2024-03-18

Well. It has been a long time since I did this. I have been doing stuff, I promise, I just haven’t logged it. I’ve also moved house, so that’s been a whole thing.

• Checked the books I cased in over the weekend. Not perfect, but I’ll allow it.

• Wrote 1400 words of a longish story. It’s a first draft and it’s been a little while since I sat down and wrote like this. Everything is wrong, but I’m telling myself that getting things down is the most important part. My mantra for these situations is Write your way in, then write your way out. Maybe that’s a chronically bad strategy, but it’s working for me. So far. But it’s getting to the point where all the waffling in the world can’t disguise the fact that things are starting to happen and I need to keep up.

• I’m attending a course in the mornings. Not really going to talk about it here, but it’s a thing I’m doing without really knowing where this is going to go.

2024-01-12

• Published details of Battlesecrets to this site and social media.

• Submitted a story for publication.

• Tidied up my Desktop. Sounds minor bud god my head feels clearer.

2023-12-11

• Posted to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter about my little article in the latest issue of Printmaking Today.

• Tried re-working digital version of the board book, hoping to get a better image quality. Whatever I tried, it didn’t work satisfactorily. I think I might go back to the janky version, which at least has character.

2023-12-02

• Finished cutting board book interiors (enough for 10 copies, assuming all come out ok).

• Posted details of Daniel’s Dinner to the site.

• Posted exhibition details to Instagram and Twitter.

2023-11-30

• Continued draft of a short story, despite it feeling pretty trite and mawkish. Mainly doing it because writing by hand feels nice.

• Continued draft of a film treatment, despite it feeling pretty trite and derivative. Mainly doing it because typing words on the big screen feels nice.

• I am pretty depressed about my writing at the moment, at least in terms of content. Doing it largely as a physiotherapeutic activity.

2023-11-19

• Prototyped a physical story. Managed to learn a bit about virtual machines and UV editing in Blender. Also ummed and ahhed a bit about the ethics of using someone else’s life experiences in one’s own art.

• Edited another physical story, changing the point of view.

• Sent out newsletter. A bit later than planned and didn’t include one piece of work that I really wanted documented, but that will have to wait for the next instalment.

2023-11-10

• Looked at my long list of things to do and did something else.

2023-11-02

• Redrafted short story. It’s almost there, but needs some more details worked out at the end. Descriptive stuff mainly, but it needs nailing down.

• Went to a… mixer, I guess?… of freelancers, creatives and writers organised by George from TYPE! Nice bunch. Wish I’d ordered some food.

2023-10-30

• Went around the City of London with a camera, taking photos of buildings. I’m not expecting much from the pics, but the process of shooting with a film camera is good for the soul. Ca-chk!

• Created what I’ll call a ‘first draft’ of Project Folkestone. Feedback from First Reader is positive. A few tweaks needed, but that won’t take long.

• Booked a Workshowgrow crit to show Project Folkestone and discuss what I do next with it.

• Went back to Stupid Book Idea after a while away. It’s OK. Whipping it into shape. Might be getting somewhere with it.

• Realising that I’m not posting much to social media or submitting stories to places. Got a few more rejections though. My problem with the whole submission cycle isn’t that it’s depressing, but that it’s boring.

2023-10-27

• Looked at the text for what we’ll call Project Folkestone for the time being. Not quite as ready as I thought, so beating the words into shape before starting to make it.

• More emails.

• Went to the Small Publisher’s Fair at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square. These things always provoke very mixed feelings, but there’s some good stuff there. It’s a packed venue and that’s sometimes a bit much. It’s on tomorrow as well if anyone wants to go and see for themselves.

2023-10-26

• No entries for a few days because I’ve been on a short break to the seaside. It was restorative. Folkestone was a pleasant surprise. A lot of public art along the sea front, most of a much higher quality than you probably imagine.

• While away, I had an idea that I’m keen to get going on. I could not sleep when I thought of it, but that might be the combination of a stuffy hotel room and too much pizza. I sketched out a design and wrote a first draft on my phone.

• Some preliminary tests for said book today.

• Email heavy day, contacting exhibition organisers and sending invoices. Sometimes admin is incredibly validating.

• Looked through last redraft of short story. Some tightening needed, but it’s getting there. On to the fifth serious draft and the meaning of it’s still coming out.

• Doing some costing on the board book, trying to determine the right number to make that will cover costs (including the many prototypes). Sourcing equipment is also a factor. Have been putting feelers out for access to machinery needed to make it nice. Not perfect, maybe, but nice.

• Have lost my notecards and can’t put new projects up on the board. Calamity.

2023-10-20

• Made another board book. This one was pretty good. Took it to a copy shop and asked if they had a girt big guillotine (see log 2023-10-16). They did and they trimmed it real nice. I now have one nice example of the book and that in itself feels like a victory. Now I need to work on replicating that process for an edition.

• Got a rejection for a short story submission. This generally doesn’t bother me. It’s part of the process and I’d rather be amassing rejections than not putting work out there.

• Got word that the cyanotype wood book got accepted into the exhibition. Details to follow.

• Drafted notes for a workshop I’m attending tomorrow. Quietly excited about this, but staying cool as a cucumber.

• Did another draft of story. Have not shown it to #1 reader yet. Think it needs another pass.

• Watched Ellen Lupton’s speech at the St Bride Foundation. Her Working With Type book was much pored over by younger Tom. Haven’t looked at it in a while. There’s a new edition coming out next year, updated to include new technologies and whatnot. Interesting to hear how the terms widows and orphans are now considered… not offensive, exactly, but passé. A similar thing happened in music technology, where someone pointed out calling things ‘master’ and ‘slave’ wasn’t cool. Language evolves. I do like a bit of jargon, though - the more obtuse the better. Typography’s good for that and I hope it doesn’t all die out.

2023-10-16

• Finished redraft of the short story. Still not quite there, but I think it’s heading in the right direction. Will pass on to #1 reader, which is always exciting / terrifying.

• Another iteration of the board book constructed. I have the prints for one more. I figure I’ll make it and then try and find a girt big guillotine to trim them with.

• Posted a cryptic cyanotype pic to Instagram stories to fulfil my social media obligation for the day. I still don’t understand the division of posts and stories on IG. Add Threads to the mix and my bafflement is cubed. I still don’t know what to do with social media. Twitter is increasingly full of bile and it’s feeling increasingly icky to even be there.

2023-10-12

• Redrafted the text of a physical story. I think the form’s OK, but the words needed refining.

• Left some Platform Bee stories at Perkyns coffee shop in South Tottenham. Get ‘em while they’re hot.

• Started a fairly extensive redraft of a short story (though quite long for me). Not done yet, but heading in the right direction.

• Typed up the introduction / sample chapter for the non-fiction project that I’m almost certainly not going to do.

2023-10-11

• Wrote a rough intro chapter to a non-fiction project I may or may not pursue. This was done longhand and typing it up will probably be the litmus test for whether it goes any further.

• Submitted a story to a magazine.

• Finished reading “Everybody Knows” by Jordan Harper, which was great but really quite bleak. I’ve been reading a lot of brutal crime fiction at the moment and could really do with something softer.

2023-10-06

• Exposed two more cyanotypes.

• Drilled some of the hardest plywood known to science.

• ‘Bound’ the entire wooden book.

• Took photos.

• Wrote blurb.

• Submitted to gallery.

2023-10-05

• Treated and exposed six Cyanotypes on wood. These actually worked pretty well. Two more and I can bind them.

• Made another board book prototype. This one was so nearly right, only let down at the last moment by wanting to trim out a bit of exposed card. Think Father Ted and the small dent on the car. I need a better cutting solution for the trim and may have to accept that a metal rule and a Stanley knife isn’t up to the job.

• [Edit @ 23;45] Learned a bit of cloth simulation in Blender to knock up a new image for the cover of the book. Using real netting didn’t work as expected, so I had to fake it. We’ll see if it convinces.

2023-10-03

• Posted a tweet about a ten year old TV programme.

• Cut some wood. Badly.

• That’s it.

2023-10-02

• Prepped Cyanotype chemistry for an experiment tomorrow.

• Redrafted a short story.

• Got a little depressed about said redraft, so made notes on a next draft and felt a little better.

• Submitted 3x short-short stories that may or may not be connected.

• Realised that I didn’t log activity over the weekend. Wondered whether that was a good or bad thing. Failed to reach a conclusion.

2023-09-28

• Made new envelopes for Third Eye Test so it can be sold in shops.

• Took stock to bookartbookshop and had a chat with Tanya who runs it.

• Started another version of the board book and wondered why everything isn’t matching up as well as I would like.