You know those Bic four-colour pens?

A blue and white pen with four clicky buttons to choose black, blue, green, or red ink?

They’re still around, and Bic is still selling millions.

Back in the day, they were a minor status symbol in school. Either you were one of the cool kids with a Bic 4 Colour, or you were a lug. Unable to attend parties and other social occasions because you were too busy hauling four separate pens around.

I want one.

I still want one.

I hadn’t thought about them in years before internet research dangled one under my nose, and I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say I can’t think about anything else.

You remember them, right?

That strange click when the chosen colour clicked into place.

Do you remember that the top of the pen was a ball?

They added that for dialling rotary telephones, and it’s the only bit of the pen that’s changed in all these years. They replaced the ball with a hole for a lanyard.

Here’s something you already know:

Those pens would never win style awards.

But when you’ve got a Bic 4 colour, people are aware.

Those pens have character.

What writers call “voice.”

For me, that’s the most important part of a story.

If I don’t like the “voice” – the way the writer writes – then I can’t read the book.

And if I love the book, I don’t care what it’s about.

I just want to hear the story.

And I like to think my writing has a pretty unique voice.

You might not like my books.*

You might say they’re badly written.**

But you won’t mix them up with anybody else’s books.

Even though mix-ups are a huge part of the reason Professor de Glube and Mrs Sniffacre find it so difficult to get together in The Squared Circle, available here now!

Chat soon,

Morgan

P.S. More Morgan? Get 2 of my books free here: morgandelaney.info/newsletter

*Help me out. Buy them anyway.

**They’re not. Even the mistakes are deliberate, probably.