Have you ever noticed how writers tend to behave the same way? They take themselves seriously, tell jokes no one else gets, drink enough coffee to keep ten South American bean pickers employed for a year, and spend countless nights chasing down an idea, plot, or the perfect name for a character.

Knowing this and knowing only too well that a writer would not be a writer without his share of eccentricities, you find yourself agonizing over the present to get your writer friend. But you know what? You can rest easy now. Here’s a gift idea your quirky pal would surely appreciate. It doesn’t matter where he works or how he does his work. Whether he’s a journalist who gets deployed to all the war-ravaged areas of the world, a copywriter who edits brochures and product descriptions for a living, or an editor who pens the most scathing editorials his side of the equator, the humble pen would remain his necessary tool of trade.

Get your writer friend Cross pen sets. Then, give this elegant present an offbeat twist by adding Dead Fred to the set. No, I don’t mean Fred the plumber who shows up just as the flooding in the kitchen dries up. Dead Fred is that little red man who obligingly lies prostate and er, dead, while someone jabs him with a pen. Dead Fred would be the perfect complement to a Cross pen set. With Fred to stab over and over and over, your writer friend would not only be able to release pent-up frustrations, he wouldn’t keep losing his Cross pen, too. He could simply stab Fred by the heart, and leave him there - quiet as a mouse and deader than a doornail. With Dead Fred and a Cross pen set, your friend could transform his workdesk from a disaster area into a crime scene. Tell me, what writer wouldn’t want that?