Ep. 217: Finished Novel + Tunnel Kanji

What I learned on my latest adventure of building a tunnel book: 1) make sure the art in front is not so big that it obscures the art in the back. 2) Fold the accordion sides correctly so they can, you know, fold. And finally, 3) explore, learn more about tunnel books, find more exciting subject matter, make it happen! I just finished my third tunnel book which uses Japanese kanji such as 友 - friend, and, as I said last week, 希望 - hope. 

This was my third tunnel book after making three clamshell boxes. I continue exploring and pushing my boundaries a bit. I find tunnel books intriguing. I mean, it's possible to put a whole story in one three-dimensional space that allows the viewer/reader to explore, manipulate, turn, and view from many angles. I like that idea.

Next up I am thinking of working on a pop-up book in a very, very pale imitation of Colette Fu who makes magnificent pop-up books; these are not your childhood pop-up books of dinosaurs and butterflies. I, on the other hand, might just make a very simple pop-up book. Perhaps using butterflies. It is a challenge I have not yet challenged.

On the second picture of the Kanji Tunnel book is, on the right, Tomo in kanji (友) which is Friend and, on the left, is Warau in kanji (笑) which is Laughter or Laugh. You’ll notice, as I did, you can’t really see the kanji behind these two. Something I learned, yeah!

~ Fiction ~

I have finished writing my Don Quixote-inspired novel Giapan! Yes, finished. The novel follows four people as they travel across Spain in the 17th century and the adventures they encounter: A Romani nun who quit the church, a Japanese artist, and two guards assigned to protect a tax collector played by a real-life tax collector, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, real-life author of Don Quixote. The nun wants to find her biological parents because, as a Romani, she was suffered the racism and discrimination that minorities endure; she wants to learn the Romani life from her parents. The two guards protect her on her journey home.

The book very very loosely follows Don Quixote including encounters with giants, lost love, marauders, and sexism. And, unlike most Hollywood endings, no one falls in love with the nun. The three men find her attractive, intelligent, and an equal, but they do not end up marrying her.

Now I must read, proofread, and edit this tome to make sure the correct number of horses is portrayed and the nun’s clothing is correct (she dresses and acts like a man in order to hurry across Spain with the minimum of harassment from thieves, vagabonds, and men.) and the right number of people are in the right place at the right time (they meet a number of people, some of who tell stories and those stories might have a few errors; I must check them out.)

If you are interested in being a beta reader, drop me a line at Tedorigawa Bookmakers.

Also nearly finished is a post-conglomerate takeover/pre-apocalyptic world prolog novel of a trilogy. The trilogy is called The Fear Trilogy and the prolog is called Fear Zero.

The Trilogy follows the life of a wounded veteran of a future war. The veteran goes from soldier to politician’s assistant to politician. He ends in a position of power and finds it is not as easy as when he was a soldier.

Fear Zero, the prolog, starts when the soldier is in prison for murder. He is ten years old. It ends when he and two fellow inmates join the military to escape the horrors of prison and the Conglomerate takeover of the world.

This trilogy is a genre-based action/apocalyptic fiction so I am using a pseudonym so as not to confuse myself with my other books which I think are non-genre and could be lumped in with literary fiction (although that seems to be a category book sellers use when they can’t find a convenient category for the book.)

The two other books I wrote that are genre-based are City of Cocks and Feeding Vicki’s Corpse. These are mysteries. But not straight forward Dashiell Hammett/Agatha Christie/JA Jance mysteries; they might be called Character-Driven mysteries. Which is why they are not written under a pseudonym.

 

City of Cocks

Available on

Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble

 

Coming Soon:

Feeding Vicki’s Corpse

 

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