Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
21 June 22 June 23 June 24 June	First draft of “Anne’s Big Day”. The second jab. First draft of “Anne’s Big Day”.	Three manuscript pages. A tiny poke, and a period of normal immune response. Four manuscript pages.	Pilot Vanishing Point Lamy 27 Platinum Curidas Waterman Executive	Namiki Black Diamine Writer’s Blood Platinum blue-black Edelstein Olivine

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
14 June 15 June 16 June 17 June	Clothes shopping.† First draft of “Anne’s Big Day”. School supply shopping.†	One shirt for me, several for son. Seven manuscript Pages. A perfectly serviceable sketchbook	Waterman Executive†† Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Pilot Vanishing Point Pelikan th.INK	Edelstein Olivine TWSBI Royal Purple Namiki Black Herbin Vert de Gris

†My son is, given his first vaccination status, going back to school for the first time since May 2020. He’s grown a LOT in the intervening time, and he’s also filled up his sketchbook, because it likes making visual art.

††The Wing Sung 618 is being set aside for amendment– there’s an interruption in the ink channel of the feed that requires force-filling of the collector. Unsatisfactory, in an otherwise darned good pen.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
7 June 8 June 9 June 10 June	First draft of “Anne’s Big Day”.	Ten Manuscript Pages.	Wing Sung 618 Pelikan th.INK Platinum Curidas Sheaffer Imperial Triumph	Herbin Bleu Calanque Herbin Vert de Gris Platinum blue-black TWSBI Royal Purple

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
31 May 1 June 2 June 3 June	Blinkin’ work duties. The Curidas page.	Too much. Go ahead and click the link!	Pilot Vanishing Point Platinum Curidas Pelikan th.INK OMAS Arte Italiana	Namiki Black Platinum blue-black Herbin Vert de Gris Diamine Honey Burst

Oopsie

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 28 May	Queen Victoria’s birthday The decreasingly over-ambitious, increasingly time-anxious edit on “Legion of Candles”.	Some lounging I suspect would not have amused her majesty. Under the limit!	OMAS Arte Italiana Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Platinum Curidas (still picture only) Pilot Vanishing Point Pelikan th.INK	Diamine Honey Burst TWSBI Royal Purple Platinum blue-black Namiki Black Herbin Vert de Gris

So, yeah… no entries here at all last week. I had to apply my time to the scraping down of the story… and more time than that. Victory came as the light faded from the sky on Friday– the final count was 4951 words (1305 below the last time I called it finished), AND YET the story still made sense.

This may explain a couple of previous rejections.

To explain the next rejection, I decided to change the title at the last moment. I made sure that this change was not only on the title page, but also reflected on the page headers (look up Shunn format, if you’re curious) and also in the name of the file. BUT NOT in the email’s title, which still had the old name. So, a lot of work followed by pointing a gun at my own foot– perhaps I’ll miss.

A quick bit of film to make up for Friday’s absence. This week should be more sensible, although who can really predict… the future?

Who Needs a Hug?

No big messages today. Just something to assist in relaxing* at the end of a trying week.

*Experience may improve with beer, liquor or some surprisingly (yet not shockingly) expensive chocolate which is perfectly legal in Canada.

Today’s pen: Parker 65
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
12 April 13 April 14 April 15 April	“Willful Murder” (working title) More of that faffing I mentioned last week.	4 manuscript pages. See below.	Pelikan 140 Retro 51 Tornado Parker 65 Sailor Pocket Pen	Monteverde Malibu Blue Krishna Pakeezah Herbin Poussière de Lune Jentle blue-black

When vanity-googling some year back, I discovered that I had an entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base. After being momentarily surprised that there was such a creature, I allowed myself a warm glow of imagined immortality– evidence of my presence which offered to outlast me (modern post-humanist thinking in the utopian spectrum notwithstanding).

Later, I found it had been updated to show my appearance on Pseudopod.

Later still… nothing. No updates. Because it relies on public effort, and is (or was) a little mysterious in how to do entries.

Last week, the ISFDB came up in online conversation, and I decided it was time to take the bull by the figurative horns (unless you are an agile Minoan, avoid doing this literally), and discovered that either it has become easier to add entries since I last looked at it, or I’m substantially more smartlier. Now not quite all of my published work is documented there. Along with a bunch of other folks, because it’s magazines and anthologies. Have a look, if you like, but be warned– there’s a picture of some kind of skunk-ape on the page. Very alarming.

Going for a Spin

Here’s a frustratingly suggestive technology. Although it’s mainly a “how to fabricate an aluminum cone” video.

Frustratingly suggestive? Sure– consider the possible uses (an air conditioning compressor that runs on heat!?) and then look around the web for physicists explaining why it won’t quite work.

Today’s pen: Parker 65
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
5 April 6 April 7 April 8 April	“Willful Murder” (working title) Yesterday’s goof. Some faffing of a writerly sort.	4 manuscript pages. Pen Content?! Expanding my online presence slightly, in a way which will only slowly become evident.	Moonman M2  Pelikan M600 PenBBS 487 Retro 51 Tornado	Diamine Sargasso Sea Noodler’s Dumas Tulipe Noire Herbin Lie de Thé Krishna Pakeezah

 

Regarding Fuel Economy

When I took up the pen for today, I had to think hard about when it entered rotation.

…and I couldn’t remember without looking. The answer is the second week of January. This is a ridiculous length of time for a pen to be in the flight-line. Even more ridiculous is this:

It’s not half-full– the angle of the photo somewhat exaggerates the amount of ink left. It’s roughly one-third full, after three months of use. The Pelikan M600 that joined the in-use bunch in March only just made it through last night’s journal entry.

Why the difference? Well, the most obvious one is that the Pelikan carries just over half as much ink as the 487. The less obvious, looking at the pictures, is that the 487 has a fine point which is only just wet enough for enjoyable use while the M600 has a big fat wet point which claims to be medium but refuses to step onto a scale.

Basically, I’m comparing a Mercedes 600SEL to a Prius with drop-tanks. Of course it’s taking longer to empty.

The “this thing is still in use” sensation started a couple of weeks ago, to be honest, and I’ve been suppressing it by looking at the vast amount of ink still in place. Today, though, I started thinking about pen hygiene. Sure, it’s possible to use a pen for years without changing to another (part of the glory of fountain pens, that) but you should give them a cleaning every third or fourth fill– which is to say, roughly every month or so.

So far, this is only a theoretical issue. There’s no beard of fungus clinging to the feed. The ink remains a liquid rather than a gel that never quite dries (this is a big hint, by the way; if you’re smearing the page an hour after writing, clean that pen!). However, I think I’ll probably send the pen to the showers this weekend, before the theoretical turns vexingly practical.

I may also tip the ink out of that Moonman sooner rather than later. It’s an equally parsimonious point and a bigger reservoir.

Today’s extreme-endurance pen: PenBBS 487
Today’s huge column of ink: Herbin Lie de Thé