Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
21 March 22 March 23 March 24 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	679 typed words (slow, but better material than last week).	Pilot Short PenBBS 487 Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Faber-Castell 664	Private Reserve Supershow Blue TWSBI Royal Purple Pelikan blue-black (yes, I do like this ink) Diamine Bilberry

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Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
14 March 15 March 16 March 17 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	597 typed words (difficult week).	PenBBS 487 Faber-Castell 664 Waterman Master Pelikan M600	TWSBI Royal Purple Diamine Bilberry Diamine Honey Burst Herbin Vert Atlantide

Today’s pen is a nod to the North American tradition of wearing a green thing on St. Patrick’s Day. I also whipped up a stupid thing to put onto a social media header for the day: Godzilla vs. Begorrah!

As long as Jet Jaguar or Minya don’t show up, it’s bound to be good

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
22 November 23 November 24 November 26 November	“Hobb’s Landing”. Preliminary Christmas Shopping	Squeezing words from a stone. [Homer Simpson noise of remembered trauma]	TWSBI Classic Retro 51 Tornado Pelikan 140 Faber-Castell e-motion	Edelstein Olivine Skrip Black Pelikan Blue-black  Herbin Éclat de Saphir

I’ve just realized that a couple of my published stories are past their exclusivity dates and in anthologies that are not easily accessed online. Stand by for action on the other site!

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

Gravitar Writ Large

When I was a kid, the “Space Race” was just winding down. I was thus pretty thoroughly steeped in a kid’s notions of what it would take to be an astronaut– the Rotor, the Zipper, and the Tilt-A-Whirl were all, in my mind at the time, the same as the training centrifuge that almost killed James Bond when he was Roger Moore.

Which means that this development seems to me to close a circle metaphorically as well as being an enclosed circle.

On a side note, while I’m not a huge fan of a lot of recent neologisms, “yeet” amuses me deeply.

Today’s pen: Faber-Castell e-motion
Today’s ink: Herbin Éclat de Saphir

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

Pipes Rattling

Well, I was indeed away last week, and without a hint of communication. The otherworldly horror of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Annual General Meeting was just too much to deal with.

I think I make up for it with this lucky find from TV history, though. It’s a sort of successor to Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast.

Speaking of Welles… why don’t we toss that in from the same source?

Also, as a final treat, I’ve just posted something over on my other site, a free goodie for the season called The Centennial Legacy. Happy Hallowe’en to all, and make sure to touch each of your children with an iron nail when they come back with their loot, just to make sure they are who they claim to be.

Today’s pen: Faber-Castell e-motion (an eerie cylinder of bone-white material, etched with an eldritch pattern)
Today’s ink: Herbin Éclat de Saphir (the colour of the water around the upper edge of a ‘blue hole’, into which divers may vanish without trace)

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
30 March 31 March 1 April 2 April	Second draft of “In Loco Parentis”. A nap Second draft of “In Loco Parentis”.	297 words typed. Sleave (sic) remains somewhat raveled. 446 more words.	Parker 180 Sheaffer Targa Pilot Short Faber-Castell e-motion	Noodler’s Walnut Edelstein Topaz Herbin Violet Penseé Diamine Evergreen

I hadn’t thought the COVID block which many writers are mentioning on Twitter was afflicting me, but it may be. It may also be the extra extra stress of being one of the few still at The Regular Job atop the previously-mentioned extra stress, the latter of which is even stressier at the transition from one month to the next. It’s almost certainly responsible for the torpor which overtook me on Tuesday, and yesterday it quite cut into my writing time.

Hopefully next week will see some lowering of pressure, and I certainly am aware that I’m neither as crushed as anyone in Healthcare, nor anything like as mentally burdened as those who find themselves out of work and weeks away from the various government assistance plans coming into effect… and who aren’t sure if those plans will actually include them.

On that last point– Canadians who are worried about such things should have a look at this chart, in which helpful people have translated from the various levels of government’s official mystical utterances into something which can be understood.

 

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
23 March 24 March 25 March 26 March	First draft of “In Loco Parentis”. Adventures in shopping for necessities during a lockdown. A letter I’ve been shamefully neglecting.†	2 manuscript pages No spare probe covers for our Braun aural thermometer, alas. Ready to mail.	Faber-Castell e-motion Pilot Short Pelikan P1 Parker 180‡	Diamine Evergreen Herbin Violet Penseé Diamine Midnight Noodler’s Walnut‡

 

† The letter to which I respond arrived just before Christmas. I plead “really a lot of powerful distractions”.

‡ The last time I used this pen (not quite two years ago, I discover with alarm), I also used brown ink. The only rationale for this association I can think of is that brown was big in the ’70s.

I am, by the way, still at work. The Regular Job turns out to count as “essential services”, and I’m apparently essential to it, so I’ll be the last one out before management is made to lock the doors. Let’s all hope it doesn’t come to that.

 

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
16 March 17 March 18 March 19 March	First draft of “Morgue Attendance”. Fidgeting about coronavirus, and an attempt to find some yogurt in the picked-over grocery store. First draft of “THINGY”	1 manuscript page, and then some doubts about direction creep in… A stunning success on both fronts; thanks to St. Patrick for the latter! 8 manuscript pages	Pelikan P1 Pilot 78G (green!) Faber-Castell e-motion Sheaffer Targa	Diamine Midnight Chelpark Emerald Green(!) Diamine Evergreen Edelstein Topaz