New Skills and WiPpet Wednesday

Last Saturday I went with a friend to an introductory bookbinding class we'd signed up for in February.  It was at the Malt Cross in Nottingham and was taught by the downright brilliant Heather Chou, who was so enthusiastic and such a good teacher that I think it's definitely another hobby that I'm going to take up.  I learned so much during the four hours she was teaching us, from a simple accordian fold to the complicated Turkish Map Fold, from pamphlet stitching to finishing off by making this tiny hardback book.

I swear I will find a use for these things somehow.

She also introduced us to the most random "thing you never knew you needed": the bone folder.  It's literally just a shaped and polished piece of bone that's pointed at one end and it turns out it knocks the spots off folding and flattening paper with your fingers.  (Yes, I've now ordered one.  I was folding some paper for something and found I really, really missed it...)

Also, today my copy of Celldweller's End of an Empire: Dreams arrived today.  FiXT announced not too long ago that ten copies would have an autographed poster inside and I thought, oh hey, that's cool, and that was about the extent of my consideration.

 Well... uh...

I was surprised, to say the least.  I'm pretty sure that's all my luck for the year used up!

Also, it was packaged in a very sturdy cardboard ... package and my first thought there was, brilliant, I'm going to use that to make a book.  Funny what opens your eyes to new possibilities, isn't it?

Not that I know what I'm going to put in this book...

...Probably not any actual new short stories, though I did manage to write two new sentences, woo!  Alex now won't shut up, so fingers crossed something unblocks this week.

WiPpet Wednesday

WiPpet Wednesday is a blog hop corralled by the awesome K. L. Schwengel.  It's very easygoing: the only requirement for sharing your WIP is that it relates to the date in some way.  You can read everyone else's posts and sign up here.

Today's WiPpet maths is somewhat convoluted again.  Always dangerous.

It's the 18th March, so 18/3.  1 − 8 = 7.  7 × 3 = 21, so it should be 21 sentences from the start of the third chapter of The Rose Queen.  (Yes, only the third.)  "Should be" because I had to recount four or five times as I kept getting interrupted.

Fayth had always thought he worked alone because it was more convenient, left him free to make his own choices; turned out that the fact it meant there was no-one to make sarcastic comments when he screwed up might also be part of it. “Shush,” he muttered, pocketing the hackpad as he scanned rapidly along the line of doors. He hadn’t walked far to reach the ship proper so it had to be down this end, but they all looked the same. His heart sank. Next time he was bringing good old-fashioned low-tech chalk, because running down the corridor shoving his thumb against every access panel until he found the right one wasn’t his idea of fun.

Beside him, the Rose Queen let out a strangled noise that may have been a half-suppressed laugh. “I don’t think they’ll put me back in the habitat.”

“You’ll be alright. I stole you, remember?” The shouts were getting closer, but their owners weren’t visible yet. More worryingly, the voices behind the door had fallen silent.

“You stole me with my consent. They’ll realise that the minute they review the camera footage.”

It certainly wasn’t the first three bays, Fayth was sure of that. It was just a shame that the further away his bay was, the nearer it was to the voices. Soon-to-be-approaching voices. “Oh, screw it,” he muttered, and grabbed the Rose Queen’s wrist restraints.

The black-haired man stumbled as Fayth pulled him into a trot, but kept his mouth shut as Fayth ran his thumb over the first three panels for good measure. After the fourth and fifth, he didn’t appear able to resist any longer. “Lost again?”

“Don’t tempt me into leaving you here,” he snapped, thumbing the sixth door. Nope, not that one either.

I think after this, RQ is going to have to sit down with Fayth and start working on some brain training exercises...