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Robert nearly flipped over the handlebars of his bike when he saw the sign. Nestled between a poorly pruned shrub and a table full of household junk for sale, the cardboard, hand-lettered sign read, “Free Rent.” As a bike messenger who liked to spend most of his money getting high, a rent-free apartment was akin to manna from heaven. “I don’t know, it sounds fishy,” Jessica said with a toss of her auburn hair.

Rating: 3.0 October 09, 2010 Pelikan has just released a new line of premium inks called Edelstein, which means “gemstone” in German. There are seven colors in the line, all intended to represent a jewel tone: Onyx, Sapphire, Topaz, Jade, Aventurine, Mandarin, and Ruby. As of the date of this review, all but Onyx are available via US retailers. Like many ink collectors, I was eagerly awaiting the line, and I ordered a bottle of Ruby as soon as I got word that they were in.

Running into the woman that paid to have you killed for your life insurance is enough to startle anyone. She strolled by, as the setting summer sun warmed the nape of my neck, wearing the cornflower dress that I bought her last summer and the black pumps that were two sizes too big – the ones that her heels popped out of with each step. I caught her distinctive gait out of the corner of my eye while I sopped up a plate of olive oil and sea salt with the remnants of a warm baguette.

John couldn’t think of a single good reason for a severed head to be in his bathtub. Not one. There was no blood to speak of – just a cleanly severed head lying in the center of the tub, staring up at the ceiling. He struggled with how to react. He thought about vomiting, but the lack of blood failed to create a visceral impact – and he’d never been particularly squeamish to begin with.

It’s October, which means that it’s high time for some horror stories. Each Friday this month, I’ll presenting a different short story for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy them. Stay tuned for the first installment tomorrow.

The October installment of the ongoing Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper is now online at Journaling Arts. There are lots of great articles this month (including my Diamine Oxblood review), so be sure to check it out!

The monsters wake upon this day To crawl out of their graves To shamble forth from fetid bogs And slither out of caves They fly from fright’ning mountain tops Out of their wicked lairs They peek between the closet doors And shamble up the stairs With sharpened fangs and dripping claws They bear their frightful gifts A bunch of skulls, a clutch of bones, Some fingers, toes and ribs At once they bow to you, my dear

Loomi asks: Why did you choose Tumblr for your weblog? What do you appreciate about Tumblr, and what would you fix about it? Will you tell me something about Tumblr people? Do you like your traffic for instance? So why Tumblr? Well, I had a blogger account for quite a while and never used it. I think the tools and choices were too overwhelming. It is a service that’s geared to longish blog posts.

Rating: 5.0 September 30, 2010 I’ve been keeping writing journals for well over a decade, since I began the practice back in college. During that time I’ve used a wide variety of notebooks: ruled Moleskines, leather-bound blank journals, books with black paper that had to be written on with colorful gel pens, books that cost one-dollar, books that cost sixty dollars, spiral bound, hard bound, hand-bound, large, medium, small – the list goes on and on.

Rating: 4.0 September 21, 2010 Pelikan Blue Black is a member of Pelikan’s 4001 ink line – their standard, bottled fountain pen inks. It is a pleasant blue-grey that reminds me of denim, and is moderately saturated while exhibiting a modicum of shading. The color of the ink is not dramatically affected by the color of paper – it lays down a consistent line on both bright-white Rhodia paper and off-white Moleskine paper.