Exciting news! Think: old papers and a new book

I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while now but, until very recently it didn’t feel quite real enough to say out loud. But now it does, just about, feel real enough, so here goes: 

I’m publishing a book.

I want to tell you all about it, I do. And I can tell you about it; and I will.

In fact, I’ll probably go on about it for so long that it’ll make those 15 months I stretched out the story of ‘when I saw Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet’ seem as brief as an England football manager’s career.

But, right this minute … today ... I don’t know how to begin, or in what order to spill my beans, or how much to say without knowing all the specific details so … 

.... how about I just make a start in this post … and anything I forget to say, or anything you want to know more about we’ll take it in turns sharing afterwards? OK? OK …

So what’s the book?

The book is a collection of my Snipped Tales; my short, short, stories collaged together from words found in old books.

If you want to know what they look like then you can find several examples of them in this post.

That post was one of just a handful of times I've shared finished 'tales' from my book and - strangely, because I've shared all kinds of other collage projects here -  I never did share any more. 

I think part of me, somewhere, buried deep (possibly beneath many layers of paper) ... part of me  always hoped ... always knew ... that I was saving them up until I had a book's worth. 

A Snipped Tale in progress - on felt, because it prevents the snippets from slipping about too much.

And now I do; so I'm making a book filled with them!

Here's a link to one that I can share because it isn't in the book, but it does have a connection to it. I made that particular piece as a gift for my friend and frequent collaborator Kirsty Neale who has spent the summer reading through the tales and creating illustrations that pick out the book's main themes. I can't share any of those yet ... but here's some of my plans whose scribbling showing the kind of thing you can expect: 

This is how it began it's journey into a published book ... rough photographs of each page, printed out then sifted and sorted into 7 themed chapters: 

 Here's the first draft:

It's since been finalised and I gave my indie publisher's a second, completed, rough copy as an example ... and then handed over my actual original notebook filled with the tales so they can professionally scan and arrange them.

Is it an e-book or a paper book?

Go on; guess.

Yes, it’s going to be an actual papery book. One you can hold in your hands, slide into your bag, leave on your bedside table.

• Paying for a colour print reproduction of my micro-stories is a gift I'm giving myself. 
• But I'm sharing the work because it's filled with all kinds of wild and wonderful stories to make people laugh, smile, and maybe feel a little less alone, a little more understood. So I hope it's a gift to others too.  
• And if it's then given as a gift ... then wouldn't that be perfect full circle? 

As for a digi-version – I don’t know. As it’s a photo-book I don't know how that works on an e-reader … so I’m not sure. File under: to be answered later. 

And finally ...

When will it be available?

It’s forthcoming. (ie. that's my attempt to sound professional while admitting I’m not sure).

It's not quite finished yet ...

But both me, and my indie-publishing house, are doing everything we can now to get it released in time for Christmas list making season. 

There's a chance we'll be taking pre-orders once the design work has been completed but while it goes on its journey to and from the printing process. Once all that's clarified I'll let you know. 

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So that's my news ... but ... before I go ...

Even though you didn't know anything about my plans, I wouldn't have done this without you.

Without your comments and support over the 8 years I've been blogging here I wouldn't even dare to think that my own private notebook of eccentric collaged stories was something I should even attempt to share with a wider audience.

And now, because some of you seem to think I'm not so bad to have around ... I'm taking a chance that other people might feel similarly. 

Thank you. 

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If you have any more questions ... do ask, ask, ask.

Do you know how hard it's been to keep quiet about all this for so long? But now that the cork's out the bottle, the genie's out of the lamp, the cat's out of the bag, and the page's been torn from the book ... there's so much we can talk about.
And rest assured that when I have more to tell ... I'll come and tell you ...

Julie x



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