Not a sponsored post. Unless you count the open bar.

After my trip last year to France and Spain (a birthday gift from my squid mother), I made a small Blurb book of the snapshots I took to give her as a thank you. I made a copy for myself, too. I decided it would be just images - no text. Writing exactly the right thing seemed like too much pressure and I wanted the process of making the book to be as enjoyable as the trip had been. Blurb has templates for non-designers to use, as well as a new software program called Bookwright which evidently provides the tools to help non-designers make custom layouts. I used the InDesign to pdf option. When the printed books arrived in the post, it was really very exciting to have a printed and bound actual thing to hold in my hands that contained all these great memories/experiences. I presented Linda with her copy this past Mother's Day while we were back in Ibiza. I told her I had had to leave out a lot of images to keep it to under 75 pages. She suggested I do a second volume and well, that's just what I did (delivery due sometime this next week).

first book.

ibiza.

montmirail.

paris.

Blurb has had a couple promotional events here in the city the last couple weeks. There was one in Chelsea a couple weeks ago that I went to because a book artist I admire was giving a talk. Brian Dettmer does these crazy things to books - slicing them up and cutting through them to reveal the interiors. They are insanely precise and kind of mind-blowing. These images are from his flickr page: flickr.com/photos/briandettmer

Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer

Blurb was hosting the event (with 3 other speakers) (plus open bar!) to promote an international contest they were having called "Unbinding the Book." They were looking for people to really push the boundaries of what a book could be and the winning entries (12 in total) would receive some dough and an exhibition opportunity. It was an interesting event held in a pretty incredible space. Lots of folks made use of the terrace and the skyline to take selfies. In fact the person presenting the speakers made a joke about it, asking everybody to come back inside so they could start the lectures.

Brian Dettmer speaking.

view from terrace.

night falls in nyc.

so pretty.

So this week there was another blurb party at the Refinery Hotel roof bar celebrating this new BookWright thing as well as the fact that you could now add an ISBN number to the books you make through Blurb and sell them on Amazon. Which is pretty cool, in truth, particularly if you are a self-publishing author. Anyway, glamorous location and yep, open bar? I'm there.

refinery hotel.