Poems and Piccadilly

So National Poetry Month is over. I didn't complete the Poem-A-Day Challenge, but I did write some poetry and I had some fun doing it. I made a plan for a chant-style poem that mocks both major political parties in the US and tentatively subtitled it "The Death Threat Poem", because it's an equal-opportunity offender (I don't get involved in politics: I shun them). I wrote a cinquain about a lawn tool (prompt #8). I wrote a hopeless poem (prompt #27). And I wrote a handful of other poems that didn't fit the prompts.

I did these in my Piccadilly lined notebook, which I grabbed at Borders for about $5. That I bought a Piccadilly and not a Moleskine is not entirely noteworthy; I've been meaning to try Piccadilly books for a while now. That I bought a lined notebook is noteworthy. I've long been a staunch "unlined only" journaller. But the lines are perfect for poetry and other list-like things. I did my Time Finder in that journal, and made lists of things I had to get done in it as well. My one complaint is the poor quality of the cover. I bought a softcover journal, and it's made of basically cardboard with a faux oilskin sheet pasted to it. It started to split when I tried to tuck my steel pen's clip into it. I can bend the cover back and fold it under, but after doing this a couple dozen times, the black fabric pulls away from the spine, revealing the glued-in bookmark. The bookmark stays put, thankfully, but with the fabric bulged out like that it's not the most attractive book. The bulging makes it a bit harder to handle, too.

All in all, though, the Piccadilly journal is a good buy. The quality in certain places is far outshined by Moleskine, but you can get about three Piccadillys for the price of one Moleskine. I'm less touchy about this notebook getting jammed into my bag and maybe slightly abused (by accident, I assure you) because it is less expensive.

My regular journal, which I've been neglecting for a while, mostly because I do my brain-dumps into my Morning Pages notebook these days, is a plain softcover Moleskine, and is nearly finished. When I reach the end of that book, I have a plain Miquelrius to start. I'm already using a gridded Miquelrius for my role-playing notes, and I like the quality and feel of it. They're a little more expensive than Piccadilly, but they have more pages. A mid-range option, I would say.

Piccadilly and Moleskine are available at most major booksellers such as Borders and Barnes and Noble. So far the only place I can clearly recall seeing Miquelrius is at Dick Blick. Got a journalling preference? Are you picky about your journals or do you grab just any old book and get to work?

Pens And The Reward System

Following on my previous post about pens, I want to talk a little about fountain pens. Specifically really nice fountain pens. There are some blogs and blog commenters out there who've posted to Rhodia and other stationery/pen geek sites about their favourite pens, and I have to be envious of them. Here are people who have not one $30 pen, but several, and even own some of the really expensive (and purportedly high-quality) ones.

I have spent $21 on a pen, once. A few months ago I bought a technical pen from an art store. I like it, but it was basically a birthday gift from a friend, as I used a gift card. Paying more than a few dollars for a pen seems extravagant to me somehow. My next most expensive pen was a Papermate Ph.D. Multi, for which I paid about $8. Lately, as I mentioned, I've been buying inexpensive gel pens.

I've long admired from afar the $30, $40, $50 and up fountain pens I've seen in the case at Staples. I know it's possible to spend hundreds of dollars on a pen, but even these are out of my price range. It's kind of odd: as a writer, one of my primary tools is a pen. Most of my writing is done on the computer these days, but there's no mistaking the value of a good quality, comfortable pen.

So why am I so reluctant to lay out $30 for a nice Lami Safari or the like? Well, it comes primarily from my innate cheapness, but also because, years ago, when I had decided I wanted to publish fiction, that I made an agreement with myself. I said, "Those fountain pens are gorgeous, yes indeed. But very expensive! So. When you've gotten a short story published, as a reward, you can get yourself a nice fountain pen." Said 'nice fountain pen' will likely be a $30 or $40 model, as indicated by the aforementioned innate cheapness. But the reward system has worked for me in the past.

During NaNoWriMo I made little deals with myself throughout the month: reach this word count total by blah day and you can get that (insert thing here) that you've been wanting. Two years ago I bought myself a cheap mp3 player as a reward for finishing successfully. So why not this too?

If I stick to my guns and don't spend $30 on a fountain pen until I publish a short story, it's gonna be a while. Even though I'm now working harder than ever on writing and am researching the whole publishing thing, I anticipate it will be months before I'm anywhere near the point where I can look forward to actually getting my prize.

Don't get me wrong - the accomplishment of getting published will be its own reward! But... fountain peeennnn....



*crickets, followed by hold music*



Oh, sorry. I kind of wandered off there for a minute.

I do have two fountain pens, but they, as one might expect, given my talk of cheapitude, were $3 models ordered through the web, as Staples no longer sells such things. *fistshake* They're fine pens. Simple but functional, and refillable with international cartridges. Which brings me to why I'm not using them often - I'm nearly out of ink. As with the Zebra refills, I've yet to see these cartridges in stores. I'm an in-person, tactile kind of shopper. And I hate paying shipping when I could stop into a store and pick up what I need. I'm my own delivery person, curse you!

I suppose I should look at an expensive fountain pen as an investment. After all, you spend lots of money on things like cars and computers, but you maintain them and refill them. With gas, oil, washer fluid, and more memory or bigger hard drives or whatever. It's just hard to shake off my inner cheapskate.

I'd better get back to work on my story if I want to buy myself a nice pen, hadn't I?

Recycle, reuse, refill

It's recently come to my attention that Zebra makes a refillable gel pen. Several of them, in fact. The Sarasa pen, which sells for a buck or so a pen and looks very much like any other disposable gel pen on the market, is said to be refillable with Zebra's JF-Refill. Zebra also makes the G-301 model, a sleeker, steel-bodied pen. Zebra's JK-Refill is said to fit it. I say 'is said' because I've yet to try refilling either pen.

Some online retailers are claiming the Sarasa is non-refillable. Well, it is if you're not willing to pay shipping that's more than the cost of your refill order.

If there were a greater consumer demand for these items, I think they would become more available. But first some poor slobs, some poor pen freaks, people like me, have to spend $4, $5, $6 on shipping for a bunch of refills, when it would be far more economical, money-wise, to just toss the empty barrels and buy a new pack of pens.

Come on, people/manufacturers/retailers! Give us the option, the affordable option, to refill our cheap little pens instead of piling them up in landfills!