shrinkage after washing, the width of that damn gold line, how much I'd need for the hinge, the turn-ins, the boards--the whole nine yards (I didn't actually weave nine yards tho heh). It was all absolutely worth it in the end--so challenging and so, so rewarding!

(And my final reason for weaving the bookcloth? Not gonna lie, It was because I just wanted to see if I could do it LOL. I love trying at least one new thing with each of my binds, and this was it for this project. While I've been bookbinding for a few years now, I'm still very much a beginner weaver, and I'm so excited to continue to learn and experiment! Also, here's a video of me unwinding the cloth from the loom, heh. I used 10/2 Perle cotton in gold and green colors :3)

Also, turns out, you can back handmade cloth the same way you can any other cloth! I backed it using my usual heat-n-bond method, and with some Unryu Tissue in the color Forest. Since the cloth itself is a bit transparent, there are a bunch of really fun fibers you can see when it's held up to the light, but which aren't visible when the cloth is glued down to the boards. Still, knowing they're there still makes me happy :D

Finally, capping all this off, is one final, small detail I really liked: ginkgo leaf endpapers :3 this one's for me and Eth and Gloam specifically <3

Aaaand that's all from me for today, folks! Thus ends (several months late XD) my last Binderary project for the year. This was probably my most ambitious bind to date, and gosh it was so, so much fun.

And, of course, thank you so much to Gloam for sharing your story, and Eth for translating it. I can't wait for y'all to receive your copies soon!

All my love! <3

[virgo-dream]

[KICKS DOWN DOOR] DID SOMEBODY SAY DREAMLING HEADCANON?

Let me try and think of something I've not seen before but 100% fervently believe to be true!!! ok ok---

Dream is def. a clotheshorse. Look at that battle skirt, god. Hob is not, 'least not in modern days. Headcanon: after they get together Dream is absolutely a sniffy little cunt about Hob's clothes. They're so banal. We've had Dream being cozy and fuckable in Hob's stolen sweaters and footie shirts. Let's have Hob being taken to a bespoke tailor's shop that may or may not exist in the Waking world and/or the mortal plane, strictly speaking. Dream is the owner and operator, and Hob the only customer. Hob doesn't just put up with it in some sweet, Hobbishly indulging way - he fucking loves it. He's a hedonist. Loves the feeling of expensive fabrics against his skin, the line of tailored clothes transforming his unchanging body, loves Dream's proprietary little smirk at dressing Hob. Loves the way Dream looks at him all the time now, knowing and pleased and heated. He's always loved good clothes. But these are great clothes. It gets so out of control that Hob has to tell his colleagues Dream is a tailor, because there's no way he'd be able to afford this otherwise. If he didn't have, you know. Boyfriend privileges. "You are a tailor though, sort of," says Hob, a bit soused after a faculty party, dressed like liquid sex in a gunmetal grey suit, "S'just, the fabric of the collective unconsciousness and all the words we've ever written." Dream is starting to smile when Hob adds, "Also, you brought this upon yourself." 'This' being Dream, reluctantly agreeing to produce a bespoke prom dress for department chair's daughter. Headcanon: due to his own hubris Dream accidentally spends the rest of that decade of Hob's 'life' moonlighting (daylighting?) as a reclusive fashion designer with a reputation for utter brilliance and eccentricity, who takes all his commissions exclusively by referral and vets clients, bizarrely, through his (now tenured, imagine that) history professor husband.

Dream enjoys it rather more than he expected. It's a little like designing dreams - or, in a few memorable cases, nightmares - for humans to wear. He understands the stories and power of clothing. He is soothed to be asked, over and over, for such a trivial boon: something to wear that they've been dreaming of. He enjoys having work in the Waking.

Mostly, though, he likes to look at Hob Gadling, marvel and living story, wearing his clothing. Wearing him. Moving through the world in sleeve and collar of his making, and saying, to all who look and all who ask: I am his.

Well, I knew I could count on you for some quality fashion headcanons Gloam!!! Border Country sends its regards I guess!!!!

But honestly, wouldn't he though? Because if you think about it, every piece of clothing ever designed had to be visualised or daydreamed in some way by the mind of a designer, and if it goes through the Dreaming, it is Dream's by proxy. So yeah, every couture design, every Gucci runway, every weird ass Balenciaga ready to wear monstrocity and every Schiaparelli gown has Dream's designing hands involved somehow.

And I can also imagine Dream making all of Hob's clothes, including the softest t-shirts and sweatpants, the silkiest pyjamas, the most comfortable jeans that are never too tight and never too loose either. And when he can't be around, Dream makes sure the clothes hug Hob in just the right way, to remind Hob that he's there, in spirit, as humans like to say, and that he'll try to be around as soon as possible.

Can you imagine Hob having a bad day and Dream just......... manifesting the softest most gentle clothes around him to hold him in bed as he would until he can be there himself? Or whenever Hob finds a student crying, there's always a handkerchief in his pocket, and somehow whenever any of his students wipe their tears with them they just have the most restorative night of sleep ever?

Dream making a suit for Hob to defend yet another thesis, and the suit being so comfortable and making Hob feel so so so confident it's insane.

Aaaaah the many many love languages of Dream of The Endless and his husband Hob Gadling whose love language is just Dream

[btwimkindagay]

Mild spoiler for @landwriter 's Oaths:

[carnelianmeluha]

Scones and bonus Scotch Eggs and Chicken Pinwheels from Picnic by @landwriter

I had been planning on making this brunch picnic since I read this beautiful Dreamling fic. @landwriter is the queen of narration and it really feels like you're in the Dreaming and witnessing spring flowers blooming all around you. I made a moodboard for the story a while ago, and today I made the scones, and added scotch eggs and chicken pinwheels for a filling meal. I am no match for the Dream King's picnic spread for Hob. But here's my version of a Dreamling picnic!

Many Dreamling fics mention scones. But I soon realized that British and American scone recipes are quite different. This is the first time I've made a British-style scone and I loved the texture!

------

Dream had appeared in his office with a wicker basket that looked stolen from a Beatrix Potter story. A delicate gingham square peeked from the lid. He set it on Hob’s desk and then primly folded his hands behind his back.

------

I had the picnic in my yard lol. Although the heat wave has killed half my plants, I still found some flower pots and made a little picnic corner. On the right you can see the Morpheus flowers or black velvet petunias too and I also added a black plate to match Dream's style 😆.

The fic doesn't really say what Dream prepared for Hob, so I just used my own imagination.

------

Lunch was too piddling a word for the spread Dream had packed. Lunch was a crust of bread and ale, or pottage. Lunch was a Sainsbury’s Egg & Cress Sandwich wolfed down with the last of the morning’s flask of Yorkshire Tea. This was a feast. A temple offering. For Hob. His chest twinged a little with affection. God, he was in love.

“This pleases you,” said Dream, who was looking unfairly elegant for someone sat on a gingham blanket with a bit of clotted cream on the side of his mouth.

Hob kissed it away. “Oh, yes.”

------

There was one line about scones, so I made sure to include that, and added the rest too. I will make American-style scones for other fics another day.

------

Matthew was eating scone crumbs and congratulating himself on his good sense to suggest a picnic. Birds loved picnics too. He hadn’t realized how much until this moment. Jesus. Picnics were a great idea.

------

I'll end with my favorite lines from the fic, besides the description of spring, and closing lines:

------

"Only,” murmured Dream, “must it be in Anthropocene?” [I laughed so much at this line 😂]

“What?”

“Lie down, lover.” Hob did, a delighted suspicion creeping over him as Dream reached into his jacket pocket. Dream stretched over him, and spoke it low into his ear: “And I will take you to a Spring no man has seen.”

------

[valeriianz]

12!

12: Ideas of a perfect date

(besides going anywhere with you?)

i love adventure! dates that take me by surprise. i once had a guy take me past the city limits (not to murder me) but to show me windmills. they are MASSIVE and the open fields around them are so windy, its crazy.

i took someone on a picnic date where we had to do a lot of walking through a park, leading into a more secluded trail in the woods, where we ate home made sandwiches that i made (hers was smoked salmon with cream chz, avocado, and capers. mine was roast beef and spicy mustard with provolone and pickles).

ive also been go karting haha. dinner dates are fine, but im awful at talking about myself so i always prefer a date that challenge the norm and we get to know each other in different ways <3

get in my business

[fishfingersandscarves]

Oaths by @landwriter is done!!! go read it!!!

[fishfingersandscarves]

saint morpheus

(inspired by the fic of the same name by @landwriter)

prints now available!