i will start by explaining that the two books that i had published in the gallery magazine were both bought by dede, who had asked if she could enter them in the juried art show that stampington was hosting, which i was more than excited to do, because i had always loved their legacy publication. she did and they chose both books to be in their gallery magazine. all fine and good, good, good! until... today.
my friend, dede, poor dede, opened her books that i had forwarded to her, after receiving them from stampington at the end of last month, well, actually, i had sent them to her about a week after i had gotten them, because that was the week of our 6" snowfall, then she was out of town for a bit, so she actually had them at her door last week, which was bad timing, because, she was so busy with family visitors, that she never took them out of the box until today, when we were talking on the phone. phew, take a breath. anyway, she removed the little love book first and was quite surprised to see that all the tiny tags with the famous twosomes on them were glued to the pages, what was that all about?! glued? how could they do that? while i was still scratching my head over that, she removed the seaside altered book and what do you think? omg rebecca, omg! geesh, not only were all the tags, but three, glued to the pages, but, the book itself was split down the middle and torn apart on different pages! omg! i cannot believe it! not a note enclosed, NOTHING! what is that all about??!! has this happened to anyone else?
after closer inspection, and me repeating in her ear, i believe we were both in shock, they couldn't glue the books! they wouldn't GLUE the books! she realized, the glue they used was that gooey, rubbery stuff that one finds on products from the stores - you know the stuff? well, she tried to remove the tags, very carefully, some actually tore the pages but all came off eventually. the love book is just okay, she says, but the altered album - well, tags are all stained on the backside, which is a small matter when compared to the book itself as you can see - what a mess!
i am highly disappointed! not even a note of apology! a simple we are sorry, a simple there was a problem, geesh! i only wish now, that i had taken the books out to look at them before i had forwarded them to dede. they were well packaged with bubble wrap and ghost turds, i had decided it would be better if i just sent them on down. what a mistake!
well, so sad, as dede said, "i don't want to think about it anymore!" i will now make some hot cocoa, sit at my work desk and continue with my next christmas album. goodnight all, geesh dede, i don't think this publishing thing was such a good idea after all - huh? sigh. -rebecca