#i might skip bookbinding

[icaruskey]

my brain is trying to self-sabotage more, bleh. It's telling me not to go to class, but if I don't, that just gives me more time to worry about homelessness.

I can't do much else right now. I've reached out to like 13 more places, so that's about 26 total, and I have a tour Thursday with someone who might be willing to work with me on the security deposit. I've resubmitted my grant application and there's a chance, a small chance, they can get to it before the end of the year despite the four month like. Thing. Process.

It is kinda funny how I function while having a breakdown. Still trying to problem solve as things are falling apart and I'm sobbing. I am glad I was sent from work yesterday though, and my manager is willing to help too. There'll be some adaptions to my projects, to save a little money, but I'll figure it out.

maybe this is why time loop y/n has my brain in a stranglehold. Having to function despite feeling like everything is a downward spiral. It's so fucking hard sometimes. a lot of times. but you have to keep going.

[greaseonmymouth]

As you've asked for asks!:

Do you have any quick-and-dirty book/fic binding methods a terrified-of-failure novice could use to bang something out to get over the first collywobbling step of Actually Doing The Thing? (this may be something I've been meaning to ask for ages)

yes! I absolutely do! in my opinion the best quick-and-dirty bookbinding method is a no-glue pamphlet: you don't have to mess with glue or measuring or cutting anything, all you need is your text, some paper, a needle and thread. you can use the same needle to punch holes if you don't have an awl.

this is going to be a little long but that's because I'm going to write out some fairly detailed instructions for an A5 sized pamphlet. If you don't want detailed instructions and think you can glean the necessary info from photos, just skip to the photos! I've also linked tutorials.

for preparing the text to printing, in whatever software you use (word, libreoffice, gdocs, whatever) make sure your document is set to page size A5. make it look readable. then save as/export that document as a straight-paged PDF. now go to the bookbinder JS tool (https://momijizukamori.github.io/bookbinder-js/), and upload the PDF. source manipulation: none printer paper size: A4 display unit (you can ignore, or choose cm if it gives you anxiety that it automatically displays points) printer type: select single-sided or duplex accordingly* rotate paper: ignore flip on long side: check if you are printing duplex and if your duplex printer flips the paper on the long side page layout:  tick folio page scaling: original page positioning: centered ignore the rest flyfleaf: ignore signature format tick: standard signatures. in the length drop down, this depends on the type of pamphlet you are doing. for folio i generally find 4-5 pages per signature a comfortable thickness. if you have 6 whole A4 pages you can still do that as a single signature or you can split it into two signatures 3 pages each. wacky small layouts: ignore this signature info click the generate preview button to see what your PDF looks like imposed! I love this step especially when I'm doing quarto (A6) or octavo (A7) sized books generate output - click this to generate an imposed PDF

for A6 and A7 sized books the instructions are much the same, except for these you make sure the page size is A6 or A7 in your software, and then you choose quarto or octavo instead of folio. for signature length drop down I keep signature length to 1 for octavos typically and 2 for quartos, as this still refers to sheets of paper, and for octavo 1 sheet of A4 paper will turn into 4 smaller sheets in one signature once folded and cut.

*if you don't have a duplex printer you will have to manually turn the paper to print on the other side. I cannot be arsed with this so I bought a printer capable of duplex printing (I didn't have a printer anyway). if you already have a printer check what it can do as you might be surprised and go from there.

now to the pamphlets! you don't need a cover - I have one for the long stitch pamphlet but for the saddle stitch one I didn't bother and just made sure the first page had a title on it. you can always take a different piece of paper and print a cover on or or just use coloured cardstock and create a simple cover, but a cover is not necessary unless you're doing a long stitch pamphlet. all you need to do is to punch holes and start sewing. there are a few different stitch types below, I wouldn't say any of them are more difficult or easier than others, but they do look different so...pick one you like the look of and go from there?

pamphlet stitch (uneven number of holes) I haven't ever done a pamphlet stitch but here's a tutorial for how to do it: https://www.starpointestudio.com/simple-pamphlet-stitch-book-step-by-step/

saddle stitch (uneven number of holes) I realised that what I was thinking of as a pamphlet stitch is actually saddle stitch, as in this A7 pamphlet:

here's a tutorial for how to sew saddle stitch: https://www.bookbindingworkshopsg.com/saddle-stitch-bookbinding-tutorial/ here's a video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWHkY5jOoqM (sealemon has a lot of bookbinding tutorials and I know many people who like her videos, I used her tutorial for coptic binding way back when I first made a book but I can't otherwise vouch for the quality as I haven't used her videos)

french link stitch (even number of holes) in this one I used french link stitch which I typically use for thicker textblocks that i'm not planning to use tapes with as the french link gives it some robustness, I used it here because I had never done it before and wanted to try it out. I am planning to take these stitches out and re-sew this pamphlet with a cover now that I've found a suitable piece of transformer fanart to use as a cover:

french link tutorial. it's quite long but it has a colour coded bit towards the end that shows how the thread is supposed to link which i find very helpful to visualise: https://www.handmadebooksandjournals.com/bindings/french-link-stitch-binding/

here's a video tutoral from DAS bookbinding (he is my go to for techniques and he has the most soothing Australian accent as well, though fair warning not all of his videos are for beginners): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ZPdbaM-Ws

long stitch (even number of holes) for this one I used long stitch and I had a cover. this one is my favourite variation because I can make these pretty and simple covers and the stitch looks nice on the outside as well, so this one scratches the 'i want to make a book' itch for me.

here's a tutorial that also includes a how to on a cover that is different from my cover: https://lccprintmaking.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2020/06/Long-Stitch-Tutorial-A4.pdf DAS also has a video tutorial for long stitch but it's like three videos long, maybe watch it later :'D  here's one I haven't watched but seems decent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnignTL_wDQ

you can use saddle stitch for this kind of pamphlet as well, that's what I did for dozens of ships and hundreds of souls (https://ashmouthbooks.tumblr.com/post/681587080267202560).

I hope this helped!!

[no-name-publishing]

Tiny Book? Tiny Book. Pt3.

Previously we covered everything from typesetting and printing, to rounding and backing. Let's continue on with step 4, endbands!

Tiny books part 1; Tiny books part 2

Just like with regular ficbinding, there are layers, and they are:

1 - Typesetting and Imposing 2 - Printing 3 - Cutting, Folding, and Sewing 4 - Gluing, Rounding/Backing, Endbands 5 - Building the Case and Casing In 6 - BOOK

In this part we will be focusing on the rest of step 4, and we'll see how far we get before I run out of photo space tbqh. Please feel free to skip to the area you're interested in most.

4, pt2 - Endbands

Endbands--there isn't anything overly exciting to say here, except that sewn endbands on tiny books isn't impossible, just ridiculously fiddly. For a core I recommend going with embroidery floss, stiffened with PVA. It's a nice relatable scale to the tiny book and will be perfectly firm-yet-flexible with the PVA coating. Because of the thickness I do not recommend using more than one strand of embroidery floss, if that's what you are using right now for your regular books. For all of the examples I include below, they've been sewn in a double core french style with a single strand of satin-finish sewing cotton sewing thread. Here are some examples of ones I've done:

Doable, but at what cost? My sanity. If you've got some to spare though, it will be very impressive to other bookbinders lol.

Don't be fooled into thinking tiny sewn endbands will be quicker or easier than their regular sized counterparts. And as a treat, here is how the tiny endband looked in my press while I sewed:

It's just 🧍‍♂️

In a sewn endband's stead I can recommend using prefab endbands, which will just be snipped to size and glued to the spine. Might be hard to do on tiny books with fewer signatures but not impossible, and it will look... as fine as a prefab endband can. Otherwise what I've really liked doing are paper endbands. I make these a bit wider than my textblock, so that I can trim them down later after they've been glued.

These are made from taking a strip of paper, applying glue around 15mm down the length, and laying down a piece of the PVA-coated embroidery floss. After a moment, to let the paper soften from the moisture and the core material stick a bit, you just roll it up a few times. Go slowly, as it can be finicky. Set aside to let it dry completely, then glue to your spine, as with the prefab ones. Let that dry, and trim to size carefully with your scissors.

(Imagine the pad of sticky notes is our tiny book lol, it's what I had on hand) Anywho it's that easy! I find these so preferable in part because the rolled up core sits forward and covers the folds of my signatures, where prefab endbands usually don't. A tip--while you're coating your floss in PVA, you can take advantage of any remaining glueyness to roll it between your fingers, to remove any hard edges or unevenness from the thread before it's totally dry, and won't transfer any lumps or bumps to your finished paper endband. Once you've glued and trimmed the paper endband to size, you can reshape it with your fingers to remove the pinched ends from the scissors. @simply-sithel got me onto this process and it changed the game for me. She's been my tiny-book mentor 🙏

Referencing this image again, the book on the right has the paper endband, compared to the left, which has a sewn endband. On a regular book endbands are protective, decorative, and offer some support; on a tiny book they are purely decorative. I like to use the accent paper of my case as the paper for the endband, to bring everything together.

5 - Building the case and casing in

SO! We've made it this far, to what I believe are the easiest steps of this whole thing, building the case and casing in. As with my regular sized books I do these tiny ones in a square back bradel binding method. This construction uses a piece of connecting paper across the spine stiffener and allows you to tailor the case to your textblock's unique shape, rather than fiddling with it's exact measurements.

Instead of making this a square back bradel binding tutorial, I will refer you to DAS's video where I learned it myself. The case construction begins around the 13 minute mark. There are no notable different between using this method between regular sized books and tiny books.

The first things to note in this step are your hinge measurements. Whereas on regular books they may be 9-12mm, depending, on tiny books anything much wider than 8mm is noticeable and not strictly necessary. The full range of motion gained from the hinge measurement isn't as important with tiny books, so I recommend staying within the 6-7-8mm range for the aesthetics.

My other note is that the 2mm overhang measurement surrounding the textblock is still preferable, even on this tiny size. Something in your heart will try to make it nearer to scale, like .5mm or less, but this will result in a tiny book that looks badly made. My recommendation is not to go any narrower than 1mm in your overhang measurement. But also this is purely for appearances' sake and I'm not your mom, and even if I was you're (hopefully) an adult. Go nuts and find out what works best for your tastes!

In my experience you also have a slight bit more freedom selecting your cover materials. I've never gotten full-paper cases to work where regular sized books are concerned, but it's been my preference for tiny books. I have so much decorative scraps of paper that otherwise wouldn't have a home with regular books. This is also a great place to use offcuts of bookcloth as well. No gods so rules!!

Here are some photos of the process of building my tiny case on a tiny textblock following the square back bradel method:

Now comes casing in. This part also couldn't be easier imo. I almost feel like I don't need to even say anything. I've found straight PVA, while having too short a worktime for full sized books, is perfect for casing in tiny books. You're brushing over like 2 square inches of paper?? You're using virtually no glue AND it takes 15 seconds?? I can only get so hard. As standard you should use some kind of moisture barrier between your endpages and your textblock while it dries in whatever your press situation looks like. For me these are sheets of plastic stolen from some plastic envelopes you use for archival work. These stop the moisture from going into your textblock and warping it. Some people have luck with parchment paper, but I am not one of them.

If you're using plain PVA, these babies will totally dry in maybe like, 3 or 4 hours. Take them out after an initial nipping time of like 20 minutes and let them dry open.

6 - BOOK

You've got a tiny book!!!

If you have any questions on something I've covered or didn't cover, please don't hesitate to ask!

[vampireacademysims]

Well, I guess it's time to address the situation... or the lack of situation lol This is gonna be long, be warned. There's a TL;RD at the end if you wanna skip the wall of text. To start, thank you to the two anons who took the time to read the comic and prod me about it and the new people who started following this tumblr in spite of the Hiatus warning. Altho this place has been collecting dust for more than a year now, I'm still around, updating my side reblogs tumblr, so it's not like I dropped from the face of the earth.

The truth is, at this moment in time, I've feel out of love with making this comic. It was always a lot of work due to me being a perfectionist. I never used any extra rendering apps, all you've seen here is raw sims images and a lot of work on Photoshop, so much so it gave me a muscle contracture on my right shoulder (because I did all my work in bed with my laptop/drawing tablet in my lap. I never said I was a smart person lol) that still flares up from time to time because I learned nothing. Then the VA fandom was already quite small by the time I started doing this in 2015 and I never really advertised this in the fandom anyway. I always got the impression most of the fandom didn't like the OG comics as it was and most of the people that followed the comic were sims 2 fans because, well, it's made with the sims and the images were pretty (forever holding in my heart the people you said this <;3) The recent "Vampire Academy" TV series (it was just in names, honestly) was the final nail in the coffin of my motivation. After information had leaked I was already disappointed in it, but after actually watching it, yeah no. Only plus to it was the surprise to see it was partially filmed in my country, in places where I have been myself. And lastly, and probably most importantly, I struggle with motivation a lot. It happens to us all, I am sure. It's no secret that I hated to panel, if I'd start all over again I'd just post the big images like many of you telling stories are doing now, it'd be less of a stress for me, but alas, I can't change formats now. And I said many times I was doing it mostly for myself, because I did love the comics based on the books, but doing it for yourself only gets you so far until you get bored. And I got bored. I'm actually surprised my hyper-focus on it lasted for as long as it did. I haven't been to Photoshop for editing - I used to make photomanipulations and other kinds of editing - for way over a year, so it's not only the comic that stopped.

I still have 7 pages to end chapter 6 in various degrees of editing, Veninorchid and Esotheria-sims have seen them, so they exist lol I will eventually finish editing them - it's mostly a Romitri flashback - and post them. But after that, I will have to decide how to proceed. Spending less time editing would help, but lowering the quality of my pages, the only thing people like about it, really doesn't sit well with me, because yeah, perfectionist.

So at the very least the remaining pages will be posted in early 2024, I might go back to it slowly, a little bit everyday so I don't burn out or put stress on my shoulder. But after that, it's up in the air. It's not like I've been staring at the walls during this time, I had other things taking my goldfish-like attention. I got interested in home bookbinding, which made me dig out old unfinished stories I once started and I've been trying to finish them and later try to bind them, because why the fuck not lol And on my reblogs tumblr I had this set of pictures about a Regency little story that people really loved and I'd like to add to it, but then again, all the editing it'd need *cries* I feel tugged in so many directions I fear I'll end up doing nothing lol

So the TL;DR is, I got bored with the comic because it was too much work and resulted in physical pain, I lacked the motivation and other things got my attention meanwhile. Chapter 6 will be be finished eventually, but after that it's up in the air. Cross my fingers that I get my mojo back while editing those pages. Still, a thank you to all of followed and are still following, sorry these were not the good news you wanted to read just because I made a post. You support up until now was what kept me going in the past, I can't thank you all enough.

[threequarterslifecrisis]

I would like to propose that wannabe authors sell their unedited books for a fraction of the price. Then, if so many people buy it and like it, it could fund the author the opportunity to hire an editor. If the author wants to stop there, release the new, edited version for a little more.

I think this has potential. Books are so expensive these days. Editors are so expensive these days. I would absolutely pay $1-3 for an aspiring writer's messy first/second/third draft. Getting a full story for just a few bucks is pretty decent, even if it's not groundbreaking or perfectly cohesive. As long as I'm entertained, I think it's a good deal.

Plus, just because they're not edited properly doesn't mean they won't be good. Anyone who's spent some time on AO3 knows just how amazingly and beautifully written some stories can be even without editor, beta reader, or even any semblance of a plan before starting to write. So, yeah, you might spend a dollar or two on a story that's not all that great, [But hey, it was only a dollar or two. That's better than spending $7-35 on a physical book you might think is trash.], but you might also spend a dollar or two on what turns out to be a gem that would otherwise have not been published at all because it's simply too expensive.

Furthermore, as someone who has a few writer friends [and is very nosy], I've seen the wild ways stories will change and grow over time. And it's so cool. I would love to get the opportunity to see all the drafts of writers. And I would be more than willing to pay a small price for them. It's just fascinating~

[I know some people might read this and think $1-3 is quite low, but given that these drafts would be digital, I'm using ebook prices for reference. Generally, I see them for around $7-12, and after taking out fees for editing, artwork, publishing & distribution, I can't imagine these authors are left with much of anything. $1-3 dollars is my lazy estimate.]

I think this would be better for writers in terms of just getting their book out there [skipping the editors and publishers], as well as marketing their books by themselves. [I think a lot of people would be willing to try out a newbie's book if it were significantly cheaper, and therefore, less of a loss if they don't like it.]

However, rest assured, I'm not encouraging cutting out authors completely. As I said earlier, if so many people but the unedited book and like it, and would like a properly edited copy, then the authors could do that. The properly edited book would be funded by the unedited copy's success. Rather than an author shelling money out for an editor for a book that will never take off, the author is using the editor with guaranteed future sales to at least make that money back, and potentially more.

[Regarding physical copies of these books, I suppose the writer may later on get an offer from a publisher, or [my preference] we will see beautiful things happening in the bookbinding business. [I cannot lie. I love watching those videos.]

[snek-panini]

Book time! At last, a new one! This is a bind of In Death's Embrace, We Are Reborn by Arinia. It's a fantastic series from the Good Omens fandom. Angsty but sweet, canon-adjacent 20th century history fic. Absolutely gorgeous, rich prose and in character the whole way. Don't be discouraged by the 6/9 chapter count for part 2, it reads as a complete story and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

So! This is a Coptic bind, which means it has no glue holding it together, only stitching, which is visible. I see those recommended a lot of beginner bookbinders, but I have a habit of looking at a new craft and thinking "I don't wanna do the boring beginner project, I want to do the exciting intermediate/advanced one that I don't have the skills for", so I went right for case binding and skipped this kind until now. Two years and a dozen books later, this is my first Coptic. I learned a lot, tried a lot of new things, and will for sure do it again.

More pics and process talk under the cut!

Pic of the spine and endpaper. I used metallic embroidery floss to stitch it, a decision I am going to call hubris. It looks beautiful but is so fucking slippery it's ridiculous. Also it won't hold a weaver's knot like the other thread I've used. I put a French link stitch in the middle (also a first for me) because I saw someone else on tumblr do that a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked really cool so I stole it, but I don't remember who it was so I can't credit them. I made a mistake in that part, where the needle caught a thread it wasn't supposed to, but I don't think it's visible in the photos. The endpaper is also stolen, in that I saw someone post a photo of stuff they'd bought and thought this one was perfect for this project, and I was right. White and black feathers are important to the story so it couldn't have been more perfect. Again, I don't remember who it was or I'd give them a shout-out.

When it came to cutting boards for the cover, I did the thing you do with case binding, which is cut them a little bigger than the text block on top and bottom, but because it's a glueless binding the stitching kinda sags down when it's upright on the shelf. I'm thinking it might put unnecessary stress on the text block down the line, so next time I do this I think I'll make the boards the same size as the block and see how that goes.

Pic of the title page and the section break artwork I made. I really need to up my title page game, it looks so plain. The section break was made with free clip art of feathers that I found via google. I've never experimented with vector art before and I still don't really know anything about it. All I did was find the image, rotate it, mirror it, and draw that little diamond shape in the middle. I made it a little too big and too bold, so it kind of dominates the pages it's on more than it should. I was tired of using a plain gray line for section breaks though, so I'm more or less happy with how it came out. And I learned stuff for next time.

Materials: textured cardstock for the cover, chiyogami paper for the endpaper (I love this stuff, it was so much easier than cardstock), metallic embroidery floss for the stitching (terrible, would not use again), and gold embossing powder for the title. I'm trying to up my cover game but it's hard. The text for the "Reborn" part didn't come out as clear as I'd have liked. I like the gold frame, though. Would do that again.

[lostandfoundpress]

I do feel like a bit of a one trick pony posting these days... but guess who finally has the print-ready pdfs of both signatures and illustrations...

[crabussy]

welcome to my store of threats. feel free to peruse my wares and shoplift any threat you think would be useful in a petty argument

- I will french braid your nervous system

- I am going to condense all your matter into a microscopic cube

- I am going to inflict the process of carcinization upon you with instant effect

- I cast spell of TURN YOUR BONES INSIDE OUT

- I am going to move all of your atoms one millimetre in a random direction

- I will give you Bird Eyesight, thus removing your ability to see glass forever. smack wham crash motherfucker

- I am going to turn your skin into leather and use it to bookbind a novel detailing all the ways you SUCK

- I am going to seduce your father (scary)

- I will remove the running wheel from your enclosure. bitch

- watch out because I might just shrink you down to the side of a tiny mouse, leaving you with no other choice but to embark on a perilous adventure with a thimble as a helmet and a sewing needle as your sword

- I will sic the hounds* upon you

*200 rabid purse dogs I stole from rich old ladies

- you are now insatiably sexy and unfathomably goth. to your left is a hot topic full of lonely emos. good luck

- sonic the hedgehog

- I will rearrange your teeth when you aren’t looking

- I’m going to divert the trajectory of satellite debris travelling at maximum velocity towards your location using telekinesis

- I’m going to look shyly at you with my cerulean orbs and tuck my long silky soft golden hair behind my ear and giggle shyly as I skip shyly towards you shyly

- I’m going to kill you (customer favourite!)

[qqueenofhades]

37. Shadow of Night, Darklina? <3

37. Shadow of Night

The Upper Reading Room of the Bodleian Library is filled with wan British sunlight, the patrons cough, shuffle papers, click laptop keys, and occasionally doze off on their notebooks, and Alina removes the manuscript carefully from its battered cardboard box, settling it on the foam supports. The box looks like any other in the Bod's vast archives. The gilt-stamped call number on the lid reads Elias Ashmole Collection, No. 782. Bodleian Library, OXFORD.

Automatically, Alina starts her assessment, opening up a new Word document and beginning to type. (It might be cooler if she was doing it with a blood-red quill on ancient parchment, but this is the twenty-first century, and nobody has time for that nonsense.) The codex is surprisingly large, which is an obvious sign of wealth on the part of its maker. The age-browned vellum is still mostly intact, though there's a place at the start where at least three folios have been sliced out with a straight-razor blade. Alina bristles at this literary desecration, resisting the temptation to touch it and find out more. Once she was a witch, if not a very good one. Now she's just a hassled early-career art historian, and she has heard that this is a particularly fine (and crucially for her purposes, under-studied) example of sixteenth-century alchemical illuminations. Her visiting research fellowship at Oxford is only a year, and she wants to go back to Yale with results.

Alina works steadily, making note of the binding style of the quires, the fine gesso layered on the splendid paintings, the places where the text looks as if it has been rubbed off and replaced. She desperately tries to ignore the growing tingle in her fingers, the creeping sense of the illusory and unreal, the unknown and static strange. Ashmole 782 is positively dripping with magic, and this is definitely not something she knew before. Otherwise, she wouldn't have called it up. She has always had an uneasy relationship with her power, and this --

It's then when Alina turns to the huge full-page spread at the center of the book, a magnificent and sprawling illumination that must have taken months for the Renaissance bookbinder to complete. Her heart skips a beat. It's done in traditional alchemical style: two halves meeting to transmogrify a substance into something else, the red king and white queen, sun and shadow. Except the queen is holding a globe of brilliant fire between her hands, blazing like the sun, and the king stands in shadow, beneath a sweeping dark sky studded with stars. He is dark and grave and handsome. Alina would keep looking at him for a while -- except for the fact that the queen has her face.

Rattled, she shuts the codex with a bit of a bang, causing a wave of disapproving looks and hisses to cascade around the reading room. Then she gets up, grabs her things, and returns the manuscript to the check-in desk, swinging her bag to her shoulder. She hurries down the steps and out into the courtyard -- just in time to clip shoulders with someone coming the other way. They reel apart with mutual apologies, and he says, "I am very sorry, Dr. Starkova."

"That's all right, I should have -- " All of a sudden, she stops. "I'm sorry. Have we met before?"

He smiles down at her enigmatically. Just like the king in Ashmole 782, he too is dark, grave, and handsome (not to mention tall), with a look on his face as if he knows something she doesn't. "Have we?"

That, of course, is not an answer. Alina tries to sidle around him, but he is very good at blocking her path. She feels a particular coldness on her skin like the breath of winter, and all at once, she wants nothing more than to be away from him. Witches do not fraternize with vampires in any sense of the word; it's been Covenant law since as long as anyone can remember. But perhaps someone failed to inform this vampire of that one tiny little fact, because he holds out a business card. "I'm interested in your research. Can we speak later, perhaps?"

Alina doesn't want to, but that old good-girl instinct takes over, and she accepts it so as not to be rude. She takes a quick glance, just because she can't help herself. Professor Alexander Morozov. All Souls College, Department of Biochemistry.

Professor? All Souls? Really? At his age? Then again, outward appearance is no guide to a vampire's true antiquity, and Alina edges backward, feeling that this day has been quite strange enough. "I have to go," she says, as firmly as possible. "Thank you."

"My pleasure, Dr. Starkova," he says graciously, as if she has anything to thank him for. He keeps looking at her. His eyes are as black as night themselves. He stands so still the air moves around him.

Alina turns and practically flees.

[spooky season fic prompts]

[mellowshipsu]

Hello just wanted to start of by saying that I love your writing its so good (^^) secondly you don't have to answer this anytime soon if you're busy, rest is important.

I wanted to request a twst pairing (students only please) I'm someone who's shy at first but once I'm more comfortable. I have an info mbti. My pronouns are she/her and he/him. Ihave slight anxiety (mainly social) so I don't do well with people often communication wise. Despite that however I can make friends easily. My love languages are words of affirmation and gift giving. I do lots of creative stuff like knitting, bookbinding, journaling etc.

I hope this is enough info..

And again you don't have to answer early I can wait if you're not free. Make sure to rest and u hope you have a wonderful day(and if not I hope it gets better^^)

(Mellow: I appreciate your compliment sweetie. I hope you like the match-up! ^^)

You might be quiet but you caught his eye easily.

He found among others who were going to parties.

To him you're not hard to decipher.

He's the dependable and observant---

Jamil Viper!

(image: Jamil Viper promo by Aniplex.)

You caught the young man's eye at the cafeteria. You were sitting and knitting by yourself at a table. Of course Kalim saw you as well and hurried to you so you wouldn't be alone. Jamil sighed and followed, sitting on the table with you and Kalim. Kalim was interested in your project and you showed that you were making a blanket. Kalim thought it was so cool and rambled at your amazing job, while Jamil just observed in silence. It might've not been the greatest, but he thought it was cute. Then Kalim messed it up by accidentally spilling fruit juice on it. Really Kalim, you need to be more careful. You looked distraught and Kalim tried calming you down by telling you he would clean it, by he, he meant Jamil. Viper sighed and took the blanket from you and told you he would take care of it. Jamil skipped lunch to make sure he soaked your blanket before it got stained. It was cleaned and dried the next day and he delivered it back to you and made Kalim apologize. His heart skipped a beat when you smiled at him. No. That smile was for Kalim, wasn't it?

A few days passed and Jamil started to get jealous of Kalim, he was all over you, talking and exchanging notes. But every time Jamil approaches your talking ceased. How annoying... Jamil started to grow bitter until one evening you caught him walking alone in the halls. You were holding a gift bag and you were blushing. A gift for Kalim no doubt. You approached him and handed him the bag, Jamil informed you he will give it to Kalim but you protested. ... What? It was for him? Jamil blinked in surprised before opening the bag and pulled out a black knitted sweater with a white snake coiled on the sleeves. You told him Kalim helped get his measurements and they had to keep it secret because you wanted it to be a surprise. Jamil nodded and touched the stitching on the sweater. A gift made just for him? ... He smiled. His first gift from someone he liked.

Then you threw him through a loop. You asked him on a date tomorrow night. Him? A date with him?? He faltered before accepting.

You two went to an old bookshop in the city after eating some ramen for dinner. The bookshop had old vintage books, some cookbooks he was very interested in. When browsing he reached for a book but you reached for the same book and your hands touched. You blushed and took your hand away but he quickly grabbed it back and looked into your eyes. He realized that he loved you.

"Sorry that Kalim dragged you to another party, I know how much you dislike them because of the loud people... But I'll tell him you'll accompany me in my room so he can just come over if he needs anything. ...What? I'd like to spend time with you and to be completely honest... I don't like parties either."

[panharmonium]

bookbinding (five years later)

People who knew me at the height of my Star Wars days might remember my original attempts to bind Ruth Baulding’s Lineage series into a series of paperback books.  When I did that, I had no training and was working off internet tutorials and my own guesswork - I was only able to make perfect-bound (meaning the pages were individual and glued to the spine, as opposed to folded into signatures and sewn together) paperback books, and the exterior spines were (literally) attached to the front and back covers with duct tape.

I’ve had a bit more education in the five years since, and, at my dear friend @brambleberrycottage’s request, I decided to revisit this series and remake the first four books in a case-bound format.  

These cases are still very simple - I don’t have any experience doing in-depth finishing work like foil stamping or leatherwork or that sort of thing - but they are a drastic step up from my duct tape+photo paper constructions of five years ago. X)

The text blocks were divided into signatures and sewn together, then glued up with PVA.  I rounded the spines with a hammer, but didn’t back them, because I don’t have backing boards, so...I just skipped that step for these little books.  They’re thin enough that it didn’t really matter structurally, at least not as much as it would have if I were binding something bigger.

On my old books, I didn’t have any clue how to label the spines, so I literally just wrote out the book numbers on cardstock with a permanent marker and taped the cardstock to the spines.  These new books are finished with metallic heat transfer vinyl to create the illusion of foil stamping (which I don’t have the equipment of the experience to work with).

The covers are made with Davey binders board (80 pt), Colorplan paper, and Cialux bookcloth for the spines.  The above is a test cover I made when I first started planning - you see how it looks bowed or distorted in the bottom picture?  That’s because I wasn’t paying attention and cut the board the wrong way.  The grain should be running parallel to the spine, not perpendicular to it.  Making a cover with the grain running the wrong way means your boards will expand/bend in a way they shouldn’t.

The interior text blocks are just regular printer paper in a cream color, which is one thing that can be slightly frustrating when doing this kind of project - the grain of printer paper runs in the wrong direction for bookbinding when you fold sheets in half for signatures, but you can’t really get around that issue.  These ones still came out okay, despite it - I kept them under weights for a long time.

Professional bookbinders use press boards with a metal strip attached to the edges to create the groove/joint where a hardback cover meets the spine.  I used knitting needles, since I don’t have equipment like that - you can lay them in the faint groove that already exists, and then place your book+needles between two clean boards and leave it under weights until you get a deep joint.

And then you’re ready to read!

I could have stopped at that point, technically, but for this particular project, I decided I wanted to try making dust jackets as well, in order to have the covers sport more of an actual design:

Getting the measurements right for these was probably the most annoying part of the process.

The River Stone™

If you look real close, you can see tiny Bruck about to fall off that waterfall.

(Just kidding.  I didn’t want to be that morbid.)

THE PLANT!

And that’s it!  I had a ton of fun making these, and I learned a lot.  I’m looking forward to starting a new project and seeing what else I can put together.

[bookshelfdreams]

Ahhhh, your self bound books just look really beautiful? All the color choices and the layout just look soooo good together. And that's such a beautiful gift? I have not read primium non nocere, as I haven't watched Charité but if it is worthy of such a tribute I am definitely giving it a shot anyway. I'd also be really interested of your creative process and choices with the binding, if you're willing to talk about that

hi omg! thank you so much <3<3 Primum Non Nocere is a very good story, and I'd say even if you haven't seen the show, give it a shot anyway, if you're interested? I mean, by all means, try the show as well, season 2 is on Netflix w english subs afaik and it's also really, really good (not perfect, but leagues better than the stuff this country usually makes abt the nazi regime). It's a retelling of canon events from a character's perspective who isn't a focal character in the show - there's probably one or two points at which it skips canon events or may seem a little jumpy, but overall, it's more of a companion piece to canon than a classic fanfic. It's very well researched and detailed; it expands on canon in beautiful ways and honestly, fits with it seamlessly; it might as well be an official novelization (although its focuses are a little different than the og)

as for the bookbinding, I'm really flattered you're interested in my process! I'm still very much a beginner, but I'm slowly figuring out something that works for me.

Also, I don't really know what information you're looking for, so I'm just gonna share some things that come to mind. This isn't really a step-by-step how-to but if you're interested in that, I can try to take some pictures next time I make a book and make a better reference post.

Typesetting

I typeset in OpenOffice because that's my office suite of choice & I'm old; I have never used google docs and I don't plan on starting. I download the fic in html, and then just copy/paste the text chapter by chapter; that's easiest for me. As for fonts, I wanted it to look vintage but I definitely didn't want it to have Nazi aesthetics. I went with Baskerville for the main text (which is such a beautiful font, it might become my go-to) (Garamond is what is most commonly used in books I think, but it almost looks too professional for me. I love that Baskerville has this very distinct, vintage feel to it.) and an Art Deco font for the title and chapter headings. Overall I think it looks more 1920's which, considering that the Nazis really hated the Weimar republic, seems fitting. I'm happy with how it turned out and I hope the author is, too :) As for the rest, it's set in 16pt, 120% line spacing and the margins could be a little larger, tbh, but it works and I'm a little stingy with the paper XD

OpenOffice also lets you draw simple graphics directly onto the document which is what I did for the title page and the little ornaments at the beginning of the chapters.

To make signatures, I use Quantum Elephant Bookbinder. It does what it's supposed to, the only thing that doesn't quite work is the flyleaf option, but I can just add that in the og pdf.

Book construction

I print on copying paper, 80gsqm. It's recycling, 55CIE which is really quite grey; I like it, because white is uncomfortable for me to look at. As for grain, I cut my sheets from A3. The grain is also wrong there, so I ended up wasting half the paper. Whatever; I think it's worth it. Having the grain in the right direction (parallel to the spine) makes it feel so much more like an actual book and not just a stack of copying paper stapled together. I honestly believe it's more important than having fancy paper.

After folding, I do not use a model and an ale for punching holes; instead I put all the signatures together in my makeshift press (2 old cutting boards and 2 bar clamps), I draw some guidelines and then I use a fine saw to cut them all at once.

I sew the signatures on tapes for stability; it makes keeping consistent tension easier. I use linen bookbinder's thread (worth it) and cotton tapes from the craft store (they do their job, and linen sewing tapes are hard to source & expensive). I do not have a sewing frame; but what I do is, I tape the tapes to the underside of my cutting mat, place the signature on top (fold aligned with the edge of the mat) and use a weight to keep it in place. It works okay.

After sewing, I round the spine with this method, which works surprisingly well. I do not trim the edges (I know myself well enough to know that it would not end well) & instead tap the short sides & spine to the table to align the signatures as perfectly as possible.

The rest is done as in pretty much any other tutorial. No backing, because I don't have equipment for that. I like to sand down the edges of the cover boards a little, so they're a bit rounded; I think it makes for nicer haptics.

Decorations

I like to make as much of the book myself as possible. There's several reasons for that; first of all, fancy handmarbled or printed paper, headbands, bookmarks etc are expensive. Second, I have a crafting addiction & what's the point of projects like this when you buy everything you could make yourself, right? But thirdly (most importantly) it's simply that my book blocks look pretty shitty (that's, untrimmed and uneven). But that's okay; you gotta embrace the "amateurishly handmade" look & just have to amateurishly handmake everything. Adding just one or two perfect, machine-produced details looks kinda jarring.

Paper decoration - mix water soluble paint and wallpaper paste and go wild (videos are in German, sorry, idk if this is a thing that's really done in the anglophone world? But I think they're pretty easy to follow even if you don't understand the instructions). I like to use this for covers, mainly, I'm also experimenting with decorating endpapers this way. The paste makes the paper really rough and horrible to the touch; as the very last step, I wax the cover (with a beeswax-based furniture polish. Floor wax works as well, it just doesn't smell very nice). Be careful not to get any on the bookcloth, it will cause stains & ruin everything at the last second.

Headbands - I found this tutorial very helpful.

Bookmarks - this gave me so much trouble. Most amateur bookbinders seem to use cotton, polyester or satin ribbons, which is fine, I guess. I don't particularly like either option. At first I thought I could weave my own; that didn't work out, because weaving tiny bands is harder than it looks (& also the resulting ribbon was much too stiff). But! Bookmarks in professionally made books aren't woven at all; they're braided. Seven-stranded braids work pretty well (tutorial is for 5 strands, but 7 strands work the same). As for the headbands, embroidery floss is best imho (silk would, of course, be traditional but come on). Mercerised cotton crochet thread works as well but isn't quite as nice.

this turned out way too long lol. Sorry. Hopefully the answer you were looking for is in there somewhere. Again, thank you and have a lovely evening!

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Down the Rabbit Hole

Summary: After meeting online, Belle French and Aiden Gold have their first date in a rather unusual location - a bookstore.

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

Rated: G

Down the Rabbit Hole

After seven and a half months of what could only be described as truly horrendous internet dating, Belle French knew that she had found the one when her latest match agreed to have their first date in a bookstore. 

Aiden Gold was a little older than most of the others she had matched with, and looking at his profile, it was obvious that he was far different from all her previous potentials. 

Belle knew that it had been a mistake to let Ruby set up her profile for her. Aiden was the first person she had matched with after having gone through and laboriously changed all her settings. Belle was somewhat ashamed that it had taken her so long to realise what the problem with her online matchmaking service was. 

The first thing it said on Aiden’s profile was that he was a single father. He was looking for a serious, lasting relationship. He was an antique dealer by trade, and liked reading, cooking, and spending time with his son, who was fourteen and had been the one to set him up on the website in the first place.  

He seemed to be just the kind of person that Belle was looking for, and yet, when he had come up in her matches, she had been reluctant to make the first move and contact him. He was almost too good to be true, and she couldn’t help wondering what the catch might be when she did meet him. 

Eventually, though, curiosity overcame her, and she had made that first tentative step, sending him a message and beginning the dialogue that had led them to their first date. The first litmus test of any potential partner for Belle was the bookstore test. If they agreed to their first date being at Down the Rabbit Hole, the antiquarian shop tucked away in the heart of the city, then she knew that she had met someone who was likely to be a kindred spirit in some way. 

Aiden wasn’t the first to agree, but he was the first to agree with the same amount of gleeful enthusiasm that Belle herself always felt at the prospect of spending time in the company of very old books. 

She was waiting just outside the shop, looking around for her date. She hoped that he would turn up. She’d had plenty of experiences in the past where she’d just been left standing outside the shop for half an hour waiting for someone who was destined never to arrive, to the point where Tilly had come out and taken pity on her, inviting her in for a cup of tea as consolation. Belle peered in through the window; she could see that Tilly was behind the counter again today, and she wondered what her young friend would say when she saw her come in with another prospective partner. 

Aiden rounded the corner right on time, and as he got closer, Belle gave a tentative wave. He waved back a little shyly, and she smiled. Yes, she was definitely on to a good one here. True, she might be projecting because this was the first match she’d had in so long who was even halfway decent and there was a tendency towards rose-tinted spectacles in such cases, but even so. 

“Hello.”

“Hello. You must be Belle.”

Belle nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Aiden. Thanks for agreeing to meet up here.”

“Not at all, I love this place.” There was a little pink tinge of embarrassment to the tops of his ears, but it seemed to fade under Belle’s optimistic nod of agreement.

“I do, too. I think that it’s my favourite place in the whole city. Well, aside from my own home, of course.” Now that she came to think of it, with the gurgling pipes and the old, creaky infrastructure, maybe the bookstore took her top spot after all. 

Aiden opened the front door for her, and Belle gave a little curtsy before stepping inside. “Why, thank you.”

“Hi Belle!” Tilly jumped off her stool behind the counter as Belle entered. “I’ve been waiting for you to come in all week; we’ve got a brand-new George Eliot first edition in. Well, brand-new to us, obviously, not brand-new to the world in general. It’s Middlemarch, I know that’s your favourite of hers. Do you want to take a look? I kept it back off the shelves especially so that you could have first dibs on it.”

Belle smiled at Tilly’s infectious enthusiasm and good mood.

“Not right now, Tilly. Thank you for thinking of me, though.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, hello Mr G, I didn’t see you come in there.” Tilly paused, and Belle could almost see the cogs turning in her mind before her face lit up in a eureka moment. 

“Oh, this is perfect! Fate is a wonderful thing. I was just saying to Margot the other day that I really need to get you two to meet, and I don’t know how it hasn’t happened before since you’re both in here so much all the time. Belle, Mr Aiden Gold. Mr G, this is Belle French.”

“We’ve actually already met, Tilly.” Aiden’s ears had gone decidedly pink again. Tilly looked between the two of them and a knowing little smirk began to show at the corner of her mouth. 

“Well, don’t let me keep you from getting to know each other better. Just call if you need anything.”

With that statement, Tilly skipped off into the back room of the shop, and Belle wondered how long it would be before she came out again offering them cups of tea. 

There was an awkward silence for a few moments; she and Aiden were the only ones in the shop, after all, and Tilly’s sudden absence seemed very noticeable.

“So,” Belle began, going over to the shelves and beginning to run her fingertips along the familiar faded spines. “How did you find this place?”

“It was a very long chain of events, really.” Aiden came and joined her by the shelves. “I was looking for a bookbinder to assist me with a tricky restoration, and eventually I tracked down Margot. Through her, I found Tilly and this treasure trove.” He gave a soft chuckle. “Bae says that I spend more in here than I do on paying off the mortgage. What about you? I know you’re a librarian, so I know you love books, but swapping one palace of books for another?”

“I don’t know. I think that there’s something about old books in particular that just draws me to them. They contain so much magic and mystery, all those secrets waiting to be uncovered. You can find things in here that you would never even consider before you saw them here, and some truly one of a kind works that would never make their way onto library shelves. Take this one.” Belle pulled out an anthology of fairy tales bound in faded brown leather. “You’d never find something like this in my library.” She flicked carefully through the old pages, looking at the exquisite illustrations. She was aware of Aiden looking over her shoulder, but she didn’t mind. 

“It is beautiful,” he said. “I think there’s something in the atmosphere of a place like this. The secrets of old masters waiting to be retold and rediscovered. What was it that Cicero said? A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

Belle couldn’t help but giggle. “I have that quote framed on my bedroom wall.”

“And I’m sure you subscribe to the notion.”

“Of course. There are books in every room in my apartment. Including the bathroom. It’s good to have an old favourite to read the bath. One that can take getting dunked in bubbles.”

“Not one of these ones, then.” Aiden returned to perusing the shelves as Belle desperately tried to get all thoughts of bubble baths out of her head. That was not at all appropriate for a first date, even if said first date was really going swimmingly and Aiden was just as good-looking in real life as he was in his profile picture on the website. 

“You know, you’ve both been in here enough times to know that there are some comfy armchairs on the second floor if you want to have a cosy chat.”

Tilly had come out of the back room again and was pointing up at the mezzanine above them. Belle looked at Aiden, who looked back at her. It would be harder for Tilly to interrupt them up there, even if she was doing it with the best of intentions, and Belle was definitely comfortable enough not to need a timely rescue from this date.

“Shall we?” she asked. Aiden nodded and they made their way towards the tight spiral staircase in the corner of the shop.

“You know, Tilly, I’ve never managed to work out how you managed to get those chairs up there,” Aiden said. 

Tilly just laughed. “Oh, getting them up there was easy, Mr G. I’m more concerned with getting them down again.”

Leaving them with that cryptic comment, she took her place on her stool behind the counter again, and Aiden and Belle made themselves comfortable in the chairs on the mezzanine. Tilly’s acknowledgement and overt approval of their date gave Belle encouragement that this was definitely something that could go the distance, an independent third party who knew them both giving it the thumbs up, so to speak.

“You know, I think that Cicero was really on to something. You can’t deny that it’s these books that give this place its atmosphere. It wouldn’t be the same if the shelves were full of kitchenware.”

Belle burst out laughing at the image and before she knew it, she’d set Aiden off too. It was so long since she’d found someone that she could laugh with like this, and about books as well. 

Once they’d collected themselves, she sneaked a sideways glance at Aiden, only to discover him doing the same thing. The blush in his ears really was adorable, and Belle couldn’t wait to get to know him better.

[keanureevesisbae]

“Never out of practice” - Chapter 7

Summary: When Darcie’s father loses an important case, a killer seeks revenge, by kidnapping the entire Angel family. Though John thought that he was officially retired, he has to save his Darcie and her family, because he can’t lose her.

John Wick x OFC Darcie

Word count: 3.6k

Warnings: Smut

Masterlist / Previous Chapter // Next chapter 

I’m just like my parents, I realize. I can’t not work. I’m a workaholic. During the hours that I should be in the cafe, I have no clue what to do with my time. I’m fidgeting, preparing myself a cup of coffee, bake something and I really want to walk with the dog, but my body is insanely sore, it’s almost impossible to walk around the apartment.

But, despite me trying to get over my withdrawals, John has been nothing but an angel for me. He preps the bed for me, makes sure that it’s comfortable enough and when he scoots in, he wraps his strong arms around me, kissing me on my temple, before whispering that he’ll always protect me. He cooks dinner for me. He goes to the store to get me certain ingredients for my baking or to get me a simple soda, simply because I mumbled to myself that I would like one. He massages me when I complain about a sore neck. He draws me baths so I can relax, sometimes joining me in the tub, sometimes bringing me wine.

Every night when the cafe closes, he gets in his car, so he can close off with my friends. And he doesn’t complain at all.

Finally, when it’s Sunday, a whole week after it all happened, I feel a little better. Psychically, I mean. Mentally I’m still a bit on edge, but with John near me and our sweet dogs, I somehow relax a bit.

Tomorrow will be my first official day of work again and I’m really looking forward. Our regular customers are worried about me, but Raye and Jennie said that I was doing fine, just a bit sick.

We haven’t told anyone about what happened. It’s a secret between my parents, Jennie, Raye, John and I (and well, maybe a lot of people associated with the Continental, but John told me not to worry about that). I want to keep it that way. The news is trying to track down Pete Stanford, but those certain dinner reservations will make it impossible for anyone to find him.

Those men are thorough.

I just got out of another hot bath and I do my night time skin care routine, with a towel wrapped around my body. I know that John is in the guest room, where we placed a table for his bookbinding. I get myself ready for bed and decide to go find him.

This past week, our conversations have been very light. He would watch movies with me, where he’d point out a few things that bothered him. I would try to teach him how to make a decent cappuccino, but his milk frothing skills aren’t very promising.

John sits with his back to the door, but obviously he knows when I’m entering the room, because he says: ‘Hi sweetheart, how was your bath?’

‘Good. When you prepare them, I always enjoy it a little extra.’ I wrap my arms around him and whisper: ‘It looks good. You’re so talented.’

John was already finishing up, because he turns his face to kiss me. ‘Come here,’ he whispers. I sit on his lap, my face to his and he wraps his arms around my waist. ‘You know,’ he confesses, ‘I love you no matter what, but when you don’t wear make-up, my heart always skips a beat.’

‘Why is that?’

‘I don’t know,’ he laughs. ‘You just look extra squishy.’

‘Squishy?’ I repeat, before chuckling. ‘Never thought you would be a man that said squishy.’

‘I keep on surprising. Are you happy that you’re going to work again tomorrow?’

‘I am,’ I say. ‘I mean staying here for an entire week with you, was fantastic and well needed, but… I really need to make someone else a cappuccino or something.’

John smiles. ‘I know. How are you feeling overall?’

‘Sometimes my back hurts a little, but I was thrown against a wall at least one time. It still hurts when I carry something heavy, but I know that you’re staying at the cafe a lot more, so you probably won’t mind helping me out?’

He shakes his head. ‘Anything remotely heavy, I’ll carry it for you.’

‘What are you thinking about?’ I ask him, placing my hands on his bearded cheeks. ‘You look worried.’

‘The day you were taken,’ he says in a hushed tone, ‘you and I had a talk about the future. The entire day I was thinking about it, how you and I might have kids walking around here. How we talked about names.’

‘I know,’ I whisper. ‘But despite what happened, that idea is not off the table.’

‘I know, I know,’ he quickly says.

I can feel he gets uncomfortable and to be honest, I kind of understand. I feel like he is still beating himself up for crying in the car. He has seen me cry a billion times. I think I even cried when I saw Roger and Ellie for the first time together.

John has been my safe place, to spot where I can cry and that he won’t judge me. I know it was a huge step for him—as unwillingly as it may was—to cry in the car.

I carefully press my lips against him. ‘John,’ I whisper, ‘I love you so insanely much.’

‘I love you too, baby.’

‘I don’t want to let you go, like ever.’

He smiles against my lips. ‘I won’t let that happen.’ He lifts me up and carries me to our bedroom. It’s still a bit early, around eight p.m., but I’ve been feeling pretty tired and worn out. ‘You look in pain,’ he whispers, when he placed me on the bed. ‘Are you okay?’

For a few moments I’m mesmerized when he takes off his shirt and pants, to join me under the blankets. I stare at the scars on his chest, his cross tattoo on his shoulder. I have admired his back tattoo for so long, that I feel like I know it by heart now. ‘Just my back.’

John sits up and pats the spot between his legs. ‘I’ll take care of it. Come on, sit.’

I take place between his legs and his fingers press expertly in my muscles. Sure I enjoy it, but when he presses against a certain tight knot in my back, I wince in pain. ‘Sorry, sweetheart.’

Without meaning to, I let out a soft cry. I bury my face in my hands.

John simply wraps his strong arms around my shaking body. ‘Let it all out, Darcie,’ he tells me.

God knows how long I’ve been bottling up emotions. I mean, sure, I’ve cried in these past few days, but this…

When I sniffle and dry my tears, I ask: ‘Weren’t you worried that once you had saved me and my family, you’d have to go back, if the Continental didn’t give you that dinner reservations on behave of them?’

‘No,’ he says. ‘I’d get out for you over and over again, because I can’t live without you.’

⟢⟡⟣

The next morning, Greg, Tina and Roger are way too happy to see me, that I almost think that they need a life outside of this cafe. They all hug me pretty tight and I can’t help but chuckle. ‘We missed you so much, miss Angel,’ Roger says.

‘I missed you guys too. Because you are such regulars and I wasn’t here last week, you’re getting your order on the house,’ I say with a smile.

‘You are the best, miss Angel.’ They all sit at the table near John, chatting away. I always like it when John talks to them. It gives me a vision of the future, how he is willing to sit down with his own kids, no matter how old they are to talk to them about life. While I’m preparing their orders, I feel this sharp pain in my back. Maybe I’ve been standing a little bit too long. Damn, I feel old.

‘Okay, baby, you need to take a break.’

‘John,’ I say, looking to the side. ‘You were talking to the Greg, Roger and Tina.’

‘I know, but I notice everything.’ He huffs, before laughing. ‘I’m your boyfriend, it’s my job to worry.’ John presses a kiss on my temple. ‘Please, take a break.’

‘I will, after I finish up. Raye will be right back and then I’ll sit at your table.’

‘I’ll carry it to their table,’ John says. ‘Please, you need to be careful.’ He places his large hand on the small of my back and I can’t help but smile. He has been so thoughtful for the past week and everything he does, he does without complaining, without thinking. It makes me feel so loved, so noticed.

I finish up the order and John carries it to their table. Raye arrives from the back, with a bucket full of new ice. ‘I’m taking a break, Raye, okay?’

‘Of course,’ she says. She looks over to the side, to see if anyone is listening and whispers: ‘Go sit with daddy.’

‘Yeah okay, bye,’ I say, but I can’t help but laugh. I grab my rose tea and walk to his table. I sit across from him. ‘So, what’s your plan for today?’ I ask him.

‘Well, first I’m going to accompany you during your break and then I’m going to walk the dogs. After that I finish up some books and I’m going to pick you up, obviously.’

‘You know, you’d think I’d be sick of you, after spending this much time with you,’ I joke, ‘but somehow I’m still counting down the minutes until I get to see you again.’

John smiles. ‘Me too.’

‘I have to ask this: aren’t you bored? I mean, your life was so action packed and last week you kind of went back and now you’re doing what you do. Sitting in my cafe and walking the dogs.’ I shrug, but to be honest, it has been keeping me quite busy. What if he misses it? What if I’m holding him back?

He holds out his hand and I place mine in his. ‘I don’t miss that life. At all. Having to go back for a brief moment, was necessary, but I don’t want to go back.’ John’s thumb caresses my fingers and he says: ‘I’m finally enjoying life again. I’m binding books, I can sit at your cafe every day and I walk our dogs.’ He brings my fingers to his lips. ‘And maybe one day, when we have kids, I can sit here with them after I picked them up from school. This can be their second home. We’d watch you working and they can see with their own eyes what a lovely and caring personality their mom has and how you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ John shakes his head and says: ‘Not for a second I miss my previous life. I’m so ready to start over with you. So don’t you worry about that for a second, okay?’

That is so sweet.

‘You’re having a kid?’ Roger says, turning around.

‘Oh my God, miss Angel, are you pregnant?’ Greg butts in.

Tina smiles. ‘Is that why you weren’t here last week?’

‘No!’ I exclaim. ‘I’m not pregnant.’

‘Good,’ Roger says, ‘because my mom always says that it’s better if you get married first. Little old school, but since you both are old school, it fits.’

‘Are you calling me old?’ I ask. ‘I can still spit in your coffee, Roger.’

He chuckles. ‘No, you’re not old, miss Angel.’

Greg smiles at us. ‘Well, why were you talking about kids then?’

‘That’s what adults do,’ Tina says, rolling her eyes. ‘They think about the future. Miss Angel, I think it’s so romantic that you two are talking about kids. I bet they will be the cutest little kids ever.’

Why am I blushing?’

‘I totally agree with Tina,’ John says. ‘I mean, every kid is cute, but ours will be the cutest of course.’

‘If you have a boy, will you call him Roger?’

‘And be constantly reminded of you?’ I ask, cocking an eyebrow. ‘No way, knowing one Roger is already bad enough.’

‘Ouch,’ he say, placing his hand on his chest, before he laughs.

‘Are you going to have kids soon?’ Tina asks us.

John chuckles. ‘Well, I’m kind of an old fashion man, so before we’re having kids, I want to be get married to her.’

‘Really?’ I ask him.

‘Yeah, totally.’

‘You should propose to her when the two of you are here,’ Greg suggests.

‘If you do that, John, I swear to God, I’ll say no.’

John starts to laugh and says: ‘No worries sweetheart, I won’t propose to you in the cafe.’

⟢⟡⟣

John already brought Tiki and Oreo home, because he took them out three times to walk them today. Despite that, he is still really worried about me. He doesn’t want me to clean the tables, because that can’t be good for my back, so I’m sitting on the counter, waiting for him to be done.

Raye is at Logan’s place, to have sex and Jennie also went home. She looked really tired and I think that’s because she couldn’t stop worrying about me. Poor Jennie.

‘John, I can help you,’ I say, but he simply shakes his head. ‘Why not?’

‘I’m almost done.’

‘We have to finish up the kitchen too.’

John looks up and says: ‘I know.’

‘I can already start.’

He shakes his head. ‘No, please, sweetheart. I’ve got it.’ He scrubs the last table, giving me full sight of his bottom. I remember when he hung up those posters in the cafe, before we started even dating and my flushed cheeks when I stared at his ass a little too long.

John walks up to me and stands between my legs. ‘What is it?’ he asks with an amused smile.

‘I thought about how you hung up those posters,’ I whisper. ‘I remember that when I got back home, I had such lovely dreams of you with a toolbox.’

John starts to laugh and I fall in love a bit more. I think everyday I fall in love with him more. How this man can have this effect on me, I still try to figure that out.

‘I remember you blushing because you were staring at my ass.’

My eyes grow wider. ‘What?’

‘And you said ‘just a little warm’, but you hadn’t noticed that I was checking you out in the reflection of the cafe windows.’

I bring my hands to my face. ‘That is so embarrassing, John. I thought I was being sneaky.’

‘Well, you weren’t,’ John says, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer. ‘I felt really good about myself,’ he adds.

‘You idiot,’ I chuckle. I bring my lips to his, to give him a kiss, but then he scoots me up. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m going to clean the kitchen and you are going to sit there and watch.’ He presses multiple kisses on my cheek and places me on a clean part of the hard surface where Jennie always works.

We chatter a bit, about the most useless things. I like talking about useless things with John. In the beginning of us dating, I thought every conversation had to have a hidden meaning, or just be very Shakespearean. But then one day he mentions that he never understood why people like chai latte and we had an hour long conversation about chai lattes, that literally went no where.

I carefully lower myself to the floor. John literally hears everything, because while he is talking to me and with his back turned to me, but he looks over his shoulder. ‘Sweetheart, what are you doing?’

I walk towards him and stand on my toes, so I can fold my hands in the back of his neck. I pull him a bit forward, so I can kiss him. ‘I love you, John,’ I whisper. ‘Thank you for cleaning up.’

‘Sweetie, of course.’ He smiles. ‘Last week you said that I was looking at you with my bedroom eyes, but the same can be said about you now.’

God, I hate it when I blush like this. Why do I have to blush about those things? I’m thirty one for crying out loud and John and I have been dating for a year and a half. This shouldn’t make me shy.

John pushes up my knitted sweater and the tank top I’m wearing underneath and he places his warm hands on my bare skin. The entire week he has been being really careful, even when it came to sex. He didn’t want to hurt me and whenever he saw my wrists (that are healing, thank God) he’d stop.

But I missed him so much.

‘Well,’ I whisper, ‘are you going to wait until we’re home?’

Though our sex life is pretty vanilla, it begins to spice up every now and then. I somehow manage to be a little bit louder, though it’s still hard for me to do sometimes. But sex at the cafe?

I have never done that, but looking at John right now, it makes it really difficult not to undress completely.

John chuckles, while his eyes turn a shade darker. ‘No,’ he whispers. He unbuttons my pants and pulls it down with my underwear, as he crouches down in front of me. He kisses my inner thigh, softly sucking on the tender skin, his tongue tracing the stretch marks I have there.

My fingers are tangled in his long locks and his beard scratches the sensitive skin. When he’s near my aching center, I feel his wet fingertip between my lips. ‘God, baby,’ he whispers, ‘so wet already.’

He pushes one in, earning him a stiffened moan from me. He places his mouth over my clit, before he sucks on the sensitive bud. He pushes in another one and I take a fistful of his hair.

John stands up and while him kissing me, he keeps on fingering me. Rougher than usually. ‘Come on, sweetheart,’ he says, ‘tell me how you feel.’

‘But what if anyone hears?’ I ask in a tiny voice.

‘No one will hear,’ he tells me. ‘We locked the door, no one can hear or see us in here.’ He places his other hand in the back of my neck and whispers: ‘Please.’

His fingers brush against a sensitive spot, but when he pushes in a third finger, I moan out against his lips. ‘Shit, John.’

‘That’s it,’ he says.

I’m nearing my orgasm, but before I can even tell John, he pulls out his fingers. ‘No, John,’ I whine. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘Open your mouth,’ he tells me. He brings his fingers covered in my juices to my lips and I hold onto his wrist as I suck his long and thick fingers clean. ‘You look really good doing this,’ he admits.

He pulls his fingers out of my mouth and kisses me so deeply, that I’m almost out of breath by the time he lets go of me. Without telling me anything, he turns me around and bends me over the cold table. I hear him unwrapping a condom and when I look over my shoulder, as I see him rolling it on.

John smiles at me. ‘I love you, Darcie.’ I feel his tip near my cunt and I let out a moan when he slowly sinks in. My walls stretch around him and I place my head on the table.

‘John, please, harder,’ I beg, clenching my hands into fists.

‘Only if you promise me to let me know how you feel, baby.’

I nod. ‘Okay.’

John holds onto my hips and slams inside of me. I moan out and he starts to pick up the speed with his thrusts. I bite my lip, another moan desperate to escape from my mouth. ‘Darcie, remember what you’d promise me.’

‘Fuck, John, you’re so big.’

‘That’s my girl,’ he says, squeezing my hips.

Every time he slides inside, my hipbones slamming against the table. My legs are quivering and I let out a sob. ‘John, I’m close.’

‘I know you are, good thing I am too.’

I can’t keep quiet anymore, as my orgasm washes over me. ‘You feel so fucking tight around me,’ John grunts, before his thrusts are getting sloppy. As he rides out his high, I somehow manage to catch my breath. I feel his chest pressed against my back as he pulls me up and he leaves wet kisses in my neck.

John pulls out of me and throws the condom in the trash. I hear him zip up his pants, before he hoists up mine, helping me to get decent again. I button up my pants and John turns me around, a smile evident on his beautiful face.

‘I can’t believe we had sex here,’ I say with pink blushes on my cheeks.

‘Me neither,’ John laughs. ‘Never knew you were into the whole public thing.’

‘Shut up.’

He lifts me on the table and gives me a sweet peck. ‘Did I hurt you?’

I shake my head. ‘No, not at all. I have to tell you one thing, though.’

‘Okay?’

‘You need to take out that thrash bag, because I don’t want anyone to see a used condom in the bottom of the bin. If Raye finds that, she’ll haunt me with that until we are retired and maybe even longer.’

Taglist: @toomanystoriessolittletime​ @flhorah​ @allie1804-fan @cynic-spirit​ @raven-black102

[notwhelmedyet]

Bookbinding Adventure #1 - Disaster Gladiators (pt 3)

aaand I stopped posting again and got behind 😅 whoops

So let’s get caught up. Continuing from my earlier posts, I’m binding Disaster Gladiators as my very first handbound book.

July 6 - Sewing

So on Monday, I stitched up the signatures that I’d prepunched Sunday night. This went pretty well! The beeswax smells amazing (you have to wax your thread before you stitch). One of the signatures stubbornly refuses to line up and is always a mm out of alignment with the others, for mysterious reasons. Possibly spite.

There are no pictures of sewing, I was busy fending off a very helpful cat.

July 7 - Cutting boards & Losing Knives

Tuesday I decided to cut out the cover boards. I rewatched the Sage Reynolds video on the topic & cut two covers and a piece of black cardstock to join the two. Cutting boards does, as promised, suck. By the end of it my knife was really dull.

So that evening I get out a pair of pliers and some safety glasses and I go to snap off a the old section of my utility knife blade. The blade breaks. It goes sproing. It disappears into some other dimension.

I spend the rest of the evening cleaning the entire room & hunting for the knife blade. It is still missing. Perhaps it will never be found.

July 8 - Endpapers and Cover Construction

I got some really beautiful decorative paper for my endpapers. It is gorgeous and it turns out it is the absolute worst to cut. The little silver bits catch on the blade and then the paper tears and it is just so fussy. But eventually I got two almost-right-sized mostly-not-torn endpapers cut. Fucking good enough.

I want to try fancy endpaper construction, like zig-zag endpapers, but I’m saving that for a later project (when I’ll remember to make the endpapers before sewing so that you can sew them on properly. I cannot wrap my head around sewing the endpapers on at the end)

Instead, for this project, I just tipped on the endpapers. AKA glued them onto the first and last sheets of the book. This is how commercial hardbacks are generally done and it’s fine. It’s not great, but it’s fine.

I also glued the covers to the piece of cardstock that will join them & made headbands. (Headbands are the covered cords that go at the top and bottom of book spines. In this case it’s literally a piece of twine glued into a piece of fabric)

(the book is not actually attached to the case in the above photo, but it’s placed where it’ll go)

July 9 - Lining the Spine

Now that the endpapers are on, it was time to line the spine. This goes, approximately:

Glue so there’s a flat surface

Scrim/cheesecloth to reinforce the spine

More glue

Headbands at the top and bottom

Lining paper (2 layers)

Or at least that’s the sequence in the Sage Reynolds videos, which is what I was following. I skipped rounding the spine because, frankly, I don’t think it’d look good on a book this small. I’ll try it with a future project.

This went mostly okay. I’ve been struggling to use the roller brush for glue - it’s just way too big for this project. I ended up using my fingers for most of this and I’m a little worried I might have gotten too much glue on it. We’ll see 😰

still to go: Cutting the fabric and paper to cover the case, printing the cover image, experimenting with foil, covering the case, casing in the book

[theloniousbach]

Another Couch Tour Two-fer, 15 May 2020: Larkin Poe and Jorma Kaukonen

LARKIN POE: HOME SWEET HOME BLUES CLASSICS This was the third show in the Lovell sisters’ biweekly concerts from Megan the Slide Queen’s guest bedroom.  After doing request shows of their covers and their own repertoire, this was a nicely curated survey of blues tunes, properly attributed to the great figures in the tradition.  “Spoonful” was Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon, not Cream.  We heard much about Mississippi Fred McDowell before the mention that he mentored Bonnie Raitt.

So, each tune was properly attributed with stories about the likes of Son House (Preachin’ Blues and Grinnin’ in Your Face), Hambone Willie Newborn as the source of Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ and Tumblin’ (and though they didn’t know much about Newborn yet he was going to be this week’s research topic), Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, John Lee Hooker, and Leadbelly. They started with a field holler/stomp that they got from Alan Lomax.

They are real students of the music and, though Rebecca kicks herself for missing lyrics, I think it’s because she can’t help but thinking so (not too) much.   Several of these tunes (Preachin’ Blues, Black Betty, John the Revelator, Come in My Kitchen as an encore) are pillars of their set list and others have been (Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues but Spoonful which they played with Joe Bonamassa).  But the intimacies of this format is that they strip the arrangements to their essence.  Four tunes were just Megan’s slide and harmonies with Rebecca’s powerful voice.  The slide playing is so vocal, but the vocals are, equally, so instrumental.

They are quite attuned to one another, so that Kokomo Blues went out there, Megan calling her solo “avant garde” and Rebecca remarking how she threw in some different chord voicings in response.

They are making the best of quarantine to find these new ways to connect to their audience.  I’m glad to be part of this series and this next one,

JORMA KAUKONEN, QUARANTINE CONCET #7

There was a lag in getting the show going, so I ended up watching it the following afternoon—and for the “I See the Light” opener we joined on the outro.  Still, these are just a fixture of the Great Disruption, important to Jorma and his Fur Peace Ranch crew and all of us fans.

It’s always a mix of intimate performances and stories prompted by listener questions.  It feels like a community.

Lots of finger picking of course—blues but this week some of the proto-country tunes he explored on “Blue Country Heart” (“Prohibition Blues,” “Big River Blues”), Jorma songs with distinctive minor chords and/or nifty little riffs (“Song for the North Light,” “Day to Day Out the Window Blues,” “Hamar Promenade” (new to me), sometimes instrumentals “A Life Well Lived,” “I’ll Let You Know Before I Leave”), and some songs accumulated over the years (Roy Bookbinder’s “Another Man Done a Full Go Round”).

A nice feature is that his FPR factotum, John Hurlbut, does a song or two which allows Jorma to play lead in a stretched out San Francisco jam band way.  He has different folk influences than Jerry Garcia so he takes it out in his own way.  This segment seems always to include a Dylan tune (“I Shall Be Released” this week) but also a version of Spencer Bohren’s arrangement of “People Get Ready.”

The stories were about leaving Jack Casady in a Florida truck stop during a tour, how Bill Graham put together wide ranging shows at the Fillmore that might not be welcome these days, interacting with BB King and Muddy Waters, and the ever eccentric Buddy Cage being in Anne Murray’s band.

I don’t write these up every week and instead just leave a couple of observations with the You Tube link.  But having Larkin Poe too makes for enough impetus.

Performances during the Great Disruption are both rare treasures and an embarrassment of riches.  They are worth celebrating no matter what.