In the past few weeks, I went down a rabbit hole of inexpensive fountain pens made in China. Most models that were less than $3 on average. It's been great. I have a bunch of interesting fountain pens that give a nice writing experience. These are pictures of a few I had in the phone (with descriptions in ALT).

If you are looking for tips, *usually*: Jinhao, the current king of cost-effective pens, makes consistently impressive writers at low prices. Asvine and Hongdian are very good quality, but cost more, and Majohn (Moonman) is also getting there. Wing Sung (Yongsheng) name is licensed by a few, quite good, but how good varies between makers. The grand progenitor of the Chinese fountain pen industry, Hero, makes pens ranging from low price to heirloom quality. All can have both inspired-by and original designs. As for quality, always check reviews. Be patient to learn the characteristics of a pen before writing it off. Pun intended.

I'm also not going to dismiss them as "cheap replicas" because almost all popular fountain pen makers have taken "inspirations" from others and these were not sold under fake branding. Material used may not always be that durable. But with gentle handling (like most fountain pens), you'll be fine.

To be honest, this is the only way you can afford to try different kinds of fountain pens in this part of the world without an extravagant budget.

@elysegrasso It sounds as if you are not publishing via Amazon. If you aren't publishing via Amazon, then you should be fine to just tick the box on D2D to distribute via Amazon and you should be good to go.

If you are publishing via Amazon, then you should not opt into Kindle Select because that's when the exclusivity kicks in.

Hopefully that clarifies things better than my first response since in my first response, I assumed that you were publishing via Amazon and also wanted to publish via D2D without Amazon exclusivitity.

@elysegrasso From what I understand, if you aren't opting into Kindle Select, you are non-exclusive with Amazon.

At least, that's what I've had to do for my books. I was on Kindle Select. So had to opt-out, wait till I was off the Kindle Select program and then I published with Draft2Digital.

@auzzy Thank you 🙂

I quit my coding job in December. Many reasons, but one was to give writing an honest go after keeping it on the backburner for years.

Got my first payment for writing today. Won't pay the rent, but I'm excited to be writing again and am excited to see where this goes 🙂

#Writing

I'm stalled 🙂

I've only got 3 more chapters to edit to finish my novella, but I keep putting that off while I work on this new plot for a different book.

I guess I shouldn't do parallel projects? My ADHD seems to go into overdrive then 😛

#Writing

"Pallotty 90's Kids" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22017632) is a beautiful movie packing a lot into less than two hours.

Reminds me a little bit of "Meiyazhagan" in certain ways but this is a totally different beast. Love the time period, the songs, and the scenery.

#Movies #Malayalam

Not a great start to the day. I would normally have gotten a bunch of editing done by now.

Today, woke up to find that the heat wasn't working. -19C outside right now. Power went out for a bit and came back on. Heat is still off. Fun times and no writing 😛

#Writing

@LuciaG I've got two humorous science fiction novels set in the same universe. Very light reading, lots of wordplay, puns, parodying, and hidden references 🙂

https://books.farook.org

Today's editing word count is 2,600 words on the novella. Chapter name - "Raisin the Stakes".

No writing on the Flutter book today but spent the day working on a new idea for a book which has got me very excited. Guess we'll see where it goes ...

#AmWriting #Writing

I'm just pointing at a cloud!

A lot of people (in the US and outside) are deservedly concerned about the Dumpfster fire, but IMO focusing on the idiot-in-chief (and his allies) just gives them more power.

I'd step away, do what I can to make somebody's life better, to add a little joy to the world, do something constructive if I can.

#Reflections

Edited 2,600 words on the novella — chapter name, "Cult Ficrtion".

No writing though since we had some errands to run and one of our rare outings outside the apartment 🙂 Hopefully, will get back to the writing tomorrow.

#AmWriting #Writing

Terry Pratchett used to have multiple novels in the works simultaneously.

I never understood how he could do that when I was younger — all I could hear at a time were the voices from my current book.

Now I write everything down since I can't remember stuff and can't keep it all in my head. And suddenly I have multiple WIPs and understand how it might have worked for PTerry 🙂

#Writing

Asking for the #fediverse’s help, if it’s possible. My friend lost their car in the fire. That included the car seat for her 4 year old. Can anyone on the internets help me procure/secure a car seat for a baby and their long trip into Oakland? I’m sure there’s a place somewhere in #pasadena #altadena that has to have baby goods for distribution… will you help me find it?

I’ve been googling all day and nothing… because we all know google is trash.

Thanks in advance. #eatonfire

Edited 3,200 words on the novella. Today's chapter is "Gnome Alone".

1,000 words written on the Flutter book. Got around the coding issue but didn't make as much progress as usual.

Taking a break for the weekend.

#AmWriting #Writing

✨ The rebellion will be federated & self-hosted ✨

On Dec 5, 2024 I published this blog post https://elenarossini.com/2024/11/the-rebellion-will-be-federated/ on @ele@elenarossini.com

On Dec 17 I signed up for a #VPS.

On Dec 22 I installed #GoToSocial and began personalizing my little corner of the #Fediverse: @elena

On Jan 14 I installed #Pixelfed on my server: @ele@photos.elenarossini.com

Yesterday I installed #LinkStack on https://elena.social

All this feels really empowering and I wanna help others do the same! 🚀

#selfhosting #FOSS

Edited 3,900 words today on the novella and then wrote 2,900 words on the Flutter book for kids.

Got stuck on another coding problem. Never get those with fiction since I can plot my way out of it 😛

#AmWriting #Writing

@purplelorikeet We, the wife and I, liked "Stardust" when we originally saw it as a movie and we were talking of re-watching it.

Haven't read the book, but now, reflecting back upon it, I can see at least one troubling issue there that I hadn't considered originally. So I can totally understand how you must feel.

In the end, my personal opinion is that life is very short. You enjoy what you do and don't harm others or enable others who might be destructive/harmful. Beyond that, who really cares?

But that's just me 🙂

@purplelorikeet This is my personal opinions, but equating someone to their work has never worked for me.

Like with actors in movies, the works of writers are not an extension of themsevels. If the writer themselves sounds good based in their interactions with people and their stance on things, then maybe. But even then, you can't really tell.

The one writer I know based on personal interactions and how they generally behaved was PTerry. I liked him and from all I can tell, he was always true to the projected personna.

I know nothing of Gaiman except for reading some of his writing. But he gave me Clive Barker vibes in his writing and that's a style that I don't really like. So I've never bothered to read more.

I think (and again, just my opinion) you should take the art as is. If you like the art, enjoy it. But if the creator turns out to be a bad human being, never give them your money ever again. That's all you can do.