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Without a doubt, the best way to get between Hong Kong and China is by ferry. I was excited to discover today that the Humen ferry terminal is only about seven kilometers from the Kin Tai printing factory. There is only one boat per day in each direction, but I’ve made sure to time it right to get to Hong Kong and back to the factory tomorrow morning. Immigration and customs is a breeze, and the ferry speeds along at an average of 60 km/hr, making the trip in an hour and a half that would otherwise take three hours by car and train or bus. So much more pleasant.

Things are starting to pick up a bit with the printing here today. Unfortunately, the other two books that are supposed to be on press this week (Elvis at 21 and Brian Froud’s World of Faerie) are both falling behind schedule. There’s been a power shortage throughout the Pearl River Delta this week, and neither printing company has been able to run their presses. So I’ll take this opportunity to run back to Hong Kong for the night to take care of Trinh, who’s been running a 102º fever. I’m leaving Antarctica in the capable hands of Ken (above right), who is a wizard on press. Unfortunately, he is leaving to join another company at the end of this month. Bummer.

Day one of six weeks that books are going to be printing more-or-less continuously. First book on press is Antarctica. We’re printing this with stochastic screening, which is quite an unusual process in China, requiring a huge amount of trial and error. After working for fourteen hours continuously, we are one-thirty-fourth of the way through printing the book. Hopefully it will start moving a bit more smoothly soon.