SPOOKY TIME STARTS!

Yes, I am trying to distract myself from:

1. Noticing the passing of summer;
2. Thinking too hard about my province’s Florida-inspired, Texas-spiced COVID response;
3. The start of my roof.

I have a call out for estimates on the latter, and I’m sure it will be terrifying.

So, let’s start off with some mild chills:

For those with more time to spare and a willingness to wait through a slow build-up, here’s one of my favourite Clark Ashton Smith stories, produced by the wonderful voice of Ian Gordon:

Today’s pen: Parker 75
Today’s ink: Herbin Vert de Gris

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Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
20 September 21 September 22 September 23 September	Video conference for the Sask. Writer’s Guild Re-reading “The Lurking Fear” to make notes for a story I mean to write. Shopping to replace broken junk in the household…	Friendly gabble achieved. Finally done. …because it can’t wait for the weekend.	Sheaffer Valiant TD Pelikan M600 Pilot Elite 95S Parker 75	Herbin Poussière de Lune Pelikan blue-black Diamine Bilberry Herbin Vert de Gris

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
13 September 14 September 15 September 16 September	Re-reading “The Lurking Fear” to make notes for a story I mean to write. Also trying to get some updating done on my website.†	Nearly done, and getting some useful new insights. Part of a page.	Parker 75 Waterman 52 Sheaffer Valiant TD Pilot Elite 95S	Herbin Vert de Gris Diamine Evergreen Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Bilberry

†”Trying” faces more than usual hurdles:

The host is being pestered. If you have a pressing pen question, my slow frequency of updates means that this Wayback Machine capture from January isn’t missing too much.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
6 September 7 September 8 September 9 September	Not working on the fake-out version of Labor Day. Re-reading “The Lurking Fear” to make notes for a story I mean to write.	Plenty of nothing (comrades). About half of it	TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR Pelikan M600 Pilot Elite 95S Parker 75	TWSBI Royal Purple Pelikan blue-black Diamine Bilberry Herbin Vert de Gris

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
30 November 1 December 2 December 3 December	Second draft of “Hobb’s Landing”. Getting some of the power attendant to my new place as a director for the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guide made available. Flogging the thing below.	But not a lot because… Banks, man– too much. All over the place	TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR TWSBI Vac 700 Parker 51 Pilot Vanishing Point	Herbin Stormy Grey TWSBI Blue-black Montblanc Racing Green Namiki Blue

SO, the big news for this week, which I lift entire from my other enterprise:

I’ll mention that the image on the cover… does not represent my contribution, I will say… although “Wilden Klausen” does involve wearing a costume for a seasonal tradition.

I should also mention that the profits for this collection are going to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which given the situation of the world over the last… dozen or two months, at least… seems like a service which could definitely use some funding. Since I’m not in the US, I will mention for those who wish to give directly that there is a Canadian version of the same thing.

Here is a link to pre-order; it will be released on 20 December. 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
23 November 24 November 25 November 26 November	Edits for “Palmer’s Folly” Second draft of “Hobb’s Landing”.	Appearing in NewMyths.com on 15 December (!!!)† STILL, MORE, AGAIN, yes.	Parker 51 Pilot Vanishing Point Pelikan M600 TWSBI Vac 700	Montblanc Racing Green Namiki Blue Krishna Pakeezah TWSBI Blue-black

† Rest assured that I will be slathering links around the place when the next issue goes live. Yes, another story of mine is getting publication. It actually sold quite some time ago, but I thought it best to keep it sub rosa it was about to come to full ripeness.

And I nearly stuck with that, too.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
16 November 17 November 18 November 19 November	Second draft of “Hobb’s Landing”.	Um…†	TWSBI Vac 700 Pelikan M600 Parker 75 Sheaffer Taranis	TWSBI Blue-black Krishna Pakeezah Edelstein Olivine Herbin Violette Pensée

† This is a tricky question, given that I’m usually changing from hand-written to compu-typed in the second draft, but this time it’s all the latter. This means that I wasn’t keeping track of the amount of change happening, and since it’s add-remove-replace-add-move the quantitative difference from beginning to end it almost meaningless.

But I got some work done, for a change.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
9 November 10 November 11 November 12 November	Preparing and launching submissions. Contemplation of sacrifice and the wretched yet often unavoidable foolishness of armed conflict. Background work on my site.	With negative returns, another couple. In keeping with the day.	Parker 75 Pelikan M600 Pilot Vanishing Point Sheaffer Taranis	Edelstein Olivine Krishna Pakeezah Namiki Blue Herbin Violette Pensée

I had thought to get some writing done yesterday, but I put all my creative into getting pictures of pens and ink bottles all prettied up for the site, of which the only visible effect is the functional link to Namiki inks above.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
2 November 3 November 4 November 5 November	Yet more damnable trivia Preparing and launching submissions	Heaps. Three of them.	Pelikan P1 Sheaffer Valiant Tuckaway Parker 75 TWSBI Classic	Diamine Bilberry Diamine Evergreen Edelstein Olivine Jentle blue-black

 

Why, yes, I am slightly concerned that this is that Writers’ Block we hear so much about. But it’s also just as likely to be a confluence of stress of personal and international sorts, and since the US election seems to be going both in a hopeful direction and without open insurrection, easier breathing should be just on the horizon.

BOO! Did I Scare You?

If you’re roughly my age and Canadian, you probably remember Count Floyd from SCTV. If you don’t, you’re on the internet, you’ll find a video soon enough.

I think I’ve mentioned I’ve been busy at work. Yesterday was ridiculous. Thus, here I am, watching the sun set on Hallowe’en itself, the night promising to bring nothing but wind to our door, setting up what should have been yesterday’s bumper crop of scares.

But I image you’re all sitting at home in semi- or quasi-lockdown, too.

Yesterday’s pen, from beyond the grave!… well… on-deck box: Parker 75
Yesterday’s really spooky ink: Edelstein Olivine