AAJ Asks for Input

     I was recently reading a book about the first printer in Texas back in 1821.  His first job was printing in a tent on Galveston Island in December, not ideal conditions.  That made me think of our members whose print shops are in their garages who may have difficulty getting a good page in the winter or dead of summer.  And there are those who do their work in basements and perhaps a few who have professional shops.  How much does the physical location of your print shop effect your printing—when you print, what you print, how you print?

AAJ would like to hear about your printery in a statement of 100-200 words (more if it’s interesting).  These statements will be featured in an article called “Where Is Your Print Shop?” in future issues of AAJ.  The deadline is the 20th of the month prior to the AAJ issue (June 20 for the July issue), but if you plan to contribute please let me know asap so that I can calculate the space the story will take. 

I am not forgetting those who write but do not print.  Ever since Virginia Woolf delivered her “A Room of One’s Own” lecture at Cambridge if not before, literary people have been concerned with the location and condition of their writing areas.  Do you have a favorite place to write, pen or typewriter or computer to write with, music to write by?  Send a 100-200 word (or longer) statement about your writing comfort zone for “My Writing Comfort Zone” by  the 20th of the month prior to the AAJ issue (June 20 for the July issue).  Again, if you plan to contribute, please let me know asap.

Future Thought:

As printers, probably the first thing we do when we visit other printers is tour their shops.  We may become envious, we may see ways we can improve our own shops, or we may wonder how a person can print under such conditions.  We review these shops in our heads.  Why not put those reviews on paper if they are not too inflammatory and threaten to end friendships? 

AAJ is thinking about starting a print shop review column written by members about other members’ shops.  For a prototype see Peter Schaub’s review of Dave Tribby’s shop on the AAPA website (http://www.aapainfo.org/peter-visits-dave-tribby.html).