#300k words of love and blood and sweat

[ghost-proofbaby]

I’ve been reading “the shire is burning” for the past week when I can and I don’t know why people don’t like OC fics because I have been squealing and squeaking and smiling and blushing the entire time. You’re a clever storyteller with that and I’m in awe. I’ve been so excited for free time to read it and I’m always on the edge of my seat and going “okay, ONE more chapter for the night” and then it’s “oh….okay ONE MORE.” If it’s not popular with other people, it’s popular with ME. Willow and Eddie have my entire heart and soul. You’re incredible.

willow and eddie may have your entire heart and soul, but you have mine.

the success of twenty four hours has been really overwhelming and left me so full of love for all of you, but shire was the first time i branched into the fandom and my first finished fic in a very long time, and will always hold such a special piece of my heart. i've said it before and i'll say it again: reading back over their story and getting to continue to write it feels like coming home to me. i spent so many hours getting to know those characters, crafting their beginnings. twenty four is new and exciting and full of potential, but shire/mordor? it's an old friend. i could go on for hours about it and how much it meant to me, how much it continues to mean to me when anyone shows it support.

thank you so so much i love you so very dearly <3

[gia-d]

Back in October last year, I started reading This is an Adjuration by @not-freyja.

By the time I had made it to chapter 5, I had already started typesetting this story as I read because I knew this would be one of those stories that I needed to have on my shelf.

When I finally caught up to the story at chapter 31, I begged the author to let me bind this when it was finished.

Nearly a year later, and what is probably the most important bind of my life is finally finished. Check out these glamour shots, and if you want to hear more about the actual binding process and about how this fic actually changed my life, see below.

So funny story, before I get into the technical side of this bind, but this fic actually changed my life. Not as in I was greatly emotionally moved by the story, though don't get me wrong I absolutely was, but genuinely this fic introduced me to some of the best people I have ever had to privilege of knowing (Hello Class, you know who you are 🩷), and also, it introduced me to Freyja, the incredibly talented author, who, as I type this, is curled up in bed next to me fast asleep after flying half way around the world to go on a two week long date with me.

Moral of the story folks is comment on the fics you like. You might accidentally meet the love of your life on, and I can't believe I'm saying this, AO3.

Anyways, about the bind!

This bind was a challenge from day 1. I had to do the typeset for this 300k word fic 4 times, and had to split it across 2 volumes. This was the longest fic I have ever attempted to bind, and it was so thick I couldn't get it in the paper trimmer.

To make this book as durable as possible, I attempted a few techniques. I secured it with 3 tapes, I made an Oxford hollow, I rounded the spine, I made a slipcase and I used 2.3mm boards where normally I use 1.8mm.

The slipcase is covered with embossed faux leather, buckram and plain ribbon, and lined with gold satin fabric. I've never made a slipcase before so this was an experience.

The books are covered with an emerald green silk finish bookcloth which really gave the books the luxury they deserved. I foiled custom end papers as well as every chapter title page using heat reactive transfer foil on toner ink (never again I am never doing that again omg it took days). Huge thank you to @la-sera for letting me use her artwork which helped inspire this fic!

The grey flashback chapters I had to use HTV for the border decoration and I'm very happy with how that turned out because it was so easy and straight forward, unfortunately it just wasn't viable for the whole book.

It feels weird to finally have these books done. They have my blood, sweat, tears and my heart poured into them, and I've been working on them for so long that it's odd to actually have them finished. I'm so proud of this bind, and feel like I've grown so much as a fanbinder by making these.

Anyways, if anyone has any questions about the process, please don't hesitate to ask!

(and if you are an Linked Universe fan and haven't read Adjuration yet, this is your sign!)

[jensettermandu]

that good girls chapter had me shaking skdnskjssk. NEXT CHAPTER SOON PLS! also i have a huge appreciation for your writing and just wanna mention how much i love stardust like that story changed my entire life i always reread it

YES, CHAPTER IS COMING NEXT WEEK 💪

STOP, writing stardust literally changed my life, i seriously cannot move on from it and i am sure that it is the best thing i have and ever will have written AND to hear that so many of you agree is just fucking heart-warming.

BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS were put into that. it is by far my most thought-out story i have written. it literally took me around six months to finish and TWO google docs because I somehow reached a word limit on my docs by the end???? 300K WORDS 😭(to hear that someone rereads all that is literally so 🤧🥰💕) THANK YOU FOR READING IT

i could literally talk about stardust for days (this is also me promoting my story so like go read it if you haven't) by the time i finished it and literally put the last period i legit shed tears because of how that story was part of me for months and i was done with it but didn't want to be🤧

im afraid most of my readers will miss out on it simply bc it's not gp and yall are lame bc of that 🍅🍅🍅

[mrsrcbinscn]

❤️ 300K likes mrs.robinson ☑️: CMA Fest 2022 has been one to remember, my lord. Dan, my husband, and I just got back to our apartment here and if only I can make sense of the word salad in my brain right now, damn.

 Dan and I have had the privilege of not only performing at Nissan Stadium on Thursday, following Darius Rucker, but at several of the special stages set up downtown for CMA Fest. We met several up and coming artists, including some young artists of color and that warmed our hearts.

We were invited back to the Ryman to play in the weekly Grand Ole Opry Show as Dara & Danny for the fifteenth time, and played on the stage as Sara Evans, Diamond Rio, and Vince Gill. During the show, we were lucky enough to be present for our second surprise invitation to join the Opry when Vince Gill invited Charlie McCoy and Don Schlitz.

Then in the middle of our set, Emmylou Harris, one of the reasons I began writing songs, and whose music with Gram Parsons inspired Daniel and I to start singing together thirty years ago, walked out on stage and asked us to become the newest members of the Grand Ole Opry. My ass is caught on camera absolutely weeping into, let me repeat, EMMYLOU HARRIS’S arms before having to continue our set with a cover of Webb Pierce’s More and More.

 I do not have words to express what an honor it is for us to be invited to become part of American music’s history. The Opry is not only such an honor for a country and bluegrass musician, but it one of the highest honors for any musician in the United States. The two of us have jumped through hoops to be taken half as serious as some of our contemporaries, faced harassment and mean-spirited jokes for existing as we are in the music industry, and have run into hostilities from executives and some other artists not even worth naming because a bitter attitude eventually will overshadow your talent.

To be honored like this alongside my best friend and collaborator of thirty years is...to circle back to the previous cliche, I do not have the words. Playing with Dan is what made me fall in love with music in the first place. Without him, I wouldn’t have gone to Belmont in Nashville for songwriting, I wouldn’t have picked up a quarter of the instruments I can now play, and I wouldn’t have made a successful career not only in country and bluegrass music, but in, as Max Cho put it, “whatever the hell genre we feel like making this album” with Seoul Hanoi’d.

Without the Grand Ole Opry, Dan and I’s careers wouldn’t exist. Without the music of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, John Denver, Dolly Parton, Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Hank Snow, Faron Young, Kitty Wells, and Webb Pierce, most of whom are or were members or have performed at the Opry, we would not have been inspired to make music.

I owe my career to Daniel, for building his intertwined with mine, my husband for supporting me long before the blood, sweat, and tears I poured into my craft ever paid off, and the Opry Show for bringing me music to listen to every Saturday night since I could remember, just as much as I do my own hard work and the love of everyone who has supported me.

If you’ll allow me to stay on my soapbox for one more moment, I want to acknowledge that it is not lost on Dan and I what this means for people of color in this industry. As the soon to be first Cambodian, Asian, Southeast Asian, and openly queer member, and first Indigenous member, I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say that we know that things are harder for you than for some of our counterparts. We know, we live it too. We know that in an industry even more skewed white and male than the rest of the music industry is, that you have to put in even more work to prove yourself. We see you, we hear you, and we hope you believe in yourselves as much as we do. Someday, you will get your flowers that you are so deserving of.