Technical Difficulties

First! Publishers Weekly gives Somewhere Beneath Those Waves a starred review. (OMG ELEVENTY-ONE!!!1!1!)

ETA: since a couple people asked, and since apparently I am drifting along, lonely as a cloud, without a clue as to the correct answer: YES, this book will have both paper and electronic versions, and the e-book should be available near to the release date for the paper book (which is November 22).

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!UBC:
Lukacs, John. The Hitler of History. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

( There's a bit of a rant behind the cut-tag. )

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Fountain pen geeks, what do you think about Pelikan inks, particularly the ones available in cartridges? I have been very disappointed in the royal blue, which is a nice enough color but fades horribly--and since I want my inks dark and vivid, this drives me nuts. Should I try any of the others, or should I just give in to my own geekiness and take a bottle of Noodler's Squeteague to live in my desk at work?

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A reminder: matociquala and I will be reading at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge MA at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 19. Free and open to the public, so please come out!

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And, for a fifth thing and happy Friday, have some lovely pictures of wet fishing cat kittens

1. The proof of Unnatural Creatuers has arrived. I'll go through it this weekend, enter the corrections on Monday, and make the Lulu order.

This means that the sale extension will end around midnight, Monday/Tuesday.

2. The proof came in a flat box, like a pizza box, exactly the right size for a cat to loaf on. Since El Marmalado has already demonstrated his fondness for sitting on boxes, I put it out on the porch for him. Sure enough, a little later, when we were leaving to go meet a friend for coffee, there he was on the box.

3. Segue! The pen with which I will be signing Unnatural Creatures is my new Pelikan Technixx. I love this pen. And Fountain Pen Hospital still has it on sale for $40.

4. And I should show you the cover art (by the fabulous hominysnark):


5. Finally, moving from unnatural to natural, (via matociquala (on Twitter)), 70 baby animals. (I'm not sure all of them are technically babies, but then, I'm not sure I could tell a juvenile hamster from an adult anyway.) My favorites are the otter pups. And the bat.

1. Happy birthday, papersky!

2. I have discovered a delightful series of flash games, from Eyezmaze, called Grow. (The first link takes you to Eyezmaze's site, the second to the jayisgames review of Grow Valley, which is the most recent of the games. The jayisgames page also has (a.) the walkthrough for Grow Valley and (b.) links to the jayisgames reviews (and walkthroughs) of the other Grow games.) Grow Valley charmed my socks off.

3. My package from Fountain Pen Hospital arrived (complete with pen pr0n--thank you, FPH). Once I'd let both the Pelikan and the Squeteague warm up (it's kind of, you know, chilly today in the Upper Midwest), I tried it out, and I have to tell you, I think I'm in love.

The Pelikan Technixx has a kind of retro-pulp sfnal aesthetic that I adore (it's the matte chrome finish and the super smooth lines). It's extremely light-weight, and it writes like a dream. The Pelikan nib has a different feel from any of my other fountain pens; more than the others, it feels to me like what rollerball pens are trying to feel like--only this is like the difference between "peach ice-cream" and peach ice-cream made with real peaches and real cream. It's awesome.

Noodler's Squeteague is an extremely dark blue-green color, emphasis on the green. It's almost black when wet, but becomes more visibly green as it dries, leaning just far enough into blue to not be a straight dark green. I may, after further use, consider adulterating it with Couleur Royale to get it just a little bluer, but it's awfully nice as is.

I'm washing out the nib of the JMFMP so I can try the Old Dutch Sepia in it tomorrow. I will, of course, report back.

4. Let me mention Whedonistas again (link to the Facebook page).

5. maryrobinette made it home safely on Sunday, after a comedy of errors and malfunctions that was starting to reach Odyssean levels. Mary, out of curiosity, have you ever tried to go to Ithaca?

1. The Columbus Zoo has otter pups, and video of the mama otter teaching one of her babies to swim (via Zooborns, and it's heresluck's fault I was over there in the first place).

ETA: also, the Sacramento Zoo's video clips of their new Sumatran tiger cub and her gorgeous mother are marvelous.

2. via @catvalente, this unspeakably awesome cartoon about angler fish. No really. Go read it.

3. "White Charles" is in the table of contents for Paula Guran's Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010. w00t!

4. Fountain pen geeks, do any of you have comments on Noodler's black inks? I like my black inks REALLY BLACK, and Noodler's Polar Black is disappointing me by being more of a grayish sort of black. Are any of their other blacks better?

5. On Monday, as I was heading to the State Historical Society's reading room (which has just been renovated and is absolutely freaking GORGEOUS), I was diverted from my trajectory by a bookstore, where I found Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem (Elaine G. Breslaw); A Quest for Security: The Life of Samuel Parris, 1653-1720 (Larry Gragg); and The Logic of Millennial Thought: Eighteenth-Century New England (James West Davidson). It is possible that I am still smug about these finds.

Griffith Stadium pen here. SO GEEKED. (There's a funny little flaw in the wood that makes me believe this beautifully polished and glowing pen barrel really was once a seat in a baseball stadium.) I like Pelikan's Brilliant Green (that being the color of cartridge I chose, mostly at random), the pen is pleasingly heavy, and it writes nicely. WIKTORY.

Off in mere moments to meet oursin for lunch and show her some of Madison. SO GEEKED.

GEEKED, I tell you.

The saga of the Sheaffer continues.

Long-time Gentle Readers will remember my Sheaffer Legacy II, which has had as many perils as Pauline. Most recently, whilst the pen itself was in Fort Madison, Iowa, being repaired, I managed to lose its converter, whereupon ensued weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

So last week I finally got around to ordering a new converter from Fountain Pen Hospital, who are a bunch of sly and cunning weasels. The converter's $6; the minimum order is $10. Having no willpower, I did the self-gratifying thing and went and looked at their Super Specials, and found a Cross ATX (scroll down: it's the Azurite Blue). That and a bottle of Noodler's Nightshade, and I'd gone well over $10. Tra la.

Today, my box from FPH arrives. (Fountain Pen Hospital: not too proud to pack with newspaper.) The pen is gorgeous, the ink is gorgeous, the converter ... is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong.

A brief double-check. Yes, that is the only Sheaffer converter FPH sells. A quick Google (blessed is the Google, may its shadow never grow thinner). Survey says:

The Legacy II is a freak.

It uses something called a touchdown filler, which in fact works exactly like a piston (instead of the twirly thing that fountain pen manufacturers pretend is a piston)--and thus my foolish gullibility in assuming that a piston converter was the same thing as, well, a piston at least can be defended as a logical mistake.

Sheaffer's quit using touchdown fillers. They've gone to "piston" converters like all the other kids use. So, while there are still places readily accessible via Google (praise!) that will sell me a Sheaffer Legacy II, finding a touchdown filler all on its lonesome is going to be a bit more of a challenge. (And no, before you ask, buying a second Legacy II in order to get the touchdown filler is not cost-effective. I got my Sheaffer at a quarter of its list price, and that's still the most money I've ever spent on a pen, and twice what I paid for either the Waterman or the Cross.)

I have emailed Sheaffer to fling myself upon their mercy.

Further bulletins as events warrant.