Friday Fess-Up: The May the Fourth be With You Edition

Happy Friday Y’All!

May the 4th be with you!!

This is going up early because I’ve got today off.

The downside to that is (or, rather, was) I’ve got today off because over Wednesday and Thursday, I put in enough overtime to squeeze three days of work into two.

Man, did I sleep last night.

So we’re here: Another Friday. We made it.

So the first thing I have to fess -up to is that I am seriously being drawn to give fountain pens a try.

I blame Aliette de Bodard

You should check out her books, they’re amazing.

Aliette has been singing the praises of fountain pens on Twitter and posting pictures of some truly cool looking pens and…

And…

I want one. I’ve never used one, so I have no idea if it won’t fall on the wrong side of my pen-snobbery*

and I really don’t need something else to collect.

Really

But there’s something about them. I wonder what they feel like. I wonder at the heft of them, and what they feel like as they travel over the page. If I’m surrounded by absolute silence (which is a rarity, but it happens) can I hear them? I love the sound of a pen traveling across paper…

I confess to having done a bit of research on them and I can get a nice “Gateway” pen for about $20. They are reported to have nice balance and…

No.

No, that way lies madness.

I confess to – maybe – having a thing with collecting pens and paper.

I can quit whenever I want…

And it’s not just the pen** and paper that draws me. It’s the potential.  You take a pen and some blank paper, and you can go anywhere. Even a guy like me with lousy wrists that can’t write longhand for more than 15 minutes without his fingers going numb***can take off to other worlds, see the most amazing things.

Would it make a difference? I already know that I can write with a generic, sells-in-a-box-of-100 ballpoint, but that’s like taking off in a heavy cargo freighter. It’ll get you where u where you want to go, but a high-performance vehicle it aint.

How much of a difference would it make?

What if a Fountain Pen is more like an X-Wing? What if it’s a more elegant device? Not as crude and random as a ballpoint? What if it’s like a Lightsaber?

Only one that you can write with…

Ok, I’d better get off this topic before I do something rash.

If you’re going to be down in the Southfield area this weekend, come on down to Penguicon. I’ll be doing a reading on Saturday Night with Merrie Haskell at 8:00 pm

There’ll be readings all day, so come on down early and fill your ears with awesome!

Be sure to check out the Freebies page for story excerpts and, as soon as I get it, I’ll be posting my Balticon schedule on the Events page.

 

Be sure to stop by Sunday for the next post.

 

 

*I am a total pen snob. I carry my own pens nearly everywhere. My current favorite pen is the Pilot G2. I like either the .7 or 1.0 variety, but I am always on the lookout for something that fits my hand better.

**Well…

***Good luck reading anything after that.