Midnight Strangers by Mitos (@seriouslycalamitous)
It’s finally done!!! This is officially the thickest book I’ve bound to date, coming in at 828 pages (796 of the fic itself). The Oxford hollow + bradel combination worked so well to support the textblock’s weight, and the foiled faux leather is super pretty, so I’m really happy with how everything turned out! I’ve learned a lot over the course of binding this that I will absolutely be using for my next thick bind.
The front cover of the book features the English title of the book hand foiled in gold. Around it are Bible verses written in Cantonese Chinese (Genesis 11:8-9) hand foiled in silver.
The back of the book is like a mirror of the front except that it has the Cantonese title of the book hand foiled in gold, and around it is the English translation of the same bible verses.
“So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
It's taken me more than a year to make this post. And it would have taken even longer, except I realized that what was holding me back now was wanting it to be perfect, which, let's face it, will never happen. So I am here to tell you about my friend @zulufic, about the amazing people of @renegadeguild, the Renegade Bookbinding Guild, and about fandom and community and how sometimes we really do get it right.
Zulu was my fandom and irl friend, and there is no good way to say this, she died of cancer a year and a half ago. She was family. She and my wife and I knew each other for twenty years, a significant part of our adult lives. Were at each other's weddings (her wedding to @belldreams was only a dozen people), travelled to cons, and helped each other move. She spent an unplanned week camping out in our living room one summer, as we torrented Stargate Atlantis, modded a House big bang from our living room couch, marathoned six degrees of actor separation media with us. Fell in and out of fandoms around each other, large and small. Witnessed each other's families and relationships and lives grown and change.
When I started fanbinding, I made her a pamphlet of her crackfic for Christmas. It was right around the time we found out she first had cancer. Surgery, chemo, and then we had another two years with her. She fell into another fandom, hard. I made her an anthology of her A League Of Their Own fic--all that she'd written at the time, at least. ("Would… you make a book of my fic?" she said when she saw my first casebound books. I never want to forget the way she said my name when she was asking me for something that was a foregone conclusion. "That was already the plan for Christmas," I told her.) I bound her rarepair House mpreg crackfic the next year, because that's what friends do. I didn't finish it until the spring--and then we found out the cancer was back.
She asked me for a favour over that summer. "Soooo… could you do something for me? Could you do another pamphlet, of this particular fic?" Yes, I said, yes I will. I will make you a pamphlet. I will make you TWELVE pamphlets. A HUNDRED AND TWENTY pamphlets, and more. (Spoiler alert, I did not make a hundred and twenty pamphlets, but I did make multiple copies of three.)
Here's the thing. She was on the prolific side, as a fic writer, and had been in fandom for decades. I wanted to bind more of her fic than I could possibly accomplish in time. I recognized there were finite amount of things I can finish while she was still here to see it, and that if I had tried to make this the only project I had, I would have collapsed under my own sadness.
That week, I said to a good fanbinding friend, I want to bind more of Zulu's fic, I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. Her response: "Can I help? Do you want me to typeset something?" Me: (ALL THE EMOTION) "… yes. But also, I was thinking of asking the Renegade guild if anyone else would be bind a few of her fic, too, maybe a few quick pamphlets?" Her: "YES, do it."
I did it. I posted. She immediately started a spreadsheet organizing what I'd already bound, and to let other people sign up for things, and put herself first on the list. The fact that someone else was organizing for me (made a SPREADSHEET!) made me a bit weepy. By the time I went to bed an hour later, I think we had half a dozen people signed up to participate.
I should have been prepared for the full force of the Renegade Bookbinding Guild members, otherwise known as the inhabitants of the enabling server.
The next morning came. And a few more people signed up. I tentatively suggested that if anyone wanted to include a card or note and maybe some stickers for her wife and their kiddo L, it would be welcome. And people started asking me questions. Like, what fic does she like best? Where should we start? Can we make a care package? What does her wife need?
Knowing the people in the server, and their general kindness and enthusiasm, I should not have been surprised, I really shouldn't. It just hits differently when you're the one who's the recipient, you know? "I don't know why you're surprised," said another friend. "You asked us to help and we're helping!" And it wasn't an official guild project, just an incredible act of community and compassion. And immense enthusiasm and zero restraint.
I started asking some surreptitious questions of Zulu and Bell. I'd asked Zulu a few weeks before about granting blanket permission for anyone to bind her fic, and for the typesets to be shared. I casually said, "Sooo I mentioned this to the fanbinding group. If someone does want to send you something, can I share your address? And can I suggest they send cards/stickers to L?" (Yes, and yes.)
We started a separate thread in the Discord server to keep up with the planning. Some collaborations started to come up. I'll typeset from South Africa or southeast Asia or from next door in the next US state, you print and bind, we'll collect some of the American books for a mass mailing to Canada. I don't have time to bind, but I can contribute to shipping costs. I don't know that fandom, but I can take your typeset, and make a copy. I love that fandom but don't have time and materials, but I'll typeset if you bind. At this point, there were more than thirty people involved. New-old fandoms were discovered. Techniques and experiments grew.
I told Bell a little bit. She knew there were books coming. I didn't let her know the full scope, but I figured she could use something good to look forward to. Zulu said one of her goals was to finish all her WIPs before she died. (That hurt my heart. She almost made it! But even at the end, she got distracted by a new fic idea...)
The behind the scenes binding continued. There was negotiating over obscure fandoms, and exclamations over fic for niche favourites. A need for a great deal of baseball theming because Zulu wrote a LOT of ALOTO fic in the last few years. There were anthologies and pamphlets, and tiny books, and large chonks, and an entire collection of every drabble Zulu ever wrote in House fandom.
There was a 100-word hockey RPF drabble bound in a one-page folio with metallic foil details. There was a whole-fandom slipcased pamphlet set of her handful of Friday Night Lights fic. There were Buffy and X-Files fic unearthed from deep in her backlist. There were several bonkers-ambitious binds of her SMAUs, social media AUs of tweets and screenshots that had me throw up my hands and exclaim "how am I supposed to typeset this?"
There were obscure Canadian fandoms encased in the fanciest of marbled paper pamphlets, and a House fic about stolen lunches bound in a brown paper bag. A flower-titled ALOTO fic with a cover patterned like a seed packet. A Yuletide obscure movie fic in silk moire. Firefly fic with a marbled paper inset, and a Stargate Atlantis fic with a vellum dustcover. A crackfic five things fic with a metallic paper DVD on the cover as a Chinese stab binding, from a fandom that needed MOAR LENS FLARE. ("I am sure you know this, Luna," said the binder working on it, "but Zulu is really fucking funny." Yes, yes she absolutely was.)
I can't name every single book because there were more than FORTY of them, but I love every one of them and the care that went into them.
I told you Renegade goes hard.
We drove to nearby city to see Zulu and Bell in August, 2024. They'd just changed up her pain medication and she was having a good day. We had a good visit. I put the pamphlet fic in her hands myself. They'd told her in June that she should expect about a year at most. It would only be three months. That was the last time I saw her in person.
We moved up the projected mailing date from mid-October to mid-September.
We knew, over the September long weekend, when the group chat went quiet, that it wasn't a good sign. I'd kept up a steady stream of pet pictures and other small bits of news. As the summer ended, we had fewer responses from her, and were more likely to just get an emoji back. Morning glory flowers only bloom for a day, and they were blooming outside my back door. I started sending a picture of that morning's flowers to the group chat each day. (And cat pictures. Of course.) I don't know if anyone but me really cared about the morning glories, but it felt like something tangible to hold onto.
The first few envelopes and boxes started to arrive. There were cards and stickers and handknit slippers, and a science facts zine just for L. I told Bell, tell Zulu we love her. And that I'm not sorry I unleashed 30+ fanbinders on her AO3 account.
Bell: (lists off the books that had arrived.)
Me: Oh, so the group shipment from California isn't there yet. Plus at least three other packages I know about.
Bell: Holy shites
Several lovely people found my name in the acknowledgements of more than one fic, and sent me copies, too. (Twenty years in fandom together…) I cried.
We knew things weren't good when Bell emailed to set up a time for a video chat. A few days after the September long weekend, we talked to them face to face, to get the news that they were moving Zulu into hospice care the next day. It would be the last time we'd hear her voice. We knew it was coming, it just all went so much more quickly than expected. She died less than three weeks later.
(But take a look at the dates on the last fic on her AO3 account. In such typical fandom fashion, she was updating her last fic from her hospice bed. A direct quote from Zulu: "The most important thing once I'm there, of course, will be to sort out the wifi situation.")
So, timelines got bumped up by another week. There was a rush for mailing. One international package from Europe got returned to sender without leaving the country due to post office shenanigans, and had to make a return trip, too late for Zulu. The package from Japan made it. The big group shipment box was sent via overnight delivery. It was supposed to arrive on Tuesday. It showed up on Friday, the day that she died, after she was gone. But by that last week, I'm not sure how much Zulu would have taken in about it, honestly. Bell took it with her to supper that night with friends and family to open as a special treat.
There were more than forty books of all sizes all told, from more than thirty people, and I still have about four more in progress myself right now, though I'll never get to put them in Zulu's hands and see her grin and say "Aww, you GUYS…"
But we flooded her with books of her own fic. We deluged her family with her words and love.
The books were on display at her memorial service, along with the quilt that her ALOTO friends had made for her. Also, the jersey she got printed based on her own fic (such a dork, I say with the world's most affection.) The books were all over the front of the room, and it wasn't even all of them. Zulu's mom sent a heartfelt thank you card to be shared with the whole group. The memorial also included earl grey tea and shrimp (two of Zulu's favourites) and a video message recorded to her from one of the actors from A League of Their Own (which I am sure confused many people, but we knew what was up!)
The second group shipment arrived with me several months later, and at least one more book came to me in person at the Renegade retreat, and Bell has them all in a bookcase together. I still have a few more to finish right now.
And, Renegade being Renegade, a couple of people have eyed Zulu's AO3 account and said, "Well, we didn't manage to bind ALL her 350 fic… so far…" And I laughed until I cried, and I am still hugging you all right now Renegade, SO HARD. And you've left a legacy, and you've made a difference. There are no thank you's that are enough. The love is stored in the fanbinds.
I've asked anyone who wants to share what they made to tag it #fanbindsforzulu. If you want to see some amazing things, check out the tag. And if you want to read her fic, and if you want to bind it, she would have loved that, and I would love to see it, too. And tell your friends you love them.
The Renegade Bookbinding Guild is proud to announce we are officially a 501c3 educational nonprofit! This is a significant and exciting milestone for Renegade! Renegade’s official non-profit status allows us to support the growth of our various events as they become more money and resource intensive. Renegade's focus as a nonprofit is on building community, providing education, and promoting preservation of written works.
To read more about this very exciting announcement, information is on the Renegade Bookbinding Guild website, along with details about the updates to guild membership.
501c3 Status Update
Renegade Bookbinding Guild's current board can be viewed at the link below.
The Board
Renegade can now receive tax-deductible donations!
Donate Here
Renegade will NOT move any resources behind a membership "paywall" or in any way limit current or future resources in the Renegade Bindery Discord server.
Renegade is currently recruiting volunteers to assist in the Binderary Mods & Website Designers roles, among others!
Volunteer Applications
We also have a new logo! Thank you to @starblightbindery and @runawaymarbles for their respective work in how our logos have developed over the years.
This is a reprise of the first glimmerglanger fic (and first star wars fic) I ever bound several years ago, as a gift for @mourningmountainsbindery. It was much earlier in my bookbinding journey, and you can tell! This time I had found some awesomely dramatic photo manips by @nobie which they allowed me to use for a dust jacket! I really enjoyed the effect from their addition.
I printed this on 28 lb linen finish paper which made it a very pleasing chonk. It also got silk endbands, crepaldi endpapers, a three color speckled edge, and colibri bookcloth with the title foiled in mando'a. Typeset is still my original version, but it got some better margins by virtue of printing it on legal quarto instead of letter quarto!
After almost 8 months I can finally reveal my secret project, a fan bind of one of the most delicious Silco fics ever. Drink With Me was a monster of a book, and I had so much fun letting it get bigger and bigger. The cover art is gold, orange, and black heat transfer vinyl (that didn't want to photograph well on the spine)
The original plan was red, gold, and black for the color motif, but when I saw the name "whiskey" for a color of Duo cloth I had to. I had to. So the headbands have a dark brown instead of black to match the spine cloth. The endpapers were marbled by hand by a friend of mine on gold paper.
The typeset was the most involved I've ever done so far. I cannot stop myself from maximalist all the time, even when I'm trying to be subtle, which I wasn't, here. I went nuts with the flowers.
I commissioned the title page art from the wonderfully talented @celine-designs because I knew exactly what I wanted it to be and knew I'd need like 10 years to be able to draw it myself. It needed to be that moment. I took inspo from Celine's label design for the cover art.
Anyway thank you so much @ink-and-dagger for this joyous ride of a story. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I stayed up way too late reading, I had to remind myself I was asexual a few times. I wanted to return your labor of love with one of my own. Thank you for sharing this story with all of us, and I hope when you see this you see a reflection of the incredible time and effort you put into your writing.
if you don't have your own boyfriend, rented is fine by @nyoomerr / nyoomerr
After being turned away by the nice Shizun of that other world, Luo Binghe finds himself in the modern world where he can find a new nice Shizun for himself. Instead, he finds Shen Yuan, who could not possibly be who he's searching for - he's crass, and inelegant, and looks only vaguely related to Shen Qingqiu.
Luckily for both of them, Shen Yuan mistakes Luo Binghe as a cosplayer for hire, and asks to rent him out as his very normal new boyfriend.
What can i say except: I LOVE THIS FIC! I love it so so much it makes me so happy seeing luo binghe get the happy ending he deserves. I love that its such a good exploration of biased POVs (ah shen yuan, the man you are) and that its the right amount of humorous and poignant for my liking <3 thank you so much for this fic, i love it dearly!! and i really hope that you enjoy having this copy, nyoomerr!
As for design notes: this one has 3 layers of cloth on the cover to emulate binghe's clothes, and the cover/chapter designs are the embroidery design down the collar of one of his robes. Shen yuan is convinced binghe is a cosplayer literally right up to the end, so i HAD to. Edges are painted in daler rowney silver, and its soooo shiny, along with basically every single other part of this bind, i LIBERALLY used toner foil for the first time ever and i really enjoyed the look. i did not think that it would be so tedious putting it through the laminator hahaha. Also i love this cloth, it a mix of silk finish and moire cloth, and it feels/looks extremely sumptuous, its truly amazing.
Fanbind: Do Every Stupid Thing by thepartyresponsible
This was an already-made typeset generously shared with me by someone on the Renegade server (@runawaymarbles). I used their beautiful design element for the cover as well (although I cannot recommend doing interlocking elements in different colors if you are visuospatially-impaired like I am!). It was the perfect baby-step into my first actual text bind, whereas up until this one I had only bound blank notebooks or done rebinds of already-printed books.
I was worried it might be too over the top with reflective foil used for all four colors (even the top, which photographs looking a little white, is reflective silver foil), but I ended up liking it. It's a nice contrast with the matte gunmetal bookcloth, and echoes the quote that says, "Don't let 'em break your heart. That small one's kinda flashy." (Rosa, my dearest, you were only there for a few pages but you live forever in my heart).
This copy was meant for me, but ended up being timed just right (with a little doing-this-instead-of-work on my part) to send to my amazing beta and fandom bestie, @kangofu-cb, so the next copy will be for me!
The fic is Do Every Stupid Thing by @thepartyresponsible, a.k.a. the fic that got every single one of us into the Jason Todd fandom. @thepartyresponsible, I sent you an ask, but if you want a bound copy of your fic I would be thrilled to send you one!
