#I don't think my install worked as I left it to run overnight and there's definitely some missing directories

[navybluetriangles]

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[flowermountainpress]

Embers & To-do list (progress update)

February 24

(Cross-posted from Patreon)

I folded and am about to awl Embers-- vol 1-- my husband's birthday present for next month. I noticed so many mistakes on the typesetting, which is from May of 2023. The good news? I don't have to go through the painstaking process of changing the word doc, exporting the PDF, imposing it, downloading it, and printing again-- I can just live with the issues!

Mainly a spacing issue in the first chapter, all the new chapter pages having left-aligned page numbers, and a weird issue with the drop cap spacing. All things I can live with.

Unfortunately the margins are fucked. Plenty of top and bottom and even fore edge margin for me to trim, but it's going to be very slightly awkward on the inner margins due to the sewing. Still perfectly readable, though.

I didn't print a test signature BECAUSE I wasn't willing to change anything (long ass process described above) and I'm happy to live with the mistakes *because* this is something that's not leading my house.

I reread a small bit but caught myself... XD Embers has incredible re-readability so it's a great choice to bind.

After I get stabby, I'm gonna press the signatures overnight to reduce swell. Then sew! Typesetting, which used to be easy to me, is recently a pain in my ass. I find that with doing my day job on the computer (temporary work from home situation) and doing college on the computer, I don't wanna fucking touch it for bookbinding. The practical side of things, however, is nice. I wish I was past the typesetting stage on any of my "owed" projects; the two free paperbacks folks won (Domino and Mouse's).

I've included a picture of my silly to do list that let's me visually track progress on these projects. The first free paperback was easy because it was a fic I'd bound before. Only minor adjustments needed. I'm going to think long and hard about doing so many at once, ever again! Haha. It would have been fine if not compounded by the holidays and IRL work issues, actually-- but I've found it's the height of foolishness to make plans based on my *top* speed at completion things. Fall of last year, I was breezing by everything, and getting everything done soso fast!

Hopefully after this hill, and the break I plan on taking that I can see in the distance, I'll be able to be Speedy™️ once again.

As an aside, I can't remember if I mentioned, all the stickers and bookmarks (and tea and earrings) were mailed out earlier in the week, so February prizes are a bit early this month! Enjoy!

Domino project: 2/20

Mouse: 0/20

Embers: 6/20

Technological struggles: I bought affinity publishing last year when it was on sale, but this week when i tried to upgrade to using it instead of Word for typesetting (high learning curve but highlt recommended program for bookbinding), it crashed twice. The "why" is not a mystery. My laptop has been operating at almost maximum disc space, memory, and cpu, so I drug out my older but nicer laptop.

Re-installed a clean copy of the operating system, ordered a new battery, and have been slowly working my way over. It's a more heavy duty machine and despite being older, has better specs. So that's also been slowing me down. Every time I have spoons to do typesetting (or write), I run headfirst into these difficulties, and by the time I've made progress there, the spoons are gone.

However, slow and steady progress IS being made. I've pretty much vowed to keep trucking on with Word until I finish my current roster of projects, then fuck around with Affinity when I get 5 seconds.

Anyway, long post! Many update. Some progress.