Cyclops

My shipment arrived today. I'll be inking the Metro with the 54th and finish my Roanoke Effect manuscript. I'll probably also get some Air-Corp Blue/Black instead of the Green/Black I had mentioned before.

Yes, I do. And hopefully I'll like the dark red of Oxblood, too. If I like that well enough, I might get some red/black. Writer's Blood is too close to Oxblood, IMO, to justify getting any of that. Someday soon I'm going to spring for a leather-bound journal with deckle edge paper. That's what I'm going to start my "great American novel" in. And I'll also use a different color ink for each different writing session (hopefully). My plan is to use four or five different inks for that one. Also, does anyone have any experience with Noodler's X-Feather or Heart of Darkness? If so, how dark are they? I thought the Bulletproof Eel Black was going to be darker than it is.

I got the smaller size Wild Strawberry because I don't think I'll be using it nearly as much as the other colors, since it'll be my editing ink. When I began using FPs for the first time, my initial plan was to borrow a page from Neil Gaiman's book, and use two different colors for my manuscript. He does that, switching out each day, to see how much or how little progress he makes during each writing session. I thought it was a great idea. So I wanted to try that. The only problem with that plan was that my Noodler's Bulletproof Eel Black is the only bottle of ink I have. Everything else is a 2ml sample right now. So I've amended my plan for now to use a different color for each manuscript. So far. "The Roanoke Effect" actually started out as ballpoint on narrow lined notebook paper, then a switch to FP in Robert Oster "Thunderstorm". My sample of that ran out, so I switched to the Bulletproof Eel. Now the first draft is almost finished, and I'll be switching to Noodler's 54th Massachusetts to finish. It is very close to the Thunderstorm. "Shadows from the Timber" is in Auroa Borealis, and "Now and Then" I started in Noodler's Air-Corp Blue/Black. I wanted to see how that paired with Thunderstorm, but there's a lot of green in it. So I'll be buying a bottle of Air-Corp Blue/Black in the future, as what I have now is a 2ml sample. I need a new income stream to support my habit. Apologies for being so long-winded.

The pen is supposed to be here tomorrow Monday, the 22nd), and it's part of the Retro Pop collection, in grey houndstooth with Medium nib. I'm hoping the M won't be too big for me. I tend to write fairly small. Wide lined paper is a waste for me.

I accidentally ordered two bottles of Diamine's Oxblood, two different sizes. The smaller 30ml bottle will be going back in exchange for a 30ml bottle of Diamine green/black. That's what happens when I don't pay enough attention. The other colors I'll be getting are Noodler's 54th Massachusetts, Diamine Aurora Borealis, Montverde Horizon Blue, and Diamine's Wild Strawberry for doing my edits on my handwritten manuscripts. I'll be inking my new Pilot Metropolitan with the 54th first so I can finish out the story I'm working on now. The PM is coming in the same shipment as the inks. My next purchase may be the 5-piece fountain pen sampler for JetPens.

Now I've added Monteverde's Horizon Blue to my wishlist. I need a better income stream.

Now I might go with Monteverde's DC Supershow Blue. Wow, decisions, decisions!

I'll be getting at least 4 more inks, but only after I'm no longer broke. I'm writing three new books, first draft by hand, and I'm doing them in 3 different colors: Robert Oster Thunderstorm (why I may trade out with Noodler's 54th Massachusetts), Diamine's Aurora Borealis, and I can't decide between Baystate Blue or Liberty's Elysium, both by Noodler's. And then a bright red for editing. I'll be getting a bunch of other inks in the future, but these will do for now. I only had samples of the Thunderstorm and Aurora Borealis, and I'm out. I need more.

Very nice

Nice. What pen did you ink it with?

I still have a small amount of an ink I like in a sample vial, but without any ink syringes, I can't get the last of it with just the cartridge converter. It is a major pain. And I happen to be broke at the moment.

My Jinhao is a fountain pen. That's what I can write with longer. And I'm a lefty, and my Fine nib works just fine for me. Especially since I'm training myself to be an underwriter. Plus I angle my paper a bit clockwise, and my writing actually angles back to the left. Looks strange, since I'm used to it leaning right all these years with my side- and overwriting. But I really enjoy using my FPs. I have several others on various wish lists, waiting for the dollars to buy them. Apologies for any misunderstanding about my fountain pens.

I'm wanting to get a Safari (or two) soon. I have some Noodler's Bulletproof Eel black myself. After the Gullor blue cartridge is empty, I'll fill the converter and go from there. As for being better than ballpoints or gel pens, I've found that I can write for longer periods of time with my Jinhao than a ballpoint. And as a writer, that's kind of important. Especially with my hands getting a bit more arthritic.

That's a beautiful pen, but it just a bit out of my league at the moment. My book sales would have to take a very quick and very sharp upward turn, and then maintain that upward trajectory, before I could afford something like that. I'm hoping to someday soon order myself a Lamy Safari in Fine nib. But until, or more likely unless, that happens, I'll have to stick with my Jinhao pens. It's definitely a piece of eye candy though.

Nice looking pen, unique even, but that is waaaaay out of my league right now. And for the foreseeable future. Someday though, I'll be able to afford better than what I've got now. After I become rich and famous with bazillions of copies of my stuff in print (yeah, right).

Thank you :-)

I used a couple of sheets of Georgia-Pacific 20lb paper to try the pens on. It fared pretty well. I used the Gullor ink cartridges, as I'm still waiting for the rest. But there was no feathering, no bleeding, and a little ghosting. But in order to use that paper (or any copy paper, for that matter), I'll have to add solid or dot lines because I could't write straight on blank paper if my life depended on it. But it's no biggie; I'll just put light grey lines on it and go from there. And thank you for the warm welcome.

I just recently received my first fountain pens. A set of four from Jinhao. Ink I had to order separately, and is supposed to start arriving tomorrow. Actually today, since I'm writing this after midnight. I, too, am a lefty, and in all the reading I've done on the subject of FPs, I ordered pens with Fine nibs. I'm too poor to buy any of those fancy notebooks right now, so I am going to try some HP Premium32 paper. I've read good things about it, as far as fountain pens are concerned. I somehow came across an article about writers doing their first drafts by hand. I can't even remember what it was I was looking for when I started reading about writers actually writing. As a writer myself, I decided to try it. I like it. The book I'm working on now is being written with a twelve-cent ballpoint, but I'll be switching to one of my FPs for another after that. One of the ink orders I made from Goulet is their "Surprise Me" eight-pack sampler. I'll find out what colors they are when they get here. The pens and some other inks I got from Amazon. A bottle of Noodler's bulletproof EEL Black, and a package of International Standard cartridges in seven different colors. My wife might end up hiding my pens just to get me to stop writing with them and being anti-social. So we'll see how everything goes once my ink gets here. Sorry for such a long maiden voyage post.