My Favorite Pencils

 

I love pencils. Pencils with soft, creamy leads. The kind that flow across the paper as though they were ink: 3B to 6B work best for me.

It’s a bit difficult to find such in the sea of No. 2 (HB) pencils.

Why did the HB pencil become the standard? I have no idea. It’s a hard lead and leaves a faint, light line; unless you press the heck out of it. And who wants to do that? Tendonitis and carpel tunnel, you know.

So if one doesn’t use the old No. 2, what does one use? Good question, that. And I have a few answers.

Woodcased Pencils

The woodcased pencil dates back to the middle of the 1500s. But the pencil as we know it today was simultaneously invented in the 1790s by Joseph Hardtmuth in Austria and Nicolas-Jacques Conté in France.

There are dozens of pencil brands available, but only two are made in the USA. The companies are General Pencil Company and Musgrave Pencil Company.

Both companies make excellent pencils that are very easy on the wallet and whose quality matches or surpasses most of the foreign competition. They are the pencils I use almost exclusively.

Of the two companies, I prefer the pencils from Musgrave because I find their lead has a softer and creamier feel to it. It flows onto the paper like ink.

The 600 News and the Test Scoring 100 are my favorite Musgrave pencils. The lead in those two is soft and dark. Easy on the hands. No writer’s cramp. And I find them to be superior to the newly reintroduced and highly talked about Blackwing pencils, which are Japanese made. And run $2.50 per pencil compared to the 600 News at $1.17 and the Test Scoring at 85¢.

You can buy Musgrave pencils direct from the company: https://musgravepencil.com

Mechanical Pencils

I’m a big fan of mechanical pencils. They are very economical. Much more so than woodcased pencils. And their length never changes, so the feel is consistent in the hand. Plus, the pencil will last several lifetimes when given reasonable care. And the lead sticks are dirt cheap.

My go to pencils are a vintage Sheaffer and a vintage Mabie Todd “Fyne Poynt”.

They use .046 inch/1.1mm leads. The same size found in woodcased pencils.

Both pencils twist to push the lead forward. To load the pencil, simply retract the pusher a bit, insert the stick of lead, then retract all the way. 

The Sheaffer and Mabie Todd are my favorites out of the small collection I have. The Sheaffer has a beige-yellow base with red, gray, and black swirls; a black end cap; and silver-colored clip and front cone. The Mabie Todd is black, with gold-colored clip, mid-ring, and front cone. Both are very stunning pencils.

Occasionally I’ll use a lead holder. My interest in them goes back to high school drafting class.

To load a lead holder, you press a button at the back of the pencil body which extends the “claw” from the front. You then insert the lead and let go of the button. The “claw” holds the lead in place.

What’s especially nice about lead holders is that they are about the same length as a new woodcased pencil — and they never get shorter!

The Joy of Pencils

Pencils are a cheap alternative to pens. They produce a fairly consistent line, won’t skip or blob on the paper, won’t dry up, will write at any angle, will always start (I hate when a pen won’t write), and they don’t leak (making them great to use on airplanes, and safe to put in your shirt pocket).

I love pencils and find that I reach for them more often than a pen these days.

Find yourself a good vintage mechanical pencil on eBay and you’ll have a companion for life.

Or visit the Musgrave website and pick up the best woodcase pencils available today.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

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Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

A Chance of a Ghost Review

I’m offering you a vacation. To beautiful Magnolia Bluff, Texas. In the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Beautiful scenery. Wineries. A quaint little town. With murder and ghosts.

My fellow Underground Authors, Rob and Joan Carter, have their book, A Chance of a Ghost, on pre-order for only 99¢.

It’s Book 23 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series and it’s a spooktacularly thrilling mystery.

I just finished reading an ARC. And it didn’t disappoint. What’s especially fun about A Chance of a Ghost is that we get to see how ghost “busters” actually work.

Rob and Joan are members of the Tampa Bay Spirits, a group that investigates paranormal activity. And they bring their experience to the newest murder mystery in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

Mike and Maureen Donovan, (fictional) members of Tampa Bay Spirits, depart Tampa and find themselves in Magnolia Bluff to help Mike’s cousins rid their newly renovated home of whatever it is that is making doors slam and things move.

But they no sooner arrive than Mike has a premonition that someone in town is going to die. And that’s something they hadn’t counted on.

Mike and Maureen meet Harry Thurgood, the owner of the Really Good Wood-Fired Coffee and Ice Cream Emporium (known as the Really Good to the locals), and Mike begins to suspect that Harry is the man who is to be murdered: burned to death in his own coffee shop. And probably not while roasting coffee beans.

Then the Donovans meet Bertram and George, the ghosts who have been causing all the ruckus trying to get someone’s attention to help Bertram solve a century old mystery.

The Carters take us on a twisty-turny rollercoaster of a ride as Mike and Maureen try to help the ghosts move on and prevent Harry from becoming living barbecue.

In addition, we learn how paranormal investigators actually work. How they try to contact the dead and discover what they need in order to stop haunting a house. We also discover that not all spirits are friendly Caspers.

There is plenty of suspense, action, and thrills in A Chance of a Ghost. It’s an entertaining page turner that I found regretting having to put down. You know, like to eat or sleep.

So grab your copy today! It’s on pre-order for only 99¢ on Amazon.

Then put on your deerstalker and get your infrared cameras ready.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

The Magnus Archives: A Review

 

The fiction podcast format is filled with amazingly talented creatives.

I’m currently listening to season 1 of The Magnus Archives, a Rusty Quill production.

I’ve listened to 22 of the 40 episodes and am very impressed with the quality of the production and voice acting.

Thus far, most of the episodes consist of one actor, Jonathan Sims, who is the head archivist of The Magnus Institute, a fictional agency located outside London that investigates the paranormal.

What began as one off episodes of Sims reading a report of some bizarre occurrence, is slowly developing into a connected story. I’m just about dying to see how this develops and can’t listen to the episodes fast enough.

Each episode is a self-contained story, with a slowly developing overarching storyline.

Jonathan Sims is an incredibly creative writer with an awesome imagination. He is also a very talented voice actor.

The music is top drawer. Spookily eerie. And sets not only the mood, but intensifies the suspense.

You can catch The Magnus Archives here on the Rusty Quill website. The show is also on Spotify and YouTube.

Four complete seasons of the arcane, bizarre, terrible, and horrific. This is horror done up right.

And the best thing about fiction podcasts is that you don’t have to set aside time to watch. You can listen on the go. And podcasts are so much better than audiobooks. Seriously.

Tune in to The Magnus Archives. The YouTube link is here. The show is fabulously well done by the very talented folks at Rusty Quill. Enjoy!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

The Lovecraft Investigations: A Review

 

Since the 1920s, the BBC has been producing radio dramas. Today, BBC 4, aka BBC Sounds, is still producing radio dramas. They have also ventured into fiction podcasting. And boy, oh boy, do they put on a class act.

I recently listened to all four seasons of The Lovecraft Investigations and was very impressed, for the most part. The production was top drawer. The writing, by Julian Simpson, was superb for the first three seasons, and then hiccuped in season 4.

Mr. Simpson, in the fourth season, lost the story in his fanatical quest to bash fascists in the British government. The propaganda overwhelmed the narrative and, for me, became distracting.

That written, the overall quality of The Lovecraft Investigations is truly superb and I will listen to the next season, should a fifth one be produced. Unless, Mr. Simpson decides, once again, that politics is more important than good storytelling.

The format is a podcast within a podcast and works extremely well. The stories are exceedingly loose adaptations of the work of HP Lovecraft. I would call them Lovecraftesque, with barely any Lovecraft being present. 

It works, though, and that is what is ultimately of importance.

Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher are true crime podcasters who stumble onto the strange disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward — and thereby get sucked into a nightmarish secret world of monsters and occult magic.

The writing is excellent, the voice acting superb, the sound effects are magnificent. There is really nothing here not to like. And if you relish fascist bashing, season four will be your cup of tea.

While each season is more or less complete in itself, Simpson has tied the four together to form an overarching story. So you do want to start at the beginning. That way everything will make sense.

You can listen to the episodes for free on the BBC’s website. They are also available on various podcast services, such as Apple and Spotify.

All in all, I can highly recommend The Lovecraft Investigations. In my opinion, they’re far more satisfying entertainment than most of the tripe on the TV.

Start season 1, episode 1 on the BBC here.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!