Over the last two months Bill Ward and I have been sharing our thoughts about one of my favorite short story collections, and the first sword-and-sorcery fiction I even encountered, Fritz Leiber’s Swords Against Death.
This week I’m reviewing the Picadilly Essential Notebook. If you want to take a closer look at my criteria (starting with the fact that all of the pocket notebooks on my “best of” list have to be approximately 3.5 by 5.5 inches) click here, and if you want to see all my posts on pocket writing notebooks, click here.
Pricing = $2.60 and up
Sooner or later Hardboiled Monday’s going to slide back around the corner and tip up its fedora, but for now, here are some links I found interesting.
First, here’s a nifty kickstarter for an anthology of fantasy stories assembled by the talented Marc Tassin, and crammed with gifted writers. Check it out.
Second, for role-playing fans, here’s a kickstarter for some great looking sword-and-sorcery adventures from the creator of Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (incidentally, it’s marked down at RGPNow through the month of May). If you’re not familiar with AS&SH then you must not have been reading my blog for long. It does a great job of bringing the sword-and-sorcery vibe to Dungeons & Dragons.
Finally, Star Trek fans, I’ve found an excellent essay on why Captain Kirk is an inspiring leader. Well, I think it’s excellent, because it echoes everything I said here and expands upon it. It specifically references the same problems I had with Kirk in the Trek reboot movies. Enjoy.
Bill Ward and I are re-reading a book from Fritz Leiber’s famous Lankhmar series, Swords Against Death. We hope you’ll pick up a copy and join us. This week we tackled the tenth and final tale in the volume, “Bazaar of the Bizarre.”
Bill: Let me just say right at the outset that this is one of the all time great fantasy titles — long before I’d ever read Leiber, I knew the title “Bazaar of the Bizarre” (from, I think, Dragon magazine) and it turned out to be the first story of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser I’d ever read, in some since-forgotten anthology, and I still remember the anticipation leading up to it. I wasn’t disappointed.
Sometimes a small, everyday moment takes on special significance.
For me that usually happens after the moment has passed. For instance, a phone call with my father ended up being the last time I ever spoke with him.
Not all of those everyday moments have to be sad; sometimes they’re happy ones, like when something wonderful or funny happens when you’re engaged in day-to-day tasks.
I’ve previously written about the reasons I find pocket notebooks useful, and my criteria for judging what makes one ideal.
With all that in mind, from time-to-time I’m going to feature some pocket notebooks that meet my criteria. I’m not going to bore you with notebooks that don’t work, just get right to the ones that do.
First up, the Leuchtturm1917 hardback and softback models.
Bill Ward and I are re-reading a book from Fritz Leiber’s famous Lankhmar series, Swords Against Death. We hope you’ll pick up a copy and join us. This week we tackled the ninth tale in the volume, “The Price of Pain-Ease.”
As I mentioned in part 1, I think a pocket writing notebook is a vital tool for a writer, or at least for THIS writer, and I’m detailing my ideas about about what makes for a great one.
It may seem like I’m over thinking this, but If I’m plunking down fifteen dollars to get an important tool for my job, I want that tool to be designed in a useful way – lines that aren’t too close together, pages that don’t fall out, a binding that’s going to hold up until I fill all the pages, etc. And there are other considerations as well. For instance, I’ve never been big on style, but I don’t want my writing notebook covered with kittens, or pictures of a woman’s boot.
Here are the qualities I consider when picking out a writing notebook:
Bill Ward and I are re-reading a book from Fritz Leiber’s famous Lankhmar series, Swords Against Death. We hope you’ll pick up a copy and join us. This week we tackled the eighth tale in the volume, “Claws from The Night.”
Writers write; they don’t just compose when it’s convenient for them, when the stars are in alignment, or when they happen to be sitting in front of their computers. Snatches of dialogue, scenes, or entire outlines can be lost because the muses don’t wait to inspire you until you’re in just the right place with just the right tools.
I don’t mean to suggest that we’re powerless before the goddesses of inspiration, nor do I mean to belittle the ability to simply sit down and focus and make writing happen even when you’re having a slow day. Writers have to be able to make writing happen, not to wait for it to happen.