The Fair Maid

page 1

For the last 5 years, I have been working on an epic collage work. It is a 150 page story that is composed entirely of collage imagery. The story itself is told with tiny tidbits of text culled from books, magazines, Mother Goose, and fairy tales. I did the bulk of it a few years ago, and then last spring I finished up the last few pages to wrap it all up.
It has been sitting completed and dormant on my bookshelf for a full year now. For some weird reason, I recently started thinking about publishing this book and now I just can't stop thinking about it!! It's one of my most major accomplishments, and to have it hiding on the shelf just isn't right. I think it's time to publish it.
In 2007, I was working on it, and I got worried that the story line was buried in all those pages and artwork and that no one would be able to follow it. I started a blog, The Fair Maid, secretly, and began to post just the words. I liked it alone, without the images. I worked through my insecurities, and came to terms with it. I have been hesitant to post many pictures from it, since part of the enjoyment of a book is to experience each new page. If I do publish it, I don't want to ruin the pleasure of the story unfolding for anyone. So most of it remains hidden from public view for now.

Originally, it was a journal, and it was in book form, not nice loose pages that scan easily. In order for me to scan this thick book, I would have to cut the threads that bound it and tear it apart. This put me off for this entire past year. I really love it as a book. For me, it represented years of focus...So, finally I made a deal with myself. I would take it apart to scan it, but put it back together when I was done. On Valentines Day, this process began. I am working on formatting it now for print.


page 2

I am not certain where to go from here. I could Possibly make a 2 sided laser print to send to a "real" publisher. Or I could format this in Blurb and sell copies of my own book here, on Etsy, and on my website. But for now, I am in robot mode--Scanning and cropping. I have never been so excited about anything I have ever done!! This book is a pinnacle for me. It isn't everyday you finish up 150 pages of creative toil and sweat and decide to publish it!! If you are at all interested in the process of how this journal goes from artwork to published work, you can follow along on (one of) my other blogs...The Fair Maid. Cya there!