Cuts and Adds

Because of course I don't have enough going on right now, I'm looping way back to a craft that I dabbled in around the time my very first book came out: linocut carving. I've never outgrown my childhood fascination with print and type (as the many typewriters can attest) and linocut occupies a weird liminal space of creative endeavor, printing, and noodling around with sharp things.

I dug out the old cutting tool and the erasers I'd used way-back-when, and I've been haunting the relevant section of my local art store. I've very much got a DIY aesthetic going on, too, and I've been trying to shunt my tiny social media presence over to things creative and not things time-sucky. These all landed in a perfect storm of "I should find a secondhand hobby die cutting machine and do my own printing." Enter the local secondhand craft store and a lucky find, and now I'm one "Cuttlebug" richer for a very low outlay, preventing me from taking on yet another another project ("I'll just build a press!")

via GIPHY

Yes, yes, I'm getting to that.

A long time passed between my first and second book, and I hope, a bit of skill development in pushing around words. That first book was kind of embarrassing to me, and once I decided to commit to publishing again, I took the original one offline. I remember it as being silly, too brief, and lightly edited. Over the holiday break, I found a manuscript copy and imported it into Scrivener and, you know, it's not bad. Like those early linocuts on erasers, it's rough, and small... but not terrible. It's fixable, and with some practice, might be something I can again stand behind. I'm now planning to edit this old draft, and make a second edition. I've got a sequel kicking around, too... it might become a series. And you know, those books will need covers...

So, I'm learning to cut again. But also plan and shape, and expand. Stand behind those early works and embrace the creator I used to be, as I try to keep that muscle strong for the new year.

🧩🦏

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