The Story of Ink

Here is how ink is made. It looks so delicious, I want to put it in a bowl and eat it with a delicate, fluted spoon. Instead, I’ll simply remember this amazing instructive video when my manuscript, All the Dancing Birds, is published. (Insert smiley face here.) For this is how the ink will be made that will be used for its cover page art. This is how the black ink will be made that will become its words on each page and how numbers in that same black ink will enumerate each page.

Maybe I should dedicate my book to the magic of ink.

Of course, the plan is to first finish this book. It’s been slow-as-you-go, but it’s very close now — only a few pages from its completion. I’ve been working hard to finish the story, to get it just right, to help it flow smooth as ink. I’m only a few days from knowing it is done, because knowing a work of fiction is complete is as much an art as is the act of writing. Knowing one’s book is finished is very much like an ink maker knowing his ink is just the correct hue and shade and viscosity.

So, huzzah to the ink maker. Huzzah to the writer. Huzzah to the reader.

It seems we’re all in this together. The writer, the ink maker and the reader. Huzzah!

Enjoy the video.