Goodbye and Hello

During my rookie year as a pro writer I spent $110.00 to buy a fountain pen on sale at Levenger. While that sounds insane, the pen retailed for $450.00, so I thought it was a good bargain. At the time I wanted to make the jump to using only fountain pens for hand writing, as my arthritis was starting to make it difficult to use anything else. Also, I fell in love with the pen, so that decided it.

Back then I had no idea that my Platinum Koi would be my faithful companion for the next twenty-two years. I've written thousands of letters, hundreds of journals and autographed Lord only knows how many of my books with this pen. If you work out the price with the endurance, it only cost me around $5.00 a year, which is probably what a person spends on crap pens. It's certainly always been the finest writing instrument I've ever owned . . . until it started to skip and clog this year. I nursed it along with frequent cleanings and sparse use, but eventually I had to accept that it was time to retire my old friend.

I needed to buy a new pen to replace it, but I was waiting for another lovely bargain to come along. I also didn't want to spend a lot because my ability to hand write is going to end in the (hopefully not too) near future.

Out of the blue Levenger sent me an e-mail to offer me sixty percent off the True Writer pens they were retiring, which included one I've always wanted because the colors remind me of my daughter (I gave her a pearl and rose gold necklace for her birthday that she constantly wears.) So I bought the True Writer Ivory Rose Gold pen for $35.00:

She arrived today, and she's a beauty, too -- very lightweight and comfortable to hold, and so classy:

She'll pick up the workload from my retired Platinum nicely, I think:

I know it's a bit silly to make such a fuss over a pen, but this feels like the universe stepped in when I really needed to find my new writing companion. So thank you, Levenger and the Universe. :)