Ink Trivia

Ink Trivia

Question: What is the difference between ink bottles and ink wells?

Answer: Inkwells are different from ink bottles in that they are filled from ink bottles and are used as a temporary home. Their purpose is to house the ink in a convenient place for the writer. Traveling ink wells are a classic example of its portable use.

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Writer Quotes

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” - Eugene Ionesco

“If I waited till I felt like writing, I’d never write at all.” - Anne Tyler

“Forget about all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.” - Melinda Haynes

“Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” - Louis L’Amour

“The writer is by nature a dreamer – a conscious dreamer.” – Carson McCullers

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Writer Corner

William Faulkner had some specific ideas about becoming a writer. You become a writer simply by reading and writing.

“Read, read, read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it is not, throw it out the window!”

“Don’t be a writer, be writing.”

“You don’t need writing classes or seminars any more than you need this or any other book on writing.” Faulkner learned his trade while working in the Oxford, Mississippi post office. Other writers have learned the basics while serving in the Navy, working in steel mills or doing time in America’s finer hotels.

Faulkner’s strong commitment to writing still lives on.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of William Faulkner’s generosity in using his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings to create the William Faulkner Foundation among the charitable goals of the foundation was "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers."

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens.

Write everywhere and often.

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Writing Corner

“The perfect pen and the perfect paper and me working on work that pleases me and has no note for the critics.” - John Steinbeck

Edgar Allan Poe believed that handwriting is an indication of character revealing our “mental qualities.” Indeed, the marks we leave on the paper are our most intimate of thoughts. Few exercises offer the not always seamless collaboration between brain and body like that direct line of the brain and the tip of the pen reaching paper creating copy.

John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902–December 20, 1968) captures this curious role of the pen as a negotiator between brain and body in a series of disarming observations in Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath. This remarkable volume that gives us a glimpse of how the great writer used the diary as a tool of discipline and a hedge against self-doubt when he embarked on the most intense writing experience of his life, the masterwork that earned him the Pulitzer Prize and his Nobel Prize.

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Writer Quotes

“My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does, a fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.” -
Graham Greene, English playwright and novelist

“The pen is the tongue of the mind.” -  Horace, leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus

“Steadily my pen filled the sheet and those long-thought-out words came nearer and nearer.” -
C. S. Forester, British historical novelist

“In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.” -  Pearl S. Buck, Pulitzer Prize winning American author

"Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul." - Joseph Brodsky, Russian born American poet

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Writer Quotes

 “Caesar had perished from the world of men, had not his sword been rescued by his pen.” - Henry Vaughan

“You want to be a writer, don't know how or when? Find a quiet place, use a humble pen.” - Paul Simon

“Putting pen to paper lights more fires than matches ever will!” - Malcolm Forbes

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.” - Truman Capote

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think...” - Lord Byron

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Woman Writer Quotes

“Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.” - Jane Austen

“The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.” - Julia Ward Howe

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in her works.” - Virginia Woolf

“The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my
pen every weekday morning.” - Anne Tyler

“In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.” - Pearl S. Buck

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Pen Trivia

                                                                        Pen Names:  

A pen name is a pseudonym adopted by an author. It is used to make the author’s name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing or the aesthetic presentation of the work. The author’s name may be known only to the publisher, or may come to be common knowledge.  See if you can match the real names with the pen names!

Real Name

1.)    Stephen King

2.)   Samuel Clemens

3.)   Chloe Anthony Wofford

4.)   Anne Rampling

5.)   William Sydney Porter

6.)   Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

7.)   Daniel Handler

8.)   Allen Stewart Konigsberg

9.)   Eric Arthur Blair

10.) Mary Ann Evans

Pen Name

1.)    Lewis Carroll

2.)   Anne Rice

3.)   George Eliot

4.)   O. Henry

5.)   Woody Allen

6.)   George Orwell

7.)   Richard Bachman

8.)   Toni Morrison

9.)   Lemony Snicket

10.) Mark Twain

Pen name answers:

1.)    - #7

2.)   - #10

3.)    - #8

4.)    - #2

5.)   - #4

6.)   - #1

7.)   - #9

8.)   - #5

9.)    - #6

10.) - #3

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Montblanc Honore de Balzac Writer Series Ink - Dandy Turquoise

 Montblanc Honore de Balzac Writer Series Ink - Turquoise

- Leena Menon

Every year Montblanc releases the famous Writer Series Limited Edition Pens.  For past 3 years they have been releasing the famous Writer Series Ink Bottles in limited quantities to match with these writers series  edition.  All of the writer series inks have shown some wonderful colors and have been an instant hit with the customers.  The Carlo Collodi Brown ink bottle, Jonathan Swift Sea Weed Ink bottle has been an instantaneous hits with customers.  Customers still ask for the Carlo Collodi Brown ink but alas they are sold out and in fact one customer bought 24 of them to keep them in stock.

So what makes Montblanc  Writer Series Limited Edition ink so special?  Well for one they are a perfect match to the Limited edition series.  I would say it should be included with the purchase of the respective Montblanc  Writer Series limited edition pens and that is exactly what we do it also ( as long as it is in stock since the ink fanatics ( me! me!) can really empty those shelves in no time).  Another reason is the lubrication of these inks are fantastic.  They are a perfect companion for your Montblanc fountain pens and in fact any of the fountain pens. They do flow easily, so those with heavy flowing nibs have to be aware.  Their drying time is  pretty good ( please see the image with smearing done in 1 seconds, 5 Seconds). But I think the best reason that they are so famous is that the ink colors so far has been outstanding and have special meaning towards the author.

This year's writer series limited edition - 2013 is in the honor of Honoré de Balzac.   It is an interesting choice by Montblanc as some of the work by this author has been banned from some countries.  But I guess above all it is the author and the hard work that writers put forth which needs to be accounted.

The ink for the Limited Edition 2013 is nicely called Dandy Turquoise ink ( it was initially marketed as Sandy Turquoise ink, but then in the end it was decided to be Dandy.  So it is all sandy-dandy!).  The turquoise is a beautiful shade and if you remember the discontinued Montblanc Turquoise ink, it is a little shade darker than that.  There is no or little feathering of the ink.


I have given a sample writing with the ink on my favorite Rhodia Meeting book on 80g Clairfontaine paper.  Rhodia papers are usually very ink resistant and does take little bit of extra time to dry. The plus side is that you can use both sides of the paper with a fountain pen with some smooth writing.  The pen used for testing is Pelikan M200 with Italic Nib.

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The repeated swab tests shows that the ink has a nice turquoise color to it.  I have also tried the dip pen test where I have kept the dip pen for 4 min to get a darker turquoise color ( I love this color! Need to ask Noodlers to create some for us )

The ink is beautiful and the picture does not do full justification especially if you love turquoise color.  The bottle is a nice thick bottle just like the Jonathan Seaweed Ink bottle.

Get  this collectible  bottle of ink today while it lasts.  Believe me they are worth it. 

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