End of Summer Press Update

We are looking forward to ramping up production this fall on several exciting new projects. Summer has gone by slowly at the Press with research and design work rather than hands-on time at the presses. It’s time to get ink on our hands again!

Here are updates and the announcement of the new projects we will be working on this fall and into the next year.

1. The wood engravings for Victoria: A Bedside Table Tale written by Tiffany Reisz are almost complete. Four illustrations are left for our engraver to complete and for us to print. One of the challenges in printing the wood engravings this summer had to do with the boxwood breaking. The blocks come from master wood engraver Chris Daunt in the UK, then from the engraver Keith Cranmer in Berkeley over to me in Portola Valley to print. The boxwood is subjected to temperature and humidity changes that impact the block depending on its journey. One of the illustrations broke twice and after several hours of attempting to hide the break in the print, we ended up making a photopolymer of the original wood engraver's proof. The final printed illustration looks great and matches the rest of the printed engravings, but I've become more aware of controlling the temperature of the studio where the blocks are stored so that it stays as stable as possible.

We will be meeting with the master bookbinder, John DeMerritt, later this month to work out the bindings for the limited and deluxe books. Our goal is to have at least one of each edition bound in time for the Rare Books San Francisco book fair at Fort Mason in February 2025. We will have a booth set up in their fine press section.

2. The accompanying chapbook for Victoria: A Bedside Table Tale has become a more involved labor of love. The plan is to print a deck of 50 cards on a heavier weight cardstock. Each card will have a two-color illustration on the back and on the front each will feature an illustration and/or a quote from a book that was written by a woman about romance or sexuality that was either censored or banned. The deck will come with a little booklet with details about each of the publications and the women authors. This project will be printed on the Chandler & Price.

Because the heroine in Victoria lives out her fantasies in three of the books on her bedside table (all of which have been banned at various times or still are in some places), this accompanying chapbook will give our subscribers and collectors 50 more wonderful recommendations for their to-read pile!

At first, the list of 50 banned books by women had the usual English and American literary suspects, but I wanted to cover more diverse ground and, of course, curiosity caught hold after going down a few rabbit holes in the research process. For example, I read about restrictions that were placed on Russian women's ability to write that didn't let up until the late 1890s which explained why trying to find earlier Russian women authors was so hard.

Accordingly, the little chapbook that goes with the card deck will have a bibliography sharing some of this fun research. Right now, we are in the design phase which means a lot of time on InDesign and Photoshop.

Designing and testing images for the card deck of banned books. 

3. The third book to be published at First Bite Press is being written by its author, Liza Daly. Daly is a Renaissance woman whose work "centers on playful ways in which machines can augment human creativity." She is the author of several works of interactive fiction (IF), including Harmonia. Daly has also researched and has an interest in 19th Century Utopian Fiction. Her work of romantic fiction for the Press will revolve around the life and writing of Sara Weiss, including Weiss' book, Journeys to the Planet Mars, 1903.

Daly will create a work of IF and it will also be published as a fine press book. First Bite Press provided Daly with a handful of paper mechanics and paper samples that could be used to translate her work in digital format into a physical fine press book.

I have been researching paper engineering and basic mechanics from dissolves to volvelles over the past 9 months. A couple visits to the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA as well as to the Boston Athenaeum provided useful examples and a variety of references. In the case of the AAS materials, seeing some of the moveable books that had been damaged was a great opportunity to see how the books were engineered and mass produced. The Press is looking forward to this collaboration with Daly and to reintroducing the world to Sara Weiss.

This is a first edition, first impression of Sara Weiss's book published in 1903 by The Bradford Press, New York. Weiss included a Glossary of Martian words as well as a number system at the back of the book. She also illustrated the book with her own drawings of the flora found on the planet during her "spiritual travels" to Mars. 

4. We have two short chapbook stories sitting in the pipeline. One is a work of erotic science fiction from the perspective of a business woman on a trip to Las Vegas, and the other is a gothic horror story set inside a twisted marriage. These will make for good seasonal Halloween or Valentine's Day chapbook releases. Other ephemera will most likely make its way out of the pressroom and show up alongside the books at book fairs or be mailed out to subscribers to our Patreon. ($3, $5, etc. subscriber memberships)

As usual, we have more ideas, writing, and creativity than time. Thank you to our supporters!

Happy reading,

SKD