Creative Writing Piece: Night Driving

I was told by a fan of this blog I should post more, and furthermore that they would like to see some of my creative writing.  I had a vision of this being a blog just about typewriters and typewriter-esque things, but I am happy to share some of my writing if you want to see it!  I will clearly be marking all of my poetry or creative writing as such so that those of you only interested in typewriter things can just glaze over it.  For the rest of you who are interested, please enjoy and look forward to more posts like this one:

Sometimes saying to oneself "Ok, let's just write like Kerouac" is a method for writing terrible stuff, and sometimes it turns out all right.  I did this bit in three quick drafts in rapid succession, the first to just barf it all out.  Then I read it aloud, noted to myself which parts I did not like, and then wrote the second draft copying the first draft and making adjustments and adding and subtracting a few things.  Then I read that aloud, and marked and made changes with a pen, reading it several times.  I then typed this draft you see having made all my changes in pen and adding just a few more, mostly adding or removing punctuation or single words.

Pop's Ice Cream and Soda Bar : A Perfect Place to Type

Strawberry banana ice cream soda and a Hermes 3000 I bought and blogged with 

Brandon making a tasty treat on the 80 year old soda fountain 

Word on the Street - Hand Typed Poems

My FAQ designed so people could answer questions while I thought or typed.  Very few people seemed interested in reading it though. 

These excellent photos were taken by my friend Curt Ramsey.

My Favorite Typewriter (is mine now!)

I guess I have two machines I often call my favorite; one is a favorite for writing and one is the one I most enjoy owning.  I love the Royal Aristocrat/Arrow/Quiet De Luxe for writing and I own several.  One particular Aristocrat is my favorite and another Aristocrat is my most used (the one pictured above).  It is hard to top these Royals for typing experience, at least in regard to my own personal tastes.  The Underwood I love for several reasons.  I am pretty interested in World War 2 and I have been for most of my life.  A typewriter that served my country was really high on my want list for a long time before I found this.  There are machines labeled as Navy and others labeled as Army but I was particular to the Navy once since my father was an officer in the Navy and so are a handful of my extended family and friends.I grew up around.  The Underwood has a few features modified for military use including an easy to read 9-pitch typeface and a shift lock to keep the carriage from bobbing in an airplane. 

So, what if these two favorite machines could be combined into just one?  Well, here is a 1942 Royal Arrow built for and used by the U.S. Navy during the second World War.  I am so psyched to have this.  It was actually a gift from a fellow typospherian who knew I wanted it badly and decided he would like to give it to me.  Wow!  This has been THE top machine on my want list for a few years now, and well, here it is!  Will it be the sole favorite machine?  Probably not, because the large all caps typeface is not always appropriate or preferable, but it is way more a favorite than the Underwood already was.  And it types just like those other Royals... and sometimes you do need large all caps... ok, it's probably the best candidate for Mark's favorite typewriter.  It's so awesome.

Public Typing: Addendum

Public Typing: Just Do It!

Typewriter Pricing

I hope this information will be helpful to anyone unsure about decisions related to purchasing a typewriter.  Learning how to buy typewriters is a process just as anything is, but with the right attitude I think it can be pretty straight-forward and simple.