If you’ve been with me since the beginning of Journey Juju, you may recall the sad day I lost my special pen in Sintra, Portugual. The pen had been gifted to me by a group of my clients and I cherished it. Until I lost it mere days after I set out on my year-long journey in Europe.
But I do believe that most events like that that seem distressing aren’t really so bad. I mean, no one died.
Still, I wanted that pen back. The Retro 1951 brand makes an incredible and perfect pen called the Tornado. I’ve been gifted many fancy pens in my life, and this is the first one that actually worked well. The ink flows fast, the barrel of the pen is smooth and of a perfect heft, and the design of a pastiche of postage stamps was very pleasing to my travel Muse.
This spring, I priced the Tornado in fancy pen shops in Paris and London, but since the pen is already expensive, I held off on paying the extra cost of paying in euros or pounds.
When I returned to Denver, I set out to replace my pen. I couldn’t find the cool stamp design online. I happened to be at Meininger’s during their pen sale month (May). They didn’t have the stamp design either, so I bought a beautiful blue-barreled pen. Ah, the feel of it! The flow of the ink!
I vowed never to take it out of the house, to use it only in the office or studio. I was happy with my pen juju until I got an email in August that made me even happier.
Turns out that somewhere along the way on my online quest, I had filled out a form to be in the Retro 1951 focus group. They were letting me know that they’d be sending me some items later for me to test.
It sounded great, but I forgot about it until I got a package from them. Now the real joy and pen juju kicked in.
In the package was a new Tornado pen, called the Dreamcatcher. The design is of a woman in a starry landscape with a star catcher in her hand. It’s delightful and whimsical and best yet, it glows in the dark.
And writes just as well as the other Tornado pens. Also in the package were some other stuff, a leather pen case, a deck of cards, the kind of thing you liked to get as a kid.
To fulfill my duties in the focus group, I answered a questionnaire. I mentioned that sometimes the flow catches on certain paper, and Jill, my Retro 1951 contact, sent me a new ink cartridge to try. It works great.
Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of the Retro 1951 Tornado pens. I recommend them as a gift for any writer.
And I am happy to say that my pen juju has definitely made a turn for the better since I lost my first one in Sintra.
![](<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=62013&cl=11220" target="ejejcsingle"><img src="http://vivelaslink.typepad.com/31bbb125x125.jpg "/></a>){kind=link}