First Post

When my most recent book, Real Life Journals (Sterling/Lark 2010), came out last summer, I felt sort of like I feel when I see a photo of myself that someone has sneakily shot while I'm eating or sleeping with my mouth open-- that sort of terrified cringe that all is now revealed and It Is Flawed.  On the one hand it was a great feeling to actually hold the new book and flip through, looking at the images;  but when I began to read it, regardless of the many times it had been revised, edited, and copy-edited, my critical eye lept on the mistakes that had mysteriously generated themselves.   And when I began doing readings and teaching workshops based on the book, the horror was compounded:   unclear passages, omissions of critical information, and awkward phrases all slithered out onto the page; and I wanted to recall all the copies and go through a final round of editing if not bury them in the woods.

This blog is a great chance to do that final round, and it's even better than great because it allows the book to be changed and changed again with suggestions from readers. The book can also be expanded and questioned as well as corrected. 

If you haven't read the book and have no intention of doing so, you might still enjoy this blog because it will also stand alone as a journal-keeping blog.  It will be full, eventually, of tutorials for building new kinds of journals, tips on materials, examples of other people's work, links to relevant articles, problem-solving, and ideas for different kinds of journaling practices.

I'll work hard to update the blog once a week after the initial flurry of activity while I'm getting it launched.  Eventually I'll talk about a new book I have coming out next year-- actually a revision and bind-up of two of my books:  The Decorated Page and The Decorated Journal.  So stop by often and leave a comment.  Your comments will help shape the blog.  Tell me what you want to know about, and I'll do my best to dig up the information.

Above is yesterday's page from my current journal.  I'm posting this because the next thing I'll do will be to post the instructions for how to make this little book.  I made the book out of a two-stick butter box.  I was getting ready to leave on a long vacation and wanted a small journal.  I saw the box in the dairy case at the grocery store, and, since the size was exactly what I had in mind, I bought the butter!  The journal was so easy to make and worked out perfectly.  It's based on a bookform that's in RLJ, but the cover is different.  Stay tuned!