Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
13 December 14 December 15 December 16 December	Drove to work The same Taxi to work, ride from brother which included picking up a charge-pack. Drove to work	-28C -30C -32C -31C	Moonman M2  Pelikan 140 Conklin Cresent Filler Lamy 2000	Diamine Writer’s Blood Pelikan Blue-black  Herbin Lie de Thè Edelstein Topaz

I’ve given myself license to lounge, writing-wise, until the new year when I shall spring into action like a crowd of Harryhausen skeletons. Dealing with the still-air temperatures this week is enough creativity.

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Sharing Traditions

A title with a double meaning. Over on my other front, I’m sharing “Wilden Klausen” which is about seasonal traditions and their underpinnings.

Here, I’m sharing what is a bit of a trans-Canadian tradition. One of the few things that is shared by all parts of Canada is CBC Radio service. Not everyone listens to it, but it’s there. Those of us who do listen to it have a yuletide tradition– listening to the sonorous Alan Maitland reading Frederick Forsyth’s attempt at the traditional English seasonal ghost story.

I’m taking next week off, so I may not look in here on Christmas Eve. In anticipation of that, I’ll wish you one and all a comfortable Christmas, Xmas, Yuletide &ct. (but not Festivus– take your pole elsewhere!) with people that bring you joy and without people that bring you COVID.

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel
Today’s ink: Skrip Jet Black

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
20 December 21 December 22 December 23 December	Making some adjustments to “The Lambdon Wager” to render it more submittable. More preliminary work for that stupid idea I mentioned last week.	Submitted! Appropriately tiny progess.	OMAS Arte Italiana Moonman M2  Pelikan 140 Platinum PKB-3000	Krishna Pakeezah Diamine Writer’s Blood Pelikan Blue-black  Herbin Poussière de Lune

Generation Gap

Before I start, let me touch on something I forgot to mention yesterday, because my life is as dizzily blurry as the scenery of a Tilt-A-Whirl rider. Last Monday, I put another of my no-longer-protected published stories out when you, your best chum, and Avery T. D. Harrie can see it. “Without Fear, Favor or Affection” is a historical epic (in as much as epic can be applied to something shy of 5000 words and containing a mere handful of named characters) which first appears in Creatures in Canada, and continues to do so.

For today’s film, somethings that’s not seasonal as such, but… well, it’s some favourite fountain pens.

To my mind, the M600 is a better point of comparison to the 140, as it doesn’t have a heavy brass mechanism and is just that much smaller. Watching this does make me wish I could lay my hands on a fine or medium for my 140… which is not to say I’d give up the oblique bold it’s currently fitted with, because that’s fun.

Today’s pen: TWSBI Classic
Today’s ink: Edelstein Olivine

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
6 December 7 December 8 December 9 December	Opening a campaign which will culminate in a Kickstarter campaign… and ideally somewhat thereafter a short story collection.	The journey of ten thousand stadia begins with a few hesitant and uncertain steps. And what could be sweat or tears. Hard to tell.	Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel Pelikan 140 OMAS Arte Italiana Parker 65	Skrip Jet Black Pelikan Blue-black  Krishna Pakeezah Quink Permanent Turquoise

If anyone out there is shouting “What the hell are you thinking?!” they may rest assured that I can’t hear them over the screeching of my own internal critics. Updates as they develop… which given the careful approach to this unknown country I’m adopting, will probably not begin until Mid-January.

Yes, I AM a Grammar Nerd.

Today’s pen: TWSBI Classic
Today’s ink: Edelstein Olivine

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
29 November 30 November 1 December 2 December	“Hobb’s Landing”. Birthday Off! ‡ Fixing stuff from the previous day. ³ Just too damn tired.	Squeezing words from a stone. A mighty lounge! [Another Homer Simpson noise of remembered trauma] Get more sleep, dummy.	Pelikan 140 Ditto† Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel Parker 65	Pelikan Blue-black  ” † Skrip Jet Black¤ Quink Permanent Turquoise¤

† It’s my birthday and I’ll use the same pen as the previous day if I want to.
‡ I have never taken my birthday off prior to this year. I recommend it, to be honest, if it doesn’t make life too miserable for co-workers. There is, however, still a price to be paid…
³ Never be The Indispensable Man. I’m not, really, anymore but I’m still not easily replaced despite writing and polishing instruction manuals for the past couple of years.
¤ The Skrip is NOS, just opened on the day of pen-filling, but isn’t quite contemporary to the pen; it’s got the red label from the last days of the dip-well bottles. The Quink, on the other hand, is possibly slightly older than the pen but definitely from the same rough era of manufacturing and also unopened until I got my mitts on it. I don’t know how this happens.