Fountain pens, notebooks, and other fascinating things.

Dear Reader,

Please don't think I have forgotten about you. The holidays and influenza happened. At the same time. Right now, I'm the only one in the house who is upright and hale. I think they all caught it from me. But the last little while has been hectic and hairy. I have discovered that all of my calligraphy pen nibs are in a mint tin that I almost threw away in the midst of cleaning up the desk area in the living room. This was exciting and happy for me. Until I realized that I had thrown away the calligraphy pen barrels thinking that the pen nibs were gone. Then I found my dip pen nibs. Again, excitement to be dashed by my pen barrels being missing. (I have resolved to go to the art supply store and purchase a new dip pen to use in my sketching for the herbal/beastiary project. Ball point pens just are not working for me here.)

In the midst of holiday cleaning, I have uncovered yet more backstory and other notebooks. Thankfully, this was not all written in pencil therefore it is still legible. I even found some of my artwork that I had made to go with the very first version of the first book. The version that was actually a twenty page word document typed up while I was in seventh grade. Yeah, the artwork was pretty awful. To say the least, that got put into a safe place. I'm KEEPING this stuff because it'll be worth something someday.

Then there was the best holiday present that I have gotten this year. Beloved, seeing how distraught I was over the loss of my favorite fountain pen, bought me a beautiful steel fountain pen. He had it engraved 'My Inspiration'. The note he attached was very romantic. Going through my notebooks with this wonderful pen, I discovered that it does not get on well with cheap paper. Thus, my habit of using pencil in cheap notebooks is going to continue. This is getting used on editing manuscripts and my journal writing. Nothing but the best for this splendid pen.

It is my hope that the holidays have found you with the perfect gift in hand and tons of happiness. Or at least with good health and good cheer.