Contributor Biographies #12

 

Nicola Donaven

In fourth grade (lo, these many years ago), my handwriting was so illegible that my teacher, Mr. Chavez, forced me to stay after school and practice penmanship. My parents bought me a Speedball calligraphy set, the kind with the nibs, holders, and real bottles of ink. (I still have the nibs and holders.) I love using the pen and looking at any book with decorated or illuminated letters. Since I don't even remember a time when I could not read, the combination of text in a book with the artistry of the letters was irresistible. I practiced calligraphy off and on but never had the discipline to get really serious about it. I think I was in high school when I discovered the Sheaffer plastic-barreled pens with the removable nibs and the short cartridges. I used them all the time; they had a tendency to leak, but they were worth it. I still have those pens and nibs, thought I rarely use them. One italic nib that started out flat is worn to a 45-degree angle.

The first "real" fountain pen I ever bought was a black Reform with a piston filler. I used it (still do) quite often to write letters to a friend in Japan. Still, I wasn't hooked yet. Four years ago, I saw a Waterman Laureate at Office Depot for 80% off. Naturally, I had to have it. That's the pen I signed my first mortgage papers with...I'm surprised it doesn't write in blood. I picked up a pen or two, including a Waterman Phileas, but I didn't get really hooked until I discovered vintage pens at Pendemonium last year. My vintage pen s include a few Esterbrooks that I love, a Waterman Lady Garland (Canadian), and a Diamond Point. My new pens include an Inoxcrom that I use quite often as a workhorse pen. This year, a friend who collects and uses new fountain pens gave me a beautiful deep green Waterman Man 200. It's a very modest collection, and as you might have guessed by now, I'm much more an accumulator than a collector. I like to write with my pens; I buy based on the heart-thump factor and price. My only criterion is "no obese pens." They are beautiful and impressive, but my hand gets tired quickly when using a heavy or fat pen.

Pens aside, I am an avid gardener and a voracious reader and I just plain like words. I have somewhat eclectic reading tastes. I like children's books (e.g. The Goat in the Rug, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials trilogy), contemporary fiction, especially about the South (e.g. Rita Mae Brown, Fanny Flag, Bailey White), classics (e.g. Dickens, Trollope, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck), poetry (e.g. Rilke, Wallace Stevens, Bin Ramke, Louise Bogan, Neruda), theology, historical fiction, some science, and art.

Other things you might like to know: I also write poetry upon occasion. I love to paint and I am, if I do say so myself, a talented baker. Dessert is my forte. I am currently a catechumen at a small Episcopal parish. I have two sweet cats that I adopted out of pity and that now control my life. I was born in Denver in 1972 and grew up and continue to make my home in Denver. Although I did attend the University of Denver and the University of Northern Colorado, I escaped sans degree. I currently work as a technical writer for a software company.

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Larry Semander

I have been interested in fountain pens for a greater part of my life. As a child I preferred to “hang out” at the pen counter, rather than the toy and game section, of a department store while my mother shopped. I would still do so if we had pen counters, or even a decent pen store, here in South Texas.

I attended the University of Houston College of Pharmacy where I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree. After many years of practicing pharmacy, I set out on a different career path: law enforcement. I am now a full time Patrol Sergeant with a municipal police department in a small city, which is completely surrounded by San Antonio. I love it! I still practice pharmacy on Saturdays in a tiny town 50 miles NW of the “big” city.

I am married to Pati who is also my best friend, unwavering supporter, and a fellow pen enthusiast…perhaps not as obsessed with pens as I. She journals every day and probably has more miles on her pens than I have on mine. We became grandparents, for the first time, in August. His name is Hunter and he is the light of our lives.

We have a modest collection of contemporary fountain pens, favoring the Italians. My interest in vintage pens and their restoration/repair is just starting to bloom. Scary thought!

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Julie Roehm

It was a dark and stormy night...the night I was born, in March of 1951, was really rainy and cold. My parents had an older car and the windshield wiper broke on the way to the hospital! My father had to activate it and drive at the same time. What an auspicious beginning to a whirlwind life. I was the middle child of a family of five and the second of 4 girls. My father was a military man so I attended 13 schools in 10 or 11 states, England, and Alaska (not a state at the time).

I learned to write with fountain pens in the '60's at Catholic schools, using the good old Palmer Method of handwriting. I loved those pens even then and wish I still had them. Most of the pens I used had either levers or rubber sacs that had to be squeezed to be filled.

I graduated from Lakenheath American High School in 1969 and the U of MD in '73. I taught english for 7 years (yet another english teacher)at the middle and high school levels. Since 1980, I have been a middle school guidance counselor-doing a job I love. My husband and I have 2 sons, 13 and 16, who keep us on the run. Somehow I am hoping to find time to join the Snail list. I am very new to collecting and have really enjoyed rediscovering the joy of the whole writing process. So far I havve 2 new pens-a DuPont Fidelio and a Pelikan 600, and I adore them.

Reading fantasy novels is my other form of escapism and I also devour books related to my spirituality.

I am glad to be here and have learned a lot already!

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Don Megna

Hi, my name is Don Megna. I'm 51 years old and live in Great Neck New York. This is the town that F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to as "East Egg" in the Great Gatsby. I'm married to a lovely woman and have two great kids who are grown and on their own (well, pretty much).I have a Masters degree in Education with a specialization in Rehabilitation counseling, but have not been in the helping professions for a long time.

I vaguely remember using a fountain pen in elementary school. I think it was a Schaeffer. I know it was a lever fill. My desk had a round hole in it for the inkwell but I don't remember much more than that. I do know that I have always been fussy about pens. I would buy one, use it awhile, find something I didn't like about it and buy another one. I was constantly buying pens and had fun doing it and using different colored inks. I recall using purple ink when I was working in an outpatient office for the mentally ill and being told I couldn't. Something about charts being legal documents....blah blah blah

.Spending years not finding a particular pen/ink combination I could be happy with, I went to ebay and ran a search for "pens" expecting to find 20 or 30 listed. Instead I found over 30 pages of listings. Wow! was I impressed. I had stumbled into the world of pen collectors. I was hooked. There has been no looking back.

I hope my story isn't too boring. Hey, if you want to "rap" about the 60's I'm your guy. Seriously though, I truly love to write with fine fountain pens filled with beautiful inks on exquisite stationery. Indeed my purpose in posting this bio is too arouse some interest from members of the snail mail group. I would love to correspond with other pen lovers.

So, there it is.
May your pens never skip.
DonM

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Tippi N. Blevins

Seeing Julie's bio reminded me I meant to post one of my own.

Howdy, everyone. My name is Tippi N. Blevins. Age: I'm too young to really remember disco, and probably a bit too old to really wear all these Disco Rebirth fashions. Job: I'm a writer, with stories published in science fiction, fantasy, and humor categories, among others. I also work odd jobs to make ends meet, but none of them are odd enough to be thoroughly interesting. Residence: I was born in Taiwan, but have lived in Texas most of my life with multiple dogs.

I've always had a fascination for pen and paper, even as a toddler. My grandmother picked up on this and gave me a Phileas fountain pen a few years ago. However, I had become enamored of first typewriters and then computers. I always jotted notes by hand, but never got into really *writing* by hand. The fountain pen changed all that! Now I'm always looking for occasions for which I can send a note written on beautiful paper.

At this point I have mostly modern pens, including Watermans, a couple of Lamy fountain pens, a Namiki VP, and a Sheaffer Intrigue. My grandmother recently gave me an old Sheaffer Balance to help round out my accumulation. I can't really call it a collection...yet.

Anyway, that's a bit about me! I probably shouldn't write bios at 6 in the morning.

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