Kathleen & Kelly Tomorrow

Mon 4 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

We have a unique intercontinental event coming up tomorrow at 5 p.m. Central Time with Kathleen Jennings and Kelly Link talking about their first collection, Kindling: Stories (Kathleen), and first novel, The Book of Love (Kelly).

We’ve worked with Kathleen for about 15 years. I think the first project was the striking and beautiful cover for Greer Gilman’s Cloud & Ashes.

Before Kindling, the biggest projects we worked with her on were the 2012 edition of our Working Writer’s Daily Planner* and illustrating Kij Johnson’s Wind in the Willows follow-up, The River Bank. Both books were complicated, unusual, and extraordinarily interesting and fun to work on which meant that when she queried us on her first collection we were very familiar with her work and also her ways of working. So despite her coming to the end of her PhD program(!), we knew she’d be responsive and proactive — two things I struggle more and more with!

Anyway, all of which is to say, hope you will join this event tomorrow:

 

* I looked at the Daily Planner for the first time in years for this post and I am still charmed and entertained seeing Kathleen’s art all through it. She did monthly headers and spot illustrations — I’ve added a few screenshots below. I still really enjoy those planners. I don’t know if someone is making something like them now, hope so.

I ran out of time to do our edition — our kid was 2-3 years old and keeping the press running was enough for me. The final death knell was in waiting for the pre-orders to come in from Am*zon. The Planners were full color throughout and we printed them in the US. I had to get them to the printer quite early but Am*zon — who sold a good number of the 2011 edition — would not give our sales reps their order for the 2012 edition.

That year we published our two-volume “Best of” Ursula K. Le Guin short stories, collections by Kij Johnson, Elizabeth Hand, and Nancy Kress, a chapbook from Hal Duncan, Ayize’s first novel, and more. The friction and uncertainty of not getting the number was too much and although I loved the project I had to drop it. I printed what was needed through Lulu and that was it. I’d like to say I never regretted it but while that’s not true it’s also not a big thing. I’m glad we did it, that people enjoyed it, and it proved again that Kathleen was a great person to work with on a complicated project.

4 illustrations by Kathleen Jennings — birds holding leaves, person in mug, Alice-like woman, person walking with dog