ping Charlie Self

Joe Stein writes:

>I was at the public library today and checked-out a book on building
>birdhouses and feeders...not yours, sorry.
>However, in the bibliography it mentioned your book Making birdhouses &
>feeders, 1985. I couldn't help thinking 'hey I know that guy from the rec'.
>I'll look for yours next time.

You may have to look hard. I'm pretty sure the publisher is selling out stock
on hand and taking it out of print. Too bad. It's only been paying royalties
for 19 years. It's a decent book, but if I ever get organized here, I'll be
doing a similar book on birdhouses, sans feeders, either as a PDF download or a
CD, or both. About 1/3 done and hung there what with moving, reconstituting the
rest of my business, etc. Doing the design and writing is a lot of fun, but the
blinking layout and such stuff is somewhat less fun for me. I'm coming to
appreciate my editors' efforts more each time I get into the project.

By the way, the publisher's rationale makes sense. Durned near everything these
days is done in color, while that book is done in black and white, with VERY
rough drawings done on a portable drawing board that was sitting on my kitchen
table at the time. Most of the building was done on a Shopsmith, and the
photography was done with some strange light set-ups (I had had my second fire
the month the book was due, wiping out all first attempts, so I did the book
in a month in a rental farmhouse with a great kitchen, really decent downstairs
[the only time I've had a 20' x 20' "office" with wainscoting] and some chilly
bedrooms).

Charlie Self
"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from
man."
H. L. Mencken

On 24 Jun 2004 09:34:02 GMT, [email protected] (Charlie Self)
wrote:


>You may have to look hard. I'm pretty sure the publisher is selling out stock
>on hand and taking it out of print. Too bad. It's only been paying royalties
>for 19 years. It's a decent book, but if I ever get organized here, I'll be
>doing a similar book on birdhouses,

Hey, don't forget to include the Floyd Wright, "FallingDownWater"
Birdhouse, designed to perch on the edge of a birdbath.

The design is elegant, although projected maintenance costs are high.



Regards,
Tom.

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.)
tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)
http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1