Rosemary Kirstein

I’ve been making hand-bound blank journals for years. Back when I was writing The Lost Steersman, I got the idea to take it a step further, and tried making my own paper for the journals.

I made the paper out of recycled materials, and at that point, a lot of what I was recycling were printouts of early drafts of the The Lost Steersman.

At some point it occurred to me: instead of completely pulping the paper I was using, what if I kept some bits of shredded draft un-pulped? And let random words show up in the newly-made paper? How cool would that be?

Pretty cool, as it turned out.

But in the end, making my own paper was too time-consuming, and after a while I set it aside, and never used the pages I made.

The other day, I found them again. I wanted to do something special to donate to the Con or Bust auction, so Aha! said I.

Here’s the result:

click to embiggen

Ribbon is real silk, just like they make in Alemeth!

I love the way this turned out.

The book is 4 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches tall.    The shredded bits toss up random words within the paper.

mysterious fragments of words

I love the paper – it’s interestingly rumpled.    It works pretty well (if bumpily) with a fountain pen, but not well with a felt-tip.   I think a dip pen would work.   Ballpoint is not good at all. But colored pencils are very good — the paper has some bite to it.  I have not tried watercolors, but the paper has been treated to be not overly-absorbent.

What would YOU put in it?

So, hey — this could be yours.   Head over to the Con or Bust auction site and bid!

Also:  I’m including two loose squares of the same paper, so that you could test your writing implement or artistic medium before committing to marking the actual book.

And:  Bonus copy of The Lost Steersman itself!

All this for — well, you decide.

You can’t buy it here, you have to go to the Con or Bust Auction.

gold-trimmed little snail embellishment