The banner for this blog is from a photo I took in October, 2004. It’s a little recipe box from my grandmother’s things, and seemed like a perfect place to keep my collection of fountain pens. Yes, I know, a collection of fountain pens, but I’ve always loved them (I used to write with those leaky clear plastic-barreled Shaffer Scripto fountain pens in college–writer Howard Waldrop blogs about them here) and I actually use all my pens now, so I stand behind living the cliche. (And if it mitigates, I aim to write as few cliches as possible with those pens, and when I discover one slipped by, I scratch it out.) When I was first using this box to keep them, I would sometimes sort the pens alphabetically by maker. The little backdiving woman is from a cake top a dear friend (and host of my writing group) made for me (and put on top of a scrumptious cake) when I was about to get married.
I no longer own two of the six pens in the photo. One was a hand-me-down from my ex, and it needed to go. The other, a gift from my husband, I broke the nib, and it wasn’t fixable. (DANG!) But I’ve got some newer beautiful additions to the collection. Perhaps I will post photos some day when I get some spare time.
Rebecca Kuder 