That… is a big pile of ME.

floor

On Monday I got another package from China with the whole book in it, unbound and ready for review. They aren’t “proofs,” exactly; they’re the actual pages that will get folded up and bound right into the big monster hardcover. And oh my goodness, these things are SWEET.

Sweet, and HUGE.

holding

I’m not sure what kind of complicated origami formula leads to these particular pages ending up right next to each other, but I figure people way smarter than me have it all sorted out, so YAY! (And look how impressed Dr. Faustus is back there!)

That was officially the last bit of business I had to take care of before the printer could fire up their presses and start launching out your books. I have to admit I had a moment of absolute nerve-shattering panic when we opened up that package Monday night. I’d opted for this shmancy textured paper for the cover, and for some reason didn’t demand to see a test print way earlier in the process. (I saw color proofs on similar paper, but without the texture.) When I finally saw it earlier this week… GREAT SCREAMING NEURONS, the texture made it look like I was seeing my cover through a screen door. (And the spot gloss felt like someone was chucking motor oil at the screen.) I think the nubbly paper is more for highly graphic covers, not super-fussy, highly detailed ones like mine.

To stay on schedule we had to start printing books Wednesday. HORROR. My brain seriously felt like one of those jellyfish with its arms tearing themselves off.

BUT… it all turned out okay. We got it all sorted out in the morning and everything’s fine. Everything’s being printed right now with no “oily screen door” look, and the schedule hasn’t been destroyed. All you guys will still get your books in May.

Lesson learned: Always do tests.

Once the books are printed, they’re scheduled to hitch the next boat ride out of Hong Kong on March 26th, and they’ll be here at my house for the Great Shipping Nightmare a month later. Between now and then, I’ll be doing all the original sketches (please send your idea if you haven’t yet!) and hopefully posting them for everybody to look at here. Should be fun!

Sorry for letting a month go by before updating you guys. It’s more or less going to be weekly here on in. Thanks again for everything, everyone! Talk to you soon.