Ken Cavers Curvy Pen - Black and White

Ever since I saw this fountain pen review—Ken Cavers Bamboo Pen—I've wanted a pen made by this artist with a lathe.

The pens are custom made to the specification of the purchaser, and done in Ken Cavers' spare time. So, a waiting list. A long waiting list. So long, he'd decided to not take further orders till the backlog was cleared.

I resigned myself to the wait, until I couldn't anymore. So one day I emailed to ask if he might have resumed taking orders.

He asked what I wanted.

And so the emails went back and forth. I'd thought of the bamboo style, but Ken'd made many of those and I didn't want to ask for yet another. And the curvy design he has is elegant in its simplicity.

We discussed the material and he sent me photographs of the Black and White acrylics he had in stock. We settled on plain black for the barrel and this wonderful black and white swirl for the cap. The man, being the artist he is, suggested the black band for the finial and added an inlay at the base of the pen, using the acrylic from the cap.

The result is superb in its form and simplicity. The curve fits the hand beautifully.

Ken custom ground the broad steel nib to cursive italic which takes and lays ink without any fuss.

Given I'm learning calligraphy I find the line variation with this nib excellent for my stumbling steps in this new, for me, art form.

You'll find better photographs of this pen on Ken's site.

Below is a sample of the nib's performance. I cannot say how happy I am with this pen. It holds a special place in my collection.

San Francisco Fountain Pen Show

So, I went to this show, two weekends ago. San Mateo, actually, rather than San Francisco but the gravitational pull in the area of SF is such that the name fits.

This was my first pen show and, perhaps, my impressions are colored by that.

By nature I am somewhat shy — no, honest! Stop laughing you. I mean it. I really am shy. :-)

I often stand on the outside, looking in. This comes to the fore, particularly, when I'm around groups of people who are already tightly knit.

And pen show persons are a rather tightly knit group. That is not a bad thing in and of itself. But it brings all — or a goodly number of — my insecurities to the fore.

I have quite a collection of pens. I know a reasonable amount about them. But I am hardly any kind of expert. And my handwriting needs work.

The Japanese company, Sailor, was represented. You could sit and try different nibs — and Sailor has a large variety of same. I couldn't. Simply couldn't.

I don't really know enough about how different nibs behave to have, as they say in Ireland, made much of a fist of it.

We are masters of our own limitations, as I once mentioned to a friend.

I did, however, encounter a type I abhor. Over the years I've become used to, not yet inured to, the type. He, and so far I've only encountered the male exemplar of the type, attends shows — technology shows being mostly my experience — for the purpose of impressing on all around him his knowledge, his 'in-ness', his being one of those who knows all the...unimportant minutiae.

And this will be done by monopolizing exhibitors, as many as can be fit in whatever time is available, and demonstrating his greater knowledge and understanding of whatever-it-is — greater than that of the exhibitor, and certainly greater than that of those standing around in awe of this paragon of techno-savvy. Or at least those trying, in vain, to get some of the exhibitor's time for actual enlightenment.

Maybe encountering this type in a different setting, something non-technological in a way, was more unsettling than I expected.

But, even in an area in which I can hold my own — software technology — I still abhor the type.

For a better view on the San Francisco Pen Show you might wish to view this — by Lisa Miyako. I got the link from the Fountain Pen Day facebook page.

Enjoy.

Sailor Koi Supreme

Over time I've written about my love of fountain pens here and how I use them when writing, either in the burst of madness that is the National Novel Writing Month of November or for shorter pieces done at less insane paces.

I while ago I posted the picture to the right on facebook. They are some of my pens - all that fit in the box. There are others, and when I have another display case, I'll have a place to house, and present, them.

They are, from the left:

• Sheaffer Valor Fountain Pen
• Cross Year of the Dragon Special Edition
• Waterman Carène
• Edison Urushi Herald
• Delta Peace Pen Limited Edition
• Visconti Homo Sapiens - Bronze
• Sailor Koi Maki-e with Music nib
• Aurora Optima Marble
• Aurora Optima 75th Anniversary (Red)
• Aurora Europa Limited Edition
• Namiki Pilot Vanishing Point Ice Blue Limited Edition
• Namiki Pilot Vanishing Point Carbonesque Blue

The Edison Urushi Herald I've written about here. The Aurora pens - here. And I wrote about the Delta Peace Pen here - though I'll have to do a more through post on it sometime.

This time, I'm writing about the Sailor Koi Supreme and its Music nib. Once I saw the Koi I knew I was lost. I'm fond of the fish - I must be, I have a pair decorating my left shoulder blade. This pen is a beauty - the Maki-e lacquer technique creates an astonishing work of art, beautifully conformed to the shape and size of the fountain pen.

The artwork is such that the lines used to indicate the water line up when the body of the pen is screwed into the cap.

The pen is quite large, but beautifully light and perfectly balanced. As always, I use it un-posted (an artifact of being European, I learned a few years ago) and the pen glides smoothly over paper, laying down a generous line of ink.

The nib is a 21K gold Music nib. In the hands of someone with far more skill than I, the cut of the Music nib allows for both very thin and very think lines, all without having to vary the pressure as you might with a flex nib. I am not such an artist with a nib, but I nonetheless enjoy how the pen performs.

When I purchased it from Nibs.com I made the mistake of ordering some fine Sailor Blue-Black ink to go with it. A short time with the pen taught me that this one needed a deep and rich black. I contacted the seller, admitting my error and saying I'd order whatever they suggested might do as a good solid black for this pen.

They sent me, free of charge, this most wonderful Aurora ink. Deep velvet black. A perfect pairing for the pen.


As you can see below, the ink is laid down generously and it is very easy to develop a flourish - even if you're not quite the artist with a nib that so many fountain pen users are.

The pen, as art should be, is signed by the artist. Abalone is used in addition to powdered gold and bronze - it can be seen in the eye of the Koi and the bubbles around it.

All in all, a work of art that's a pleasure to use.

Songs of a Wanderer

For the past few days I've been working on a short story, one featuring my wandering "Man of the River People". The first one I wrote in which this character, Thon, appeared can be read at Short-Story.me. It's "A Song of Aine".

I have a thought about a follow on to that one, but it needs to marinate a bit more.

But, he's a wanderer, so there is ample scope for tales to be told. Someday I must find out what set his foot on the road away from the River in the first place.

I wrote a story of his wanderings with the intention of submitting it to Short-Story.me. They have a maximum limit of 2,000 words for the short stories they publish. My tale came out a couple of hundred too long.

So, on to the craft of tale telling. And it's an aspect I enjoy. The paring away, the tightening of the language, of the action. All the while hoping there's still a story left at the end of the day.

It took a few passes and I was able to rid the tale of the clumsiness that sometimes creeps in when you're not looking. Taut as a bow string.

The text editor I was using informed me I had 2,000 words to the story. There's a rightness to that - something about being just on the edge.

Of course, Microsoft Word informed me I had 1,999 words. Sigh.

So, given I believe Short-Story.me use Word (that's their preferred format in which to receive submissions), I added a single word.

Off into the world has gone my "A Song of Danard" - I'm hoping they'll like it and publish it.

We'll see.

In other news, my Year of the Dragon, Special Edition Cross fountain pen arrived today. More on that another day.

The Ninety-Eight Percent Solution

I've participated in the madness that is NaNoWriMo for four years, since I first ran across it in October, 2008. It's always been a blast. The first year, I enjoyed the story I was writing - that, to my shame, I find I am still editing.

In Year Two (2009) I tried something I hadn't tried before - writing from multiple points of view. Three main point-of-view characters, trying to keep them all balanced in my head.

In the third year, I took one of my Goldberg Variation flash stories and expanded it into a novel. It, actually, has the potential to become a series. I knew the ending I wanted to reach, but wasn't sure I have enough novel to get there. I tried something new here also, filling out initial character studies and blocking out the main scenes (at least for the first part of the story). There was always the intent to block out more scenes during the month of November. Didn't happen.

This year, year four, something new occurred. I didn't complete the fifty thousand words in the allotted time. I got close though, 98%. Nine hundred and some words left to write, but not the time in which to write them. As it turns out, the story is huge. There're a lot more than nine hundred words left to write to tell it properly. They will be written, at a slightly more leisurely pace than what went on last night.

This was the scene last night, shortly after midnight. My right wrist was tired, my shoulders stiff and my poor pens were worn out. Given I had to write over 7,000 words in the evening, I decided I wasn't going to stop to refill any pen that ran out of ink. Happily I had enough pens to hand meet the need.

From the top left: a Sheaffer Valor - black and palladium finish, Waterman Carene - black and gold, Aurora Optima - red with gold nib, Pilot Vanishing Point - blue carbonesque finish and the Edison Urushi Herald.

All did sterling work. The vast bulk of the words during the month were written with the Sheaffer. It's been a while since I used it and t'was good to take it out for a run. The others played backup in case I needed it. And last night I did.

So, I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year. Still, getting to 98% of the goal - that's not bad by any measure.

Notebooks, pens and NaNoWriMo

I am late to this.

The above could well be a comment on many things in my life, but let's just go with Scribbles Blog Hop, Noland edition on Tony Noland's Landless site.

Earlier this month, some eight days or so ago, a group got together to blog about their use of pen and paper, notebooks and journals, in their writing process.

Pictures and discussions ensued. And I'm late to the party.

So be it.

I've mentioned on this blog, and in comments on others, that I use a notebook and one of several fountain pens when writing anything larger than flash fiction (and sometimes even then). There are several reasons, chief among them being I get distracted easily. With the entire Internet (or an appreciable part thereof) but a click away, I need to go "old school" to give me a chance to concentrate.

It works.

In addition, I enjoy writing by hand and I get to use those functional works of art, my fountain pens, for their purpose: the capturing of thought.

Battered - Unbowed

My main notebook is a leather notebook case into which I usually slot a 50-page Levenger ruled pad. It has good dense paper, which takes ink well.

On the left of the pages is a wide margin allowing for notes and ideas as they hit me while writing something else.

I was given the beautifully soft leather cover over 10 years ago, and it has aged with use. Exposure to California sun has caused fading. Its surface has recorded the hard knocks that life deals out. Character marks one could call them.

I like them because they show that I'm making use of the gift that was given and, while I do try to take care of my things, daily use leaves its mark on all of us, in one way or another.

Small Notebook

I have a second notebook that I generally carry with me. It's smaller, more suited to capturing the random thought (of which I have many) as it goes by. I recall when at a doctor's surgery a couple of years ago, awaiting the results of an outpatient procedure, I wrote a flash fiction story in the notebook.

I found it useful to divert my attention from what had just occurred, and what might subsequently. The story was published - and nothing untoward occurred resulting from the above-mentioned procedure. Everybody wins!

NaNo in progress

Right now I'm in the middle of my fourth NaNoWriMo effort. As in previous years, I am writing the fifty thousand words by hand. While tackling NaNoWriMo by hand has its virtues, it's not without its challenges. Writer's cramp (not to be confused with "block") is one of them. The issue of getting the first draft computerized is a second.

For that I use Dragon Dictate to get my words into files - adjusting the text along the way. A form of editing that doesn't feel like editing. It's an easy way to get a second draft that cleans up some of the nonsense that spilled out during the thirty days of November.

I am behind in my word count for NaNo 2011, but not egregiously so. Onward.

Edison Urushi Herald

Can you have too many fountain pens? Or, at least, can one say he has enough fountain pens?

I've tried to say "Yes" to both of the above questions. Several times - usually after I find another fountain pen that's just that little bit (or very much in some cases) different.

The Urushi Herald fountain pen, from the Edison Pen Company and the hands of Brian Gray and Ernest Shin, is a case in point. An ebonite pen, coated in many, many layers of lacquer, covered in 23.5K gold power and then further layers of pigmented lacquer.

The process took months of painstaking effort, by hand.

The two men strove for an modern touch with pigments chosen to produce a teal color. However, the vagaries of handcrafted work and the heat and humidity of this Spring and Summer caused the end result to turn out darker than they'd originally hoped for.

The resulting pen has a green cast to the lacquer, with underlying blue visible in some lights. Since the pen did not turn out in the striven-for color, Brian graciously lowered the final price.

The pen is clip less, the first of such that I own - leaving me terrified I'll drop it or let it slide from a pocket. Not a problem were I to leave it at home in a desk drawer - but such pens should be used. My favorite description for fountains is "functional works of art". As such, they should be allowed to fulfill their function.

The Urushi Herald is a limited edition pen. I have a few limited editions - my Aurora Europa (one of who-knows-how-many), my Delta Peace pen (one of 1,994), my powder blue Pilot Vanishing Point (again, no idea of how many). The Urushi Herald is different. It is third of twenty. That's it. That's all.

I opted for the F nib - without further customization, for that would be a waste of the pen crafter's skill. My ability with pen and ink falls far short of the skill required to make use of the more esoteric flavors of nib style.

The nib is wonderful as it moves across the paper. There is a slight resistance which serves to allow the writer remember his place.

The resulting line is not as fine as I've seen with other nibs, but the clarity is all down to the nib, and not the writer.

Given the lacquering that's been applied to this pen, it's recommended that one doesn't "post" the cap. This is not a problem in my case, I'm European. Sometime last year I read that caps are seldom posted in Europe. Who knew? It seems I've been doing it "right" all along - at least in so far as how "right" is defined where I hail from.

As it turns out, I don't post the cap while writing because it changes the center of gravity of a pen for me, leaving it seeming unbalanced.

I've inked the Herald with a Royal Blue from Pelikan. It has a very rich tone to the color and seems to suit this pen very well.

Given, however, the green cast to the entire pen, I may go looking for a deep and rich green that should complement it nicely.

Below is a sample of how the pen writes - using the Pelikan Royal Blue, on a Levenger pad.

Optical character recognition, anyone?

There are, as I've mentioned before, advantages to my habit of writing longer pieces (short stories and novels) by hand. The primary advantage is the lack of distraction.

The Internet is not just a click away when you're writing with a fountain pen on a pad of paper. And I need all the help I can get - *oh, look at the pretty shiny thing!* {sigh}

However, there is a disadvantage. When done with a novel, there are around four full pads of text to, somehow, computerize. Not to worry, where there's a technical problem, there's a technological solution.

And we all know technology won't fail us, yes?

"Yeah, right" I believe is the phrase I'm searching for.

I use a Mac for my writing. Other than for small stuff, I really haven't found the iPad useful for the purpose. And I try not to sweat the small stuff, as they say.

Recently I upgraded to Mac OS Lion. I'm an early adopter, what can I say.

The speech to text software I use to dictate my scribblings...ah well, it's not all that Lion-compatible, is it? There I was, being all "early adopter" and "techie" with my OS Lion and text to speech software. And where did it get me?

Up a gum tree without a paddle - or some such mixed idiom.

I'm actually only three pages short of completing the loading of one of the novels I'm working on. No tragedy. I can type that as easily as dictate it.

Of course, there is the other three pads full of another novel waiting in the wings to be entered. Well, I've enough to be going on with editing the current one. By the time I'm done with that, Dragon Dictate for Mac will have the problem fixed.

Ever hopeful - a requirement when you depend on technology.

Aurora - Italian fountain pens

Don't blame me - I blame Julie - Okami for it. It was she who suggested I post a pen review or two.

I know Julie suggested my Sailor Koi, but I've always been contrary. I decided to begin with the pen that restarted me on my fountain pen kick (a friend of mine called it a fetish - could be painfully true, but I'm not agreeing).

An Aurora Optima, created for an anniversary. A gift, due to this custom in the United States of the bride and groom giving gifts to the bridal party. And he is my brother, and she my sister-in-law, and I was their best man.

It's a beauty of a pen, causing me to fall in love with Aurora pens, and to remember my love of fountain pens. An 18K gold nib, medium tip, delivers ink very smoothly. Like all Aurora Optimas, the filling system only takes bottled ink, a twist mechanism at the base of the pen fills the reservoir. One neat feature, when it seems the ink has run out, twisting the base of the pen forces a reserve of about one page's worth of ink to the nib.

I've found that useful on more than one occasion.

The ink supplied with it is a very dark blue, and is flowing yet.








I have a second Aurora Optima, again a gift. We had made the mistake of looking at the pen counter in the Halls Department Store in the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO one Christmas. I always look there, but far less frequently buy.

But there it was, this beautiful green Aurora Optima. With the light shining on it, it was impossible to ignore.

It did not hurt that the pen had been marked down quite aggressively. What could one do? Well, I for one could walk away - sighing, I will admit.

But not the one who was with me. The pen was snapped up and presented to me as a gift. And this was after the several-years-standing agreement that we had "enough". Christmas gifts were no longer required nor expected.

Unexpected. And quite beautiful. The 14K gold nib delivers a very smooth line, with absolutely no pressure required. Given the pen body is green, with the most marvelous highlights throughout, it seemed only correct to ink it in green.

So, from Levenger's "Slightly Wild" collection of inks (a collection I can't seem to find any longer), "Always Greener". I shall miss it when it's gone - although the world is full of green inks that I can work my way through.

Still, a collection called "Slightly Wild", how could one resist?

The third of the Auroras was also a gift - this time from myself to myself. One of Aurora's "Continents" limited edition fountain pens. Europa, of course. It could not have been otherwise.

The black and grey (yes, I know, it's the British spelling - but it's a Europa pen. I'll be back to the American spelling tomorrow) is beautifully understated. The cap is slightly translucent, you can see the nib rotate as you screw the cap home.

The nib is an 18K gold nib plated with Rhodium. When it first arrived, the fine nib was a little problematic, not as smooth as I expected.

I sent it to John Mottishaw of http://www.nibs.com for some work. The result was beautifully smooth and effortless delivery of ink to the page. A joy to write with.

The pen features a steam engine and an image of European industrialization on the silver band at the base of the cap. At the base of the clip there is an engraving of the European continent. The cap is topped with a blue cabochon.

This pen, like the red Optima, arrived with its own ink bottle. Grey, as is only fitting. I have continued to use that, and will till I exhaust the supply.

Then, I'll have to go hunting a grey that will work well with this beautiful pen.









Here are the three pens - the Limited Edition Europa is slightly larger than the other two.

And, finally, an example of how each of them writes. Please do not judge the quality of the pens by the quality of the penmanship. That would do them a disservice.

Enjoy.

Don't do what I do (or did, anyway)

There are traditions in NaNoWriMo as in many things we humans do. And I'm known as a sucker for traditions - or any form or rite or ritual.

One of the traditions is a "List of things I learned doing NaNo". Tempting as that may be, it has as a basis the assumption that one has learned. That's stretching things in my case.

I'll do with the simpler "post mortem" analysis of how the month of November went. If you look to the right on this blog, you'll get an overview of how things went. On a day-to-day basis - not nearly as well as they might.

I began with some preparation, a few (brief) character studies, a (small) set of scenes and how they would play out. The intent was not to do a full outline of the story, but to get the bones laid down. The meat would come (ever hopeful as I am) during the month.

As it turned out, I never got more than the handful of scenes together. I kept telling myself during the month that I should take the time to create more scene sketches. Didn't happen. The ending of the story came to me about the middle of the month. However, I was quite concerned that I didn't know how to get from where I was to where I could see the story end. For a long time I was uncertain the story had fifty thousand words in it. Again - wrong.

I did add one or two more character sketches as I went along - largely so I could remember their names.

The other pre-NaNo tradition upheld was the buying of some new Levenger writing pads. It would not do to run out before the month end. Given the number I bought, there was no danger of that happening.

I had planned to use my Visconti Homo Sapiens fountain pen for the entire 50,000 words. Not so easily done when the ink runs out before the idea does. In such cases I just grabbed the nearest one with ink, and continued. There are parts of my novel written in a delicate shade of green and others in a rich navy blue. These courtesy of two Aurora Optima fountain pens.

I discovered it is best not to write a huge number of words with a pen where it's not possible to see how much ink has been drawn in at the last filling - or how much is left. The Homo Sapiens is a joy to write with and, even at speed, makes my handwriting look good. But the uncertainty of how much ink remained finally got to me.

I fell back on my excellent black and gold Waterman Carène. A beauty of a pen, and a beauty to write with.

But I let the time get away from me, in a most unforgivable way. The last day was a long-distance sprint. If that description seems to contain a contradiction, so be it. It also describes the eleven thousand plus word day quite well.

However, as can be seen, I made it. It was very difficult to come down from the high the day after. And, why would I want to?

Will write for my supper...

Saturday evening was very pleasant indeed. Good (very) food around a table with our friend, Va.

She is an excellent cook, and an even better storyteller - and they're all real-life stories of her friends, relatives, life. Much fun, laughter, the warmth you get from deep friendship (not to mention well-prepared edibles and chocolate cake).

Garage sales are among the many things Va enjoys and she has a fine eye for beauty. The "old lady's" watch - platinum and diamond encrusted - a very fine buy.

Knowing my fondness (fetish?) for fountain pens, she presented me with two. With the aid of a magnifying glass (the eyes aren't what they used to be) I was able to determine that the black one was an Esterbrook, the green (with a translucent barrel) a Recife.

The Esterbrook dates from the late 1940's and the ink bladder is still supple and holds ink.

You can see, in the photograph, the lever used to load ink. It is a very long time since I made use of such a pen.

I was able to find out from this site:
Esterbrook.net, that the pen is (may be?) a J-series pen, which date from around 1948.

I checked the pen, testing it with water before ink, and it works very well. The pen is slimmer than many of the others I own, but fits well in the hand.

The nib is in excellent condition. This pen was well looked after.

I need to further investigate the Recife. It looks like a "demonstrator" pen, given the translucence of the barrel. But it has no converter, nor reservoir within, so I am not certain what to do regarding inking it. It is possible it can take a Waterman cartridge.

Below is an example of how the Esterbrook writes. It is a pleasure to use.

Many thanks, Va.

Ready? Set! You gotta be kidding me...

And November is just over the hill - a little under half an hour from now (here on the "Left Bank", that is). Thirty days of writing like crazy. Not really so much for those who have been writing constantly every day.

Sigh. I am not among them. Certainly not anything like writing 1,666.6666 recurring words a day. I had also planned that I'd have an outline ready on which to build this year's story. So Kevin, how'd that work out for you?

Well, I've still got about 30 minutes left, OK?

I have something. Not a full outline. Ideas, some scenes, some thoughts on characters, some background.

I used a package, Index Card, on the iPad to get some ideas together. It can export to RTF (no, not RTFM, that's something else entirely) so I'll pick it up in Scrivener on the Mac and create additional structure. It's been exported so I'll get to it. Just as soon as I finish this blog post, honest.

As the month goes by I'll expand on the structure, taking into account where the actual writing has taken the story.

I have the start, some ideas about how things progress and what backstory is needed, and a vague idea of how it ends (the good guys win - what else? Although...not all may survive.)

One thing I hope not to do this year is repeat last year's performance. Writing more than a third of the 50,000 words in the last weekend is not a good idea. This year I'll have to be more disciplined. Oh dear.

I'll be writing on paper with a fountain pen again this year. I have a stack of new pads and my Visconti Homo Sapiens pen. It has a fine nib that writes unlike any fine nib I've ever used. It's a joy to write with.

In other news...I received my revised Assignment 1 back from my novel-writing course instructor. Seems having two beginnings, middles and ends is not a problem. The idea and plot seem sound but work on depth and structure is required. Some of the questions my instructor asked have enabled me to see how I can build up my main character, and antagonist, to get a better-told story. I'm looking forward to how things develop.

One thing my instructor did say - this is the first time she's engaged with a student who had an entire first draft of the story already under his belt.

Let's see where this takes us.

To all who are engaging in the craziness that is National Novel Writing Month - Andiamo!

The bones of the world...

...or of story, at least.

I am, or have been, what some call a "pantser". Not "chancer" - although I have been called that also (and probably accurately at that) but "one who writes by the seat of his/her (his in this case) pants".

This is as opposed to those who plan, outline, stories prior to writing. There's a line from the book, and the film, "Starting Out in the Evening" by Brian Morton, that goes "I follow my characters around until they do something interesting."

And so it is. Certainly I've approached any short fiction I have written this way. I may have an idea for a character, possibly an idea for a situation, and - sometimes - an idea of the ending. But mainly I like to be surprised where "things" go.

The two first drafts I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2008 and 2009 were also approached this way. And I was surprised by some things the characters did and both drafts did get to where I had an idea they would reach.

However, it strikes me that this approach may not be enough. In truth, my opinion is that ONE way is seldom if ever sufficient.

I've read a number (nine?) of novels by Peter F. Hamilton. The most recent five are a story told over two novels and another story, in the same universe but set 1,000 years later, told over three novels.

The books are "Pandora's Star", "Judas Unchained" and the three books in the "Void" series ("The Dreaming Void", "The Temporal Void" and "The Evolutionary Void").

They are all densely plotted with a myriad of characters, ranging across many planets and a variety of species. Hamilton even has time to deal with the practical implications for society of functional immortality.

Multiple viewpoints, interleaved and interlocking stories, and a grand narrative going on beneath leading to a satisfying conclusion.

This was not done by the seat of Hamilton's pants. I don't know this, of course, but it's a fairly safe bet.

I don't know how to do this. How to create the architecture for such a story. But it is a wonder to behold and a joy to read.

I'm all about the "intuitive". I play chess that way - meaning I lose more often than I win. Though I remember one particular win...such joy. (I was asked, "But, what if THIS has happened THERE?" I had no answer - because "this" wasn't going to happen "there". It simply wasn't - and didn't.)

I have an intuitive grasp of computer programming and software architecture, and sometimes have to backtrack from my solution to explain "how" I got there to others. Of course, that isn't "how" I got there. But it is how someone else might.

And so with writing. Except, for something as wide-ranging and limitless as a novel...some architecture, some "bones" need to be in place. Certainly if I want to tell any large-scale story.

So I need to come up with an intuitive approach to story architecture, something free-flowing but that results in a structure that can bear weight. I'm going to tackle NaNoWriMo 2010 this way. As always, these things are a work in progress. We'll see what happens.

On an entirely different subject (yeah, intuitive with a grasshopper mind - and I want structure??)

My Aurora Europa came back from having the nib re-ground and the ink flow increased. The pen had been problematic since I bought it. Now, it just glides over paper.

Gorgeous.

I need a 45-day November

The end of the beginning. No, in truth, not even that. Yes, I "Won!" - where winning is defined as meeting a goal you've set yourself. You and hundreds of thousands of other people, that is.


The goal of fifty thousand words (or more) written during the thirty days of November (or less). I know, that "or less" should have been "or fewer" - but, then the balance of the sentence would be off. Rules? Meh!


Last year, when I did this, I arrived at the end of fifty thousand words, just a little over, and also arrived at a reasonable end to the story I had been writing. How tidy.


This time, as they say - not so much.


There are, easily, another twenty thousand words or so to find before the story is brought to something approaching a finishing point. And probably another story after that to bring the whole saga to a satisfying close.


And I am fried. My own fault, really. It seems I wrote over twenty-four thousand of those words across the long weekend we just had (and last night). Bad KjM.


Next November, yes gentle reader, I intend doing this again next November, I will have to come up with a better plan. The final sprint to the finish, while effective, is not reasonable (even in the context of the unreasonable-ness of the entire project).


Still. I did manage to get over fifty and a half thousand words of this story down on paper, however I achieved it. I am, as I was last year, as pleased with myself as "a cat with two tails".


The above "on paper" was not a linguistic throwback to earlier times. I am the throwback. I wrote the story, on paper, with a fountain pen - two actually. I ran out of cartridges for the first one, before I ran out of words, and time.

I find it satisfying, and freeing from distraction. And I love the fountain pens I have received as gifts from loved ones. They are functional works of art - and I love making use of them to tell tales.


To all and any who embarked on the NaNoWriMo challenge this year, with whom I contributed to the, more than, two billion words written in the month, a heartfelt congratulations for taking on such a wonderfully mad endeavor. The world needs such madness.


It has altogether too much of the other kinds.

The Care and Feeding of Fountain Pens

Convenience is something at the heart of many efforts in this modern world of ours. I invoke it myself - for example in the convenience of carting around over 100 books on my Kindle. I'm never short of something to read.

Convenient, no?

Wireless networks - yes, the plural is needed, don't ask - running around the house because the printers - I know, another plural - need to be accessible by any of the computers - sigh - so no wires make things convenient.

Let's not talk about the wireless repeaters for remotes, nor wireless headphones either.

Modern technology makes many things convenient. In theory giving back time which we can put to good use. Or waste in an enjoyable and creative way.

In the midst of all this convenience is my fountain pen collection. Not actually in the midst, more standing apart from it. Were I to wish convenience I should have ballpoint pens, or rollerballs if I preferred a more "ink like" experience.

Fountain pens are not convenient. They run out of ink more frequently than the above-mentioned types of pens. Their nibs are more fragile. They need to be cleaned with some regularity or their ink delivery mechanism gets blocked.

But they are beautiful. They are functional works of art. They are personal, they actually shape themselves to your handwriting. The ritual of cleaning, inking, caring for them, has an appeal all of its own.

They. Slow. Me. Down.

And that, in the final analysis, is the best thing they do.

Raw silk and gadgets

This happens everywhere I work. It must be something to do with the places I go, no?

Because of a space reorganization where I work I have moved to a different location. Gone, I'm afraid, is my view of the Santa Cruz mountains. I had the best seat in the house.

And this for a mere contractor.

A number of people have stopped by my new digs with the complaint: "How will I know all the new gadgets that are out there now you've moved?"

Gadget king it would seem.

Something to do with the iPhone ("I knew you'd have a power adapter, you have everything!"), the MacBook Air ("Do you just by everything Apple makes, no matter what the cost?"), the e-Book readers ("Of course you have a Kindle, but a Sony too?), now the MacBook ("Have you seen the new 17" one? Are you going to get one?") that have been seen in my possession over the year.

No one seems to take quite as much notice of the, seriously non-High Tech, fountain pens I usually have with me. Well, not High Tech, apart from the Namiki Pilot Vanishing Point.

It's always been thus, and I cannot really blame them. I'm a gadget nut, always have been, likely to always be.

And the raw silk? Well, it was cold that day and a short sleeved shirt wasn't going to cut it. And I have this gorgeous raw silk shirt that just needed an outing. And I do love silk.

Someone took a look at me and said "Raw silk and gadgets." I suspect she summed me up quite well.

Insanity - thy name is NaNoWriMo

Well, it's official. I've finally lost it.

I signed up for the 10th National Novel Writing Month. By the end of November 2008 the goal is to have a 50,000 word novel written. Well, the first draft of same anyway.

Last year over 100,000 people signed up to do so. This year I can only imagine there will be even more. There are people who have done this several, nay many, years in a row.

Winners, those reaching the finish line with 50,000 words (or more) under their belt, receive - a great sense of satisfaction.

Just to be difficult, but of course, I will write this novel the old-fashioned way - with a fountain pen (a Black and Gold Waterman Carène to be exact) which was a birthday gift from my Love some years ago. The reason for writing the novel by hand is easy. I am supremely distractible - and the Internet is never more than a click away on a computer.

So, pen and ink it is - on fine pads of paper.

See you December 1st.

Sometimes the sword wins a round or two

People at work, and more than at work if the truth be told, know me as a gadgeteer (if you will permit the word). iPhone, a MacBook Air, electronic readers, an early user of a Blackberry - before it was even a phone.

So, it is amusing to them to discover that I write with a fountain pen. Fountain pens, actually. I tend to have three with me at work.

Three? Why more than one, I was asked. I demonstrated how the two I had with me in a meeting had different colored inks. But why three? Because the desktop pen case I have holds three - the best answer I have I'm afraid.

I blame my brother.

My sister-in-law and he gave me a fountain pen as a gift. I was best man at their wedding and such is the American custom. That was one. I now have twelve (some of them further gifts I might add - but others I have added to my collection myself).

It can happen. I know a few collectors of fountain pens. It's a bug that bites deep.

Some of mine are wonderful work-a-day pens. Others? Others are functional works of art. I like the beauty, the way they slow me down when writing, the ritual of taking care of them, of inking them.

But, as my beloved has told me, I am enamored of rite and ritual.

My most recent pen is rather special. A limited edition. It commemorates an Italian Journalist, Ilaria Alpi - about whom I knew nothing but know a little now. The pen was created to commemorate her death - in 1994. Only 1,994 of the version I now own were manufactured. The pen is known as the Delta "Peace". It is beautiful, without doubt.

And I like the associations it has. Now, there is an occupation that has the promise of benefit to society. And, as was the case here, far more risk than my own.