| January 11, 2005 - Day 27 One Last Day of printing at The Stinehour Press. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today is a big day for me. It is time to print the last press sheet and the dustjacket. Then we are done. It has been a long journey to this day and I have been awake for hours waiting to get going. Marti the mini-moose showed up at sunrise as well and was looking for Darlene in the window. As soon as we arrived we saw Kevin hanging the last set of plates for the "Big Ass Book" as it has been dubbed. The excitement was building fast! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Kevin hanging the last set of BAB plates - the blue and black plate waiting to go - the stack of used plates from the BAB. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ralph was still working on the text and gloss varnishes, applied seperately from the four color images to give the best look possible - and a stack of pages wrapped for shipping to the binder in Phoenix. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
While Dennis continues to work - I'll take a shot of myself, ok, Rich took it, by the pages in the press room.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Finally Kevin was ready for the first look, and after only a few moves of the press it was time for the last text sheet sign-off. What A Moment!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kevin signs off as well and made one final check of the sheet - then it was time to run it! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It takes about 3 hours to run 12,000 sheets of paper so we kept coming in to find out when the final sheet would be coming through the press - we had to be there for that! Kevin didn't seem to mind our intrusions. John looked at the counter now at 10,643 so we were getting close! The last stack of paper going through...then the final sheet starting through and then at the end...what a moment! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| On such an occassion one must stop to smell the ink, and take a photo with part of the team. Then Kevin himself took the final stack of pages away to await Ralph applying the varnish and type. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
After lunch it was time to print the dustjacket. This might be the most nerve racking one to do because it is all you have to get people to open up the book in the store. It must be perfect. Kevin brought in the first press sheet and after a few moves and some discussion among all of us about what looked best, Kevin went away to make some changes. John stood on the table where we put old proofs to get a few photographs of us, and Darlene saved the blues of the forms. I wonder if he even knew he took a picture?
Marti the mini-moose even came in to see it. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Because it doesn't take long for Kevin to make a few changes and run new sheets we all hang in the OK area. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| The new sheet is presented and we can't find anything we'd do differently - time to sign the final for the final time! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Final Signature. It was hard for me to keep my composure, as my first book was now complete. Four years in the making. I just stood in the corner for awhile. What a moment!!
Luckily Marti the mini-moose added leavity as he wanted to sign the page too! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Once again Marti the mini-moose saved the day as he wanted to be photographed with everyone - ok, maybe they wanted to be photographed with him! All except one anyway... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The last afternoon at The Stinehour Press and it is somehow fitting that the last shot of the day is back at the Birch tree out back, no moose sightings, but I'll trade that for the book, eh? So now it is time for the end of the book party! Seems everyone wanted to go, so now you can click on the Marti Party link and find out who actually went...
Enjoy. We did!! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Main Page | ||||||||||||||||||||||||