Hello inhabitants!
My name is Stephen (happy to be called Steve if that's what people prefer to use) and I live near a town called Weston-super-Mare in the English county of Somerset. Not far from Bristol in fact, though many would contend not far enough! Why did I join? Good question and a slightly involved one that I will simplify here. In my younger days I had a quite physical job that I really enjoyed as it kept me moving about and in prime health. At that time, I had no specific interest in writing, or reading anything beyond a daily copy of the Sun newspaper. I know, horrific really. Then came the accident. The injuries required extensive rehab. I had to leave my job knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything similar again. It was depressing. The rehab was depressing to be honest. During one of the sessions with a counsellor (you get this if there is significant life change expected) she suggested I write down my thoughts each day, outlining progress and frustrations, feelings and self-image, and what the future may hold for me. I was not keen on this, but I tried it, and somewhere along the way it became a habit. I have since read that there is a similar process that people call 'Morning Pages' and is used as a kind of brain dump. The upshot is that I started to enjoy writing, to the extent that I ended up being a freelance contributor for several industry magazines, and eventually a couple of modestly successful novels that have enabled me to live a comfortable if somewhat frugal life. Having a purpose was without doubt the biggest gift though.
All of my writing has up to now been done using a biro and a word processor. Even though the latter is how I send stuff in for columns I still write the first draft by hand. It never occurred to me to look at the tools I was using in all those years. And then a dear friend casually remarked one day on how fountain pens provided a more pleasant writing experience, so I thought I better check this out. I haven't bought one yet because I don't know anything about them. Instead, I took to the internet for information and stumbled across this site. I did not know that fountain pens represented a hobby to some people, or that there was significant interest to generate whole websites. So, I hope as I become more conversant with this place you will help me navigate the subject of fountain pens.
I still write personal-thoughts journal every day, and I would like to continue that using a new type of tool if it suits my hand. I see that there is a profile page for members as well as a stack of settings, so it may take me a little while to populate the one and understand the other. Please bear with me (I am old and not that tech savvy).
Other than that, perhaps a recommendation on where to start should be my first request.
cheers,
Stephen
Bookmarks