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Bookbinding The Bomber & Life’s Been Good To Me So Far. In the late 60’s the James Gang had a few hits one of which was the 1970 hit: The Bomber, containing the sentence “Apple Dan is just the man to pick the fruit off your branches” which is the title of my 140-page, A6-size, blank notebook built with mostly leftovers from my To-Be-Used-in-this-century pile. Except for the thread which has never been used. The second and last of the James Gang series sports the 1978 title: Life’s Been Good to Me So Far, by the guitarist of the James Gang long after he left the James Gang and was guitarist for The Eagles (writing, among others, Hotel California). Fiction Dmitry the Scavenger. He is in jail even though the police officer who arrested him doesn’t think he deserves to be in jail.  The lawyer thinks he knows a way out but it might come with a five or ten year ban from ever entering Japan again; that’s not the threat the Japanese government thinks it is. As Dmitry grew up in Russia and has to deal with bureaucrats, he’s doing his best not to irritate the correctional facility officers, none of whom speak Russian or Ukrainian, but some speak English.   Talkies / Flicks TDGB 101 - What Can Apple Dan Do? &  TDGB 102 -Life’s Been Good To Me So Far. Both show how I make blank notebooks including using leftover material as much as possible. Books The Marsh Mysteries Series. The Battered Briefcase Case (Marsh Mystery #1). A murderer evaporates to Spain where Marsh seeks her out. But discovers love. The Dry Watermill Case (Marsh Mystery #2). Marsh & Carmen open up a closed case only to discover their lives in danger. The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery (Marsh Mystery #3). Domestic violence leads to a murder. And a switch and bait corpse. The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street A review from a reader on Barnes & Noble: Engaging and inspiring read! Culturally brilliant! Set in Japan, this humanely-raw and sensitive Japanese story captivates with its generous use of peculiar figurative language. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding A link-stitched, 140-page, B6-sized blank notebook has been created with a grey-blue cover, and a black spine. It also has photos of friends as it is being mailed to those friends. Left-overs used in this book include the book boards (file), black spine (purchased years ago; perhaps a decade or more), and the endpapers (envelop). Fiction The Dmitry in Dmitry the Savenger has helped many people in the small town where he washed up in Japan: elderly people, teens, single moms, and others. Unfortunately for him, he has been arrested for being in Japan without a visa of any kind. Surprisingly, if enough people vouch for the safety and need for Dmitry, his fine and/or imprisonment will be less than if he were a criminal. However, immigration has only very rarely (i.e., never) been persuaded by Japanese citizens to allow an illegal immigrant to stay. Currently, Dmitry is in a prison designed for illegal immigrants. A few changes I want to make: make it seem that Rin and Dmitry are going to fall in love; but they are not. A delicate balance between innocent flirting and obviousness.  Talkies / Flicks TDGB 100 is up and running for your viewing pleasure. The main purpose of this video was to show the link stitch. Unwisely for me, I used yellow thread against a yellowish background so it is hard to see. I narrate how to start a link stitch but a visual is always important. Another item you might learn about is the bookbinder’s knot. I attempted to film it and I narrate it; tell me if it was successful. Finally, we talk about the hinge gap which is usually about 8 mm. Not so in this book. Books The Saké Series Sakate – A female bartender deals with a variety of alcoholic customers throughout the evening. The Dead of Winter – A famous novelist dies and goes to Kanazawa where he meets a coffee shop owner who berates him about his writing. The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street – a retired high school Japanese teacher runs into one of his former students. They strike up a relationship based on haiku and drinking. Also available on Barnes & Noble. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding Hakui is a small town about 25 miles (40 km) north of Kanazawa. On August 27 it had a massive rainfall. It was severely flood with the water reaching up to the middle of people’s front doors, over the tops of cars, and caused a few landslides. Fortunately, nobody died. In their honor, I made a book called Hakui. It is a thin book - four signatures of four leaves each for a total of 64 pages. It is B6 in size and cased in.  The cover is made up of left-over material: red book cloth, pink paper (part of the cover) and blue paper (the spine). Also embellished on the front cover is a leaf, leftover endpaper, and an interesting washi. This washi is thin;  individual threads can be seen. It looks like a spider web. Fiction Dmitry the Scavenger continues toward his confrontation with government employees. Before his confrontation, he works with the people of Noto-machi. He repairs houses, and other items that need repairing, cleans up gardens, and helps whenever he can. This will come in handy when he deals with the government. Talkies / Flicks TDGB 99 Hakui is up for your audio and visual pleasure. About 11 minutes. Books I have three Marsh Mysteries up. These are short (50~70 pages) detective stories with Joe & Carmen Marsh investigating murders, domestic abuse, and fraud in Spain.  The Battered Briefcase Case (A murder sends Marsh to Spain to find the murderer. In Xativa), The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery (A woman is abused by her husband and finds a clever way to murder him. In Madrid), and The Dry Watermill Case (A cold case comes back to life when a corpse is found. In Seville ). The Saké Series is also available for your reading pleasure. Sakate (a bartender deals with a variety of customers), The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street (a former high school teacher meets and drinks with a former high school student), and The Dead of Winter (a famous Japanese novelist dies and goes to Kanazawa). Be forewarned, I have another book in the Saké Series called My Year of Drinking Kanazawa in which an ex-pat novelist living in Kanazawa goes to different bars and learns about life in Kanazawa. Hopefully, this will be available soon.  Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding Hog Heaven was sewn on tapes. Probably the second time I’ve sewn on tapes in a long, long time. The signatures (7) were connected by sewing the upper signature through the threads on each station on the lower signatures.  This made for a fairly tight connection between the signatures. Hog Heaven was also sewn twice. The first time, I didn’t put the thread through the lower station thread – not a bad thing but not what I  planned. I was on the fifth signature when I noticed. I pulled out all the sewing I had done and resewed it. The second thing that changed, other than the resewing, was I used a straight needle. Usually I use a curved needle, but in this case I think a straight needle was more affective. Because it kept the signatures together very tightly, it shot to my favorite type of binding along with Coptic binding (because the book can be opened flat) and link stitch. Fiction Dmitry the Scavenger has progressed nicely. I think it’s up to about 75 pages and he is working with a carpenter, learning Japanese, and has a small old dumpy place to live on the first floor of an abandoned squid warehouse. Why squid? The area where he is now, Noto-machi in Japan, used to be famous for squid fishing, packing, and selling. From about 80,000 tons a year (in the 60s) to 300 tons (now).  What has been added other than action? The culture of small-town Japan where the police rely on the Grandmother Network; mostly widowed women who see everything and tell the police about it.  Talkies / Flicks TDGB 98, the making of Hog Heaven, is up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. About 13:00.  Books The Dead of Winter. The famous author is still dead and awaiting your interest in reading about his afterlife in Kanazawa.  It has been pointed out to me that this is not necessarily a trilogy but I do have four novels including Sakate, and The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street (plus a third not yet published) that take place in bars (three in Kanazawa). A reflection of my life style?    Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding A 112-page blank notebook titled ‘And Then….’ is our accomplishment in bookbinding this week. Plus a large mistake. The title has two emotional responses.  1. And Then… She dumped the kale pasta on his head. 2. And Then… He dumped the kale pasta on her head. First response is often: What did he do?! The second response is often: What a monster! The covers of And Then … are made up of a collage I made years ago. Chopped it up and stuck it on a book. Looks nice. The cover is made up of paper, of course, but also leaves. They look like bay leaves. I made two mistakes: first, measuring and second, cutting incorrectly.  Fiction Dmitry the Scavenger is working and learning Japanese the old fashioned way – no textbooks or formal teachers, but picking it up in a bar and at work. No writing of hiragana, katakana, or kanji; just speaking. The only reading is of signs he sees everyday or instructions (on, off, danger) on machines he uses. Mostly, he speaks to people. And drinks. He also has a small room of his own; he worries about immigration, the police, and passports. Talkies / Flicks TDGB 97 is up and running. While it shows the creation of And Then… it doesn’t show the Big Mistake I made as I made it. I tell you, I don’t show you. It was quite frustrating and boils down to my not paying attention to what I was doing. Oops.  Books Dead of Winter: A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife is still up and awaiting your interest. It is also available as a free audio book on YouTube in my feed (Chapter One: Judy Seduces a Dead Man). It has 8 chapters in total for about 75 minutes listening time.   Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding Why is it called Swimming in the Dessert? It’s blank, right? Yes, it is. But there’s an 18-minute short movie called Swimming in the Desert that looks interesting so, not to confuse anybody with two titles for completely different subjects, I changed it to Dessert.  It’s seven signatures of five folios each for 140 pages, A6 (pocketbook) with a red spine, blue front cover with a splash of what looks like Thai writing, with light blue and green on the back cover.  All the materials (except the thread and beeswax) are from my To-Be-Used in the Future pile. The book boards are from a leftover box that might have held saké. The book covers are made of three book cloths (blue, light blue, green, and red) that were left over from previous projects and the text block, yes, the text block was given me by a printing company in town that was just going to throw them away. I got them maybe 15 years ago and I’m down to the last pile. The endbands were made of the leftover red book cloth and twine (not left over but purchased maybe a decade ago). Fiction Of the three books I should be working on: Dmitry the Scavenger, Agnes Grout, Caraculiambro only one, not the two set in the US, is being worked on. Dmitry the Scavenger has started work as a handyman for a Japanese carpenter who is helping people affected by the January 1, 2024 earthquake that demolished many buildings, many homes, and lives. First, he will help tear down a broken home. He’s still concerned about getting to Noto, Sicily before the police arrest him for being an illegal alien Talkies / Flicks Two videos up this week. One from last week.  The Dead of Winter: a Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife.  is up for your listening pleasure. About a novelist who dies and comes to Kanazawa. He meets a sarcastic jazz coffee shop owner who argues with him about his writing. He also meets her customers, who may also be dead. TDGB 96 Sundae Swimming in the Dessert, a 9:20 minute video of the making of the Swimming. Books The Dead of Winter: a Novelist's Kanazawa Afterlife.  is available on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. You can listen to it on my YouTube channel before you buy.    Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding I’ll explain why there is nothing in Bookbinding in the Movie/Talkies/Video section. Fiction I’ve worked on Dmitry the Scavenger during the past week; making it stronger, I believe. I added more descriptions, deleted more confusing bits, and made the characters stand out a bit more. Dmitry was shocked to discover he wasn’t in Noto, Sicily, his dream destination, but Noto, Japan. A much smaller port village.  He knows he’s in the country illegally, plus he has a fake passport. If discovered by the Japanese authorities, he’ll be deported back to Moscow, a place he doesn’t want to be. What will become of him? Talkies / Flicks Rather than make a book, I made eight videos. All together these eight videos make an audio book of The Dead of Winter ~ A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. The visuals for the audio book are somewhat related to the novel. For example, when the Novelist talks about a bear being in Kenrokuen, we see Kenrokuen (sorry, no bear). When Judy talks about two or three high school females, we see two or three high school females walking on a street in Kanazawa. All of the videos are originals taken by me so this is the Kanazawa people see. Mostly Kenrokuen, Kanazawa Castle, and the streets near both of thos places. Mostly, also, in the rain as The Dead of Winter takes place in the winter (but I didn’t want to wait or walk around in the snow). Books For your reading pleasure: Sakate – life as a bartender in an unprofitable but lively bar.  The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street – a 30-something former high school student meets up with her former high school teacher to talk about life and haiku.   Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding Ergo is a 100-page, A6 (pocketbook)-size, blank notebook that I Coptic-bound.  Three things make this book different from other A6, 100-page, blank notebooks I’ve made in the past. One: Window for a title on the front cover. Two: Colored in the spaces between threads with random colors. Also, colored the head but not the tail. Three: measured the distance between stations so they were the same. There are six station with three toward the top, head, edge and three toward the bottom, tail, edge with a space between the two groups. Everything except the thread was from my To-Be-Used-Someday pile: upcycled paper that sat on my shelf for 15 years, book cloth, book boards. Fiction First, other authors’ fiction. In order to reduce my screen time (I’m aware I’m typing this on a computer), I’ve started reading real books more often. And alternatively; first one, then the other without leaving my reading post: ie, bed. I finished a detective story set in Valencia, Spain just yesterday. Blood Med by Jason Webster. I’m currently reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is a re-imagining David Copperfield by Charles Dickens into Appalachia. (Is this different from fan fiction?) I’m re-reading Copperfield to see how it jives with Copperhead. Cool. Finally, I’m nearly finished with a slice-of-life aka cozy Japanese novel (in translation) of Tsubaki Stationery Store by Ito Ogawa. A woman with a troubled relationship with her grandmother takes over the family stationery store after the grandmother dies and deals with customers, friends, and her own past. In cozy Japanese novels, there is no dramatic action like a murder or conspiracy; it’s relaxing. In my fiction: Dmitry the Scavenger is the only novel I worked on this week. Dmitry landed in Japan, discovered he wasn’t in Sicily, has met a vibrant woman who speaks English, and is aware and worried that he is an illegal immigrant who can be deported back to Russia at any time where he’s sure he’ll be jailed or, worse, drafted into Putin’s little war in Ukraine. Talkies / Flicks / Moving Pictures I’ve uploaded a seven and a half minute video of Ergo (TDGB 95: Ergo) created for your viewing pleasure. In it I also discuss Demon Copperhead and David Copperfield, like I do in this podcast. I think I have a better video of making the coptic stitch on this video than previous videos.  The first and second signatures are shown in a speeded up version because watching me manipulate the thread, book, and my hands for 20 minutes might be boring. Books Your Audio book of The Merchant of Venus is up on Apple Books for your listening pleasure. In this 16-page short story, men take body parts from other men, add herbs and spices, to create women. Fully formed 20-year-old women who will be the wives of the men for 20 years. Marshall, the artist who makes females, has used two of his own fingers to make this two wives. At 60, he’s a two-time widower when a bureaucrat hires him to make him wife. Marshall fails and is threatened with jail time. The e-book of The Merchant of Venus is up on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please enjoy.   Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding I bound my Marsh Mystery Series detective-noir very short novel The False Promises Case. In making this book I used leftover material except for the thread and wax.    The book boards were recycle files cut to size, kind of. When I cut the file I remember thinking I will cut this to size later; of course, I forgot I told my self that – I never listen to my self. The result is the book covers are too big. I dislike making books whose covers are too big.   The book cover was made of leftover book cloth from a couple of previous books (two blank notebooks, and a coptic-bound book for doodling).    Even the endpapers were scrounged from a purchase of endpapers. I mean, the wrapping for the endpapers I used as endpapers for this book. This book is A6 in size, and 60-pages. Fiction I complete The False Promises Case – A Marsh Mystery last week. I spent time rewriting, looking for confusion, and checking the pacing. I think it’s ready to be seen by the public. Joe and Carmen investigate why a respectable man would kill someone; that someone was a ponzi scheme jerk who lived off the money he scammed out of people, but why did the man kill him?  Plus, in the middle of the case, Carmen needs an operation. Dmitry the Scavenger is moving slowly but deeper. Agnes Grout has progressed about a paragraph or two. Both of these novels are building up to something; I just don’t know what. For example, I’m thinking of connecting Dmitry with a character in Molly Bright or The Tokyo Tunnel Girl. In Molly he might meet Frank, a gangster from Phoenix who owns a run-down ramen shop in Osaka. In The Tokyo Tunnel Girl he could meet with a character called The Russian. Or, there could be no relation between the three novels. Which of these two covers do you like best? Talkies / Flicks TDGB 94 Making False Promises is up on YouTube for your audio and visual pleasure. It is the making of the detective-noir novella I talked about in the Bookbinding (and Fiction) section so you should be familiar with it.  The music is nice, too. Books Again, you have the opportunity to listen to the audio book of The Merchant of Venus. About a man who creates females out of his own body part. The audio book is available only on Apple Books. The ebook is available on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo (among others) Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding This is a blank notebook designed for people who want to learn another language or take notes. It is A6 in size (pocket book size for easy handling) and Coptic bound (for easy opening and using). There are four squares on each page. If you are learning another language, the first square is for your native language. The second square is for the target language. Research has shown this to be an effective method (your brain knows your native language and will soon connect it with the target language). The third square is for sentences in the target language in order to practice writing. The fourth square is to add details of your choosing. For example, where and when you found the new word, or who you learned it from. Or for doodling as is your want. Earlier I mentioned I have a lot of scrap material and want to use it. This notebook uses scrap material I just created. Rather than store it or throw it away, I used it on this book which is why the front is mostly red and the back is grey; using up scrap material. Fiction Also recently I said I hadn’t written a lot on any of the three books I have on the back burner: The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver; Dmitry the Scavenger; and a Marsh Mystery that I mistakenly called by the wrong name. The correct name is The False Promises Case. This week I have reversed that trend. I wrote not only on False Promises but also on Agnes Grout. Busy I am. Plus I want to finish False Promises as soon as I can. It is the latest in my Joe and Carmen Marsh Mystery series.  Talkies / Flicks For your viewing pleasure, I have uploaded on to YouTube the creation of Language Squares – a notebook for people who want to learn a new language. Included in the video are hints and suggestions of how to learn a language. For example, write vocabulary by hand i.e. pencil and paper rather than on a computer. Your hand muscles will remember the word long after your computer has been trashed. Books For your listening pleasure, I’m promoting the audio book of  The Merchant of Venus.  In this world, females are created from body parts from males. But a man with a special set of skills is required to add the herbs and spices to the body part to create a woman. Marshall, the merchant, is a talented creator of females, so much so that he is threatened out of retirement after the cancelation of his second wife.  The audio book is available only on Apple Books. The ebook is available on Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding Mostly in Japanese bookbinding we have four sewing stations (holes), but it is possible and popular to have more. I made a five-hole book which, in Japanese, is called 五つ目綴じ (itsutsu-me-toji). The itsutsu (五つ) means five, me (目) means hole, and toji means binding or stitching.  Two things about Japanese bookbinding: 1. The thread might go through a sewing station three times, so make the hole large enough to accommodate that. 2. Keep the thread tight. A loose thread looks really bad on a Japanese binding. I chose a Japanese binding for this book because the action takes place in a Japanese city; Kanazawa, as a matter of fact. A famous author dies and comes to Kanazawa to learn about life. Very much character driven. It’s called The Dead of Winter; a Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. Fiction I’ve been slack in the fiction writing side of my life. I’m working on three books, slowly. 1. The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver, 2. Dmitry the Scavenger, 3. The Barcelona Bank Fraud Case. The first is a character-driven story of a woman who lives about 200 years. The second is about a Russian scavenger who wants to go to Sicily to avoid life in Russia. The third is a Marsh Mystery starring Joe and Carmen, private investigators in Spain. Talkies / Flicks  TDGB 92: 五つ目綴じ is about book I mentioned in the Bookbinding section of this blog. At 9:40, it’s short enough to watch during your morning coffee. Isn’t it? I tell you in more detail what I’m doing to make a washi cover for a book; make it thicker and less flexible in order to carry the book.  Books If you like audio books, I have one on Apple Books called The Merchant of Venus. The subtitle is: When females are made to order, Marshall is an artist. In reality, in the book, females are made with a combination of herbs, spices, and male body parts; usually fingers. Marshall, the main character, ends up with only seven fingers. He falls in love too easily sometimes.   Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding This week I made another coptic-bound, B6, 100-ish-page notebook. The right page has lines for writing while the left page is blank for drawings, doodles, and shading exercises.  As you can see, the cover is both purplish-grey and red book cloth with the purplish-grey the same book cloth as my June 5th notebook. The point of this notebook, like the other previous similar notebook, is to encourage me to do three things: • practice drawing (which my fifth grade teacher told my parents I was bad at and just drew the same thing over and over, which she didn’t realize was practice), • practice cursive (which I know I’m bad at which is why I’m practicing it), and • plot out both daily schedules and long term plans. So far, so good. And to practice making B6 coptic-bound notebooks; a good investment for someone who claims to be a bookbinder; not me, though, I don’t claim to be a bookbinder except in front of people who don’t know what a bookbinder is or does. i.e. many people. In my opinion, June 5 is the better notebook as the stitching is tighter than June 22. But June 22’s stitching is much better than previous attempts in the past few years, so, yeah! Fiction This blog and my YouTube channel are inspiring me to be more productive. Before I can show you what I’ve done in bookbinding, I have to have done some bookbinding. Similarly, in order to tell you what I’ve written, I have to have written something. On my desk, I have three books in progress even if you don’t count Caraculiambo which has been in progress for a mere ten years. The three works in progress are: • Dmitry the Scavenger • The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery • The Posthumous Autobiography of the Widow Agnes Grout, Death Weaver The first two are basically action-driven novels. Dmitry is longer-form and deals with social issues both in Russia and Japan. Madrid is a shorter one, coming in at maybe 60 pages. The last one, Agnes Grout, started maybe seven years ago, is longer and more character-driven. Agnes is progressing nicely; much research is required, though, as it takes place in the US over a period of 200 years. Talkies / Flicks TDGB 91 The June 22 Notebook is up for your viewing pleasure. The narration is not necessarily connected to the visual; it’s more about Why create rather than How to create. Plus this week’s narration is more off-the-cuff than seriously related to the visuals. I hope you enjoy it. In the not-too-distant future, I will, hopefully, put up an audio book on YouTube of The Dead of Winter: A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife.  Books I have several novels up for your reading pleasure. Both action-oriented mystery thrillers (Marsh Mysteries) and more character-driven stories such as The Merchant of Venus (both ebook and audio-book) and The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding In bookbinding this week we have, for your visual pleasure, a novel. We have an A6-size, about 60-page, case bound edition of The Dead of Winter: A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. Printed, folded, sewed, and cased in fairly quickly (for me) in a day or two. Most of the time was attempting to align the title on the cover and spine. Properly. I think I succeeded in that endeavor. Case bound in red book cloth with the titles in black and photographed in front of a coffee shop.  Fiction In fiction, I’ll talk about the book bound in Bookbinding: The Dead of Winter. The premise: The Novelist, a famous unnamed novelist, dies and moves to Kanazawa where he’s tutored by Judy, the female owner of a coffee shop, on how to write about females. The Dead of Winter is a very character-driven plot with most of the action in a coffee shop near Kenrokuen, a famous and massive garden here in Kanazawa. Judy tells The Novelist he doesn’t write female characters very well. Judy’s vivid, vibrant personality sits in juxtaposition to The Novelist’s female characters, which Judy calls ‘cardboard characters with boobs’. It turns out this version, which I gave to a reader, is the first draft. After giving it to the interested person, I re-read it and found several – I mean Several – things I wanted to change. Not merely typos but entire scenes that neither moved the plot nor developed the characters. These were cut. Some were replaced but others were ignored entirely. But this is what writers should do: re-write. This resulted in the second draft. I started recording an audio version. As I read I found awkward, illogical leaps, and confusing wordage. I changed them, rearranged them, or rewrote them. I found longwinded passages that were reduced in scope but increased in effectiveness. Again, this is what writers should do. This, then, resulted in the third draft. Talkies / Flicks You can watch the creation of The Dead of Winter on my YouTube channel if you’d like. It’s 9:40-ish and includes some talk about writing fiction. Missing from this visual documentation is the time spent aligning titles on the front cover and spine as that would require too much time and is basically me sitting at my computer and slapping my printer when it fails to function properly, which is often. I’m hoping in the future to have an audio book of The Dead of Winter. Watch this space. Books I have several books from sale on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo which you might like. For starters you can choose: • The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street • The Merchant of Venus (ebook & audio) • The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery The audio book of The Merchant of Venus is only available on Apple Books. Take a listen to the sample. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding I made a B6-size, Coptic-bound, mostly blank, 120-page, seven-signature notebook for my visual pleasure. Meaning, I made this notebook for myself to use as a notebook, a depository for my doodles, ideas, plans, and to expand my horizons. One horizon I wish to improve on is cursive writing. People my age were taught cursive in school, maybe elementary school. This has fallen by the wayside in the last 50 years. I want to improve mine. Plus, I want to practice drawing; mostly people but also landscapes, cityscapes (i.e. a building), and something from my imagination. I realize this will take time. Years. I’m not impatient. Anymore.  To distinguish between the front and back of the book, I added a strip of leftover red book cloth from previous books (i.e.. The Lonely Izakaya Down a Quiet Street and Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery)  Fiction The fiction today leans mostly toward The Dead of Winter A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife. I saw the main female character, Judy, in a different light. Rather than be a café shop owner, she is now a more philosophical image; one that the main male character will learn from. Fortunately, the novel is only 20 pages long so I can go back and fix Judy easily. Hopefully, this will propel me further into the development of both characters and spur me into finishing the novel quickly. Or quicker than before. Dmitry the Scavenger has been placed on the back burner for a moment but it has an advantage. While The Dead of Winter is character-driven, Dmitry is plot and action driven. This makes Dmitry a little bit easier to write. Talkies / Flicks / Movies / Videos Race on over to my YouTube channel to see the latest upload for your audio, visual, and educational pleasure. I think you can learn a little bit about coptic binding. If you’ve never seen it before. Or have never folded a piece of paper. Plus nice music! Books First, The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery is available on Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble if you enjoy what used to be called hard-boiled detective novels. This one is less hard-boiled and more aware of his surroundings. body text about books goes here. It is part of my Marsh Mystery series. Carmen and Joe live in Madrid with her brother. One of his employees kills someone. And with her brother’s pistol. These leads to more complications than in the US.  Joe and Carmen investigate why the employee kill the person and discover something odd.  Second, years ago I published a novella called The Merchant of Venus. (Available on Apple Books.) However, I’m here to tell you that an audio book version is also available on Apple Books.  The Merchant of Venus takes place in another universe; one where females are born as an adult from a body part of a male. The people who make females require a man’s body part, some herbs, and time.  The Merchant of Venus: In a World where Men make Women and the Woman has a set Life Limit, Marshall is an Artist. The audio version on Apple Books was recorded using AI. This is a requirement of Apple Books. You can listen to a free sample before deciding to purchase it or not; please check it out and tell me what you think of the AI voice.  Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo

Bookbinding In bookbinding this week we have, an A6-sized, 45-ish page mystery novel completed for a friend who also corrected my Spanish as the mystery takes place in Madrid. This is the second time I made the same book because I totally screwed up the first one; cover was wonky, endpapers didn’t set straight, signatures were loose. I didn’t like it so I remade it.  The first version was B6 in size. This one is better at A6 because at the larger size, there were too few signatures for a case-bound book. At A6, the number of signatures was just right. Also, to indicate which was the front, I added a triangle of red (which was a scrap left over from another book).  Fiction I’m working on two pieces of fiction this week. The first one, Dmitry the Scavenger, is progressing nicely with Dmitry in Odessa having evaded or bribed his way past both Russian and Ukranian military guards. It is more action-plot oriented with, of course, strong characterization of the people involved. After Odessa I have to get him to Japan by ship. It’s about a 40-day trip and I don’t feel like recreating a sea voyage ala Joseph Conrad. Perhaps he can be drugged? For 40 days? Ah, yes, a connection with a Mideast religious leader who disappeared for 40 days and 40 nights. Or a flood. Hmm.   The second is about a famous author who dies but refuses to leave Kanazawa. He befriends a café owner and they hash out life’s little problems, including his writing about women. This one is titled The Dead of Winter with the subtitle of A Novel of a Kanazawa Afterlife. Maybe I should change it to: A Kanazawa Afterlife? or A Novelist’s Kanazawa Afterlife? (without the question marks.) This is definitely character driven. The café owner is a very strong and opinionated woman in her early 20s and the polar opposite of the male author’s descriptions of female characters in his books.  Talkies / Flicks For your audio and visual pleasure, you have an ten-minute flick about the making of the second edition of The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery just discussed in your Bookbinding section. Also, other videos pertaining to bookbinding are up on my YouTube channel. Please enjoy. Books Available for your reading pleasure (and some Spanish lessons included) is The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery. This is book 3 of the Marsh Mysteries. Joe and Carmen investigate another murder. Carmen’s brother, Símon. runs a successful and expensive restaurant. One of his employees is accused of killing her husband. Her defense: he was abusive.   Because Símon’s pistol was used in the killing, he is under investigation, too.  What Carmen and Joe discover saves Símon but his restaurant is tainted; customers dry up. They also throw the police’s case against the employee into a complete freefall. Is she innocent, though? The Madrid Mariposa Murder Mystery is available at these fine online locations. Apple Barnes & Noble Kobo