12-21

New ink, because I am a Rohrer & Klingner maniac. And my first ever eyedropper pen, and Opus 88 Jazz Holiday with a broad nib.

Listening to Primordial's album Redemption at the Puritan's Hand.

12-15

Inking up with more Rohrer & Klingner today.

My current collection of swatches. I originally thought it would just be cute to have swatches, but I actually use them every day, or at least every time I ink up a pen. It’s incredibly handy to be able to see how all my inks look on paper. This is what I look at when I’m picking an ink to use.

Listening to Priest's album Body Machine.

12-14

Inking up with a lot of blues lately.

Speaking of, here’s a new ink (to me). I’m wild about Rohrer & Klingner. They’re probably my favorite ink brand, along with Robert Oster and Birmingham Pen Company.

Listening to Avantasia's album The Metal Opera Part One.

12-13

First big snow of the year. I would like a trophy for working on my deadline instead of curling up under a blanket with the cats and reading.

I took a picture of my current ink collection and figured I’d share it here. My hot ink display tip is to use nail polish shelves. They’re absolutely the perfect size. I definitely need more - I am such an ink fiend.

Listening to Elvenking’s album The Winter Wake.

12-12

Well, winter is definitely here. And it’s definitely writing and reading weather. Inking up my Kaweco Liliput (broad nib) with De Atramentis Fog Grey, which looks like a good wintry ink.

Bonus cat picture, in which Lula Fortune desperately tries to get me to stop working on this book.

Listening to Katatonia's album City Burials.

12-9

Inked up with Birmingham Ink’s Shortleaf Pine today. I absolutely love this brand of ink. High shading inks are my favorite, and just about all of their inks shade really beautifully.

Since I’m in drafting mode, I’ve been using a lot of my Jinhao X750 (frosted black, medium nib), which is the pen that I use for the most ridiculous purpose. One of the biggest reasons I got into fountain pens is that they are much, much easier on your hands/wrists, which is clutch for me, a writer who constantly writes longhand. When I’m drafting, I go through all my research, crossing out the pieces of information I’ve already woven into the book. With a stack of notebooks full of research, that’s a lot of crossing out. It made sense to find a fountain pen to use, instead of tiring my hand out with a ballpoint. Plus, I’m always looking for an excuse to get a new pen. The Jinhao X750s are pretty cheap (for fountain pens) at about 9 bucks a pop, so it seemed like the perfect fit. And so far, it is! It looks like a much more expensive pen, and I usually fill it with ink that I’m trying to get rid of. So, behold my Crossing Things Out Pen.

Listening to Burning Witches’ album The Witch of the North.

12-8-22

I truly hate the cold, but the mountain has been looking wicked good lately. We’re up in the mountains near Los Angeles, and despite being in Southern California, it gets cold as hell in the winter. I’ve been spending most of my time in my office lately as I crank away on this deadline, so this is really the only view I’ve been enjoying.

Even though I’m in the drafting phase of book number 4 (adult nonfiction, history), I still end up using a lot of ink and paper as I go through my research notebooks (7 for this book) and make notes. I write so much that I keep at least 3-5 pens inked up at all times and I end up changing out my inks almost every day. I always use broad nibs, which means that I’m just an absolute ink-draining monster. Today, I filled 3 pens with these.

Rohrer and Klingner Alt-Bordeaux, Monteverde Moonstone, Diamine Earl Grey.

Definitely feeling a wintery color palette this week.

Listening to Tuatha de Danann’s album Trova di Danú.