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

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A Brisk Walk

There’s been a fair amount of noise recently about stacking starships (which sounds like a deeply unwise version of Jenga). While I’m not a specific proponent of SpaceX, not a Musk-ovite at all, I do like the idea of the current future including (semi)realistic plans for space-faring.

This sort of thing, after all, is what I grew up with as “what to expect from the future!”

I can’t decide if it would be a good idea or not to wave this under the noses of those pushing space currently. The existence of the Segway suggests we might be able to work out more intuitive controls… but the “make mistakes and break stuff” mode of at least one of the parties makes me fear for potential test-pilots.

Today’s pen: Eversharp Skyline
Today’s ink: Monteverde Malibu Blue (which I chose because I happened upon something written on a date I was previously using this ink, but it’s nothing like as vibrant– either I was using something else then, I didn’t clean out the Skyline well last time, or I can still be surprised by how much effect the pen can have on the look of the ink)

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
17 May 18 May 19 May 20 May	The decreasingly over-ambitious edit on “Legion of Candles”.	16 of 19 pages covered in red ink, so almost ready to hit the keyboard.	OMAS Arte Italiana Pilot Vanishing Point Sheaffer Imperial Triumph Pelikan 140	Diamine Honey Burst Namiki Black TWSBI Royal Purple Monteverde Malibu Blue

Onions Making Me Cry

This is overstating the matter (CLICKBAIT!), but I am definitely inclining lachrymose because of onions. Well… onionskin, which has nothing to do with actual onions.

If Alexander the Great can weep because he has run out of world to conquer, I’m allowed to get misty for lack of an item of stationery.

I can cure my sadness more easily than the Macedonian wanderer, and I probably will order one before too much time goes past.

I won’t urge you to also get one, but if you haven’t experienced onionskin… you’re missing a treat. Among my early memories is finding a small supply of onionskin in my father’s home office supplies, and being amazed at it. It’s neat stuff.

Today’s pen: Pelikan 140
Today’s ink: Monteverde Malibu Blue†

† I’ve had this ink so long that I forgot I hadn’t done a sample of it while I was doing samples last week. Yet more work!

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
26 April 27 April 28 April 29 April	“Willful Murder” (working title). Something I’ll present tomorrow	4 manuscript pages (again?!). Simultaneously more and less effort that you’d think.	PenBBS 500† Pelikan 140 OMAS Arte Italiana Sheaffer Balance Craftsman	TWSBI Blue Monteverde Malibu Blue† Diamine Honey Burst† Diamine Writer’s Blood†

† So, clearly I didn’t get any updates on the site on the weekend. I got distracted by the possibilities of…

OK, it’s a little circuitous. My wife acts, and since the provincial government chased film production out of the province a few years ago, she’s been concentrating on the stage. This outlet to her creativity was somewhat stifled by the current plague, since live theatre is exactly the sort of thing the phrase “super-spreader” was invented for.

The theatre has decided to push on with the new season, though, and my wife has been cast in a leading role. How this? They’re presenting Sorry, Wrong Number in its original format– a radio play. I will, of course, offer a link when the play goes public; the “no public gatherings” command has been turned into a disadvantage, as local theatre goes online and global.

I’ve been on the fence about getting a (somewhat) decent microphone, and this has pushed me over the edge. Our Yeti Snowball arrived this week… but that’s just the catalyst. Since I’m having trouble wringing words out of my head, I’m spreading out into other media.

…and I’ll roll some of that out tomorrow.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
19 April 20 April 21 April 22 April	“Willful Murder” (working title)	4 manuscript pages (like pulling teeth, it is!).	Sailor Pocket Pen PenBBS 500† Pelikan 140 Sheaffer Balance Craftsman	Jentle blue-black TWSBI Blue Monteverde Malibu Blue† Diamine Writer’s Blood†

† I am going to try to get a load of updates to the site complete this weekend, because this is getting silly and I really want everyone to see what Writer’s Blood looks like– it’s an amazing dark burgundy. I say “try” because a large chunk of my Saturday is taken up with a meeting of the Sask Writers Guild board meeting.

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.

To The Stars!

Right, so, the US didn’t collapse into civil war over the past couple of weeks, and looks like it probably won’t (fingers crossed). That’s a treat, eh?

With that corner (hopefully) turned, perhaps we can look forward to that brave sci-fi future I was pondering last week. And what’s more brave futuristic sci-fi… as imagined in the middle of last century… than a provocatively dangerous means of space exploration?

I’m trying to not harsh the mellow of this delightful plan by wondering how one would get all that edge-of-critical material into space in the first place. I guess we need to find a big ol’ pitchblende asteroid.

Today’s pen: Pelikan 120
Today’s ink: Monteverde Malibu Blue (oh look, something else I need to come up with a page for)

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
11 January 12 January 13 January 14 January	Errands The promised effort on my site	Why people gotta want stuff? An unsatisfying stub, a real page (the 487) and some behind the scenes stuff.	Pelikan 120 Sheaffer Targa PenBBS 487 Wing Sung 601	Monteverde Malibu Blue Edelstein Topaz Herbin Lis de Thé Pelikan Violet

There was also a little bit of glowing at the news that a story has been held for closer editorial consideration. That’s labour intensive, that is.

The Bertie Wooster Prototype

Sometimes Youtube’s algorithms are a delight. I occasionally look at things about naval history, and that’s almost certainly what brought this magnificent tale of comedy afloat to my attention:

All it lacks is a long-suffering and hyper efficient valet preventing disaster at some point, and perhaps a lovelorn Fink-Nottle and it’s a perfect example of a Wodehouse frolic. And how about that surprise twist after the credits?

Today’s pen: TWSBI Classic
Today’s ink: Monteverde Malibu Blue