Our web designer’s just launched a project to take this blog mobile (along with Rhodia Drive), and make it easier to read on mobile browsers… we’ve tested it on iPhones and Blackberries, but please let us know if you have any issues on your own cell phone/mobile device.

The YouTube clips don’t seem to embed properly, but everything else should be there.

Thanks, and happy browsing!

Image via tsuacctnt

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Bastille Day giveaway — we had more than 90 entries! Winners were selected randomly; their names… drumroll please…

TAO
Ryan
Katy
Joy
Dominic
Eric C
Richard
John (this one, not that one)

If your name is on this list, we’ve already sent you an email, so be sure to write back and give us your address! Otherwise, check back again soon for more giveaway goodies.

Bonne fête!

Image via notfrancois

As many of you know, today is Bastille Day en France, and to celebrate, we’re giving away Habanas to 8 lucky recipients!

We’ve got one blank and one ruled version in each cover color — black, red, raspberry, and lime — and to keep things fair (and simple), we’ll send one at random to each of our 8 winners.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post before Friday at 12:00 am EST. We’ll select the winners at random, and follow up via email to sort out addresses and such. So please don’t forget to include an email address when you comment! (Don’t worry, it won’t be published.)

Bonne chance!

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners, TAO, Ryan, Katy, Joy, Dominic, Eric C, Richard, and John!

Our latest Writers’ Project interview just launched!

This time, we spoke with bestselling suspense author Jeff Abbott, who told us about his life, his writing routines, and his new book, Adrenaline.

You can read the interview at the Writers’ Project website. And if you missed our last interview, with Damon Young, be sure to check it out in the archives.

I prefer a smaller datebook for the sake of portability, but the splendid new Note 27 Karen sent me makes me want to reconsider. It’s difficult to describe just how luxurious this planner feels. The paper is gorgeous, thick and glossy and smooth and crying out, in its understated ivory way, for fountain pens and tasteful inscriptions. A picture, and my pictures in particular, could never do it justice, but feast your imagination:

The layout gives you a full page for each week’s appointments and another page for notes; unlike many of our other planners, there’s also plenty of space for Sundays. There’s an address book insert tucked inside (its white cover sort of clashes with the other pages, but the paper itself is ivory), an “anno-planning” feature that gives you a quick overview of the year, and the usual maps and reference charts.

Alas, my little point-and-shoot camera did no justice whatsoever to my ink tests, but hopefully you’ll get the idea — beautiful feather-free writing and no bleed-through or show-through with anything other than a Sharpie. (And frankly, if you’re using this planner, I’d suggest you use a different writing utensil, anyway. It’s very classy.)

It’s that time of year again! This year’s National Stationery Show will take place at New York’s Javits Center from the 16th through the 19th, so please stop by if you’re in town…

Exaclair’s booth this year is #2537. We’ll be showing our new blank, 90g Habana notebooks, which come in black, red, raspberry, and key lime. We’ll also bring some eco-friendly Equology planners. New products from all of Exaclair’s brands will be on hand, including Rhodia, Clairefontaine, G. Lalo, and J. Herbin (which will feature, among other things, the new anniversary ink and a first look at the 100 ml bottles). And we’ll be offering a leather bag from Rhodia’s sumptuous Bagagerie collection as a raffle prize.

If you’re there Tuesday afternoon, be sure to say hello to Stephanie from Rhodia Drive, who’ll be coming in for the event. Karen and I will also be there at that time, and we’d be delighted to meet you!

If you can’t make it, not to worry: both Stephanie and I will blog about new products in the upcoming weeks and months.

Very cool environmental initiative we’re involved with through our parent company in France, which recently teamed up with Tree Nation to plant a forest of 100,000 trees in the Dosso Plantation in Niger.

The Quo Vadis forest will be financed through a portion of Habana sales in the U.S. and Europe — I’m not sure if other regions are participating — so whenever you purchase a Habana, you’ll be contributing to it. Eventually, we hope to include stickers on the Habanas themselves to help spread the word (see the image on the far right-hand side), but I’m not sure when that will happen.

At any rate, if you want to learn more about the program, check out the following website. There, if you’ve purchased a Habana, you can enter your name and email address to receive an official planter’s certificate and more information about the trees that are planted. Actually, there’s no code or anything, so you can sign up without making a purchase. But you’ll only be contributing to the forest if you do, of course.

The Quo Vadis forest isn’t the only thing we’re doing to help preserve the world’s forests, but it’s certainly an important initiative!

I had the privilege recently of asking Laurent Nusse, CEO of J. Herbin, a couple of questions via email about Rouge Hematite, the much-heralded red ink that was created to mark the company’s 340th anniversary.

Why red? Blue is the most common color, but Laurent said the company felt it was too conventional for an anniversary ink. They asked a few customers what colors would interest them, and a lot of people mentioned red; since Herbin’s original logo is red, the choice seemed obvious.

Why the name “hematite”? Hematite is a mineral that can be red, and the word is derived from the Greek word for “blood.” Since the ink has a dark red earth tone, Herbin felt that it matched the hematite association.

What’s up with the wax on the cap? It’s reminiscent of the way French grand crus are packaged, where sealing wax proves the authenticity and origin of the wine. Speaking of which, I should note that the company is apparently working on a new cap that’s sealed with stronger wax. (The 300 bottles we currently have in stock all have the old, fragile wax that’s been frustrating users and reviewers, unfortunately. UPDATE: The new bottles should be available in June.)

More lore and information to come…

Exciting news this morning: We’ve just launched a new feature on the website of our parent company, Exaclair, to celebrate writing, creativity, and the tools and minds that make it all possible.

Called the Writers’ Project, it includes interviews with authors from around the world who share tips and techniques and talk about their latest projects. Australian author Damon Young is our inaugural feature; visit the Writers’ Project homepage to learn more about Damon’s writing habits, his new book, Distraction, and the “tangible, intimate quality to the marriage of pen, ink and paper.”

You may have already noticed that this blog’s got a brand new look (thanks, April!). It’s also got some nifty new features: new categories, a new word cloud, a new list of our most popular posts… From a usability perspective, there’s also a new plugin that enables you to edit any comments you post, provided that:

• It’s within a certain time frame (around 30 minutes), and
• You are still at the same IP address.

Last but not least, there’s a new RSS feed that’s just for comments, which makes me wonder… Currently, the comments RSS signs you up for all comments that are posted to the site. Would it be more useful to have an(other) RSS feed for the comments to individual posts? If so, please let us know, and we will implement one!