Have Pen, Won’t Travel… reads the card of a man
Have Pen, Won’t Travel. Indeed so.
A curious title for a less than curious blog, no? Maybe not, but I had to call it something.
Anyways, my name is Nick James and I’m a writer (a published one at that). I have numerous bits and bobs scattered across the length and breadth of the internet, as well as in that tried and trusted old dog, print.
I am the author of Head Full of Snow, the psychedelic and progressive rock website that’s making ripples in certain corners of my imagination, and an occasional contributor to both LateMag.com and Little White Lies. But music and film aren’t my only vices.
Gadgetry, technology and ultimately useless stuff I can ill-afford also stokes the creative fires of @jeffman – as I’m known in web circles. Why Jeffman? Why not?
But enough about me and a little more about this blog, and why it’s here. Well firstly it’s somewhere away from the confines of Head Full of Snow for me to just – for want of a better word – freestyle. That could mean anything. Essays, articles, observations, everyday shit… This will be a little window onto the world of Jeffman, filled with whatever takes my fancy at the time of posting. It may work, it may not. One thing’s for sure, I’m not going to change the world here; I’ll leave that for my other ventures (ahem).
Secondly, it’s also here to put my availability for writing projects (web or print) out there onto the fine institution we call the worldwide web. As a freelance writer I have dipped an eager finger into every pie of the modern-day scribe:- from blogger/ content creator to copywriter/ editor in digital and printed mediums; right down to the humblest of journalists, all in a paid capacity. As an article writer, there’s no subject from which I’ll shy.
My contact details and further info can be found on this very website. Just click on one of the relevant links in the navigation bar above.
Finally, why the name “Have Pen, Won’t Travel”?
Well I’ve just taken the title of a popular Western TV series of the late 50s, Have Gun – Will Travel, and subverted it for my own end.
The “Have Pen” obviously references the tool of a writer’s trade. Even in the age of Microsoft Word, digital voice recorders and the world at your fingertips, ideas can still originate from the nib of a pen – Pilot Fineliners being my own weapon of choice. Whether scrawling half asleep on a scrap of paper in the early hours of the morning or making the roughest of drafts within the pages of a trusty Pukka pad, the pen, in this instance, is more than a symbolic concept. Unlike “Won’t Travel”, which is completely symbolic and nothing more than a light-hearted comment on the essentially reclusive process of writing and the fact that the internet has opened up so many channels and possibilities, one need never leave the house again.
Stick around to see how things pan out.
introduction, jeffman, website | Jeffman | 
October 26, 2009 12:49 am
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Nick James is a freelance copywriter and blogger, providing web and print-based copywriting services to businesses across all industries. He also writes 
By Sizemore, October 28, 2009 @ 5:43 pm
Nice.
Earlier this month I was reading up on ‘Have Gun Will Travel’ and figured no one else cared about it. Glad to be proved wrong.
By Jeffman, October 28, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
Thanks Mike.
Seems to be the one of the lost relics of a bygone time and genre – the American western TV series. British TV heaved with likeminded imports on the cusp of the 50 and 60s. ‘Rawhide’, ‘Wagon Train’, ‘Maverick’, ‘Bonanza’… hell, even the kids were at it with ‘Champion the Wonder Horse’.
Nowadays only ‘Deadwood’ springs to mind, or perhaps the more traditional ‘Paradise’ of the 80s. Gone, but not forgotten.
Incidentally, ‘Have Gun – Will Travel’ stands out because of childhood days spent hearing my dad sing the theme tune somewhere in the background.