2023

THE VIENNA GAME, BY PARATACTICIAN

The Vienna Game by @paratacticianMy finished contribution to the @fandomtrumpshate craft bazaar! Honestly, this may be my favorite typeset I’ve done to date, combined with one of the more elaborate cutout designs I’ve made in a while. (I learned the hard way that it’s time for me to change the blade on my Silhouette cutter, lol. Protip: if it’s chewing up the paper/cloth on skinny elements like the pixellated raindrops + puddle here, get a new, sharper blade!

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WE WASTE THE SAME DAY LIKE NOBODY DIES, BY NEWREDSHOES

we waste the same day like nobody dies by newredshoes, illustrated by @cloudy-recessesI’ve lovingly referred to this project as “We Waste the Same Day Like Nobody Dies: The Illustrated Edition” ever since its inception [mumblemumble] months ago (since, if you haven’t seen it yet, @teleportbooks also made a beautiful binding of the same series!). magpieandwhale is another friend I’ve known for TWENTY FREAKIN YEARS somehow; I knew I was going to make her a copy of this as soon as she finished it, and I had the great joy of giving it to her in person last week while in her city for a family wedding ❤️

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THE CRIMSON LOTUS, BY BONIBARU

The Crimson Lotus by @bonibaruPop quiz! You’ve got a fic that revolves around a secret identity. Do you create an inlay or a cutout on the cover? Luckily, I had a ton of photomanips to pick from for the cutout portion – nearly every chapter included a graphic or two. Which led to another design question: while typesetting the fic, did I want to sprinkle the graphics throughout like I’ve done with fanart in the past, or collect them all in one place?

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SYMMETRY, BY BLEUETT

symmetry by bleuettMuch like when I got my first taste of drop caps, I’ve become a foil quill menace. I’ve always liked hot foiling more than HTV for preservation reasons – vinyl plasticizers and adhesives can turn pretty gross after a few decades – and this book gave me the chance to try a full design in nothing but foil. It fit perfectly with a sci-fi Wangxian AU! Circles play a big role in the story, so I included them in as many places as possible: the cover circuity, the endpapers, the scene dividers (a little mini solar system map!

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FORGIVE US THE DAYS FORGOTTEN TO FEAR, BY BATYATOON

forgive us the days forgotten to fear by batyatoon So I’ve known Batya for close to twenty years now. (Holy shit.) Every year, our friend group does a secret holiday craft exchange – and when she proudly told us she’d just finished writing her first big novel-length fic, I sidled over to the organizer and went, “Hey, so… can I game the system a little this year and make Batya a book?

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THE FIRST ONES ARE THE BEST ONES: A WANGXIAN ANTHOLOGY

the first ones are the best ones featuring works by @feyburner, @fahye, and @ariasteAt last, a new book! A while back, a friend asked me to collect some of her favorite Wangxian fics: i hope that you will come and meet me, seldom all they seem, and turn towards the sun. When I asked her what design elements she might like, she answered, “I like celestial stuff!” So – along with plastering bunnies all over it, as any good Wangxian anthology requires – I ran with a star/constellation theme.

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2022

FANTASY, FEATURING WORKS BY KPOPFANFICTRASH

Fantasy, featuring works by @kpopfanfictrash [Note: this project was completed in June 2022.] The entire concept of this book changed about five times before I settled on something… and the only reason I settled on the final design was because I found that lizard-scale paper while digging through a flat file at the Chicago Dick Blick’s with a friend. She got to see me rework the whole design in real time as I flung paper around and chattered about what I could do with it.

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THESE THINGS UNSEEN, BY BONYENNE

These Things Unseen by bonyenne[Note: this project was completed in June 2022.] My first flatback! I usually round and back my spines, because… well, tbh, I need all the practice I can get, but also because it’s more aesthetically pleasing to me and helps accomodate the sewing better. But at 34k words, this textblock was too small to round – which meant playing around with a new binding method. I’ve wanted to incorporate ribbons into a MDZS/Untamed book for a while – TEXTURE, BABY – but not just as a bookmark.

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SPARROW, BY SUGARPLUMSENPAI

Sparrow by @sugarplum-senpai[Note: this project was completed in June 2022.] After a year and a half of messing around with cutouts, I decided to try something slightly different: a bookcloth inlay! (Praise be to cutting machines for making this so easy, whew.) Less texture, but good for an overall crisp design – and I love how it turned out. My favorite interior detail involved the POV shifts throughout the book. To add a visual cue for the reader, I changed up the header graphic depending on the character:

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THE LEAST OF ALL POSSIBLE MISTAKES, BY RAGEPRUFROCK

The Least of All Possible Mistakes by @rageprufrock[Note: this project was completed in March 2022.] A few excellent discoveries with this project: Those endsheets! A literal map of London! Hollander’s continues to be a treasure trove of great decorative papers, and this was no exception.I got to have more fun with the embossing tool while crafting the Chief Inspector insignia on the cover (though if I had to do it over again, I’d up the pressure setting to make the details clearer).

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THE SIMPLEST WAY FORWARD, BY HARRIET_VANE

The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane[Note: this project was completed in March 2022] I had but one goal with this project: take every cheesy wedding craft cliché and cram it into one book. I swept through the wedding section of Michaels like a kid doing one of those Toys R Us runs back in the 90s. I dug up the swirliest fonts I could find. I grabbed the sparkly gold lotka that’d been idling on my shelf.

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UNSTOPPABLE, BY NETRIXIE

Unstoppable by Netrixie[Note: this project was completed in November 2021.] BEHOLD: A CHONK. At 149,980 words – just 20 words shy of my maximum 150k cutoff – this is still the longest fic I’ve bound to date. I actually had to tweak my typesetting template a little to make sure I could trim the incredibly thick textblock once it was sewn! I use a (sadly now discontinued) Silhouette Curio for the cutouts on my covers, and this was the book where I decided to play around with its embossing feature, too.

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AND I DOUBLE DARE ME AS WELL, BY IODHADH

and i double dare me as well by @iodhadh[Note: this project was completed in October 2021.] More gentle conspiracies ahead! iodhadh commissioned me to bind not one, but two copies of their fic: one to keep and one to gift, done up as a matched set in Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen colors. (With, of course, some extra pops of red and gold for Xue Yang.) I decided I wanted to take the cover design in a slightly different direction than usual, so no cutouts this time – just some ink, cloth, and marbled paper.

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THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF BLOOD, BY HOWODD5EVER

there is no shortage of blood by howodd5ever(Note: this project was completed in August 2021.) Do I love using cutouts in my book designs? YOU BET I DO. And this one is a bit more complex than it looks at first glance! The red cloth is actually a full binding, minus a few sections of the turn-ins so it wouldn’t look too bulky. Once I’d gotten that settled, I cut out the swirls in a sheet of black bookcloth and laid it over top to make it look more like a traditional quarter binding.

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INTO EXILE, BY SATH

Into Exile, by Sath[Note: this project was completed in August 2021.] Gang, this bind was an absolute delight. Earlier in 2021, one of Sath’s friends secretly commissioned a binding of “Into Exile” as a present for her; that was the first great part, because making surprise gifts for people has always been my jam. But then, as I worked on the typesetting, I contacted devkymm to ask for permission to include their fanart in the book.

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WITCHER STORIES, BY ASTOLAT

Witcher Stories, by astolat [Note: This project was completed in June 2021.] My first anthology! A friend asked me to collect her favorites of Astolat’s Witcher fics, which gave me a chance to fuss around with the typesetting in ways I hadn’t before. Like a two-page title spread! And a(n admittedly very simple) table of contents! And drop caps! This book was my drop caps gateway drug, and I am now a FIEND.

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THE ROOTS GROW RIOTOUS, BY HANSBEKHART

The Roots Grow Riotous, by hansbekhart​​[Note: This project was completed in June 2021.] Do you ever read the first chapter of a WIP and just know you need to bind it once it’s finished? Roots was that fic for me. Months before it wrapped up in April 2021, I was drafting layouts in my head, researching fonts, and hoping hansbekhart would be cool with me creating a physical copy of their fic.

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2021

TEMPO RUBATO, BY SPODUMENE

Tempo Rubato, by SpodumeneI am so proud of this one. It’s another handful of firsts, both simple (designing chapter headings!) and more complex (incorporating fanart and figuring out how to juggle the print quality of text vs image!) – and the story itself is just phenomenal. An enormous thank you to Spodumene, @beccadrawing, and @lordsofthebuns for letting me bind it all ❤️ Two small easter eggs I included in the design: the music on the cover is a reproduction of Liszt’s original “Sonata in B Minor” manuscript – a piece Lan Wangji plays in a key scene – and the title page features a piano arrangement of “Wuji,” aka the theme song to The Untamed.

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LINGER IN THE SUN, BY ETYMOLOGYPLAYGROUND

Linger in the Sun, by etymologyplayground It’s done! And hoo boy was this book a Learning Experience. I used a lot of new equipment (guess who’s got a bookbinding guillotine now, AW YEAH), I tried a lot of new things, and while I’m very pleased with the end result, there were also plenty of nights where I gently laid my head on my work table and prayed for something – anything!

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