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A House in the Forest - the book

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  And finally, “A House in a Forest” the book itself! An old fashioned hardback, clothbound book, and with a dust jacket of sorts - that has been a dream of mine.  I am also extremely pleased with myself for getting the layout/design done after learning some basic InDesign. My years of hovering around James when he worked at home also meant that all this was not alien to me. But you know, “on my own” is not true. Whenever I hit a road bump, friends who are real designers were ever ready to answer my idiot questions - thank you @jon @stellakwan  I wanted a very quiet book, with minimal interventions up front, so as to let the world within do its work. And they do tell the story well together. @messymsxi’s drawings are everything the words could have asked for. So what’s needed with the layout and design is to set the stage, manage the pauses and breaks, the hints and breaths. Because the act of reading a physical book is ultimately still a visceral one. The book is an object and more -

A House in a Forest - the drawings

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The decision to ask @messymsxi to draw for the story was instinctive. Because I knew these things: she loves nature (and plants!); she is serious and extremely thoughtful about every project; and there is a softness about her work. One of the things we discussed in the beginning was that we didn’t want was to show anything fully, especially humans.    We spoke about windows and glimpses, and the feeling of observing something unfold. We had these types of brief conversations and shared some reference images of houses in forests…then Messymsxi worked her magic!  I asked her these questions recently: Q1) You developed a new “technique” for yourself in the process - why? The decision to ask @messymsxi to draw for the story was instinctive. Because I knew these things: she loves nature (and plants!); she is serious and extremely thoughtful about every project; and there is a softness about her work. One of the things we discussed in the beginning was that we didn’t want was to show anythin

A House in a Forest - the story

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  My new book with MessyMsxi called A House in a Forest will be out from the printers and available late December. The world feels noisier and messier than ever before. There is an aggression and fear - a kind of stink. Then there is the sort of helpless noise we make - loud, cloying, sometimes violent. It’s a nightmare. Like the stink monster in Spirited Away, violent, smelly yet pitiful at the same time. One morning I woke up from a different kind of nightmare, an unhappy dream. And in the moments before getting out of bed, I had an image of a house in a forest.  Because it is in a forest, nature’s live-giving but sometimes destructive chaos surrounds it - and shapes it.  Some things change and some things remain the same. Some things are restored, some are forever lost - and some things begin anew. The literature students among you will recognise this pattern as a romance. That very day, I finished a draft of a short story about a house in a forest during my lunch break and the tr

happiness is a bird (or "A Song for H")

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Yeah, it's confusing why this image is used for this post.... Sometime last year, in the middle of dinner, a friend asked me - "are you happy?" I didn't give it much thought and answered with whatever was at the top of my head.  Happiness is a bird. "Happiness" always feels like an approximation for something else. Scratch beneath that word a little and you may discover other words for what you are trying to express. For example, you may feel pride, you feel a sense of purpose, you feel a sense of community, you feel connected, you feel loved, you feel pleasure, you feel joy, you feel secure, you feel hopeful... And in this long list of feelings and possible states of mind, some of which endure and permeate our being, happiness is perhaps the most slight. Below is a short piece "A Song for H" on happiness. It was written last year as a tribute and reply to that 1949 classic Hank Williams country love song "I'm so lonesome I could cry"

there must be more to life than cats

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Last evening in Taipei I decided to drop by a bar I haven’t been before - a speakeasy kind of place. It was everything a bar on a Monday night would be - a Murakami short story minus the missing cat and half-tragic mystery. Well, okay, take those things away, i t actually won't be much of a murakami short story. So let’s be honest - it ain’t no short story, just a n othing-happening account of strangers at a bar  on a Monday night. The lady who let me in through the hidden door was Russian. The long-haired dude pretending to do his pretend at the shopfront smiled. Russian ladies they are a bit bossy - you know, they always look like they will shout at you for no reason or maybe something more violent may happen. Anyway she spoke English with an American accent, so I figured it was safe. There were 2 white men at the bar counter. The bartender is a good looking Chinese boy with waist length stringy hair in a ponytail and a nose ring. He wore a faded Radiohead tee the way I wear a fa

Some Dreams are like Country Music

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“Some Dreams are like Country Music” is a kind of secret book and soundtrack made for all you lonesome cowboys/girls/humans. It’s made small so you can tuck it into your saddle bag, together with other dessert essentials like a photo of grandma and a sweet harmonica. And on a sleepless night as you lie down under a moonlit sky…you can reach for it to keep you company. Ok, I translate.  “Some Dreams are like Country Music” is an art book. It is a collaboration between ampulets and leather artist Tze Ling  @secondnatvre . I wanted to make something small, physically and artistically. I thought it was time, after all the elaborate projects the last couple of years, to make a small book of tiny drawings and mini stories with a very clean, compact emotional palette, one that you can hide inside you. Like the lyrics of a song. 8 dreams: fiction and small fancies I don’t dare to call poems. (Watch the video in Image3) There is also a QR code where you can download a playlist of songs I have s