Hello again. Another question related to the book:

So, the collector who gets murdered. I need to have an idea about what would most likely be in his collection if:

He's mid-70s
Has been collecting for about 50 years
Spent a good bit of time in Europe in his youth, less in the last 20 years
Primarily in England, France and a lot in Italy, especially Venice
(What shops he would have visited, pen people he might have known there, too)
Had no money in his youth but made it and while not rich a la Trump, is very comfortable
Has a great love for vintage pens, more than things that are new - this is important
Has diverse tastes - doesn't specialize in any particular brand or type. He's eclectic

What I'm trying to do is make sure when I start writing that a collector doesn't read about his collection and laugh, and say "Well, she obviously didn't do her research!"

Also, related - anybody know where I can purchase old magazines on this topic? And other reference materials. I'll cross post that query to the purchasing forum.

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

I think that to be satisfying from a cohesive character point of view (plus from that collector's need for coherence, which seems strong to me), you want to have some unifying theme in the collection. Maybe he likes brilliantly colored pens? He could have pens from across the world, from the 30s to current day, in a million beautiful colors. I can visualize it as reminiscent of a butterfly collection. I've always been attracted to the celluloid resin pens, that depth and richness of color, so maybe that's what brings that to mind for me.

I am not much of a pen geek, but it seems to me that a collection along those lines could include many of the old Conway Stewarts, as well as old Snorkels, Parkers, and Pelikans and lots of lovely new gaudy beauties, esp. some of the delicious Italian pens. Any of the brand forums here could give you delightful ideas (and pretty pictures!).

I love the names of pens, so evocative. Check out the Conway Stewart forum, you'll find just glorious names. Dinkies and Duros and Churchills (oh my).

Hi Patti,

This is getting so interesting...

He probably met people from Omas (even Armando Simoni in person; check Omas Web page) and Aurora, among other Italian pen makers.

Looking for books on these brands I found this Web page. Hope it helps.

Alejandro

Hi Patti,

I was wondering how long it would take to have the Fountain Pen Murders created!

Someone had a bunch of magiznes they were selling, don't know if they are still available::

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...85&hl=magazines

There was also a thread on available magazines:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...20&hl=magazines

I believe you r collector would probably have a Parker snake pen in his collection



A Gold Crown Pen





And a bicentenial pen



There was also a thread on world-wide pen manufacturers:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...2&hl=world+wide


-Bruce

Sonia - yes, I'm trying to figure out if he has a sort of "theme." Interestingly, you mentioned colors. That's true of one of the other characters! I love the idea of having a character who, say, collects only pens with odd names.

Alejandro - thanks. Just what I'm looking for. I'll be reading the links. I notice you have Omas, too. They are truly beautiful. And of course, the victim loves Aurora. Which is why the protagonist/heroine is named Aurora. (As I've said, she's so very disappointed to learn she was not named for the goddess of the dawn, but for a pen manufacturer. Of course, perhaps the company took its name from that goddess, which would also make sense. Hmmm.)

Bruce - thanks much. I've heard about the snake pens. I love the whole Hermes/Mercury/Asklepion cadeuces symbolism there.

How long? My goal/deadline is to have this first one completed by the end of the year. (And then, of course, I'll just have to release it to the universe and see if it wants to be published. But since I have no control over that, I really don't worry about it. Could be a year; could be ten years.) It took me 6 months to do the one I just completed, and it was quite a bit longer than this one will be. To have any market appeal in my genre (cozy/hobby mysteries, in general) they need to be only about 65-75K. Signet / Prime Crime publishes oodles of these for every hobby - soap making, candle making, needlepoint, pets, all kinds of collectibles - there is really a sub-genre called Collectible mysteries. That's the plan, anyway.

Having everyone's help and input definitely speeds up the research, by a huge margin. That's one of the reasons I'm so incredibly grateful for every suggestion or idea.

Namaste
Patti

Such a collector would have a swag of early, moderately obscure Italian pens. As well as the obvious OMAS and Aurora, there were a lot of companies that made pens that were derivative in design (to put it politely) on American pens, but made in beautiful plastics. These would not have been as expensive as the deluxe pens of the major makers, and he could have bought them, maybe used, when he lived in Italy. They are uncommon outside Italy. Now, you want some brand names, and I can't help you off-hand, but the standard books ought to help. Gives you opportunities like "<obscure but genuine brand name> looks like a copy of a Sheaffer, doesn't it? Now it's worth 4 times what an original would sell for. And it's more beautiful."

Pre-war and early post-war Montblancs are also highly desirable, but back in the day were good, but not outrageously expensive pens he could have bought as he got a bit of money. Some of the MBs in striated plastics look, in photos, as beautiful as anything.

There'd also be the first-year and experimental models, like the Parker Vacuum-Filler (IIRC), which was the first version of the Vacumatic, and the Parker "51" with a button-filling mechanism (called the Red Band "51", again IIRC). None of these are jewels of a collection, they're all about $500 - $1500 pens, but you're collector would likely have them as the ground of a collection -- "Here's an interesting pen. They didn't make many. Pity, really. Got it in a pawn shop in <funky district of Venice>."

Good luck

Michael

Patti, your character would be slightly younger than my parents and a member of a generation I know something about. I think you need to be sensitive to the time fame and the social environment of your character's life. A man in his mid-70's in 2006 would be part of America's Greatest Generation. He would have seen some of the worst social situations of the 20th Century, The Great Depression and World War II. If he collected pens for 50-some years, he would have been 20 when he started, and, in the Depression years, one did not make a fortune by age 20. Nor in that time frame did one become socially sophisticated and an international playboy. If he started out poor, he would have experienced a process toward wealth. What would that process look like?

If he were born in the mid-1930's, he would have turned 20 near the middle of World War II. Like so many of his generation, he might even have participated in the war and, for your novel, he might have been in the North African and Italian campaigns. Having been in Italy under those circumstances, he might have traded food or cigarrettes to the locals for hard trade goods, including fountain pens. Pens would be a good trade item for a GI because they were light weight, small and portable. This might have been the moment he discovered Italian pens in that some of the pens he received in trade were of really good quality. In broken Italian or through a local person who spoke English, he might have begun his quest to understand Italian pens better. For a native speaker of American English, the name "Aurora" would have been easy to pronounce and remember. In trading, he could have held up a pen (of any make) but asked for "Aurora," which someone trading would have had no trouble understanding.

Italian pens were made of some nice celluloids, some of which might have been colorful. Hence, the theme of colorful pens makes sense. He might also have had a thing for textured pens, like chased black hard rubber, and combined the two themes, color and texture. These combined themes would give your character access to a variety of pens.

Hey! This imagination thing is fun!

Have I helped?

Michael and FrankB -

Great suggestions and ideas and info, both of you. Thanks much!

Imagination is fun, isn't it?


Patti