#FIC TO BOOKBIND IF I KNEW HOW TO BOOKBIND

[ifyoucandaniel]

No Paths are Bound vol.1 by @cataclysmicevie 🔥🖤

this has been in the works since last november.

i discovered a friend i’d met through bookbinding also loved mxtx and when we agreed to do an exchange i knew exactly what i was making. could i have made this less than 6 books? absolutely. so many mistakes were made with these books but all in all i’m very happy with how they came out and i’m so happy she finally has them!

the art on the dust jackets is by @/ RACCUN7 on twitter and the end page art is by @huaepiphany !! both artists were so kind to let me use their art for this project and it would not be complete without it!! 🖤

if you’ve never read this fic but you love tgcf then i cannot recommend this enough. this fic is one of my top 5 all time favorite things i’ve ever read and to this day i think about the character development and story probably more than the original story and if ever there was an oc i loved it would be ren song. i think everyone should read this and love it as much as me and i cannot wait to make my own copy sometime :) i’ll probably post some more closeups of the other books soon, but i just thought i’d share these!

[saintvainglorious]

My First Fanbind! A Black Sails Fic Anthology Series

It took me a year (and a lot of anxious research) before I worked up the courage to bookbind fanfiction, and after months of on-again-off-again work, my first fanbind is finally done!

I knew that if I was going to bookbind fic, I had to bind something from the Black Sails fandom, aka the fandom and show that have had the biggest impact on my life. Y'all, I almost went into academia to study slavery in the 17th-18th century Caribbean because of this show - when folks say this show rewires your brain chemistry, they are NOT kidding. THEE show of all time. Happy 10th anniversary to Black Sails! This fandom is small but mighty. May we continue to get our hearts and souls blasted to smithereens by this show for many years to come.

Ao3 abounds with magnificent Black Sails oneshots, so I decided to put together an anthology of my favorite Silverflint fics under 20k, which I split into two volumes. Included are works by @justlikeeddie, @vowel-in-thug, @balloonstand, @annevbonny, @francisthegreat, @nysscientia, and more! Thank you, thank you all, you brilliant wonderful people, for gracing the Internet with such amazing writing. When I read the fics in these anthologies I want to fling myself into the sun.

More on the design and binding process below the cut!

Vol. 1 Page Count: 270 (12 fics) Vol. 2 Page Count: 248 (11 fics) Body Font: Sabon Next LT (10.5 pt) Title Font: Goudy Old Style Other Fonts: IM Fell English, pirates pw

The typeset (which I did in Word) took a while, mainly because I'd never done it before. Manually adjusting the hyphenation line-by-line was especially tedious. After making these books, I abandoned Word in favor of InDesign, in large part because InDesign gives you way finer control over your justification and hyphenation settings.

Regarding my actual design choices, I'm happy with how the ocean motif on the title page turned out (it's not the same pattern as my endpapers, but they're complimentary) and I'm very fond of my divider dingbats, which are little swords! Goudy Old Style was a fun title font to use, since it's the font that Black Sails uses as its logo. The stories in Vol. 1 are divided into parts based on what Silver WAS at that point in the show (cook, quartermaster, or king), and Vol. 2 is split up into comedies, histories (AUs set in the canon universe) and tragedies - befitting Black Sails' Shakespearean ~vibes~.

I stuck to a flatback binding, as I wasn't feeling quite ambitious enough to try rounding and/or backing. I've learned that I ~Anakin Skywalker voice~ hate sanding, enjoy folding/sewing, and don't LIKE edge trimming but enjoy the results enough to make it worth it.

The real adventure was decorating the cover, which remained bare for months. After agonizing over Illustrator and experimenting unsuccessfully with HTV and lokta paper embossing, I ultimately turned to using stencil vinyl to paint on the designs. There was a bit of seepage under some of the stencils, but I was able to scrape off the excess with my Cricut weeding tool without damaging the coated surface of the bookcloth (probably Arrestox Blue Ribbon from Hollander's). Even though it was very time-consuming, I'm so happy with the end result of the stenciled paint job and I intend to stick with stencils for my foreseeable future binds.

Are there things I would change? Sure. It was humid out when I printed, so the pages have got a wave. There’s an extra two pages in Vol 2. that I have no idea how I missed, and I got a line of glue in the middle of one of my Vol. 2 endpapers. I’m pretty sure I didn’t case in quite right, since my endpapers pull away from the case at the spine. I think the inner margins are a bit too big, and despite going line-by-line there’s still some wacky justification spacing in the typeset. But man, am I proud of these books! It is so satisfying to learn a new skill - MANY new skills, if we’re being honest - and to make something both beautiful and practical. If I’m still binding in two years or so, I can see myself redoing the typeset in InDesign, cutting out the existing text block, and reusing the cases. I’m also already planning for Vol. 3, which will be Silverflint Modern AUs.

Thanks for reading!

[hooksbooks]

Fanfic Writers Appreciation Day

This year I participated in @renegadeguild's Renegade Loves Fic (Writers) event for the first time, in which we celebrate Fanfic Writers Appreciation Day by binding two copies of a fanfic we love and sending one copy to the author.

I chose Florigenesis by @nientedal (and its sequel your roots send down to grow as an epilogue), which is a Megamind/Roxanne hanahaki story. Or, in the words of the author, "Less 'Hanahaki' and more 'mutually-requited pining with flowers thrown in for flavor.' " I loved the imagery of the flowers and had a lot of fun typesetting it with as many floral motifs as I could fit in it.

The flower Megamind ends up coughing up for Roxanne are dahlias, so I found some open-source images of dahlias sourced from books in the public domain to use as scene breaks and as a watermark behind the table of contents. Additionally, I used the font "Lime Blossom Caps" to use as a drop-cap at the beginning of each chapter. The text ended up being a bit more than 380 pages.

This is the first time I've done a book partially covered in paper instead of all in bookcloth. Before gluing the paper to the cover, I sealed it with homemade paste wax, which I think turned out really well. The book has a lovely feel to it--I'll definitely do some more partial-paper covered books in the future.

Also for the first time I sewed a headband on each book. It turned out fairly well. I used waxed linen thread as the core (the waxed thread that came with my bookbinding kit--its braided and so thick I can't imagine using it for sewing signatures).

Additionally, I got myself a chisel (and sharpening kit) to trim the edges, which turned out much better than expected. I still don't have something to hold the book horizontally while I trim so I'm still trimming vertically for now, but it turned out much better than trying to use a utility knife like I was before.

Technical Details:

Quarto size (quarter-letter, about A6)

Sewn-on made endpapers

Rounded but not backed

Sewn-on headbands (no tailbands)

Chisel-trimmed pages

Oxford hollow

The linen tapes are frayed and glued to the exterior of the boards

Sewn-on bookmark

Things I especially liked about this bind:

CHISEL TRIMMING! I knew it would up my game to have a chisel to trim pages with rather than just a utility knife, but WOW, it made SO MUCH difference! Once they were finished I kept petting the edges of the pages because they were just so soft and smooth and perfect.

I really like the sewn-in headbands. I'd probably use a bit thicker core next time, but they turned out well and I'm pleased with them.

I'm surprised how much I liked the paper-covered covers. I had planned on most of my books being full-bookcloth with this one as an exception, but with how much I like the look and feel of this book I will probably switch that around and do just quarter-bound with bookcloth unless I have a good reason to make an exception.

For the made endpapers, I glued just the edge of the endpaper to the white instead of the whole page. I quite like it--it's a lot more flexible this way and doesn't have a "noticeably glued-together" feel to it.

The wax paste turned out really well. It makes the cover feel very "finished" instead of just like scrapbook paper, which is what it actually is.

Things I'd like to improve for next time:

Because the text block is rounded but not backed, there's a little wrinkling of the endpaper glued to the board right at the hinge so it doesn't pull when the book is opened all the way. I'll have to experiment a bit more with this to figure out a good hinge for a rounded-not-backed book.

Although I love the flower cover, it's a little busy to have the title legible on the cover, so it's only on the spine. That's not a bad thing, but I'm not sure what I would do if I definitely did want a title/design on the cover itself.

I think honestly there's not very much to improve for next time. I'm very pleased with how this one came out--it's very nearly perfect.

[navigateme]

“Free from the wicked torment of sin; free from the last fuck I’m handing in”

Halfway through reading Dear Your Holiness by MollyMaryMarie for the first time, I knew it was going to be one of those fics that I read over and over and over again so it’s no surprise that it’s the one I chose for my very first bind!

@mollymarymarie thank you for creating such a masterpiece, I’m obsessed 🤩

Everyone in the bookbinding community has been so nice to me so far but I really wanted to give a huge shout-out to @vellichorbindery for sharing this gorgeous typeset with me and being so kind!!

Since this was my first bind, I definitely made some mistakes and learned a lot but I’m so proud with how the finished product turned out!

This is for personal use only; I will not do commissions.

[dramioneasks]

Mannn, I thought the new HBO series was going to take out HP Fanfic. Who knew the fandom would start to eat itself and cause its own demise with bad manners regarding reader entitlement and a lack of awareness supporting illegal profits from book binding😮‍💨.

It's wild to think people would pay hundreds of dollars for something that is kindly posted for free. I know some of you mods are authors. Thank you all for what you do and your MASSIVE contributions to this fandom.

In the last few days I've seen so much talk about this. I believe some authors have started that they were removing their fics from AO3? Which sparked all this talk.

For those who don't know, many authors are having their work downloaded and bound into a physical book and being sold. They are not being informed of this. They do not get contacted for permission, nor do they see any money from the sale.

Someone just decided to take a popular fic, one that got some traction on tiktok, and make it into a book and sell it for money. The original author is clueless of this happening.

Previously, in this fandom, some small bookbinding business owners would reach out to the authors and ask permission to bind a copy of the fanfic for their own use. They were granted that permission. They would post about it, and other people wanted the same. Those bookbinders then reached out to their author for permission to sell the bound copies and informed the author of the price they were selling to for. They only made a profit on the materials and labour.

Now, things have changed, especially since fanfiction and dramione fanfiction, in particular, have gotten super popular on tiktok.

People have realized that they can make a quick buck and sell physical copies of works. Even if it is illegal. YES selling fanfiction is illegal.

Fanfiction comes from another author's intellectual property. You can make fanfiction and post about it because you can not and will not make money off of it. If you do, the original author can take you to court. These bookbinders are selling fanfiction, and they are gonna get everyone in trouble if a traditionally published author decided to look into this. With how easy it is for someone's video to go viral on tiktok and how many authors are using tiktok, it's not impossible for this to come their way.

Right now, it seems these bookbinders are only on tiktok and etsy.

If you see people selling fanfiction, report them.

If you go on the dramione, tag here on Tumblr, you will see lots of chats about this, especially from authors themselves. Take some time to read it and follow some guidelines that they suggested to help combat these sales.

(PS: Our author mods are not active at the moment, you can reach out to them personally on their Tumblr pages to express your support!)

- Lisa

[the-furthest-city-light]

Hey hi hello I'd like to tell you about the wonderful gift my friend @swordsmans made for me.

I literally spent Thursday night just. Looking through it and turning it over in my hands. It's SO pretty and has SUCH A VISION in the making of it. Gyro's work is amazing. Just. Look.

The cover? The gold foil lettering? God. It looks so good on my bookshelf. And the DETAIL. They painted the edges of the pages guys, it looks SO COOL.

(excuse the low-quality photos, I have learned i am terrible at staging books, but just LOOK AT THESE PAGES.)

Okay and now for me waxing poetic about this.

When gyro first mentioned that they were going to start commissions for binding people's fics I was excited for them and also planned to commission them to bind one of my own fics. I knew I wanted to get a bound copy of their fic The Sea Makes Bones of Bodies as well, because if you haven't seen the typesets for that and the copies they've made you really should (here's my personal favorite of their copies). So I reached out and imagine my surprise when I discovered Gyro was already planning to do so.

Genuinely one of my favorite experiences in fandom is seeing people make art for their favorite fics and be inspired by other fanworks so when I tell you that I was BEYOND HONORED about this and SO PUMPED, like. I don't have words. I'm so grateful to have received such a lovely gift (it's on my bookshelf next to my copy of Rilke. Rilke.) and I keep running around with a huge smile on my face because I still can't believe anyone liked my silly Zolu fic enough to be inspired to actually bind it and now I have it in my hands.

I don't actually know anything about bookbinding except for what I've gleaned from Gyro but I did wonder how it would like. Feel in my hand compared to traditionally published books. I'm super careful with it because I love it so much but this thing is not going to fall apart at the drop of a hat. Also the book just feels nice in my hands. Weird thing to notice maybe but Gyro also picked a lovely font? I read the fic (IN BOOK FORM AHHHHHHH) and it was just as readable as it is on AO3 (though obviously this is way better/more special askdfjajjakkkiss).

If you are interested in fanbinding and the actual process Gyro used to make this, they made a post here. If you would like to request a fanbinding project their form is here. Gyro's Kofi is here as well. And if you'd like to follow gyro's fanbinding archive that would be here.

Okay! I think that's all I wanted to say. Gyro it was so lovely to have a front-row seat to the creation process and see how you made the book. Genuinely one of the best gifts I've ever received, thank you so much!!!

[kulapti]

Bookbinding (2 copies) of This Thing of Darkness by @maggieandthedragon, spring 2023.

This Thing of Darkness (Fantastic Beasts, Percival Graves x Credence Barebone) is a serious but hopeful look at the difficulties of helping someone face depression, whether it be for intervening in a crisis or the providing support in the long slog of continuing to get up every day. People are messy and difficult, but it is good to be together. As dark as it might be, we can receive help, and sometimes the help we offer each other is the most important thing in the world. It's no wonder this is one of the most popular works in the pairing tag. Recommended also for compelling side characters and interesting magic system additions.

-------------------------------About this project under the cut

This is one of the first fanfics I bound for myself when I started ficbinding last year. TTOD is one of my top ten favorite fics of all time and when I realized I could learn to do typesetting and bind fics I immediately knew I wanted to make a hard copy of this novel. My personal copy has a different spine because it’s part of a matching set of my favorite Percival x Credence fanfics; the set is almost complete.

Materials: text laser printed on archival paper; Italian rayon bookcloth, purple batik-pattern cotton backed with handmade wood pulp paper, bookboard, PVA glue, cotton cheesecloth used as mull. Stitched with cotton thread, beeswax, and linen tapes, plus embroidery thread and hemp cord for the endbands. Endpapers are marbled Italian paper by London-based artist Stephan Parenti (Peacock Paper studio) which I got on Etsy specially for this binding because I wanted it to be fancy.

I learned how to stitch endbands for this book as well. The bindings aren't perfect but I’m still quite pleased with the result. The whole time it’s been on my bookshelf I keep looking at it and going heehee I made a book ✨✨✨✨ Author copy has been mailed to maggiedragon.

[hms-tardimpala]

Ficbinding: Matryoshka Dolls

I got out of my reading slump long enough to read Matryoshka Dolls by Applecrumbledore, and I enjoyed it so much I bound it.

The fic: Supernatural, Dean/John, rated E, 24k I don't read a lot of Dean/John, but this fic was an excellent surprise. Its tough subject is very well-handled. Sam has a place in it too, and it explores grief and guilt really well. Also it's hot (I can't find the scenes between Dean and John titillating, but there are others).

The bind: I try to match the story's tone with the materials and colors I use. I almost bound this in black pleather on account of how dark it is, but at the last moment I chose brown, as a callback to John's leather jacket. I used green for the headbands and bookmark to mimic Dean's eyes. That way, the color representing John surrounds the one representing Dean, to call to mind John's control over his son.

The jacket in question is worn by Dean in early seasons, it was John's and he gave it to him (and even at 26 it looks too big on him 🥺). You can see it in this happy family photo:

What I like about this one:

The typesetting: it's quite sober (to fit the story), but I spent some time on it. I downloaded 20+ fonts before I settled on one. The Impala looks hella good. The drop caps are nice: they're frames instead of decorations, which is neat when the two characters in your story are deadlocked in a situation they love/hate and can't escape. It's also why I chose two parallel lines to highlight the years breaks. They're not much, but they felt more fitting than a single decoration.

The trim: I'm slowly taming my guillotine. This is the first project I used pieces of board as "cushions" when trimming the text block, so it's even despite the sewn spine being thicker, and it worked a treat! Sure, I'll have more grey board waste, but I was so fed up with uneven cuts and warped textblocks that I was about to sell my guillotine and give up on trimming. Look at this beauty. The edges are so smooth, even after rounding the spine.

The margins: they're perfect. I didn't cut too much or not enough.

The rounded spine: that's really my thing. I'm always disappointed when I do a straight spine, it makes the book look boxy, so I'm honing my craft on round spines. This one turned out great.

What I like less:

The cover material: it's not the first time this comes up in this section, because this material is from my stock of too-thick pleather that's not made for bookbinding. It made the corners too thick, but otherwise it behaved well. I can't afford not to use this material I already have, so I knew what to expect and I don't regret choosing it for this project. It's fine.

The endpapers: they're pretty enough by themselves, but I couldn't find ones that truly fit the story or would add meaning. Truth is, I have a very hard time finding endpapers. If someone knows of a site to buy some (accessible from France and not crazy expensive), I take suggestions.

Characteristics: Fonts: The Blackmore (title), Act of Rejection (author name), ZT Gatha semibold (text) Materials: fake leather, 80g/m² copy paper, pre-made headband and synthetic ribbon.

Feel free to ask me more about materials and fonts, it won’t bother me at all to tell you what I used, but I’m too lazy rn to write it in this post that’s long enough already.

[spockandawe]

Binderary! I already spoiled how this went last night, but now let's review how it went with slightly nicer words and slightly nicer pictures. And, as a special treat at the end, I even have a spreadsheet.

Last winter, I expressed a vague desire to do a speed test, and see if I could sustain a pace of a book per day for an entire month. Text harvesting, typesetting, everything. This was at the stage where backing books was a terrifying leap of faith rather than a mildly tedious chore, and I'd never tried leather. I had a cricut, but had been too nervous to use it yet. And I did it! In fact, in pursuit of nice round numbers, I hit 30! I didn't realize, but the month wrapped right around my one year anniversary of starting bookbinding, and those projects landed me somewhere in the 130s of total books bound (my tracking spreadsheet has gaps and also needs a revamp).

This year, I had progressed a lot. I had gotten much more ambitious with my projects and was a MUCH better typesetter. I was confident I could hit exceed thirty, so instead I thought I would see how quickly I could do it. This was a fantastic plan, because work had me so exhausted and strung out that I accidentally started february a day early. Doing great. I pushed on so I wouldn't get an artificial rest and set my deadline at the 27th. Then.... in 13 days I hit 28, and all it took was one joking poke, asking if I thought I could average two books per day. It sank in. My brain ADORES ridiculous artificial conditions. I just Had to do it. I was emotionally invested. Anyways! I'm flirting with genuine burnout, but I DID IT, BABY. Last night I hit sixty!

SIXTY BOOKS! Five in leather! One in denim! One in velvet! Two edge marbled! One over a thousand pages! Three cnovels! All but one book cover done with my existing stash of paper, fabric, and leather! That one exception was tian ya ke where I knew which fabric I wanted, and I had precut pieces in my stash, but I wanted to fussy cut alignment on the fabric so I went out to buy more, hahaha

I did ease up my initial self-imposed rules a little, just because like forty books in, the concept of STORIES stopped meaning anything. I went hilariousuly numb. It's like semantic satiation, but for a concept. Stories? Never heard of em in my life. So when fics has multiple authors I wanted to gift them to, I made multiples and each counted as a separate book. Other books here were anthologies of a couple dozen stories, counted as one book. So I didn't stress it. I am legit more burned out than I wanted to be, I wasn't going to find EXTRA unnecessary reasons to push and make it worse. This was a fantastic achievement, and I'm really so proud of myself right now. My last svsss was book 201, and these are 202-261. This is just under a quarter of the books I've ever bound. I am EXTREMELY proud of this.

Now for dessert. SPREADSHEET. I'm redacting all the books and authors, because some of these are gifts and if i do decide to fully spoil the surprise, I'm at least going to do it with individual glamour shots. For now, this is what we've got. Please note the right three columns, where I tracked the total numbers of stories, words, and pages in here. Mistakenly saving the villain (part two) is the one that counts as 0 stories because it's split across two volumes, but everything else should make sense, I think. I did PRETTY DARN GOOD

[sitp-recs]

Happy birthday my dear @the-starryknight! It’s been such a joy to share this space with you for the past couple years. You’re not only one of the kindest souls out there, but also an incredibly talented writer and such an important fandom supporter and enthusiast. I’m beyond grateful for everything you’ve done - from compiling great resource posts like this one with Drarry reccers and this one about fandom curation - to your uplifting Tuesday TLC Zone series and your gorgeous, heartfelt fic recs. It’s wonderful to see the quiet yet powerful impact you have beyond your written works, which are already brilliant in themselves.

The way you’re able to build delicious tension and suspense in just a few words, the way you explore aching tenderness, raw desire and desperate loneliness, the way you gently guide us from darkness to healing with every love story. Your impeccable prose, your precise use of sentences, your ability to transform nuanced characters and establish rich universes within just a few words. Everything about you and your writing moves me so much! I can only express gratitude and appreciation for everything that you’ve done and shared with us so far. Here’s a little gift to celebrate your iconic short format that reflects all of the things I mentioned above, with a few selected favorites from this microfic series that I adore so much. Happy birthday! 💙

🏮ch 5: read him in secret // dogeared pages

My lips dogear the page of his skin so I can’t forget my place, bookmarked out of sight. Unsilenced, my fingernails leave red marginalia on his spread thighs, his sweat dampening the pages: remember this. They wrote a thousand stories in his name, but I’m the author of his satisfaction.

🏮ch 9: audience of one // blush

The adrenaline bass fills Harry’s veins like a heartbeat as he watches from the wings. The stage lights blush across Draco’s burning cheeks, the final notes shiver from his fingertips. The audience shouts his name — Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy — but it tastes different in Harry’s mouth, Draco’s music on his tongue.

🏮ch 12: seeker on seeker // gloves

It’s the leather pressed so close to my skin I can feel the threads in the fingertip where he fucks me, glove on thigh on cock, unwilling to shuck our Quidditch kits in favour of this — oh — this, riding him with everything in between and nothing left to stop us.

🏮ch 16: desire admission // silk

He’s sunken into the silk-tied satin-slide sweetness of try-this-with-me trust, of lace on skin and knots on thighs. “Draco,” he pleads, shivering on the ever-moving edge of desperation. “Draco,” slips from his tongue as I fuck him like he wants it most, sweat-slick and uninhibited.

🏮ch 32: shelf life // bookbinder

Bind me to him, lay my gathering down against his spine so only thread lies between our inked pages. Tie me to him so I can feel the hush of our deckle edges against each other with every licked-finger page-turn press. Open me, I’ll tell him. Read me – I’m yours.

🏮ch 35: lying lupine // werewolf

I cared for him only as the Wolf, but I knew him in every sense of my self. Pine and hemlock, sandalwood and home — when the moon glared monthly fear into my bones, he smelled like safety. In daylight, though our knees remained mud-stained, I looked the other way.

🏮ch 38: alchemical formula // inch

I know his inches by touch and his skin by taste and the balance of gold to man by the way he makes my heart beat. He is eternal life when he laughs; and seductive sin when he offers himself to me — freely, as if I deserve to know.

🏮ch 42: taking back life's thread (a second chance) // thread

If Fate lives, let her watch me take this thread and tie it ‘round his wrist — bind him to me. When we weave this life’s tapestry, we’ll hold our clashing colours double, we’ll trace the same pattern; I have spent too long at odds to not press myself against him.

🏮ch 48: potions collaboration // stardust

“Let me teach you how to collect stardust,” murmured Draco, pressing Harry into the dewy grass. They were bare beneath the full moon, naked skin flushed with the summer heat and more. “Like this,” he said, drawing his thumb through sweat collected at Harry’s hip. “On skin, suspended in saltwater.”

🏮ch 50: little luminaries

Harry stands among his creations; a dozen glass lights dazzle amid the charmed ceiling. Vibrant red, silver-grey and joyful yellow by the witchlight, his craft in each soldered seam.

"You're watching me again."

How can I not? "I like the gold one, there."

"They're yours. I make them all for you."

Check the full little luminaries microfic collection here!

[sweatersinthesummer]

Happy nice ask day!!

How did you get into fanbinding? What’s your favorite thing about it?

Oooh! Well, when I was in college, I wanted to be a newspaper designer. I got to do that for a couple of years, but this was like 1999, so it wasn't long before I transitioned to web design. When I was given the opportunity to design a book in 2007, I jumped on it. But then I had kids and no time for fun things, at least for a while. (Betcha didn't know you were getting a life story here, eh?)

Fast-forward 15 years and I started seeing fanbindings on tumblr and for about a year I just gazed longingly at them and got overwhelmed by the instructional guides I found online. I knew I was going to end up doing it one day, but I resisted. Then I saw an interview with someone from Renegade Publishing around the same time I came across an instagram account floating around about bookbinding, and I jumped in.

As I am wont to do, I went full-force immediately. It's been about two months since I finished my first fanbinding project, and now I've completed a dozen? I'm not sure. I should count.

I love making things, but I can't draw, so this (and sewing, my other hobby that I've hyperfixated on) scratches an itch. Writing fic and podficcing does that too. While I love the little library I'm making for myself, I really really love making them for other people. :)

My ficbinding side blog

[bluejayblueskies]

where the tracks take us - starsxabove

This is the second of two books I did for the Renegade Publishing server's bound fic exchange! I bound @ninemagicks's fic where the tracks take us for @clovenhoofbindery 💜 it's a fun and lovely Captive Prince fic that I read and instantly knew I had to bind. I enjoyed playing around with the train imagery in the typeset and on the spine, especially with the various section breaks within the fic when the train reaches new stops.

I have a lot of fun binding tiny books, and this one was no different! I learned a lot about the community imposer (and printer skew 😅) and the best way to cut things so that they're even, and I'm looking forward to making even more books around this size. I got to use my fig bookcloth (which always reminds me of captive prince) and when I determined that the spine was too small to put the title on, I enjoyed painting a little train with metallic Lumiere fabric paints that are quickly becoming a staple in my bookbinding arsenal. I'm happy with how this one turned out, and it was a pleasure to get to do it for the exchange!

[pastafossa]

Hey Pasta! Hope you're doing well throughout all of the stuff the world throws at you!! I was wondering if you were ok with people printing out TRT and binding it for their own personal library? Also was wondering if you knew how you would separate the chapters to make separate books?

Thank you so much anon! I'm slowly getting there, although I would very much appreciate it if the world chilled for a bit so I could have a breather for a few months, that'd be awesome. 😅

And I am SO DOWN WITH THAT! You are absolutely free to print and bind TRT for your own personal use! I totally know the feeling of wanting to be able to keep fics on your shelf, so I'm delighted any time someone wants to with TRT. <3

Ok so

My rough breakdown originally, based on the arcs and the points in them I planned to 'shift' to a new 'book', would look something like this. I did wind up editing the beginnings and endings of some of these so they fit more into a regular flow, but they still tend to have a feeling of something 'ending' and then beginning in the next: -Book 1: Chapters 1-43 (<- this one specifically bookends their meeting with their first kiss and official 'we are together now whatever may come') -Book 2: Chapters 44-73 -Book 3: Chapters 74-105 -Book 4: Chapters 106-I haven't quite decided yet The problem with this, according to the few other folks who've tried to bookbind TRT, is that even if you go by these numbers, book one is really fucking long - I think 330k words or so. It can be done technically (a lot of the GoT books are about this length) but it's still a struggle, so you may have to cut them into, like, a Part One and Part Two for each book - I'm honestly not sure. I have full intentions of eventually trying to break TRT down into the offical 'Here Is A Bookbinding 'Book' Breakdown' that splits them into more maneageable sizes, but for now, that's what I've got!

[twodiamondhoes]

Pspspspsps I am slowly rereading Dirges as I attempt to typeset the whole shebang for bookbinding (it still hits meeee!!!) and I'm wondering: were there any ideas that you had to put by the wayside?

Eeeee! I'm so excited to hear that!! <3

and OH BOY DO I EVER

Fun fact! There were two concepts for Dirges before it became Dirges.

A bog-standard spaghetti western with no supernatural elements. I dreamed up the original concept/finale scene while listening to the song Blood on My Name by the Brothers Bright. I was plotting a second fic at the time with all the eldritch stuff and while talking to my partner when I was trying to decide the reason that the Ratcliffes had fled England, we realized it would be so much fun to combine the two. One of the big things that I miss from the original Dirges concept was that Jimmy actually gives up being sheriff/deputy entirely and busts Tango out of jail, because his original arc was coming to terms with the idea that legal=/=morally correct.

the second concept is something that I wrestled with for the first few weeks of the HSBB. I loved it. I actually got as far as plotting the entire fic and drafting the first two chapters before changing the entire storyline to what it became. There are a few holdovers from this concept: Tango's sickles, and Tango's soul-vision. In this version, Tango wasn't an escapee from Hell, he was a "soulkeeper," or an emissary of death, who could see echoes of how someone was going to die (this actually leaned hard into the Dungeon Master Tango skin with all the soul-fire elements of it). The stronger the echo, the sooner the person was slated to die. In this version, the big arc is actually Tango coming to terms with falling in love with Jimmy, even though he wakes up every day knowing how short their time together will be. BEST wanted him back because they believed that he was their "good luck charm" because he always knew when things were going to break bad. In the end iirc, Tango turned it around on them and saved Del Sombra.

One day I might polish up the outline for concept 2 and post it, because I love soulkeeper Tango so, so much, but there were bits of the story that weren't as strong, and rewriting it was ultimately the way to go. :3

Thank you for this question!! It was a lot of fun going on this little trip down memory lane! <3

As a treat, have the very first thing ever written for Dirges, wayyyyy back in Concept 1, when the title was still "Homestead" and the only plot outline I had for it was this:

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” 

Jimmy whirled, his panic sharpening into cold terror as he realized that some of the shadows weren’t shadows at all. A scratch and hiss of a match being lit filled the silence between heartbeats, and Grian lit the lamp beside the door. 

Jimmy tangled his fingers in the mane of the Sheriff’s horse, instinctively taking a step closer to the beast. If he was quick—

Grian huffed, familiar irritation snapping across his features and clearing in another second. 

“You’re really going to take the time to saddle up that horse, when we have a perfectly good horse of our own outside? I thought you’d be in more of a hurry, given the circumstances.”

The silence of the barn suddenly struck Jimmy. He’d chalked it up to the calm before the storm, but the barn had never been quiet. Hadn’t he fallen asleep out here enough lately to know that the horses were never silent, even in sleep? A breeze whistled through the open door. The flame in the lantern guttered for a moment, but Grian didn’t close the flap. He was too busy fiddling with the latch. 

“Where are the horses?”

“Grazing.”

“It’s past midnight, Grian.”

“So it is.” Grian sniffed, not bothering to feign surprise. “And you’re still here.”

The light of the lone flame flickered across his brother’s face, obscuring him beyond even his usual stone-faced reticence. Behind him, Jimmy could see stars. He still had time. 

“You never did tell us what we were running from.”

A wry smile, an ironic smile, spread across Grian’s face. He looked at Jimmy like he was already mourning him. 

“Well, Tim,” he began. His voice cracked on the nickname, the emotion small enough that no one but he or Pearl would have ever noticed it. “It seems like now you’re on the run from the law. That’s enough for one man, don’t you think?”

Jimmy pressed past his brother, through the barn door. In the light of the moon, he could see what his earlier panic had blinded him to: Bullseye in the grazing pen, looking confused as to why he was ready to ride so late at night, when all the other horses were getting a lovely midnight snack. 

Jimmy looked back. Grian had taken his place at the side of Scar’s horse and was watching Jimmy closely. 

‘Thank you’ seemed too small, so Jimmy didn’t say anything at all. He ran to the pen and was over the fence in barely a minute. 

Grian was at the gate, leading Oreo inside to graze. He didn’t take his eyes off the horizon as Jimmy rode past him. Jimmy could practically hear him now, his voice prickling with rage and anguish: He stole away in the night. I didn’t even see him leave. 

Grian had always been a master of finding a way to tell the truth even in the twistiest of circumstances.

He was well down the road when he realized the light at his back wasn’t the rising sun. Bullseye skidded to a halt at his command. He could hear the terrified whinnying of the horses, safe in the grazing pen, as the stable burned. If he squinted, he thought he could see Grian, running back from the well. 

His breath caught on a lump in his throat, but he couldn’t stay to watch, and even if he went back, there was no stopping the blaze, now. He was just glad he’d had the foresight to argue with Grian over where to put the damn thing. 

He turned and guided Bullseye back onto the road. Despite his desperation, he couldn’t make his horse go at a full gallop. He couldn’t exhaust Bullseye before the real flight began. Even at this pace, he’d make it to town before they hung Tango. 

He had to. 

[lengthy-artery]

3, 4, 10!

woo thank you my friend!

Ask me writing questions!

3.       Name a fanfic/story you are particularly proud of writing.

I'm confident enough now that I'm going to say the original story that I'm writing, because I've finished draft 2 and it fucking slaps, but outside of that I genuinely think that for peace comes dropping slow is one of my best pieces of fic. It hits every beat that I wanted it to hit, it's not overdone, it's exactly what I meant for it to be and I think that it's really good. Also Shared Duties - I felt like I nailed the vibe of the show in that one.

4.       Where did you get your inspiration from?

GREAT FUCKING QUESITON. I WISH I KNEW. In terms of fic, I genuinely have no idea - fic ideas bubble up over time, normally driven by me wanting to see something that didn't/hasn't happened in the show, but beyond that they just materialise in my head. For story ideas (both short horror and longer pieces) they tend to be inspired by something random I've seen or learned about that's got lodged in my head. For example, I recently saw a replica victorian saddler's shop at a museum. Victorian saddler > leatherwork > bookbinding > ooh edwardian bookbinding, that could make for a fun character job, and then I could do x and y with it, etc etc.

10.   What frustrates you the most as a writer?

ENDING. CHAPTERS. I CAN NEVER THINK OF HOW TO END CHAPTERS NEATLY, I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE THEY'RE SO SCRUFFY. That and getting some scenes to connect smoothly (I write out of order, just writing whatever parts of the chapter I have inspiration for, but that means that later I have to go back and tie everything together. It can be nightmarish at times.)

[caliburn-not-calculator]

You are my favourite fanfic author, unironically, your stuff is better written than some books i had to read for school, if i knew how to bookbind i’d ask you if i could make your long fics into books.(might even learn bookbinding just for that)

Make me cry why don’t you 😭 /pos

Thank you so much tho, that is so nice kfbsjdbekfbkdbckdb

I think I would just die if someone ever made anything of mine into a physical book, like, gone, deceased, just melt /pos