Andersen (1805-1875) left his home in Odense, Denmark, at 14 to sing and act in Copenhagen. He soon switched to writing. By the time The Steadfast Tin Soldier was published, Andersen was already a successful author.

Patrick James Lynch, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, illustrated this version of the story. Check out his blog. Don’t you wish Hans Christian Andersen could have a blog as well? I wonder what he would say.

I knew I would enjoy the book. The first chapter was about a young woman who wasn’t ready to get married. Good for her!”

Later, when Miriam kazooms back 3,000 years to the steppes of Moab, she tells Serakh,

“This is straight out of  The Lost World.”

To which Serakh answers…predictably,

“Do not feel troubled, Miriam. We are not lost.”

Poster from 1925 film

After Arthur Ignatious Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, he offered his readers Professor Challenger. The professor is into exploration in a big way, and he travels to a remote region of South America, a “lost world” of prehistoric creatures, including ape-like men. In Chapter One of The Lost World, the story’s narrator, a reporter named Edward Malone, proposes marriage to a woman who says she’s not the marrying type. Distraught, he goes on a dangerous expedition with the professor in hopes that his bravery will win the heart of the woman he loves. It does not. But there’s a ton of adventure in between.

The Lost World is filled with unacceptable stereotypes. Still, the idea of a secret stash of dinos has been popular for a century, and the story has been adapted over and over again.

I wanted to use The Lost World in Blue Thread, because Miriam liked “fantastical fiction,” which is what fantasy or science fiction was called then. And it almost could have happened this way—almost. I stretched the truth a bit. While the book was serialized and first published in England in 1912, the librarian in Portland would probably not have gotten a copy until at least 1913. But I couldn’t wait!

Here’s a snip from The Lost World, so you can get a taste of the book.

A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? I cannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we are condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place. I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts of the present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded senses the one seems most terrible and the other as black as night.
No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is there any use in disclosing to you our exact geographical situation and asking our friends for a relief party. Even if they could send one, our fate will in all human probability be decided long before it could arrive in South America.
We are, in truth, as far from any human aid as if we were [on] the moon.

Blue Thread has over 65,000 words. So far, I’ve noticed that two of them are incorrect. That means that the editors and proofreaders for the book did an excellent job catching my mistakes. Still, our errors are your chance to win this set of unique postcards from Portland artist Addie K. Boswell and enough gorgeous ribbon to make Eliza Lane’s suffragist bow.

Here’s the deal:

• Blue Thread contains a typo in Chapter 16  and an incorrect name in Chapter 12.
• Find them both–or any two errors from anywhere else in the book.
• Send an email to me. Include the errors and what the correct wording should be.
• The first person to do so will get these postcards and ribbon.
• Anyone else who identifies at least one error and sends that error and the corrected word to me will get some combination of ribbon and postcards, while supplies last (don’t worry, I’ve got a bunch).

Let the contest begin!

Corsets…I don’t know how Mama can stand them.

Here’s an ad for a corset from the Morning Oregonian, February 18, 1912. The corset featured here boasts of steel rods that never rust. Ouch!

By 1908, corsets reached to well below the hips, making it difficult to sit down. Coutille (similar to denim) was used for the less expensive corsets, but one could buy a corset made from brocade, ribbon, and lace for an extravagant $50. Corsets began to “loosen up” during World War I (1914-1918), when women took jobs in business and industry to replace men who had left for military service. Thankfully with the advent of elasticized materials, most corsets have never been the same since.

Now that the book is published, I asked Brandon to talk about his experience. Listen up!

What was entailed in designing the interior of Blue Thread? What was the most difficult part? The most enjoyable?
Designing the interior really means making choices. It’s about picking margins, fonts, sizes, and just about everything that’s inside the book, and hoping they all gel. Books that have such a variety of formatting – newspaper quotes, bible quotes, letters, signs – can often provide a challenge for designers. That was really the most difficult part of working on Blue Thread, getting all the pieces to work together and still maintaining certain design standards, like avoiding widows and orphans. It was a test, but I feel I learned a lot.

The most enjoyable part of designing the book was making a design decision and having it work. As you know, Ruth, the Advanced Reader Copy of Blue Thread has margins and headers I wasn’t comfortable with. The header was really too masculine, and I knew it didn’t fit the content of the book. Fixing the header and getting it right was really the best part of designing the whole book. It made everything work, and when I finally saw the book in print I was like, “Whoa!” I was so happy!

What advice would you give to anyone interested in book design?
First, you have to listen to people. When I got assigned Blue Thread I had never really looked at a YA book. I got a lot of good advice from my classmates in the Design department who knew more about the genre. It also helped to get feedback from you, Ruth, while going through the process. I don’t think the book would look as good as I feel it does if it wasn’t for the feedback I received.

I also think it’s important to know one’s place. Beatrice Warde had this idea that the design of a text should be invisible and not distract from the text. I agree with this. I’m against adding unnecessary flare to a design. I think that only feeds the designer’s ego, and doesn’t really help the readability of the book. And besides, what looks cool and creative today can easily look tacky tomorrow.

Why did you join Ooligan Press?
When I was in high school back in the early 90s I learned how to use PageMaker in my journalism and yearbook classes, but after graduation I wasn’t really sure how to pursue an education in that field. I went to college and studied Art History, but on the side I was really interested in small press publishing and zines. I often did volunteer work designing chapbooks for Kevin Sampsell’s Future Tense Books, and was involved with local writers and misfits. I was a very self-taught designer, and I’m kind of embarrassed when I look back on those chapbooks—lots of mistakes.

At some point I could no longer volunteer at Future Tense, and Kevin started getting interns from Ooligan to do the work I had previously done. This was my first knowledge of Portland State’s publishing program. After years of working awful jobs I was overqualified for, I finally started thinking about a career doing something I loved. I thought about getting a Masters in Art History, or about studying Graphic Design. I even thought about Film Studies. But Ooligan looked like the most promising program when it came to starting a career, and book design was something I already knew I enjoyed.

Assuming you have no other constraints besides having to earn your keep, where and what would your first job be after Ooligan? Why?
Oh man. I would love to design books for Semiotext(e), Last Gasp, MIT Press, Autonomedia, Verso, City Lights. Publishers like that. I tend to read a lot of subversive and intellectual books, a lot of translations. I would love to be a part of producing those books. Also, having grown up in Milwaukie, Oregon, I wouldn’t mind working for Dark Horse. On the other hand, bigger places like Grove Press, Knopf, or Harper Perennial, have their appeal as well. I don’t know. There are so many places!

Thanks, Brandon. Keep in touch.

Tools and materials:
button with a pin back
scrap of fabric
scissors
permanent marker
needle and thread
24″ of ribbon
6″ piece of thin wire (such as from a twist tie)
safety pin

To make the VOTE button, cover pre-made pin with fabric. Cut a circle from fabric about 3/4″ larger in diameter than the button you want to cover. Write a message in permanent ink. (Note the Mockingjay button Eliza used for this project.)

Use a needle and thread to make running stitches around the edge of the fabric, slip the pin inside and pull to tighten. Tie a knot.

Now you are ready to make your bow.

Cut a piece of ribbon 24″ long. This ribbon is 1 1/2″ wide. The bow looks fancier if you use satin ribbon that is shiny on both sides, but any ribbon will do.

Make your first loop with the ribbon making a long tail in front.

Bring the long part of the ribbon up from behind while keeping a hold on your first loop.

Bring the ribbon down to make a second loop and then back up behind. The ends of the ribbon will face in different directions.

 Pinch the center to make a nice crease and wrap with wire.

Gently pull the loops (two on each side) and the ribbon ends apart. Cut the ribbon ends in a V shape by folding the ribbon end in half and cutting at an angle.

Cut the ends of the wire short. You can use a safety pin to attach the finished ribbon to your shirt or coat.

Pin the VOTE button to the middle of the bow.
Wear proudly.
Encourage every woman you know to exercise her hard-earned right to vote!

The mechanics of this sort of communication comes easy for some, but, I confess, not for me. So I turned to Whirlabout New Media.

Lucy Softich, one of the founders of WNM, describes the group’s services this way:

Social media allows authors to interact with readers in ways they never could before. However, with so many different types of social media out there, it can be hard to know where to start. Whirlabout New Media is committed to helping authors navigate the sites and communities that work best for them. Whether you’re published, self-published, or still looking for the right publisher, Whirlabout New Media can help you get in on the conversation and promote yourself as an author.

Lucy reads...and thinks.

So does Eliza.

Lucy and colleague Eliza Lane got me on the right footing with a blog, Facebook page for Blue Thread, Twitter, and an author link on Goodreads. I am not one of their star clients (seeing as I’d rather write my books rather than blog about them), but I am one of their most enthusiastic supporters. Lucy and Eliza can tell you more about WNM at Ooligan’s Write To Publish conference all day tomorrow (April 28, 2012). When you meet them in person or virtually, tell them I said “hi.”

Albert Einstein, 1921

During one of my workshops at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, a student asked me whether I believed in time travel. We’d just spent about an hour discussing techniques for writing about time travel, but I hadn’t expected the question. After some blah-blah-blah on my part about friends who were physicists, I answered yes.

Doh! A couple of hours later, I remembered the quote attributed to Albert Einstein that I had put at the start of Blue Thread:

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

For the curious among us, and I hope you are one of them, NOVA has an excellent presentation on the Web about Einstein and time travel. You don’t have to be into science to understand the concepts. Go on, check it out.

I took an extra dollop of whipped cream and savored my last bite of peach cobbler.

This recipe from The Washington Women’s Cook Book (1908), sold as a fund-raiser for the woman suffrage movement, offers you peaches and cream without the pastry.

If you are looking for an easy cobbler recipe, try this one. You can use canned peaches instead of fresh ones. The batter goes in the pan first and bakes up bubbly, rising to the top.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Yum!

And here’s the inside story of the outside of the book, as told by Kelsey herself:

“I started designing the cover of Blue Thread by reading the manuscript and taking notes and doodling. Some of the images I played with were blue threads on yellow backgrounds, bowls of licorice, and teddy bears. But I kept coming back to the yellow ribbon. It was a strong image. After deciding to place it on a coat lapel, I set out to research clothing from the time period. For this I mostly consulted a friend who majored in costume design…. After finding out what clothes and fabrics were appropriate for a 16-year-old, middle-class, Jewish girl from Portland in 1912 (that was all I gave my friend to go on), I proceeded to alter my pea coat by sewing lining fabric to the lapels. The shirt was rented from Helens Pacific Costumers. The bow was created by Eliza Lane, another student in the PSU [Portland State University] book publishing program, but I made the button in the middle. It is actually an Ooligan “typewriter” button with water-colored paper taped on top. The slogan “Votes for Women” is written in sharpie. The photo was taken by Laura Gleim, yet another Ooligan student. We took it one morning in March in front of a rhododendron bush. Rhododendrons are evergreen, and so are plausible for the background in a picture that was supposedly taken in the fall.

The title font was provided by another member of the design department, [Matthew] Wilson.  I personally turned the tail on the R blue to echo the idea of a blue thread, especially since there was so little blue on the cover. The blue thread on the spine was created in [the computer application] Illustrator. I felt there needed to be a thread somewhere on the book. It also gives the spine visual interest.

I drew the flowers, vines, and grapes on the back cover by hand. They are based on a description of the embroidery on the prayer shawl from the story. The curly shape of the vines also goes well with the tail of the R on the front cover.”

Thanks again, Kelsey!