The Cabins of Wilsonia is not yet printed but it is for sale. If you buy it before September 15, the price is $70, which includes tax and shipping. Actually, the price via Paypal is $69.99 because no matter how I manipulate the numbers, I cannot get it to be $70 even! Or, I could if I changed the shipping to $5.01. . . .
Nah. I’m tired of messing with the computer stuff. I think my Adobe InDesign experiences will have me feeling jumpy about computers for quite awhile yet.
So, if you’d like to pre-order your copy, you may do so here using this Paypal button:
It took awhile to decide on the picture for the front of the book. Nope, not telling!
Then, I had to design the cover in my head. That wasn’t too hard – title, drawing, my name.
Then, this is where it gets hairy. Adobe InDesign is not an easy thing to use, and the world of covers is not a place where I have a map.
The printing company sent a diagram for the cover design with confusing dimensions and terms like “cloth size” and “board size” and all sorts of fractions that didn’t translate into clean decimals.
Then I saw that it was for a vertical book. Oops. My book is horizontal.
I requested and received a new diagram, which was just lines and measurements. Still no clarification on “cloth size” versus “board size”, and don’t even get me started on the whole issue of the spine dimensions!
It took the better part of an afternoon with InDesign, Googling for instructions, sending out an SOS to Carol in Seattle who was on a ferry returning from the San Juan Islands, which is where I want to live when I grow up, more googling, experimenting, and gritting my teeth with the effort of not screaming or slamming the laptop shut and picking up some nice soothing knitting.
I thought I got it. I sent it off. Then, the design department at the printing company sent me an email with a real template to use with InDesign so I redid it.
The person in the design department is named Jana. Why does that matter? Because I may be temporarily insane from the frustration of InDesign, which means everything takes on a new significance.
Perhaps it is time for a break. How about a nice cuppa?
So worked up here I forgot to mention the title of the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, in case Google is listening.
While in Wilsonia, a cabin owner asked me if I could fix or change things on the original cabin drawings. I said a very confident and certain, “It depends”.
It depends on what it is, where it happens in the drawing, and if the drawing has been spray fixed so that it won’t erase or smear.
She told me I made a mistake on her cabin.
Really? I work from photos, so I think she meant that I didn’t portray her cabin as she sees it. I drew it as it appeared in the photos, and other than making me look fatter and more wrinkled than I already am, we know that cameras don’t lie.
See the white thing? It is an out-of-place shutter. It isn’t covering a window, because you can’t see a window from this angle. It is just there. It was in the photo and it is in the drawing. Did I make a mistake??
You can see a bit of a window on that back section of cabin in this photo without any visible shutters. It doesn’t show in the angle I drew for The Cabins of Wilsonia, an upcoming book of drawings of Wilsonia Cabins. (Thank you, Captain Obvious.)
What has been sent? The Cabins of Wilsonia has been sent to the printer! A big fat check has been sent too. (They don’t work for free, unlike some artist I could name here. . .)
The cover is designed in my head, but no matter how skilled the printing company is, it cannot see into my head. Dexter, Michigan is kind of far from Three Rivers, California, not that physical presence would make my head more transparent.
So, cover design is next. If it ain’t one thing, it’s anuthuh.
I also need to design a post card to mail out so that everyone has a chance to buy the book at the pre-sale price. That way I will be able to pay the ransom to get the books, The Cabins of Wilsonia shipped to me.
Mid to late September, expect your copy of The Cabins of Wilsonia, if you pre-ordered one.
There is one last drawing that needed scanning. I drew the cabin several years before I decided to make the book The Cabins of Wilsonia. The photo taken with my old digital camera just isn’t good enough for the book!
I called the customers/friends/cabin owners (all those roles and titles have blurred) to ask if I can borrow back the drawing. The wife and I discussed a trip to Clovis or a trip to Wilsonia. The drive to Wilsonia is prettier, and it is actually closer, so that’s how we did this.
It meant leaving Three Rivers at 9:30 and just blasting up and back quickly (Driving 245 down fast was FUN!!) because I needed to get to Exeter to work on the mural on Rocky Hill Antiques. After retrieving the drawing, I did a short drive around Wilsonia.
Look! The road signs used to look like this:
Now they look like this. AND I saw 2 roads that are NOT in the book – Kearsarge and Muir. it’s okay – there are no cabins on them. Probably used to be. . . sigh.
And this charming, mysterious, always boarded up, and never occupied cabin now looks like this:
Well! Who knew that the book would be outdated before it even goes to press??
As I began selling the original drawings for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia, I knew that the cabin owners should have first dibs on the drawings of their own cabins.
Since I am the one who chose which views and which cabins, there was a risk that some folks would not like my choices.
This means LUCKY YOU! These drawings are now available to anyone who wants to buy them. The link to my website with a shopping cart and Paypal is this.
The drawings vary in size from 6×7″ up to 7×10″ and range in price from $100-$150.
I feel pretty sure that there will be more. . . stay tuned!
Wilsonia lost a friend. I didn’t know Mitch Rice for very long nor did I know him well. My husband was friends with him in high school, so Mitch was particularly warm, kind, welcoming, helpful, gracious and hospitable to me, a stranger with a camera and lots of questions. He was probably that way with everyone. I’ll miss him in Wilsonia.
Once I learned that the drawings for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia did not have to be rescanned (GLORY HALLELUJAH!), I began contacting the cabin owners that I’ve met to offer them “first dibs” on the drawings of their cabins.
I only have contact information for about 37 of the cabin owners. (Like that “about 37”? That is sort of like saying “The time is around 12:08 p.m.”) So, if you suspect that your cabin may appear in the book, use the contact tab at the top of my blog and get in touch with me.
Meanwhile, have a look at a few completed drawings that now have a new home.
Sometime I’ll show you some of the drawings that the cabin owners decided they didn’t want to buy. I find it mildly interesting, and you might too. Or maybe I’ll give it some more thought and decide not to show those. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
The process of building a book on the cabins of Wilsonia began in the summer of 2011. It seemed too big, too many tasks to break down, too many decisions, too many cabins.
I started by getting to know the layout of Wilsonia and becoming familiar with one area at a time, taking photos at different times of day. I spent lots of time walking around and studying the details, reviewing the lanes, taking notes along with the pictures.
It was quickly apparent that it would be impossible to make a manageable book if every cabin was included in its entirety. It was impossible to even include a detail from every cabin.
Decisions had to be made: typical and atypical had to be chosen.
Sometimes I chose a view because the light was so beautiful. Sometimes it was because there were interesting roof angles. Sometimes a place looked so charming, so inviting, so irresistible that I photographed it over and over, time and time again.
Sometimes the light wouldn’t cooperate: the shadows were too strong or the light was too flat. Sometimes I couldn’t find a good angle or a pleasing detail, no matter how many times I returned. Sometimes the cedar trees obstructed the view and there was no way to capture a place. Sometimes a cabin was occupied, with too much porkadelia, and I didn’t want to intrude. Sometimes a cabin looked too much like another, and I don’t want the book to be repetitious, so I made a decision. Sometimes there were barking dogs, and I respected their warnings.
The end result is that not every cabin will be in the book. Every lane, every road, every street will be represented. Every style of cabin will be represented. Most of the folks who talked to me about cabin life and gave permission to be quoted will find their words in the book. I said “most”. . . please don’t misread that last sentence.
This book is my doing – my idea, my design, my work, my risk. It is both for me, because there is nothing as satisfying as a project completed well, and it is for you, because you have a treasure of a cabin community that should be preserved and celebrated.
It is my hope that most people will be pleased, excited, and proud. It is inevitable that a few people will be disappointed and maybe even angry. So be it. Please forgive me for the use of an irritating cliche, but here goes: it is what it is.
The design is complete (in spite of having to do 5 more drawings) and The Cabins of Wilsonia will be published. I hope you and your family and friends and guests will enjoy it for a very long time.
Yeppers. I have to draw five more pictures for the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia.
But WHY??
When books are printed, they need to have their total number of pages divisible by 16. (That means 8 pieces of paper, in case you were getting confused.)
My book had 164 pages, 4 short. I thought it was no big deal – just put a little page here and another one there.
Wrong.
The design is locked up with chapter headings designed just so. One added page, and everything shifts from the one side to the other, and it looks wrong there, because it was very very carefully designed to fit the side it is on.
I did a tally of cabins per street from looking at a map and then counted the numbers of pages per street. Alta didn’t have quite enough pages for the number of cabins, so I am adding two more drawings and rearranging the others to fill. President’s Lane also didn’t have enough pages for the number of cabins, so I have three more to draw for that chapter.
“Unknown Dog on Porch”, sold
Good, bad, or indifferent, it is now necessary to put down the computer and pick up my pencils.
