Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
27 September 28 September 29 September 30 September	Actual what-the-monkeys?! research for the upcoming story.	Ducks in a row	Pelikan Stola III Pilot Elite 95S Waterman 52 Sheaffer Valiant TD	Pelikan Royal Blue Diamine Bilberry Diamine Evergreen Herbin Poussière de Lune

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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.

Boys Being Boys

I hesitated over the title, because it’s often used to excuse crappy behavior. In this case, it’s just jolly rough and tumble.

I can’t offer the citation, but I have seen it said of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow that all technical excuses for making a bad movie were no longer available (script, acting and direction remain lamentably available). I think we can point to this as a proof of that notion– these guys did not have big studio budget to throw at their effects, and yet… well, just look at it.

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Valiant TD
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
1 February 2 February 3 February 4 February	Third draft of “Hobb’s Landing”. Responding to an acceptance of “Wanting Depth”.	Less than I could have wished. Exultant squealing, recurrent giddiness– the usual.	Parker 180 Wing Sung 601 Pilot Elite 95S (still just a picture) Sheaffer Valiant TD	Herbin Poussière de Lune Pelikan Violet Namiki Blue TWSBI Blue-black

I know I promised a story last week, but I’ve run out of time today. Tomorrow? Possibly?

Also, as usual, details regarding publication will appear closer to the date of (although I understand that it’s mere weeks away!).

 

Fun Guy (after some news)

Oops. I didn’t look in yesterday. Let me first repair the oversight.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
25 January 26 January 27 January 28 January 29 January	Nothing Phone-based game Reading a bit Third draft of “Hobb’s Landing” Updating and foolishness.	As much as I could find. A full damn hour. Some pages. Three New Paragraphs! What you see here.	Pilot Elite 95S (just a picture) PenBBS 487 Wing Sung 601 Parker 180 Sheaffer Valiant TD	Namiki Blue Herbin Lis de Thé Pelikan Violet Herbin Poussière de Lune TWSBI Blue-black

I think I’ve cleared my blockage. Next week will prove that one way or another. There’s a story attached to Monday’s pen, which I’ll try to touch on next week.

And now, because I love weird things that make people question their place in the universe, here’s a common mushroom singing.

This Week’s Pens	Inks	How Much Novel Progress
Pelikan M30 Sheaffer Valiant TD Parker 75 Pilot Vanishing Point	Diamine Evergreen Jentle blue-black Herbin Bleu Nuit Montblanc Royal Blue	3900 words typed (and I do feel good about that, yes)

This Week’s Pens	Inks	How Much Novel Progress
Lamy Safari Waterman 12 Sheaffer Valiant TD Parker 75	Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun Diamine Bilberry Jentle blue-black Herbin Bleu Nuit	1,926 words typed

Yes, it should be more. A long weekend and a trip to the eye doctor conspire against me.

This Week’s Pens	Inks	How Much Novel Progress
Parker 75 Pelikan 120 Sheaffer Valiant TD Lamy Safari	Herbin Bleu Nuit Pelikan Brilliant Brown Jentle blue-black Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun	2,812 words typed

This Week’s Pens	Inks	How Much Novel Progress
Parker Senior Duofold Sheaffer Valiant TD Pelikan M600 Parker 75	Waterman blue (vintage) Jentle blue-black Skrip Black Herbin Bleu Nuit	2,620 words typed (and remembering Monday was idle)

An interesting discovery attends this first week of the new draft.  Received wisdom has it that a page of double-spaced text is roughly 250 words, yes?  Well, the spreadsheet that I’m keeping track of my progress on, which is how I get those spiffy gauges, has a cell which takes the current word count and divides by 250… which does not agree at all with the page count in the word processor.  It turns out that in the accepted Shunn format, well-loved by almost everywhere one submits work to, the words-per-page turns out to be more in the line of 300.

Interesting, but utterly unimportant.  We are concerned with the word count, after all, and not the amount of paper involved.  But interesting all the same.  Received wisdom not quite in accord with facts?  When does that ever happen?