[David Alastair Hayden]

Daedalus app on the iPad using the Apple Wireless keyboard and usually the Origami Workstation. When I go to the final editing and then publishing stages I use Scrivener on my Mac Mini. I use the apps as they appear so nothing special to look at really if you ever seen them.

I write short stories and plot outlines using manual typewriters on my 1940's desk that I think was created to drop out of bombers onto Nazi installations. Thing is heavy. They don't make them like that anymore. Solid, all kinds of neat features.

Manual typewriters I most often use, won't list all ten, are my 1929 Royal Portable, '55 Hermes Rocket, '56 Olympia SM-3, and the 60's era Olympia SF.

The Olympia SM-3 is olive green and identical to the one embedded in the Tardis console deck for Series 5-7.

I need to take some snaps of the desk next time I'm in my office.

 

[David Alastair Hayden]

Do people in Alabama still use manuals? Do you realize if you moved to New York City, you could auction the 1929 Royal Portable for a quarter mill, at least.

We have hipsters like everywhere else. We're actually fortunate here in Birmingham to still have a typewriter repair store. That's unusual outside the major cities.

My 1929 Royal Portable is in perfect condition. It would likely fetch $250-300 at best anywhere.

Unless used by a famous authors, 20th century typewriters, even the rare ones when refurbished, will seldom cost more than $1k.

Working manual typewriters are easy to come by. Buying these things back in the day was like buying a computer now. A major investment. Except that people expected them to last decades even with frequent use. And they did and still do. Any manual that was cared for and used properly (and stored correctly!) is still useable.

NYC does seem to have been the epicenter of the typewriter revival. But that may just be because it gets more media attention.