My new friend, Gerald Posner (yes, the author) posted a story on Facebook from the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the growing number of people “rediscovering the virtues of a manual typewriter.”

Many of these folks are writers, people who have had a very special relationship with these machines because they helped them create their masterpieces. I can only assume that the sounds and the feel of the keys possibly bring back some of inspiration and motivation they had in their early years.

As a result of this renewed interest, several inventors are reinventing the typewriter to be digital machines. Two of them raised significant money on Kickstarter.

The first one is the Qwerkwriter.

The Kickstarter campaign explains that the “The Qwerkywriter is an 84 key, USB, Bluetooth enabled, typewriter-inspired mechanical keyboard that simulates a tactile clickity-clack feel of a vintage typewriter. It features custom typewriter-inspired keycaps, an integrated tablet stand, and a detachable USB cable via mini-USB port.” To learn more about what the Qwerkywriter can do, click here

The next digital typewriter is the Hemingwrite.

Kickstarter claims that The Hemingwrite is a distraction-free writing tool. “It combines the simplicity of a typewriter with all of the modern conveniences of living in 2014: cloud documents, e-paper display, and full-size mechanical keyboard. To read more about it, click here.

Both digital typewriters will be available later this year. Both Kickstarter campaigns point out that unlike computers these machines just allow writers type their stories without the distraction of the Internet. This may be what they need to stay focused. Good luck!

By the way, Gerald Posner’s new book “God’s Bankers: A History of Money & Power at the Vatican” is due out next month, I think it’s so terrific that, in my estimation, a major studio is going to grab the movie rights immediately,

Wikipedia lists Posner as an American investigative journalist and author of several books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK(1993) which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination, and Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998).

His wife Trisha is also a very successful author and helps Gerald with his books as well.