Editing The Pen Addict 108/transcript (section)

== Pen Bloggers ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So, you should check out this, you should check out this guy, Tim, that writes this blog, Funkmon on Pens. And so, he's a, he's a pretty interesting character, so I think everyone, everyone would like this blog.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' I hear he's dreamy too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, I want to, I want to talk to you about how that started. But I want to talk to you first about how you and I even came to have a conversation together. So, it's kind of a two-part story. So, it was only, it was like a few weeks ago, I found your blog through somehow. And I added it to my ink links, which I post on Saturdays on the Pen Addict blog. And about two days later, I get an email from this guy, Tim Fletcher. It's like, hey, thanks for the link, but how did you find me? It was like, it was like you didn't want to be found. It was like you, I felt kind of bad. I was like, did I, did I let the secret out or something?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Have I outed this guy? Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I think that was, I think that was the extent of the email. It was like a one-sentence email. It was like, hey, thanks for the link. How did you find me? So, what made you, yeah. So, what made you even reach out to me in the first place? Because you and I, before like two, three weeks ago, you and I have never talked ever.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' That's correct. Not that you know of.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not that I know of, yeah.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' The, well, it was, my stats had jumped on my WordPress blog. Not by much, because that was actually the, that was a review of a Pilot Metropolitan that a lot of people had been passing around. And I had had a lot of views. But I noticed that a big one was Reddit. And a big one was the Fountain Pen Network forum. And then another big one was the Pen Addict website. And I'm like, hey, I know that website. I go there sometimes. And I went to find the page. And it was the Ink Links page. And I'm like, wow, these guys have found my stupid WordPress blog. I wonder how. And then I emailed. And that was that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And so I, I don't know what made it so funny to me that, I don't know, I guess I just enjoyed your style of, I enjoyed your style of writing. And you and I shared several emails just about, you know, a few different things. And then we went on about our merry way. And then like a week later, we both get attached in a tweet from friend of the show, Tony Roman at Supermassive. Tony is a Pen Addict extraordinaire. He's been a longtime listener. And his tweet says, he says, Doughty is, I found Funkmon via your Ink Links. His review style is hilarious. And I bet he'd be a great guest on the show. So, so Tim replies, I do occasionally podcast according to my Twitter bio. Also, holy crap, I have fans. And then, and then my next reply was, yeah, I replied right there. I said, let's make it happen, Tim. That was, that was eight days ago. You and I came together on, on the, on the back end, got it scheduled, got it worked out. So like in the span of like two weeks, you've gone from unknown.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' You came together on the back end, huh?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You've gone from unknown blogger to pen addict, uh, guest, uh, superstar. So what do you feel about that?

'''Tim Fletcher:''' I feel great. And it was all thanks to you guys. And, uh, I'd like to thank my mother and, uh, Jesus.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' Jesus and Pen. I don't know if you knew that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So Myke, you know who, you know who Tim reminds me of? And I'm going to really put the pressure on him here if he, uh, if he knows who this is. But Tim reminds me a lot of John Roderick and the way his inflection is and the way he talks.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. Now you say I do. I notice it. Was he also an underwear model?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' He very, you know what? He very well could have been an underwear model. I would not put anything past John.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah. At all. There's a strong chance that that's happened at some point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But that's what, ever since I've heard you talk right out the gate, I was like, God, this guy is like John Roderick in pre-incarnated, like maybe 10 years younger. Wait, how old is this John Roderick? Oh, okay. He's not that old. He's still alive. He's still alive. Yeah. No. He's only in his 40s, I think. Oh, okay. So, Tim Fletcher from Funkmon on Pins, why do you have a pen blog?

'''Tim Fletcher:''' Well, the whole scheme was primarily to become famous on the internet.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' That's the only reason you start a website, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' But in actual, I started liking fountain pens out of nowhere. I couldn't tell you why. And then I decided because I have this hobby, I might as well figure out a way to rationalize it. And I rationalized it by starting a blog. A blog on WordPress didn't have its own domain, despite me owning several domains. Just a WordPress blog, and I figured if people like it, they will like it. And that's something. Because like on the first review I did of the Monte Verde Impressa, Pen Chalet retweeted or tweeted about it. Because I bought it from them, and they were mentioned. And then Monte Verde, the pen company, shared it on their Twitter and Facebook page. And then people really liked that. So then that was all the validation I needed. As long as I have an audience of three or four people, I will keep writing stupid stuff online.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's a pretty good feedback right out the gate, I would say.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' Yeah, and it was, and it spoiled me for all the terrible feedback I would receive later. One person said, on the Pilot Metropolitan Review, that person said, I think I may have just read the worst pen review of all time.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' Isn't that fantastic? I mean, a lot of people can say, I write pretty good pen reviews, but only one person can have the worst pen review of all time. And that's this guy right here.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That actually takes talent.

'''Tim Fletcher:''' Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I wasn't even trying. So I mean, if I really tried, I could probably make the worst anything.