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.

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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.

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
29 March 30 March 31 March 1 April	“Willful Murder” (working title)	7 manuscript pages.	PenBBS 487 Retro 51 Tornado Parker 65 Pelikan M600	Herbin Lie de Thé Krishna Pakeezah Herbin Poussière de Lune Noodler’s Dumas Tulipe Noire

It’s April and I’m a fool, so today’s my day to shine! A whole week of gentle but unstrained new writing! I might attribute it to the change in the weather, but for the shrieking blizzard we had on Tuesday. The change of sunlight’s angle, maybe.

Making Good

This has not been a stellar week, to be honest, although I’m pleased on the writing front. A co-worker has suddenly decided that retirement now is preferable to retirement with a full pension, causing much disruption in the daytime. I managed to actually get ink on my fingers when filling a pen, a thing I’ve managed to avoid (leaving the TWSBI Go out of it) for at least ten years. My sleep has been interrupted by terrible dreams– not like this one, which is fine, but a bleak exercise in cleaning a bed soiled by an infirm grandparent might be worse because there’s nothing in it to shock a guy awake. My computer, approaching its eleventh anniversary, is beginning to fail at last, a development which is definitely affecting updates of my site and a lot of other stuff I want to accomplish.

And yet, not only is there the writing to cling to, but I stumbled upon a delightful series of comedic shorts which (combined with Magic Brain Pills) has kept me well out of despondency. Here’s a couple of them!

Get in there before the copyright strikes start landing!

Today’s pen (also being contrary, to confirm the week): Parker 65
Today’s ink (which declines to emerge freely): Quink Turquiose (vintage)

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
15 April 16 April 17 April 18 April	A sudden and possibly hasty reaction to the day’s events Third draft of “Curse of the Dragon” Second draft of “Doting Mother Cradles Her Wayward Child”	See previous entry. Finished, at 5,755 words. 1,629 typed words.	Pelikan M600 Pilot Vanishing Point Muji Cylindrical Aluminum Pen Sheaffer Targa	Lamy black Herbin Vert Empire Waterman Florida Blue Herbin Poussière de Lune

I completely fumbled last weekend’s potential for writing, and thus did not manage the Monday deadline for “Curse of the Dragon.” Not a big deal; it won’t go moldy waiting for the next submission window, and I’ll be able to give it the proper post-completion examinations it wouldn’t have gotten had I pushed it through.

This is not quite as silver-lining flavoured as the news of how intact Notre Dame has remained, but it affects me more directly.

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
8 April 9 April 10 April 11 April	Third draft of “Curse of the Dragon”	3409 typed words (and boy, are my arms tired).	Sheaffer Targa Muji Cylindrical Aluminum Pen Parker 65 Pelikan M600	Herbin Poussière de Lune Waterman Florida Blue Diamine Bilberry Lamy black

I… might… make that Monday deadline for this story. Last week’s worries about sufficiency of editing remain strong, though.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
1 April 2 April 3 April 4 April	Second Draft of “Tiger on my Back”. First draft of “Doting Mother Cradles Her Wayward Child” Third draft of “Curse of the Dragon”	2532 words and ready for eyes other than mine. 3 manuscript pages, and also done. 1201 typed words.	Parker 65 Pelikan M600 Waterman Number Seven Sheaffer Targa	Diamine Bilberry Lamy black Jentle blue-black Herbin Poussière de Lune

Wait, third draft? Yeah. I was on the verge of poking “Curse” at some readers when I had an uncomfortable vision of the much better story it could be, once I almost completely re-wrote it. Sigh. What makes this problematic is that the first place I’d like to send it when it’s ready closes submissions in eleven days. This is going to call from some hard graft on my part, and I may have to submit it without the usual safety net of another reader or two point out glaring stupidities.

Uncomfortable thought. You see all the glaring tyops and and double words that show up in this ongoing document; that’s fine (more or less), because I don’t expect anyone to pay me for this stuff. Something I hope to get paid professional rates (cue harp glissando) for should be, if not polished, at least without sharp corners for editors to tear their imaginations on.