There’s nothing like writing with a nib! I have a small collection of fountain pens – including a Sheaffer Prelude and a Waterman Hémisphère Essential. I use different coloured inks from Waterman and Diamine, such as Emerald, Oxblood, and Teal.
For everyday use, I like the Lamy Safari and, in non-fountain pens, the Uniball Air.
When buying a notebook I find it’s a combination of several things that determine my choice! I like A5 notebooks with hard covers and spiral binding, and I can lay them flat when writing. Pukka Pads do a great selection of those. I recently bought these two notebooks, and I love them! They’re hard-backed, have place ribbons and elastic straps, and the paper is 100gsm, acid-free, and wonderful to write on. They also come with a handy sticker sheet for tabs, etc.
They are MyNo notebooks, made by www.giltedged.co.uk/myno and sold by Grind Store at: https://www.grindstore.com/search/?q=notebook&sortby=7
I also use index cards to lay out my chapters and have the ability to rearrange the order, and I regularly buy home office sized whiteboards which are great for brainstorming and plotting.
18 months ago, I was diagnosed with inoperable, stage 4 throat cancer, so my work schedule has been all over the place. I recently co-authored a series called The Creeper Files for OUP with my good pal, Barry Hutchison, under the pen name Hacker Murphy. I have four more titles coming out in my Tommy Donbavand’s Funny Shorts series for Franklin Watts, including Dinner Ladies of Doooooom! And There’s a Time Portal in My Pants.
I’ve just released my first self-published book – Tommy V Cancer – which is the story of my battle against the disease from diagnosis, through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to the after effects of all that (last year I was rushed into intensive care unconscious after contracting double pneumonia and sepsis. The doctors told my family that, I didn’t begin to respond to treatment, I had around two hours left to live). At the time of writing, Tommy V Cancer has 30 five-star reviews on Amazon, where it is available in both ebook format, and paperback.
You can get further details here: For readers in the UK: http://amzn.eu/0vO6kfd For US readers: http://a.co/8gHhwpJ
