[Pen/Pencil Review] Dallas Pen Show, FenCon, & Recovery
It’s Pen Post Monday and a full week past FenCon. Time to get all the stuff back on track. Which is more difficult when the dogs are simply extruding “Nap Vibes”…and I had some FenCon close out stuff to do – and laundry (there’s always laundry). Ah, the glamorous life of a writer/blogger…
I managed to make it to the Dallas Pen Show for a teensy amount of time. Just long enough to renew our subscription to Pen World Magazine – one of my all-time favorite magazines. Love this thing. I call it “pen porn”, because I always INTEND to read the articles. Though this issue I actually did because it had an article about Harlan Ellison and his collection. This just goes to show that no matter what thing you might be into – you are not alone. In fact, many writers have pen collections. Who knew?
I checked in with the fine folks from Paradise Pen Company. I’ve come up with a plan to finally add a Pilot Vanishing Point to my collection (I’ve only been wanting one for YEARS) and it looks like I’ll have the means put together in time for my Birthday Pilgrimage in February during ConDFW. Yay! Seriously, I’ve been wanting one of these for SO LONG – and haven’t justified the (not completely outrageous) price point until I managed to get the numbers to align. So THAT’s coming.
The fun bit, I was telling my pen buddy, Tim Black, about Brandon Lee (Modern Chocolatiers) and Ryan Krusac – who makes the most gorgeous hand-crafted fountain pens in a wide array of materials and themes. He’s got a Kraken pen that is just awesome – when I turned a corner and there they were again. I only get to see them at this show since they’re in Georgia. Hey, Atlanta folks? They’re your local guys, support them for me!
I was on limited budget this year – I bought Carmelized Chocolate Almonds from Brandon because he always has a ‘take my money’ option…and come on… pens and chocolate. And the nice lady holding down a Faber-Castell table got the rest of my money. I’ve not really tried out Faber-Castell and they had some good deals. I picked up the last green capped N’ice ballpoint pen – and a Perfect Pencil. I’ve seen them in some emails and ads…ended up buying one because it was SO affordable and I couldn’t say NO. You’ll be seeing these in more detail in the very near future.
So here we go… back in the saddle. I keep meaning to do more with the Dallas Pen Show folks but somehow haven’t pulled that trigger yet. I appreciate them so much for giving me the opportunity to get to know some vendors/artists that I would never have met before. We’ll see what happens in the future…
Now, back to the saddle. Need to put those pens to use. I have books and stories to write.