Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
7 March 8 March 9 March 10 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	1023 typed words.	PenBBS 487 Pilot Short Waterman Master Moonman M2	TWSBI Royal Purple Private Reserve Supershow Blue Diamine Honey Burst Diamine Writer’s Blood

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Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
28 February 1 March 2 March 3 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	520 typed words.†	PenBBS 487 Pelikan P1 Moonman M2 Sheaffer Sovereign II	TWSBI Royal Purple Pelikan blue-black Diamine Writer’s Blood Herbin Lie de Thè

† This would be bigger, except for some ridiculous demands from The Regular Job and the unwelcome return of migraine to my life, after a long absence.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
21 February 22 February 23 February 24 February	First draft of “Golden Hour”. Buying some groceries and mentally preparing for second draft.	Five manuscript pages. About $24 worth.	Parker 45 Sheaffer Sovereign II Pelikan P1 PenBBS 487	Montblanc Royal Blue Herbin Lie de Thè Pelikan blue-black TWSBI Royal Purple

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
14 February 15 February 16 February 17 February	First draft of “Golden Hour”.	Seven and a half manuscript pages.	Pelikan P1 Moonman M2 PenBBS 487 Sheaffer Sovereign II	Pelikan blue-black Diamine Writer’s Blood TWSBI Royal Purple Herbin Lie de Thè

Just Desserts

I’m actually going to do a content warning today. There’s a touch of domestic violence in today’s film, which the extreme stylization of the characters seems to make more shocking rather than less.

It does, however, have something I often like to find in scary things; spectral justice.

As the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served on a bed of carmelized onions.

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Sovereign II
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
28 September 29 September 30 September 1 October	First draft of “Hobb’s Landing”.	about 750 words typed; I didn’t attend properly to where the week started.	OMAS Arte Italiana Parker 50 Sheaffer Sovereign II Wing Sung 601	Edelstein Olivine Quink Black Herbin Poussière de Lune Herbin Bleu Calanque

 

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
21 September 22 September 23 September 24 September	First draft of “Hobb’s Landing”.	239 words added, plus a lot of the chop and change nonsense I usually avoid by hand-writing the first draft.	Sheaffer Sovereign II Conklin Cresent Filler Pelikan P1 Wing Sung 601	Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Oxford Blue Diamine Bilberry Herbin Bleu Calanque

 

Case of the Mysterious Spoon Thief

I hope everyone is having a happy Fountain Pen Day. First Friday in November, right? A big event, for people like me.

It kind of snuck up on me. I’ve been at my silly Inktober exercise (which I have decided in an act of vicious ret-conning is an excuse to not participate in NaNoWriMo), but when I realized what today was, my reaction was something like this:

I should get something really splendid out and fill it up. But… I’d have to look back in the blog and see what I had used. And then go all the way down a single flight of stairs to get it out of storage. God, and then it would join all those others that need cleaning. Poo. Too much effort. Let’s just go with this not-yet-empty thing.

Which is slightly alarming, coming from me. Well, it turns out that an inclination to depression which I’ve been nuturing since… oh, about 1992… has finally borne fruit.

You’ve heard the spoon metaphor, I imagine– a person with a fatiguing disability has a set number of spoons to dig through the day’s activities, and once those spoons are used up, that’s it for the day’s activities, regardless of whether they’re onerous or delightful (go to movie with friend and clean toilet are equal demands upon the spoon drawer; indeed, the former may be a two-spoon affair). Well, I have come to realize that someone has been making off with my spoons, and it’s finally at a point where I need to get some outside assistance with it.

I suspect my recent decision to pull back from repairs is also founded in this development. If I’d realized it at the time, I’d probably be happier (ho ho, a joke about depression!) now.

But, realization has dawned at last, and calls are being made. I am lucky, in that I live in Canada and have an employer who has some resources to throw at this kind of problem, so all it took was noticing there was a problem… and then carefully building one extra spoon out paper clips and tape to actually act upon the realization. Because I actually knew I should be doing something about a week ago, but figuring out what that something was required, oh, poo, it’s too much effort and so on.

Anyway. Here we are. Not yet, quite, getting help, but listening to the mechanism for getting help running its motor up. And that in itself is helping.

For those who are right now wondering how many spoons I’ve squandered on this little screed, never mind the whole enormous pile of stories over the past month— it turns out that, at least in my case, writing is no more than tiny souvenir teaspoons of effort. Perhaps it even uses forks instead. I could to a lot of this and not affect the useful spoon count. Another thing I’m grateful for.

Today’s pen, which is very nice and a perfectly adequate Fountain Pen Day observance: Sheaffer Sovereign II
Today’s ink, the maker of which claims to be an avatar of Fountain Pen-ness, so of course it’s right for the day: Montblanc Royal Blue

PS – I suggested yesterday that this would be the usual progess report. Well, I decided to do this instead. That’s not a metaphorical spoons thing, that’s just a question of available time.

The Light Grows Dim

That’s a rather grim title.

Well, of course, because Hallowe’en is slowly winding us in its coils, preparing to give us all a big thematic hug! HOORAH!

It is, too, the time of year when a lot of creatures start looking for places to stay warm, so be careful what you turn over when you’re out raking the leaves…

In fact, I try to leave the leaves alone entirely. It’s how you get a bonanza of ladybugs in the spring!

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Sovereign II
Today’s ink: Montblanc Royal Blue

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
30 September 1 October 2 October 3 October	Stuff over on the other site	Three stories… so far.	Pelikan 140 Pelikan New Classic Pelikan M600 Sheaffer Sovereign II	Jentle blue-black Diamine Bilberry Diamine Evergreen Montblanc Royal Blue

As I explain over there, I’m squandering my writing time this month on a misappropriation of Inktober– the eagle-eyed here will have seen the notices advancing down the left-hand sidebar. Daily stories, all month long! EVEN WEEKENDS!

And I got so busy at that, I am rather late posting this.