Day	Pen	Ink
25April 26 April 27 April 28 April	Hero 100 Pelikan M600 Pilot Elite 95S Parker Duofold AF	Namiki Blue Diamine Syrah Edelstein Olivine Pelikan blue-black

No clever alternatives to the current layout. I’ve been distracted by a new COVID outbreak at work, and by the nasal inflammation of stuffing the test swabs up my nose. Still negative, hoorah.

Also, hoera for 5 May– Liberation Day for the Netherlands.

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Day	Pen	Ink
25April 26 April 27 April 28 April	Pelikan M600 Hero 100 Parker Duofold AF Sheaffer Targa	Diamine Syrah Namiki Blue Pelikan blue-black Herbin Bleu Myosotis

I haven’t thought of anything clever to do with this progress report when progress is diffuse and mostly internal. There is progress of that sort, happily, although the fortress of United States tax requirements is not only unbreached but as yet unassaulted. I’ve realized that I can probably get some advice from the provincial Writers Guild and possibly even from the Horror Writers Association, as I’m a member of both.

I just have to… you know… do something that involves someone who isn’t me. After two years of glorious enforced stand-offishness, I’m rather out of practice with that stuff.

Day	Pen	Ink
18 April 19 April 20 April 21 April	Parker Duofold AF Pilot Elite 95S Pelikan M600 Hero 100	Pelikan blue-black Edelstein Olivine Diamine Syrah Namiki Blue

That’s pretty blank. Maybe I’ll rethink this format change.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
15 November 16 November 17 November 18 November	“Hobb’s Landing”.	Building the ending from its current kit form of mostly coherent points, at a glacial pace. Also, coming around to the realization that it should be in third person rather than first.	Pelikan Stola III Parker Duofold Faber-Castell e-motion TWSBI Classic	Pelikan Royal Blue Diamine Honey Burst Herbin Éclat de Saphir Edelstein Olivine

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
8 November 9 November 10 November 11 November	“Hobb’s Landing”. Remembrance.	Done! Sorta! Except for building the ending from its current kit form of mostly coherent points. Appropriate.	TWSBI Classic Retro 51 Tornado Parker Duofold Pelikan Stola III	Edelstein Olivine Skrip Black Diamine Honey Burst Pelikan Royal Blue

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
1 November 2 November 3 November 4 November	Endless small chores.	Not a word of writing, damn it.	Parker Duofold Faber-Castell e-motion  Retro 51 Tornado TWSBI Classic	Diamine Honey Burst Herbin Éclat de Saphir Skrip Black Edelstein Olivine

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
30 August 31 August 1 September 2 September	Back to school panicking. Yesterday’s entry. Getting a UV-C air purifier because the provincial government is using Texas as a model for COVID response.	Managed to get everything needed. The whole thing. Success†.	Pelikan M600 Pilot Elite 95S Parker Senior Duofold TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR	Pelikan blue-black Diamine Bilberry Diamine Honey Burst TWSBI Royal Purple

 

† This is assuming that I haven’t already taken a dose of Delta inside my doubly-vaccinated lungs already (despite still masking). I heard this morning that vaccination reduces not only the severity of the initial infection but the likelihood of having your organs wrecked by an infection, so I’m still happy to have gotten my shots.

Thinky About Inky

Last week I put two Pelikans into the current roster, which is (apart from the week around a Pelikan Hub) contrary to policy. As I said on Friday, I set the rules, so breaking them isn’t a big thing… and I had a reason.

A few years back, Pelikan 4001 blue-black became encaustum non gratum in the US for some extremely silly bureaucratic reasons*, and since Canada is in the same shipping lane as far as ink is concerned, it vanished from stores here as well. This got somewhat up my nose, because Pelikan blue-black was a favourite ink– I liked the somewhat protean colour, I liked the permanence, I liked the lack of cost, I liked the way it played with most paper.

At the time, I thought that I could probably fill the gap by ordering from a source in Europe. About twenty minutes after I’d had that thought, I dropped it– the ink wasn’t expensive, but the shipping was.

A few years later, though– a sale at a UK stationer who ships everywhere, the relatives costs of shipping and ink changing, and the ongoing disintegration of the British Pound from the bumbleshart that Brexit in the hands of an enormous floppy pink Johnson has become got together and convinced me that I could probably have a go at importing a couple of bottles. Given my current hoard of ink, 125ml will last me through as much future as I can foresee.

So, here I am, bootleg illicit ink in hand, happy as a… um.. about that. Buddha teaches us that desire is the seat of all suffering, right? The reality of the desired item never lives up to the imagined glory. Thus, I should not have been surprised to find that my reaction to finally, at long last being able to put Pelikan blue-black into my Pelikan M600 was “That doesn’t seem right…”

It’s too blue! It’s hardly grey at all! Have they amended the formula? Here, have a look at it next to a sample I wrote back in the pre-prohibition days.

_{The paper is the rather good stock which tax refund cheques are printed on– fool that I am, we’re now on direct deposit.}

You’d hardly know they were related, right? Oh, the bitter disappointment!

But because mannenhitsu-do is a contemplative path, I retreat from the initial impression and give it a bit of a think. Thinking about the means by which the ink gains its permanence through a touch of ferro-gallic chemistry… which leads me to wonder if dissatisfaction with new laid next to old is not unlike castigating a seed for not being a tree. Let’s have a look at a preserved sample of the old, when it was fresh.

Well… perhaps I lament prematurely. I remark in my profile of the ink that it has a different character in just about every pen, and I hadn’t seen it in this one yet, had I? Thus do I transform my dismay into anticipation of future wonder (and if you point out that this is very like misery-breeding desire, I’ll ask you to mind your own business). The old sample is still grey-er but it’s still more blue than the aged sample. I can’t remember what pen I used to write that aged sample, but I imagine it’s a dryer pen than the M600. There’s hope that I can look forward to stuff I’m currently writing getting all vintage-looking.

There’s a bonus possibility in hand as well. It turns out that TWSBI blue-black looks a lot more like its Pelikan counterpart than I had thought. I hasten to point out that they are certainly not the same ink, because the TWSBI is more given to feathering and the Pelikan doesn’t smell all flowery.

_{Rather less-good quotidien paper from the Regular Job’s photocopier}

…which means it might also one day be cool and vintage-appearing. Yay!

Today’s pen: Parker Senior Duofold
Today’s ink: Diamine Honey Burst

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
23 August 24 August 25 August 26 August	Third draft of “Anne’s Big Day”. Some submissions.	All polished up and just sort of 3000 words. Funnily enough, not “Anne’s Big Day”.	Montblanc 32 Parker Senior Duofold Pelikan M600† Pelikan P1†	Montblanc Racing Green Diamine Honey Burst Pelikan blue-black‡ TWSBI Blue-black

† Two Pelikans in one week? I really wanted to match this pen and ink, and as the maker of my rules, I can amend them.

‡ I’ll be offering some thoughts about this next week.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
16 August 17 August 18 August 19 August	Submissions and a Sask Writers Guild meeting.	Bugger-all writing, and I was late for the meeting.	TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR Parker Senior Duofold Eversharp Skyline Montblanc 32	TWSBI Royal Purple Diamine Honey Burst Monteverde Malibu Blue  Montblanc Racing Green