手取川製本 ~ Tedorigawa Bookmakers Tedorigawa Bookmakers

Bookbinding
We found ourselves finishing up two blank notebooks this week. One yellow and one mostly red with a slightly floral motif. 
The Yellow One has a title on the front cover: Dibujo & Kaku (the Kaku being, in Japanese, 描く. Both carrying the meaning of Draw or Drawing. On the inside title page of the yellow one is a sketch of the front of a steam train, an umbrella, a cloud, and rain. The word Train is over the umbrella. T/Rain was the idea. 
There are 105 numbered pages in Dibujo/描く. Each page has one part of the sketch on the inside title page: the train, rain drops, the umbrella, or the word train hovering over the page number.
Both the Dibujo/描く book and the red one have the same William Morris-esque end papers that give the books a bit of elegance to them.
The red one has a inside title page: Sketch 描く Dibujo and sketchbook in Japanese which is スケッチブック.
It also has 105 pages but it is not numbered so the artist/scribbler must remember approximately where in the book they scribbled or arted (?). It does, however, have a yellow band around the lower portion both as a way to discover the front and to use up a band of yellow book cloth.
Fiction
While I finished Molly Bright, I started yet another novel but this one a slight twist for me. There seems to be two (or more) ways of writing. One is outlining everything and being label a planner. The other way is to wing it, let the story meander about until the author discovers both a plot and character; this called winging it or a pantser (seat of the pants type of thinking). I wing it. Usually.
I  outlined a previous novel. And lost interest because I knew where it was going so I never finished it. The one I just started I have outlined but I also set a goal of finishing it in 30 days (not unlike NaNoWriMo but not in November).
It’s a murder mystery set in Seattle with the main character (Max McKenzie) and his female assistant (JT Proust) being Seattle Police Department detectives. Titled: The Abandoned Corpse. But it isn’t just abandoned because the woman is dead, but also abandoned by a lover (jilted), and she in turn abandons several friends, ambitions, dreams).
The first Max McKenzie Murder Mystery explores the dark lives of rich people who abandon people and things to make, they think, their lives better. 
Substack
Chapter 16 of Heart of September (formerly Heart of November and Eating November).
Amelia, Hairball, and Sakombí battle it out with some of Tipu’s henchmen. A very large snake attacks one henchman. He spills the beans about Tipu’s location. Our heroes march off to do battle with the Congo’s biggest sex & drug trafficker

Bookbinding
A client sent me a book that needed to be rebuilt, repaired, and improved. I need to fix the covers, the spine, and a map is glued to the back cover. Because I have to fix the covers I was thinking of updating the map, too. This is an exciting proposition because I have to investigate maps! Also, the client wants a soft cover so he can cram it in his book bag without fear. 
Fiction
I finished Molly Bright!
I have included sub-plots concerning Molly (trouble with her boss), Merengue & Early (who want to help homeless orphans) and the marital problems of Keiko of Kyosuke. I have also, always, strengthened characters.
I wrote the ending where all the main characters are happy do what they dream of doing. Of the two bad guys, one begs for Frank to send for the police rather than have Frank take care of him. The other bad guy escapes in a shoot out and disappears into the Osaka night.
 
Other than Molly Bright I have been improving my four-book Fear Trilogy. More action, of course. More excitement, naturally. And fewer spelling mistakes, perhaps. 
The Fear Trilogy (in four books) follows the life of Max McKenzie from his incarceration at age eleven for the murder of his mother to his status as a war hero in a dystopian society. In this society three things have happened: the Conglomeration owns and runs everything; beings from a moon from Jupiter have landed; the beings, called Jeeters, are severely discriminated against. The Conglomeration gives them third or fourth-class rankings in society; menial jobs, substandard housing, discrimination on a daily basis.
This results in a civil war between the Jeeters and the Conglomerate and the governments of Io send troops to aide the Earth-bound Jeeters. In the course of the war Max is made a foot soldier, then a manufactured war hero, an advisor to a Senator who becomes President, then a liaison between Jeeters and the Conglomerate.
Substack
The Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly focuses its paws on the canals of our body, our planet, and our nearest planet (Mars).

Bookbinding
In the last few days or weeks, I’ve created an A5 Blank Notebook with page numbers on slightly yellow paper with a bright yellow cover (red threads, though), and red headbands with a dark red (maroon?) bookmark for your viewing and using pleasure. 
This monstrosity has nine (9) signatures of four folios each for a grand total of 144 pages. It also has a William Morris-influenced pair of endpapers that set off the yellow of the covers quite nicely, I believe. You are more than allowed to decorate the front cover as you see fit. You bought it, you name it (as Joe Walsh wants titled an album.) It opens nicely, too, so it can be used for sketching or doodling to your heart’s content.

In this project I believe I might have improved slightly on the spine. I've experimented with the space size between the cover and the spine quite a bit. I think I've managed to find the sweet spot for this book. You professionals might (or not) disagree but I feel like it's better than most covers.
The more I experiment with design and dimensions, the more confused I make myself. I have taken to writing down information for the Next book and sticking it on my cork board To Do panel that hovers over my workbench.
Fiction
This probably happens more often than not among writers. Taking a character from one novel and placing them in another novel. I’m not talking about a series like Harry Potter. I’m talking about a minor character in one book showing up as the major character in another book. Like Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet (consisting of Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea.)
Or, more recently, David Mitchell’s novels that contain many of the same characters with different emphasis in different novels (Ghost Written, Number Nine Dream, Black Swan Green, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.)
I’ve done that with Molly Bright. One character in Molly Bright is a Japanese dancer who changed his name from the very common Suzuki (which is why Ichiro is called Ichiro and not Suzuki, too common) to Merengue (the dance, not the sugary pastry). When he worked in a medical supply company he called himself Suzuki but when he began meditating in an ashram in Bari, Italy and learned to dance, he switched to Merengue.
He is a free-spirited dancer who learned dance in Italy and the Dominican Republic. He continues to dance when he returns to Japan and is often rousted by the police for his unusual life style: no permanent job or home, sleeping outdoors, walking everywhere, holding no great quantities of cash. 
I have put him in another novel in which he is the main character. He relates and learns from a variety of people in Italy and the Dominican Republic. He helps Molly and Early in Molly Bright with the police following Sawako’s kidnapping. This episode shows up at the end of his novel. The tentative title is Merengue or The Dancer Merengue or Merengue the Dancer but I’m not pleased with any of those titles. 
Meanwhile, Molly Bright is staying the course and rapidly coming to an end. I need to develop all the characters a bit more, clean up the chronology a tad, fix typos, spelling errors, check my grammar, and make sure the plot is relatively hole free.
Hopefully, it will be wrapped up by the next episode of Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Don’t hold your breath; I’m also reading Infinite Jest. 
Substack
On Substack you can read Chapter 15 of  Heart of September / November. While you’re there, read about Tarzan’s connection to Electric Cars in the previous post.

Bookbinding
In my New Year’s Resolution (NYsR©) to podcast more frequently, I require more content. This is good for you the listener/readers. Thank you.
For this episode, I made two A6 blank notebooks which you can use for sketching or doodling during Zoom meetings or, and more importantly, taking notes during real face-to-face meetings with other real flesh-and-blood humans.
The first notebook is 112 pages in 7 signatures. It also has page numbers for ease of referencing and finding your masterpieces. The name of this book is Sketchbook in both Japanese – スケッチブック–, and Spanish – Cuaderno de Dibujo. And has a stylish yellow vertical sash. This indicates both the front cover and the fore edge.
The other one is 128 pages in 8 signatures. It is completely blank, no page numbers or bookmarks to differentiate pages. But it sports three titles: Japanese – スケッチブック–, Spanish – Cuaderno de Dibujo –, and English – Sketchbook. It also displays a chiyogami sash near the fore edge to give the artist/writer/user a front cover design.  
Fiction
Molly Bright continues. Last podcast I told you about Sawako being related to water in all its forms including waterboarding and stale, scummy rain water in the corner of her cell where she’s being held captive. Today, you’ll learn about Molly herself. 
She’s a businesswoman out of Phoenix, Arizona. She’s a buyer of home decoration furnishings. She is often worried about money: prices, costs, profits, and has no qualms about ripping off creators to make a bigger profit for her company. She assumes by making money for the company that the company will be loyal to her; this is a mistake she learns in the course of Molly Bright.
Substack
Chapter 14 of Heart of November (changed to Heart of September) is up and waiting for you to read it. Amelia meets her rapist. Violence ensues. 
A new series called Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly is on its first issue. The first issue is about Soup. What is the relationship between a children’s game-show host and David Bowie? And what is the relationship between the children’s host and soup? What is the origin of Soup? All these questions are answered in 
Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly: Soup
The next issue will be on Tarzan and Electric Cars. Only on Substack.

Bookbinding
In mid-December a client made a request for a 2024 schedule to be ready soon. By soon, I think they meant before January 2024, which, as you know, zoomed by quite quickly. I told them that was impossible because I was taking a short break for New Year’s and subsequent joys and regrets about failed New Year’s Resolutions.
However, I finished it and shipped it off. The client was disappointed that it came so late but not with the final product itself. I warned them it would be late. I guess the lesson here is I shouldn’t take orders for schedules so late in the year.
Each schedule I make is personalized for the client. I ask them to send 12 to 14 photos that they’d like in the book and in what order if they have a preference. I also ask what style of schedule they’d like. For example, if the week starts on Monday or Sunday, if holidays are named or just red. Plus other desires the client can think of. This all takes time, of course, but if I weren’t so lazy, I could probably do it quicker.
Fiction
Molly Bright is being edited nicely. I’m tightening up action, dialog, characters. Making supporting characters more in tune with the major themes of friendship, honesty, loyalty etc. Plus, the end is in sight! I mean, action and reaction, tying up loose ends, facing a lot of editing is in sight.
Themes for the major characters are occurring naturally. For example, the kidnap victim, Sawako, is linked to water: surfing, swimming, bathing, and waterboarding. 
The first paragraph of Molly Bright. Any comments are appreciated.
Sawako loved the freedom of the sea, of swimming in it, of floating on it, of sailing over it, especially of surfing in, over, and on it. Sweeping down a wave; curling left or right. Dangling her toes over the front of the board or to the side. Crouching down to slide under the lip. Leaning back to flip away. Skimming over the water, her face inches from the wave hurtling down on her ready to crush her bones; the sea was liquid as solid as concrete. For a few exhilarating seconds her fear concentrated on the Here. The Now. The Wave. Not on them. In surfing, she was free. They disappeared.
Substack
 I’ve posted here about why I haven’t posted on Substack which I’m renewing posting on. Sort of like many people promising to post more on all their various social media sites but then they fade away …
Actually, remember a novel I wrote about last podcast (listen here) called Heart of September? This post on Substack is a recap of what I have posted on Substack up until February 14 of last year, so a year ago.
 

Bookbinding
 
The second book of 2024 (maybe I’ll stop numbering them. Maybe.) is a 2024 Schedule delivered to the client halfway through January of 2024; a bit late. But not as late as the next one.
It’s an A4-sized schedule perfectly bound (a style that uses a lot of glue, not that I bound it perfectly) of 16 pages (two for each month and some endpapers).
The cover is of a textured paper I acquired years ago plus two parallel red lines of the same type of paper indicating the front. The client then attached their favorite stamps on the front. The back is decoration-free.
The client complained the numbers for the days was too big taking up valuable writing space. But, fortunately, not so big the client requested a re-do. However, as the client orders schedules from me regularly, I’ve adjusted the letter size. 
Fiction
I continue working on Molly Bright. In order to familiarize myself with the inner workings of the characters, I’ve started reading it from the beginning and editing as I go. I believe I’m making it clearer to understand, more dramatic, and further develop the characters. While it is basically an action novel, it is overall character-driven.
Here’s the basic plot:
Woman gets kidnapped; strangers try to find & help her. 
Here are the characters:
Sawako, a Japanese computer whiz/chemist, spends five months avoiding a religious group who want her to make a dirty bomb.To relax she surfs on a beach in Miyazaki on her way to Kagoshima. The religious group finds her and snatches her off the beach.
Molly, a buyer for a housewares company, is in Japan buying housewares. She surfs on the same beach in Miyazaki on her way to Kagoshima. She sees Sawako get kidnapped. She also gets a good look at the kidnapper; the only eye witness.
Early, a recent vagabond, surfs the same beach (Ibii, Miyazaki). He sees the kidnapping but not the kidnapper. Together Molly and Early run to the police. At the police station they meet Merengue, a Japanese vagabond, who speaks English. They discover the kidnappers are in Osaka.
In Osaka, they meet Frank, an former gangster turned ramen shop owner, and Arisa, a craft maker with health issues, who help Molly, Early, & Merengue discover the kidnapper’s hideout. Violence ensues.
And there are a few important supporting characters:
Bald Headed Guy the man in charge of Sawako’s kidnapping and a religious leader;
Henchman, his second in charge who is not so enamored with the religion;
Keiko and Kyosuke, Sawako’s parents who are university professors (she in chemistry, he in English);
Tachibana, a former gang member turned university professor who teaches with Kyosuke. 
Substack 
I have revived a dormant Substack. Please check it out and subscribe if it pleases you. The current post is Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly: Soup. All about soup (not a recipe post; a history post.)