Victoria Patterson Recommends...

theaveragepoet says...

I love my Moleskine. Before my Moleskine era, I never finished a whole journal. Now, I am working on my third Moleskine journal! I am glad to have come upon this wonder of a journal and I hope to continue buying them for the rest of my life.

Byron says...

Hi Victoria,

Like yourself, I also love Moleskine. I take mine with me everywhere I go and don't know what I would do without it!

Lately, I have gotten very into accessories with the purchase of a brand new leather moleskine cover form Molecover ( http://www.molecover.com ).

I have followed these guys 2 years on Twitter, and finally pulled the trigger and bought one of their Moleskine covers. It's natural bound leather adds quite a bit of class and it protect my Moleskine. I love it, and have no regrets in my purchase!

jdblair says...

My magnificent Moleskines have become an appendage. I have written complete one-act plays in them when I'm away from my computer. They somehow lead to free-form thinking and creativity for me. I'm always amazed at how much they hold in the way of ideas and thoughts...thoughts that would have been lost had I not jotted them down.

landwoman says...

Haven't saved up enough for a smartphone yet. So I have multiple notebooks. One in my regular backpack, one in my easy-on-your-back backpack, and one in my purse. Oh, and one that stays at home. I've already got a big box full of these things, each full of my observations for a year or 3 of my life. So when I'm 84 and have time on my hands, I should have plenty of material.

I'm not a complete Luddite, tho. I'm negotiating a contract on my 2nd book (nonfiction), and I keep a 2nd back-up out there in the ether. Wouldn't want to lose my latest revisions of *Pursued by Conscience: Former Fugitive Katherine Ann Power* in a fire, flood, burglary, hurricane, tornado, tsunami!

MrDSmith says...

I hate to be the one to burst the ludite bubble, but I converted from Moleskine to smartphone and haven't looked back. There are applications I use to take and save notes, create and edit Word documents, and keep them all safely stored online so I never "lose" any of it.

zviasesling@comcast.net says...

Always keep a Moleskin and comfortable pen in my shirt pocket. Also name, address and phone in book with offer of reward if found (though not a billion dollars). Love the pocket in the back for clips that inspire new poems.
Tried many things and this is the best.

walterhisownself says...

I too use a Moleskine to write notes while listening to writing podcasts on the bus, spontaneous ideas, premises for film scripts, dialogue, lists of things to do, etc. I enjoy writing in longhand and commit that I will do a minimum of 30 minutes of writing everyday no matter what may try to prevent me. I then type my screenwriting notes or dialogue or other actual screenwriting drafts into Movie Magic Screenwriter or Final Draft. I've have used a Moleskine in this manner since 2006 and always carry it with me, whether going to the day job on the express bus or watching the San Francisco Giants game.

greg_eye says...

This sounds like a wonderful idea....I'm going to try it !
I'm a poet and always have words...ideas swirling around in my head.
Greg

jensens says...

I have the Moleskine scribble habit from way back, too. I love my new SmartPen. I still write in a Moleskine journal (it has special paper for the Smart Pen), but now my handwriting gets translated to text. From there, I can revise or post to my blog. Ain't technology wonderful?!

BradB says...

Wish I had read your suggestion about the billion dollar reward before I lost one....
It was like losing a piece of my soul.

Lia says...

Some interesting info on Moleskine, now made mostly in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moleskine

pdy818 says...

Love the reminder, Victoria. Thanks. Glad to know that I'm not the only one. ;) I too love the Moleskine possibilies. In fact, I just found a lovely Moleskine cover. I have one for my Kindle. http://www.oberondesign.com/moleskine.php

It's pricey, but worth the money, 'cause it will last a lifetime. Just hope that I continue to get a lot of wear out of it.

Pamela

birgitte says...

Hi Victoria!

I too carry (or carried) a little Moleskine. Sadly, last week at my son's talent show, I left it in the gymnasium. No one has returned it to me, in spite of my name being in it and yeah, a billion $ reward. I'm a bit shell shocked. It contained about a year's worth of notes on my novel...of course they were all perfect and poignant and the EXACT thing I needed to write the next blockbuster.

So, note to self: Transcribe my Moleskine notes into a word file periodically so that the only thing I have to worry about is computer crashes and Dropbox dying.

Signed, "Shattered in Seattle"