Igenlode Wordsmith

My attempt at producing a sample hand-bound copy of Arctic Raoul in its current state was a surprising success, although it used most of my blank paper and a worrying amount of my current laser cartridge! I spent ages fiddling around trying to get it to print pages two-up in 'realistic' proportions and whitespace on an A4 sheet, as opposed to the standard self-publishing approach of simply printing everything as an A5 page with minimal margins in order to reduce page count and simplify matters :-p

( bookbinding )

( synopsis )

I think that by the looks of it I shall probably have to omit the entire existence of Lancard from the synopsis, and quite possibly the whole Raoul/d'Artois and Raoul/Philippe relationships as well, leaving room only for Raoul's interactions with Christine and with Erik :-O It's also very difficult to describe the complexity of Christine's interactions with Erik in captivity, especially for a potential reader who doesn't have any idea that Erik is seriously mentally unstable at this point, and is not acquainted with his weird mixture of arrogance and cringing subservience...

I spent Sunday in the multi-stage process of applying new endpapers and a strengthened and hinged cloth spine to my disintegrating hardback manuscript book. (click to view whole image)



The results would have been neater if I had had a sharp craft knife instead of scissors (I threw away my old disposable one because it was getting too blunt), if I'd bothered to construct headbands and turn in the spine over them (or just turn in the ends of the spine), and if I'd proceeded to the fourth step of pasting down siding-papers to make the boards look prettier and hide the raw edge of the cloth. I may yet live to regret this final omission if it ends up fraying a lot from handling, but I really didn't want to have to deal with A4-sized pieces of damp millboard, which tend to warp horribly when wet...

At least the boards, which were dangling by a literal thread (or two or three), are now securely fixed back onto the rest of the binding, which was in pretty good condition. Now I just have to get used to a new search image...

I have no idea where those scraps of cloth originated. Possibly one of my mother's home-made dresses, though I have no recollection of anything quite that... spotty!