Coffee Novelist

Notes from Meditations

Coffee Novelist

September 18, 2025

Wow. I found this in my drafts folder. I thought I had posted more about Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. I guess not.

It strikes me that since I read Meditations that Ai has been creeping more and more into our lives and even our minds. In the year or so that I read Meditations, Ai has become part of our everyday lives. Nothing has changed in humans since the times of Aurelius. The mind and the power of a single thought remain the origin for all the best things we have done. And the worst of course, but then you can’t have one without the other. Meditations is a warning, to me at least, that giving even one original, unique thought away to an external source is at best a waste, and at worst, terrifying. As for me, I hope we never give up our ability to use our own minds in exchange for the slight of hand of convenience and someone’s else’s financial gain.

Writing down things is always a good way fix them in your mind
all the thoughts and feelings that disrupt the tranquility are generated by one’s own mind and can therefore be dispelled by one’s own mind
Most people mistakenly think what is good for them is pleasure (ease, convenience)
you dishonor yourself and make your happiness depend on the souls of others
the only life anyone loses is this one, the one he’s living and the only life anyone lives is the one he loses
when figs are fully ripe, they split open, and in the case of ripe olives the very fact that they are on the verge of rotting gives the fruit a specific kind of beauty.
you have to exclude everything purposeless and random from the sequence of your thoughts
there’s no retreat more peaceful and untroubled than a man’s own mind
the universe is change, and life a supposition
see how, agitated by vain projects, each of them failed to act in harmony with his own nature
So spend this fleeting moment of time living in accord with nature, and take your leave with serenity, as a ripe olive might fall, blessing the earth that bore it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth
the earth which has supplied my food and drink day after day for so many years-the earth which bears me as I trample it and abuse it in so many ways
a man who’s done good doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but goes on to the next good deed, as vine goes on to bear grapes again in its season
it’s frightening then, that ignorance and obsequiousness are stronger than wisdom
“Once I was a lucky man, wherever I was to be found”
a modest respect for your own mind won’t only make you happy with yourself, but also congenial to others and in harmony with the Gods
the mind is indifferent to all activity except what it is currently engaged on

No, I didn’t generate this image with Ai. I would have more hair if I did.

Grindhouse Double Feature

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September 1, 2025

I hope you enjoyed the popcorn and used the restroom during the intermission. I have continued to grind away. Before I move on, I must clarify my grind type. As you may be aware, not all grinds are the same. I have a drip coffee maker, an espresso machine, and a French Press maker. Each performs best with a different grind. The espresso is very fine, the French Press is coarse, and the drip in the middle.

My grind is set to authorpreneur, or direct to reader author, or independent author. Take your pick. My grind is not set to submitting manuscripts to the Big Five, or traditional publishing houses. However, as you will see below, I have spent some time using that grind. Sick of the coffee metaphors? Me too.

I subscribe to a super high-end coffee magazine called Standart. They have a benefits for readers page, which offers subscribers discounts. It is mostly used by micro roasters the world over who offer a percentage discount to Standart readers. Shipping costs kept me from trying this for my coffee novels until I had the idea to send sticker and a signed promo card to any Standart reader who bought The Trier. So far, one guy in Brazil let me know he bought a book (he has yet to ask for the stickers)

Put the updated Tripio cover on Goodreads. I have forgotten about my Goodreads author account. I just don’t vibe with Goodreads, but hear that it is essential for indie authors, so there you go.

One benefit of doing live events is meeting fellow indie authors and making connections and doing things like trading books. I recently traded The Trier for Lisa Devons’ book of poetry Sophomore Stomp.

The art behind me is also by Lisa Devon. The book is mine.

And a second connection from the Elevate event was made. Next week, I am going to have coffee and talk and trade books with a local editor and writer, Janet Schwind. It’s always good to get to know folks in the biz.

One other practice for indie authors is to read and review books for each other. A review on Amazon is the “lifeblood” of an author. I did just that by reading Bloody Kansas and reviewing it on Amazon. Of course, Amazon rejected my colorful, but positive, review. So I posted a boring one. I am still waiting for a reciprocal review for The Trier.

There are a million folks out there trying to get a writer’s money, time, and attention. If you are like me and can’t really spare any of the above, then the one place to put what your do have is by joining The Alliance of Independent Authors. Based in England, Alli is part coach, watchdog, cheerleader, resource, and sounding board for me. There is an annual membership charge, but it is worth it.

One example is a fellow writer, Kevin Mclaughlin, who took a question I had posed in the ALLI forum and helped me with a technical issue with my cover file for Tripio. He asked nothing in return.

I did send a query to an agent and a submission to a small press, 7:13. The press actually sent me a rejection, which is unusual these days. Most presses, big and small are too overwhelmed to even get back to you.

One benefit of spending some time grinding for queries and submissions is that they ask you questions about your project, and that helps bring its commercial viability into focus. In short, I have had to pick a genre or category for The Trier and the next two Trier novels. I have decided to label them “Coffee Magic Realism”, which may or may not have existed before.

For the above submissions, I had to come up with various descriptions (long and short), synopsis, and market plans for my books. All this was useful, even if my heart isn’t really into the traditional grind of Big Five Publishing Houses. I am applying it to my own Coffee Novelist ecosystem. Why do all that work for them?

Every couple months I reach out to my mentor, if you will, Craig Leener, who is an accomplished indie author with one of his books being made into a movie. I sent him my book descriptions for his thoughts. Once I get those, I will follow Jane Friedman’s advice and update my descriptions on Amazon etc. These type of things can age quickly so its best to revisit them once in a while.

Grindhouse

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August 25, 2025

Well, I paused and leaned into the question, “You have to grind away until you find a way.” That will be my response one of these days when I’m asked how I become a global literary superstar. Until then, I will rerun the pretend interview in my head.

What is not pretend is that everything is work in the end. With my writing practice on intentional hold for now, I’ve found myself noticing how much work you do when you are not writing, especially if you’re intent on selling a few books. They ain’t gonna sell themselves. I need to look no further than my own three title to prove that out.

But back to the grind. I like to sit on my front porch with my laptop and put in my hour of writing adjacent work. But the mosquitoes, heat, and tenuous internet connection have been driving me inside to my cooler, connected, and mosquito-free desk. Here, I have been grinding away at all the stuff that comes with being a authorpreneur. If you are of the same mold, you may recognize some the items on the list any may find some value in my experiences. If you are reading out of pure intellectual curiosity- Do people even do that anymore?- then all the grinding noise may come as a surprise. Hey, its all work in the end.

Put Tripio on IngramSpark: My first novel was a published, warts and all, five years ago. I’ve since had the cover and interior design upgraded. The Trier is already there and after a lot of grinding, and sorting out my old ISBNs with Bowker, Tripio is ready to be ordered by any one of Ingram 39,000 independent bookstore distribution partners. One is better than none.
The covers of my titles now appear with my books in the Indianapolis Library System. Why they weren’t there in the first place will never be fully understood.
Fired up my Square for a local Elevate event. Of course, I had to reset everything. I did dig a little deeper on my account and was able to attach photos of my books to my items, which I thought was nifty.
Ordered books for the local event mentioned above.
Sent photos to Danielle for the Columbus Coffee Festival in October. Sent the old headshot, a promo shot of both coffee novels I’ve used before, and a nice pic of of me at last year’s event. She’s going to use one to promo my spot in this year’s Author Village.
I ordered those books from Bookvault. I had set up a Bookvault account as a counter to being utterly dependent on Amazon. BV is POD company based in England, but just opened a facility near Cleveland so my books arrived quickly
Got a free trial to Adobe to come up with flyers for the Elevate event and Columbus. I had some luck but Acrobat does not come easily to me.
Ran downtown for my monthly talk with my writing colleague. He helped me with Bookvault, but we mostly bitched about not selling books.
Poked abound my Reedsy account for old events. I don’t pay for anything on Reedsy but instead find old, still relevant craft-related talks. I mean characters telling each other things they should already know was as bad two years ago as it is today.
Found reasons to post something on Instagram
Read Jane Friedman’s last newsletter. For my money, ha ha, I don’t pay for this either, Jane is the one newsletter I must have. She is the calm voice of reason out there in a world of folks shrieking to get your attention. Her newsletter is filled with indie author gems and links, some free and some not. You already know where I go.
I am continuing to time-edit The Trier Goes to London, and The Travels of the Trier. Father Time is undefeated so why not have him on your side?

Intermission Time. This post just turned into a double feature. Go for some popcorn and I’ll work on the next one.

**Wrote, scheduled and posted Action Writing on WP**

Starbucks books for Starbucks fans

Coffee Novelist

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August 17, 2025

Books for the Starbucks fan on your list

A while back I read How Starbucks Saved my Life by Michael Gates Gill. In the interest of full disclosure, I read it out of curiosity, as opposed to organic intellectual interest. In other words, I read it to see how that memoir compared to my historical fiction novel, Tripio. I may offer a full review in a later post. But for now, I will simply offer a comparison of “How” to Tripio, ingeniously using coffee as the yardstick.

How Starbucks Saved my Life = Blonde Roast

Lightly roasted coffee that’s soft, mellow and flavorful. Easy drinking on its own and delicious with milk, sugar or flavored with vanilla, caramel or hazelnut.

Tripio = Espresso

A complimentary blend of beans of differing origins: it is intense, deeply flavored and when brewed correctly leaves a lingering sweet aftertaste.

From Barista to Boardroom: Lessons about Life and Leadership from a Career in Coffee

I am also following up on my intention to find other books about Starbucks. I was curious to see if there were other novel length works of fiction out there with a Starbucks flavor. Ha, ha. I found the list below via Christine McHugh who is a Starbucks alum and author of the soon to be released From Barista to Boardroom. I will admit that I have yet to read any of the titles below expect the aforementioned. I have pre-ordered from Barista to Boardroom after speaking with author by phone. Both Barista and How can be and probably categorized as memoirs. Below are others worth a look that I have yet to read:

Coffee for Dummies by Major Cohen

Taking Responsibility: Heart mind and Soul by Jeff Hamill

It’s Not About the Coffee and The Magic Cup both by Howard Behar

Work Freely: Love your Job, Love your Life by Nancy Richardson

The Multiplier Effect of Inclusion by Tony Byers

Female Firebrands by Mikaela Kiner

Steady Work by Karen Guadet

Pour Your Heart into It and From the Ground Up both by Howard Schultz

This is a repost. I have since read and liked Barista to Boardroom.

Action writing?

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August 13, 2025

Rosenberg’s critique shifted the emphasis from the object to the struggle itself, with the finished painting being only the physical manifestation, a kind of residue, of the actual work of art, which was in the act or process of the painting’s creation.

Action Writing?

So, my novels are residue? I’ll take that. I’ll take whatever outside external definition comes with putting them out there. Because they are no longer mine.

The process that got them out there. That’s mine.

That is why the above line stayed with me. It stayed with me long enough that I had to drag my ass back to my blog and get it out of my system.

You see, I value the process of writing way more than the result. Sitting down to write is NOT my process though. In fact, as I’ve said before in this space, by the time you do that, its’ already too late.

It’s not that I don’t mind sharing my novels and novella and blog and all that with the world. The physical manifestation, the residue, is something I am quite proud of. But it is not what I value, or why I write.

So why do I write? Because I love the process. The action of it all. The journaling, the yoga, the mediation, the hours on the front porch reading, the attention and intention it brings to my mind and the thoughts I find there as I drive, garden, or chop radishes.

Action writing is more mental than the painting. I mean right now I’m in my jammies on my porch a cup of coffee on my table, the rising sun poking through the tress lining my street. But I love it. The books are for you to love. Or not.

This process, the actions that bring me here are what produces the books, are what I get out of the whole thing.

That is **Jackson Pollack in the other photo. This is me.**

Writing before the writing

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July 9, 2025

I find myself more and more often referring to writing as a meditative practice. It much easier on me. It asks so much less of me, asks me to maintain much less. And it stops people from asking me follow up questions to which I would most likely give even more confusing replies. So it is win-win.

I recently finished Fabrice Midal’s book, The French Art of Not Giving Sh**. He is among other things, the founder of the Western School of Meditation. Reading a wisdom book every morning after journaling while having my doppio is cornerstone of my writing practice. I’ve read too many wisdom books to list them all here, but I like to poke around a few pages at time to find ways to help my writing practice.

My writing practice is turned inward for answers not outward. I don’t even like the words answers there. Let me try the word energy. Mental energy, flowing clear and free of attachment and expectation. There is where the novels begin, not at the keyboard of the laptop.

I go as for to say that I don’t’ write, I farm or direct mental energy. And so after reading the first page of The French Art, I had found a fellow traveler. Fabrice describes his meditative practices in a way that echoes my writing practice. So below are a few more thoughts from a mediation book on not meditating that I feel apply to my writing while not writing. It may help you understand what I’m saying when I write lines like that one. If not, at least, they may help me. Here goes:

Five thoughts not about writing for a post about writing

My aim (while meditating) is not to become wise, or calm, or patient. I have no aim, no objective, not even the idea of starting or finishing the day in particular state of mind.

I’ll buy something, so as to feel better, but once I’ve bought this product, I’ll no longer feel satisfied. I will immediately need something else. Whatever is offered next. As if it were outside of us.

Personally, I have no confidence in what I call “me.” I have confidence in the profoundness of meditation, because I have seen the fruits

Giving up on understanding everything is the only way to remain faithful to true human existence.

I still have lofty aspirations, but they steer clear of the cruelty of perfection.

Don’t look at me, I’m irrelevant

Take the time to let it pass

Coffee Novelist

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June 27, 2025

Thinking is hard. Reacting isn’t.

Working on something of any worth requires intention and attention. Producing activity is easy. I am not sure about all you all, but I have hard time sitting still. Somewhere inside me a little voice with a big mouth is telling me that I have to be doing something. The little voice with the big mouth is usually right of course. There are always dishes to be done, bills to be paid, the device that is never far away needs a look, or the cat’s litter box needs changed. This little voice talks to me mostly at home. At work the little voice with the big mouth is usually shouted down by other voices, other mouths and other interests.

Producing activity is easy. I think that a lot of this comes about because that time of contemplation, stillness and introspection is costing somebody somewhere some money.

I also think that it has difficult to see any direct immediate benefit to sitting alone with yourself. Where is the benefit? I can’t see it right here, right now so why do it? Yet, that is why we should take the time to sit and not do, not produce, not attempt. The cost is the time, which is most valuable commodity ever. Always has been and always will be. No matter what we do, it is going to pass anyway. Sitting and contemplating isn’t a waste of time. It’s an appreciation, really.

This is what democracy looks like

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June 15, 2025

This is what democracy looks like

Better than wipin’ ass?

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June 5, 2025

I was finally able to revise and upgrade the cover of my first novel, Tripio. It had been bugging me for years, like something your doctor would mention at your yearly check-up. Not life threatening, or even painful, but maybe you should do something about it. And so, the process never made it to the top of the pile of things I needed to do.

The term book industry folks would use to describe Tripio is a passion project. Fine. Tripio is a very personal novel. I like to say that I would have never published it if I knew what I was doing. Yes, the spelling of my name is correct, the title is legible, the graphics are clearer, the interior type larger and better, and there is formatted front and back matter. All of that helps. It may help even sell a book or two.

But I had to do the revamp mostly because it is my story told as openly and honestly as I could at the time. Sure, I like to compare Tripio to Knut Hamsum’s amazing novel, Hunger, one of my favorite books of all time. And Tripio does resemble the story of Hunger, a century later and moved to Chicago. Tripio captures a defining time in my life, and I wrote it at an equally defining time in my life. A double dose of me. Which is not a great way to sell a book, I’m sure. Nonetheless, Tripio is not the story of Starbucks, or Knut Hamsun, Howard Schultz or anyone else. It is me in those pages and that is why I had to make it better.

Once the upgrade was complete and accepted by Amazon, not as easy as it sounds, I felt relieved. It was done and I could see that it looked way, way better. Books are never done. Books, written and read, are energy between covers, revised and otherwise. One bit of energy still flowing from Tripio is what my life would be like if I stayed at Starbucks with my 264 shares of IPO stock options with its Current value of 1.23 million dollars.

A few days after the revision I found myself pondering that question again on a long drive for my job. My five senses are always occupied with this bi-weekly nearly two-hour drive, so my mind is free to think. I must point out that my intention on most mornings before this and any other long drive is to “put the novel in my head”. I have some coffee at my laptop and write at least enough to let my mind work on the novel while I drive. Well, I’ve been on a writing sabbatical for close to a month, so I had no novel to put in my head. Or so I thought. As I said, no novel is ever finished. It can’t be. Energy has no end. The Tripio question was back although not in the same way. Why didn’t’ I stay at Starbucks and retire early and rich? Why?

I realized once again that I’ve mostly answered that Starbucks question mostly by writing Tripio. With that space in my mind now opened, I’ve put in some self-forgiveness for not being able to change the past and some understanding that your past is never the future when you create it in the present. If that makes sense. I have released that and lot more by writing Tripio. That is the value of the book to me. Not what is represented on a sales chart on Amazon or elsewhere. No one can see that when they look at the sales figures and they won’t see that in the reboot either.

That question settled, I still had windshield time to work on a second bit of energy regenerated by the Tripio reboot. In Hunger and Tripio, both protagonists want to make a living writing. Decades after living Tripio and nearly a decade after writing it, I am not making a living solely by writing. Not even close. The Alliance of Independent Authors estimates that there are about 3,000 folks in the US who make their living by writing alone. That is not many. I am sure none of them meant to, but that day they all pissed me off.

I like my job well enough. It is not what I dreamt of doing when I was growing up of course. I wanted to play second base for the Cincinnati Reds. But, I have nights and weekends off and the job doesn’t ask a lot of me. It doesn’t give me a lot back in return monetarily but my mind is free to write as I go through my day and my drives. But I can’t make my living my writing alone. There’s three thousand of you. What’s one more?

A few minutes into my first stop after my long drive I found the answer to the headline for this post when an employee of the long-term rehab facility I was servicing asked me about my job. She asked me what I did. I told her. Did I like it? I said I did. She asked me if my job was better than wipin’ ass. I replied that yes, it is.

Needless to say, I used that Tripio related energy to enjoy the drive back a lot more than the drive to that first stop. The gal in the pink scrubs hadn’t meant to, but she made my day. My job is better than wipin’ ass for a living. My tax return may not show it, and I may not be Stephen King, but my life is overflowing with blessings. I have a great life, filled with riches that will never, ever find their way onto sales charts or into bank accounts.