Why I Started This Newsletter

In 2021, just as the pandemic was slowly winding down, I texted one of my best friends to ask if he wanted to go to the San Francisco Pen Show. Up until then, I had never been to a pen show. My friend’s response was quite typical of him. Being a data-driven man, he shared data about infection spikes. It was a firm “no.” We didn’t go. Instead, we planned for a year later.

He was my one true pen friend. We were both our best educators and worst pen enablers. I educated him on Nakayas and Urushi. He waxed eloquent about Conid Pens. He convinced me that I needed to write with Sailor Seiboku. I got him a bottle of Konpeki.

Between nerding out about Internet infrastructure, data centers, the follies of venture capitalists, we talked endlessly about “Tomoe River” and notebooks. Daryl Lim was someone we thought was worthy of our obsessive genius award. I couldn’t get him off the Pilots. And he couldn’t stop me from wasting my money on Montblancs.

He was the only pen friend I needed. A couple of weeks before the 2022 San Francisco Pen Show rolled around, he was gone. We never got to go to a pen show together.

Sad, angry and bereft, I decided to go to the pen show. I felt I had to be there for both of us. I walked around, looked at various things, and even shopped for a few pens. It was less joy and more of a mercantile way of dealing with grief that comes with losing a real friend.

Over the next year or so, I haunted online forums like Reddit. But none of them were a replacement for my one-on-one conversations about pens, paper, and ink. I tried to make up for all that by buying a lot of pens. It was compensation, really. Not surprising, since the 2022 pen show, the number of pens I own has exploded.

Of course, I was doing it wrong. It wasn’t until earlier this summer this buying binge wasn’t about the pens, but about finding a kindred soul. Just as I have had to find different ways to talk and think about “internet and cloud” infrastructure, I have found new ways to be educated about pens. I have made a whole series of new friends from all walks of life. Pen friends of different ages, and different demographics. One or two have become very close pals.

And in the end, that is what this 36-month journey has been all about. About the people. This is a realization that I had when driving home from the recently concluded San Francisco Pen Show. Many of the conversations I had at the show are a variation of what my buddy and I would have had. It is a shame we didn’t get to visit the show together, but I am glad I took him in my heart.

The connection with people is why I decided to start this newsletter. I want to share my journey with fellow pen lovers. Sometimes I will write about a pen I bought and what I think of it. On another occasion, it might be about the design of a pen. I will write about innovation in this centuries-old industry. And I will write about mavericks whose work inspires me. I am looking to combine my love for photography with writing.

As is the case with all my writing these days, there is no set schedule. After a lifetime of being on deadline, I can’t be a slave to an invisible master. When I am ready, I will share. There is no agenda, no special plan, and definitely no advertising or commercialization. Fountain pens, like photography, are an obsession. If this sounds like a good deal, how about signing up for my newsletter.

September 6, 2025. San Francisco