The book took both more and less time to complete than I had initially expected. The book’s visual content, started on paper and completed digitally, was finished fairly quickly. My sister handled the illustrations while I handled the formatting and addition of text, ensuring that our tasks suited each of our abilities. In terms of actual book content, ideas did not really start forming until after we had already started work on the book. As we went, we added more things while removing others later on along with figuring out ways to work obscure and not-so-obscure references into the work.
The part that took longer than expected was the physical construction of the book. Not only did I have to find a good size to work with for the book, but I also needed to decide on a way of crafting the book so it would actually feel similar to a children’s book. Eventually, I chose the current layout with the simple, straight cuts and three staple saddle stitching. Deciding on how to do it was easy, but actually doing it was a much bigger annoyance. Knife sharpness, paper thickness, and even staples were all important factors in trying to put the whole book together. The staples actually had to be put in manually by poking holes through the book with a pin tool, then inserting the untouched staple through the holes before being bent with the bone folder and pin tool to mimic the slight curve in the staple that most staplers make.
If anybody is interested in getting a copy of this book, I can be reached via e-mail at ray.huynh AT gmail.com The version posted here does not show all the details present in the physical book/PDF version clearly, unfortunately.
