Posts filed under Travel

Stationery Travel Diary, Librarian Edition

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

The Public Library Association's conference was held in Columbus, Ohio last week and it was immediately followed, for me, by a Horror Writers Association Wisconsin Chapter writing retreat near Milwaukee. That meant packing stationery for educational, professional, and recreational purposes! It also meant stopping in to a Columbus stationery store, On Paper, which was conveniently/dangerously close to my hotel.

For the conference:

My main stationery for notetaking at the conference was my Plotter Bible size with a CW&T Pen Type B in Brass. These weren't tools specifically chosen for the conference; they're my everyday carry writing tools that are never out of reach. They weren't perfect for the job. I could have used a gel pen to write more quickly and a larger page to expand my notes, but these were handy and portable--which were essential features for running around a massive conference.

Columbus was awesome. I got to explore a new city, reconnect with some local friends, and hang out with roughly 7,000 colleagues who were doing brilliant and amazing things. I visited two bookstores, Prologue Books and The Book Loft. Both were lovely, but I think I could live at the Book Loft. You know a bookstore is good when you're at a conference where publishers are literally throwing free books at you, but you still end up buying two books. Oops? No regrets. Okay, one regret. I regret not buying some of the cool t-shirts, too.

One highlight of Columbus is, of course, the stationery shop. On Paper is located right on the High Street, with lots of fun boutiques and coffee shops and restaurants nearby. The shop's interior is quaint and tidy, with antique furniture for displays and a fun assortment of cards, papers, notebooks, wax seals, bottled inks, and desk accessories. They had some lovely Retro 51 pens and some Kaweco fountain pens, but the majority of the focus was paper. They are my people. The vibe reminded me a lot of Papier Plume in New Orleans, minus the gothic flair of its distant cousin.

While I exercised an immense amount of self-control, I could not resist the "Hexes and Vexes" list pad from Open Sea Design Co. I mean. Who could? It was also the perfect opportunity to pick myself up a postcard souvenir. And I would like praise for resisting the recycled book cover journals, please and thank you.

If you're a PenAddict and find yourself in Columbus, I definitely recommend visiting On Paper for your stationery souvenir fix.

For the writing retreat:

I used my current story draft notebook, the Pebble Stationery Liberty Fabric notebook with Cosmo Air Light paper. For the pen, I used the Visconti Mirage Mythos, which I'm reviewing for next week's post. They were a great team, and between the lovely tools, the restful setting, and the quiet of the retreat center (and probably also the unlimited coffee and muffins of the retreat center), I knocked out about six thousand words of the best stuff I've written this year so far. Magic. The llamas also helped.

The two settings could not have been more different. A bustling city with far too much to do, oceans of people, and countless distractions--to a remote farm with a monastic room, an abundance of silence, and only a few other quiet writers. Okay, there was also a quilting retreat happening there, and they were... boisterous. But there were plenty of quiet corners to hide in, away from all humans. Which was exactly what I needed between a week of work travel and a week of solo parenting while my spouse travels.

April has been wild so far. Thank goodness for the writing tools that keep it all on track. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off just to write. Well, and taxi the kids around and pick my spouse up from the airport, but between those things...WRITING. I have goals, lists, deadlines, and empty pages to fill.

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Posted on April 11, 2024 by Sarah Read and filed under Writing, Travel.

Stationery Outdoors

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I tend to overthink what stationery I bring when I travel, but it's something I enjoy thinking about. My final adventure of the summer took place this past weekend--my first camping trip! A friend and I went tent camping for three days on the shores of Lake Superior, hiking the lakeshore and north woods all day and cooking over a fire. It was amazing! But what stationery do you bring to the great outdoors?

My carry needed to be pretty minimal. There are already way too many things to pack for a camping trip, and priority space was given to gear that would prevent freezing or starving. It would also need to be stationery that could handle some potentially rough conditions.

Pens were the easiest to choose. My Spoke Roady, which goes with me everywhere, was a given as my practical pen. For a fountain pen, I chose the Gravitas Quark, which I'm currently test-driving for review. Both fit nicely in the wee Galen Leather zip case, which I'm also testing out. And, because I brought my Plotter Mini 5, the Kaweco Liliput that lives in the pen loop also came along. I had two spare small international ink cartridges in my toiletries bag, just in case of an inspiration emergency (both the ink that was already in the Kaweco, so no wilderness pen cleaning would be required).

Paper was trickier. I had a bit of paper in my Plotter, yes, but I don't find that size good for creative writing, just for jotting notes. It was possible that I'd have quite a bit of down time, so I wanted to be prepared to work on one of my writing projects. I have three short stories, two novellas, and one novel in progress. And I'll admit, my notebook situation is a bit out of control at the moment. Normally I have one notebook that all my short fiction goes into, but juggling multiple deadlines, plus the fact that my main short story notebook only has a few pages left (so I had to start a new one for a new story), means that I actually have four story notebooks in progress, plus two for the novel. I figured I'd work on a short story this trip, but the one that's due the soonest is in progress in a very fancy/fussy notebook with Cosmo Air Light paper. CAL paper doesn't like it if you breathe on it wrong. I love it, but I wouldn't consider it outdoorsy. But I remembered I had a small Paperblanks notebook that I'd taken on a previous trip. I'd started a novella in that notebook that I've since set aside. I decided that it was small enough, but substantial enough, and also durable enough, to be my trip notebook for the woods.

So how did my choices fare on their camping trip? Well. Let's just say I don't think I ever even unzipped that pocket of my backpack. That's right. I didn't touch a single piece of stationery for the entire trip. I didn't write a word. I didn't even so much as sign a receipt. No regrets! I was too busy frolicking.

What I did do: spent a collective 17 hours on three different beaches; hiked several trails; cooked 7 meals over campfires that I started myself; ate lots of s'mores, saw the northern lights (!), and collected a handful of beautiful Lake Superior agates. I'm bruised, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, exhausted, and totally happy. And behind on my writing. Worth it. You've gotta live to have something to write about.

(Note: Some photos are courtesy of my camping buddy, Kat Rohrmeier.)

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Posted on September 7, 2023 by Sarah Read and filed under Travel.

Stationery On the Go, Train Edition

On Thursday, June 8th, I drove two hours to Milwaukee, got on a train for two hours to Chicago, got on another train for eleven hours to Pittsburgh, then got on another train to Altoona for three hours. It was a long night. Then I spent the next five days packing up and clearing out my grandmother's house and loading a few treasured items into a shipping container. Then I got back on the Altoona train to Pittsburgh, and spent five days at the Horror Writers Convention, StokerCon. Then I got on the Pittsburgh train to Chicago and the Chicago train to Milwaukee, and then home again. Ten days on the road that included everything from sitting in the mud in a graveyard to attending a formal awards banquet. And throughout that process, I needed to write. A lot. And without carrying too many heavy things, because train hopping is tough, and there would also be times when I needed to walk 1-2 miles with all my gear on my back. This was the most minimal packing I've ever done, and it worked well for me.

I just got back yesterday as I write this, and I'm still lost in the fog of exhaustion, but here's a list of Pen Addict-relevant thoughts and encounters from my trip.

Trains are perfect for writers. The whole travel mode is less frantic and hassled than flying. If your tray table isn't roomy enough, head to the dining car for unlimited coffee and a table to spread your work out. While most of my long train rides were at night, while I tried (unsuccessfully) to sleep, a daytime train ride of eleven hours sounds almost like a writing retreat in itself. Overall, I found this mode of travel to be my favorite over driving or flying.

No matter how much I write, or plan to write, I really just need one notebook and pen. I brought the Pebble Stationery Cosmo Air Light notebook, my Schon DSGN pocket fountain pen, and the CW&T Pen Type-B as my travel stationery, along with my Mini Plotter with the Kaweco Lilliput in the loop. I used the Pebble Stationery and the Schon for story writing, and I used the Pen Type B for signing receipts. I used one sheet of Plotter paper to leave a nice note for my B&B innkeeper. And I used the Plotter itself to press flowers. It works quite well for that. I pressed clover and morning glories from my grandparents' graves, and two roses from my grandmother's garden. An unconventional use case, but one I am very grateful for. The plastic dividers and elastic closure band make it perfect for collecting small, meaningful blooms. And the day after I collected these flowers, I found flowers that my grandmother had pressed in her own books, from her own parents' funerals. We were always very much alike.

Write letters. Lots of letters. Write them to the people you love, and when you receive letters, keep them somewhere where your granddaughter will find them someday and see how much you loved and were loved. My grandmother saved hundreds of letters that my grandfather sent to her when he was in the Navy. Of all the treasures I found in the house, these were the very best.

When you have to plan a difficult thing, plan a very fun thing for right after. Recovering from an emotional week by surrounding myself with writer friends was the perfect antidote to grief. With readings, and panels, and signings, and talks, and banquets, and bar closings, there's both plenty of time to talk and process, and plenty of distraction. And lots of hugs.

If you go to painstaking measures to pack minimally for a difficult journey, maybe don't acquire 18 new books to carry home. Just some advice for future me.

The best thing you can possibly do before getting on a train for uncountable hours is to chill at a friend's house, especially if that friend has goats. And Smores.

This journey was strange and not linear, much like this post. In two days the pod with my grandmother's things will arrive at my house, and I will literally and metaphorically unpack the artifacts of her life and take these objects soaked in memory into my home. My grandmother gave me my love of reading and writing and sentimentality--all of which are essential ingredients to who I am in general, and are also the things that led me to my love for pens and paper.

I didn't write as much as I needed to on this trip; there wasn't as much downtime as I'd hoped as I moved quickly from task to task. But now that I'm home, it's me and the pages for miles, and I just have to stay on track.

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