Well, I’m quite delighted. An early birthday present. Some pics are in order!

Always a good moment. The first opening.

Eight books comprising my Bachelard Interpreted Omnibus. These are intended for me to edit at leisure and to have in book form for my personal library. There are issues with all sorts of things – not least fonts and cover images, but on the whole, I think these are quite adequate.
The two remaining collections are The Book of Evenings (my very first book release back in 2003), and Memoir of a Dog, from 2009, which represents the 3rd part of my memoir group (with Small Town Kid and The New Asylum). For a long time, I have wanted to bring these 2 collections back to life and what the 2 in the image above represent is a replication of the originals. I can now decide how I want to deal with them before publishing in 2021.
Such a thrill, for me.

One of the (many) challenges has been working out how to make images behave themselves within books. Memoir of a Dog is filled with illustrations that Leanne did for the first publication.
I found it a daunting challenge.

The Bachelard tomes are big books by my standards. I generally consider 100 – 130 pages to be substantial for poetry and I know that in some circles, anything over 32 pages constitutes a book of poetry. Personally, I’m governed by the notion that around 100 pages is required to comfortably create a spine for the book, so that represents a minimum, and also a goodly quantity of reading material to represent value for money (sort of).

I decided, with these, that I could amuse myself by making each of the Bachelard set unique to my library.

I’ve done a few things in my own way while creating these books. Cementing my look’, I suppose. One of the approaches I’ve adopted – for this project, and for my archive set – is to have a minimal Table of Contents, but to create a comprehensive index of poems, tucked away at the back of the book.
Detailing poems in the contents section was quite cumbersome, and this approach seems more elegant.
Happy early birthday, to me.
~
How exciting
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Very much, Derrick.
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Congratulations, Frank! I see some enjoyable days ahead for you editing.
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Yes indeed – started on page 1! LOL (The cover, actually). Exactly what I’d hoped. Thank you Liz.
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You’re welcome, Frank. Have fun!
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Very exciting! I can only imagine what a great feeling of accomplishment you’re having. Truly a great birthday gift, happy day.
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It’s a pinnacle, of sorts, Cheryl. I’m really pleased. Thank you.
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Congratulations! Reading this makes me want to write more and do my own someday. 🙂
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There has been a huge investment of my time, Christine, but I’ve gotten to a point where I’m confident that I can assemble a collection to my own satisfaction, when I need to. Very satisfying and it feels elegant. Thank you.
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How wonderful to hold in your hands, Frank! Happy early birthday to you!
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I’m loving it, Ellen. Putting some ghosts to bed, I think.
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That’s great, Frank. May those ghosts stay put!!
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Yes, Ellen. Bound between two covers, now!
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Happy early birthday to you!
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Thanks Cage. I learned a heck of a lot through seeing how you did things with Herja. My teacher.
I’m loving having these chunky things in my hands.
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I’m still learning, Frank, so a fellow traveller, perhaps?
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And so on to forever! Hope you’re safe and well over there. We seem to have survived the worst of it over here.
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Safe and well enough. Life is never easy, politicians ensure that.
And self-publishing.
I’m still waiting for ‘zon to put up the ‘look inside’ feature of the new story (5 to 8 days!). I won’t be doing a pre-order release again.
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Sounds like it given you the irrits, It’s hard to know what will work.
Makes me tired.
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Happy Birthday Frank You are an inspiration using this difficult year to your advantage …and ours All the best
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Thank you, Claire. Having fun doing these. A great relief to migrate them from computer file to actual book.
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