Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
4 April 5 April 6 April 7 April	Faffing about with my projected self-publishing foolishness.	Nothing conclusive, of course.	Pelikan 140 Montblanc 32 Waterman Master PenBBS 487	Herbin Bleu Calanque Montblanc Racing Green Diamine Honey Burst TWSBI Royal Purple

Advertisement

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
28 March 29 March 30 March 31 March	Final draft of “Golden Hour”. A little relaxation.	A final pass for stupid typos, and submitted. 28th was the deadline!. Brain needs rest.	Pelikan M600 Waterman Master Montblanc 32 Sheaffer Imperial Triumph	Diamine Syrah Diamine Honey Burst Montblanc Racing Green Pelikan blue-black

Filthy Peasants!

A useful thing for writers and GMs to consider when they’re world-building– even pre-industrial cultures are extremely complex.

Also, I’m absolutely tickled by the thought that historically-valuable documents with a bearing on events hundreds of years ago were crammed into doors. I’ve found an old newspaper in a 90-year-old house, which is about as close as I can get to the sensation of this kind of discovery in my part of the world.

Today’s pen: Waterman Master
Today’s ink: Diamine Honey Burst

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
6 June 7 June 8 June 9 June	First draft of the “Swimmer’s Build”. For what will end up as a lightly comedic story, I’m happy to take my time on it. I don’t think I’m even half-done, yet. Nope.  Although the real action has now begun.	Six manuscript pages. Eight pages. Seven pages. Six pages.	35 min. 50 min. 45 min. 40 min.	Pelikan P1 Sailor 102 Sheaffer 300 Waterman Master	Herbin Vert Empire Jentle blue-black Skrip black* Waterman Florida Blue **

* given that recent scare with the Quink, I’m doing something about these not-very-old Sheaffer cartridges.  You may see a lamentable number of references to this in the next several weeks.

** OK, this has been going for long enough.  I’m retiring it, even if the cartridge isn’t quite empty.

Raving Looney

Time for a dose of barking mad.  His soundtrack is rather raucous, too, so you might want to turn things down a bit before you hit ‘play’.

The friend who first pointed this guy out also pointed out that he never wears a helmet.  You might also notice the bit where he nearly chops his own arm off in this video.

Today’s Pen: Waterman Master
Today’s ink: Waterman Florida Blue (and if you’ve been paying attention, this combo has been on the go for ages— the Waterman long cartridge has a ton of ink in it!)

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May	Second draft of the Choose Your Own DOOM project. Second draft of “Late Retirement.” First draft of “Inside Voice”. Mundane errands (insert threatening grumble here).	Um… about 1,000 words.* 1,120 typed words, for a total of 2,267. 993 typed words (flash fiction doesn’t get the handwritten treatment). Less than should have been accomplished in the time.	55 min. 55 min. 55 min. 60 min.	Parker 75** Waterman Master Sheaffer Sovereign II Parker Frontier	Quink Black** Waterman Florida Blue Waterman vintage blue Pelikan Violet

This week brought another rejection which encourages– it’s amazing how some kind, non-pro forma words cushion such blows.

* I’m slowly working this into shape thanks to discovery a couple of months ago of Twine as a means of formatting that sort of a story (as with most discoveries, it was there long before I found it).  It’s still a back-burner exercise, the thing I do on weekends (or Victoria Days, as in the instant case) when I have a little free time and I don’t have the current front-burner story at hand.  I also don’t keep careful track of how much gets done at a sitting  At the current pace, and with the estimated 60,000 words the whole thing runs to, I should be done it by 2019.

** 23 May was also my anniversary, so I was treating myself.  I treated my wife to a pleasant sushi restaurant excursion, where we enjoyed raw fish like the freaks we are, and we were both given a subsidiary gift of our son’s willingness to cram salmon nigiri into his head without hesitation.  He’s not not picky, but he’s kind of specific in his pickiness, and we’re quite proud to be the European-descended parents of a kid born only 500km from the geographical centre of North America who took willingly to various sorts of Asian cuisine (and peas!).

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
16 May 17 May 18 May 19 May	First draft of “Suspension of Disbelief.” Third draft work on “Mistake of Timing” and “Poor Old Micheal Finnegan.” Second draft of “Late Retirement.” Ditto	690 typed words, and done. Stuff.  Adjustments. 863 typed words. 684 words, owing to distraction.*	55 min. 55 min. 40 min. 40 min.	Parker Duofold AF Parker Frontier Waterman Master Pelikan P1	Jentle blue-black Pelikan Violet Waterman Florida Blue Herbin Vert Empire

* Bad news, of the deeply inconvenient sort: a bank which lies between that of Regular Job and me, whose job it is to move my pay from one to the other, has had some sort of system error.  Since “paycheque to paycheque” is the marching orders for my household, as it is for so many others, this is a nervous-making development on the leading edge of a long weekend.

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
9 May 10 May 11 May 12 May	First draft of “Late Retirement.” And a fun first draft it’s becoming! Fun, and persistent. Done… but for a satisfactory last sentence or three.  GRRRR!	Eight manuscript pages. Seven pages. Eight pages. Five pages.	55 min. 45 min. 50 min. 55 min.	Pelikan P1 Sheaffer Saratoga Parker Duofold AF Waterman Master	Herbin Vert Empire Quink black Jentle blue-black Waterman Florida Blue

Freude, Without Schaude

For today’s Found Film, a rather interesting visualization of one of my favourite pieces of music.  Because Friday should have tympani.

For some extra joy– a friend of mine has run out a book of his short stories, and it’s cheap on Amazon (unless it’s free!).  Why not give it a try?

Today’s Pen: Waterman Master
Today’s ink: Waterman Florida Blue

Progress Report AND A Recurrence of Brag-Dad

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
25 April 26 April 27 April 28 April	Second draft of “A Mistake of Timing.” Second draft finished. Second draft of “Poor old Michael Finnegan.” So very close to finished!  Arg!	1,052 words typed. Total of 4,779 words. 1,044 words. 909 words.	45 min. 40 min. 45 min. 40 min.	Waterman Master Sheaffer Saratoga Waterman Phileas Pelikan New Classic	Waterman Florida Blue Quink black Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Steel Blue

While I’m here, let me tell you all about something that I’m very pleased with.

Last weekend, while I was going through a drawer in an annex of my pen storage facility (which is to say, a bedside table), my son asked me how many pens I have.  It has been quite some time since he took any interest in such things, and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t have the answer readily to hand.  If I were a petty fellow, I’d ask him to tell me the count of his wooden locomotives and when he came up blank I could have said, “There.  See?”

Since I’m not petty (too often), I made up a number based on a quick mental visualisation of the primary storage facility (the basement office), and then to avoid follow-up questions, I produced from the very drawer I was investigating a pen in a box.  A blue Pelikano Junior.  I told son that this pen had been bought specifically for him.

A moment of silence.  “Really?”

This was a true thing.  I did not remind him of the Griffix set, the pen of which he… neglected, we shall say, throughout 2013 and 2014.  It would have injured the moment.  I then asked if he wanted it brought out and inked.  This was greeted with some enthusiasm, which continued when that suggestion was put into action:

I dare you to tell me he’s not delirious with glee in this picture.

After some initial doodling with the pen, during which he attended to instruction, the pen was carefully placed in a selected location in his room, where it will be safe but accessible.  He hasn’t used it much since, and only for special purposes, but he looks in its direction frequently.

What I’m really proud of, because rendering my son gooney over a possession is a mixed triumph at best (I don’t practice Buddhism particularly well, but I do read it), is the way he holds the pen.  He has not only reached the age of reason, he has reached the age of sufficient manual dexterity:

That, folks, is a nicely relaxed grip of the correct shape, even if the pen is slightly rotated.  The buttons on my vest are under serious pressure.