Quick Update: Four (no Five) Titles –
We are actively working on four books this month. Here’s a quick update.
Richard Jones’s book on timber technology (we’re still fussing with the title) has been fully laid out. Kara Gebhart Uhl and I will give it a final edit this month and it should be to the printer in early January. That means it should be released in February or March 2018. (This assumes nothing goes haywire in the process.)
Jögge Sundqvist’s book “Slöjd in Wood” is almost ready for the designer. Megan Fitzpatrick has been sorting through both the translation and notes from Jögge and Peter Follansbee, who is assisting with the editing. This book has taken a lot longer than we hoped (and cost thousands of dollars more than we planned). But the result will be worth it. Look for it in early spring.
Christian Becksvoort has just turned in the materials for his new book with Lost Art Press. The book needs a title, but it’s going to be outstanding. It will feature plans for some of Becksvoort’s best projects from his career, plus advice on the craft and how to make a living at it. We are just beginning the editing process on the book, but it should go quickly. We hope for a summer release.
Finally, there is my book, “Ingenious Mechanicks: Early Workbenches & Workholding.” The writing will be complete by the end of 2017 – I have only about 1,000 more words to go. As always, as I get to the end of a book I have found at least 30 untrodden paths before me that I could go down. This book could easily consume another 20 years of my life – and still be incomplete.
Luckily, I have worked with authors who allow themselves to be sucked down the path of researching “one more detail” and then “Oooo, one more thing.” It can go on forever, and the work becomes blurred, ill-defined and all-consuming. You have to know when to cut bait or fish.
I’m ready to fish.
Look for “Ingenious Mechanicks” to be released by May at the latest.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. I forgot to mention Joshua Klein’s book on Jonathan Fisher. It’s in the good hands of designer Linda Watts and should be complete in the next couple months. Apologies for neglecting this important title – I have too many chainsaws in the air…. It’s late and it’s been a long day.
