It is finished! Or… has it just begun?

You remember my nonconformist poet friend? Well, we finished his book just in time for another run at the Westminster Manor Christmas Bazaar. It is by far my favorite project to date. My ever helpful husband not only person-ed my table with me, he also traveled up to Cedar Park that morning to pick up my order from the printer. The ink was barely dry when he delivered 50 beautiful books!

What a wonderful nine months of visiting with Mr. Norris and getting to know him, his poetry, and his poetry group of 23 years. Some fine voices in that bunch and always a warm smile and attentive ears. (A bit of advice – try to keep company with those a generation or two wiser than yourself, inside and outside your own family. Oh the things we never knew!)

Mr. Norris and I met just about every week for most of that time. During the first several meetings we established the scope of his project, what we wanted it to look like, size, use of color, art for the cover. He decidedly did not want to publish or sell, but rather to give to friends and family. Oh, and he wanted a sound chip in some of the books so readers could hear the rhythm of his poem The Rap On Bob.

We discussed using different colored paper for each section of the book. At one point we thought we might have him paint the edge of the pages of the book a different color for each section. It was, to say the least, a very fun and challenging exercise in both creativity and production solutions.

At each meeting he would pass three to five poems he had either written in the last week or possibly years ago. This man is overflowing with poetry. Pretty early on we discussed the prospect of a second volume.

Taking into consideration the fact that he cannot see from his left eye, I shifted most of the formatting to the right side of the page, including only numbering odd pages which falls on the right page.

We (I say we, it was really my multi talented husband once again…) scanned his poems in hopes to keep the original 8.5”x11” formatting with Mr.Norris’s illustrations. After choosing a journal size of 7” x 9” for the book, typesetting became necessary. Also, an increased point size for text was necessary for easier reading on older eyes.

The mock up for this project was a three ring binder with plastic page protectors holding the poems. When it was time to create chapters for the book, I could easily sort the plastic pages into piles then reorder in the binder and it helped his 87 year old hands to have something thick to turn. He pretty much gave me free reign over the order poems and chapters which felt daunting at first, but also allowed me to connect more deeply with his words.

Finding a local printer that could print rich color on the cover plus one color page inside, and the rest black and white… on a rich cream paper… was not the easies task. I discovered some great printers in Austin though.

 360 Press Solutions in Cedar Park was the final choice and I worked with a great sales rep who was communicative, calming, and delivered on time. Mr. Norris had already done his research on the sound chips and sent a link to Invite By Voice who proved to be very responsive to my needs and offered price breaks on quantity.

Figuring out how to mount the sound chip into the book without tearing the pages resulted in having one sheet of card stock inserted after the poem that was recorded. this way the sound chip could be mounted to something sturdy. I cut down some old wedding stationary cards (now with outdated addresses printed on the flap) and used them to hide the sound chip.

We used a self portrait he had painted for the cover but positioned it so that as the reader opens the book, they are opening his mind.

If these beauties become available for sale, I’ll be sure to get the word out. Until then, below the video are a few of my favorites.