Coffee Novelist

Use what you have in your garden

Coffee Novelist

May 25, 2020

I have two chive plants in my herb garden. I have a sage, oregano and thyme which all have returned this spring. And, for you climate change doubters out there, my rosemary plant came back this spring. I have had a rosemary plant every summer for ten years and each winter it has died. This year, I checked it and saw new growth. It has survived the mild winter in the Midwest for the first time ever.

It has occurred to me that my advocacy of the use of “using your mind garden to produce your own unique story” may come down to money. What doesn’t’? I find it works not to outsource your creativity, process, inspiration, validation in order to to write, in order to find your way as a writer. I primarily use my own mind, which is free and always open. It works for me. It may or may not work for you. Although, It may work for me because I have had not a choice but to make it work.

Over the course of my writing, starting just out of college in the mid 80’s until now, I have not been able to spend a ton on money on it. I could have, but my kids needed to eat. So, I think out of pure necessity I had to devise my own belief system, which aligned to life as a whole. I did not have the time or money to take seminars, workshops or fly overseas to retreats. I ain’t pissed. If fact, the years that I am referring to when I was raising a family produced a human being who has something worthwhile to share. I did occasionally get back to writing short stories and always kept a journal, but was nowhere close to being able to plan a couple hours a day “writing”.

How do my chives figure into all that? Well, they are green, like US dollars. The lack of which left me recently without the ability to hire an editor, which had temporarily halted my 5 novels in 5 years plan. A plan that I hope ultimately produces some more green stuff, and I don’t mean chives. For the first time since post college I had time to write but felt stuck due to lack of funds and direction. Then it occurred to me to practice what I preach. I had written a series of short stories called Altonstreet and Philpatrick. Like the herbs in my garden, I could use them for free. So I headed to my garden and got to work.

Here is where I brilliantly tie it all together. I wanted to make pesto earlier this week, partly to feed 2 of those adult children I mentioned. I could not afford to pay to go to a weekend writing seminar i.e. buy pine nuts. I had no way to get to Italy and be inspired at the grave of a dead Italian poet, i.e. my basil wasn’t’ ready. So, I found a recipe for pesto using chives and toasted walnuts i.e. I began a short story using my old characters, Altonstreet and Philpatrick. The chives were already in my garden and the walnuts way, way cheaper than pine nuts. I used what was at hand, what my mind garden had ready and waiting.

The pesto with chives and walnuts was quite good. The short story is titled “Altonstreet & Philpatrick receive a letter” and made me laugh out loud a couple time, which is good because that was my intent with the story. So, I took my own advice, fed my mind, body and spirit on the cheap. And this years’ garden is just getting started!

“May I help who’s next?”

Raise your hand

Coffee Novelist

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May 18, 2020

“Just as a piece of land has to be prepared beforehand if it is to nourish the seed, so the mind of the pupil has to be prepared...”

I was on my front porch drinking coffee, vibing to the start of the weekend and reading “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg when I came across the above quote. The book was of great interest to me in regards to writing. I knew that I used habit to help me write. Not with the pen or at the keyboard. If you read this blog regularly you know if I believe if you start writing at that point it is already too late.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

My example: When I was in the early stages of creating Tripio I was also taking a ninety minute drive three times a week. By this time I had already spent several years trying to understand my mind, how it works and why it was sometimes my worst enemy. I had hacked out a rudimentary understanding of the subconscious mind and would put it to work on these drives. If you don’t mind looking foolish for just a moment, raise your hand if you think that driving is an exercise is habit….OK, put your hand down.

I began to use the habit laden 90 minutes of highway driving to access my subconscious mind, to ask it to deliver the names and events I needed to populate Tripio. As I checked my speedometer, checked the rear and side view mirrors, sped up or slowed down, my subconscious mind delivered what I needed. From there all I had to do was remember what it had provided.

I learned from The Power of Habit that the habit formation and execution takes places in the basal ganglia. I was confirmed, validated. Even though I knew what was taking place, it was nice to know I can use the words “basal ganglia” to anyone I was talking to about my writing process. This bit of gratifying news came near the start of Habit. The above quote was near the end. The quote is from Aristotle, not me. Though I can understand if you are confused. Because, in the quote it sounds like Aristotle is describing the “Mind Garden”that I am going on about in many of my posts. I do not claim to have invented the concept behind “Mind Garden”. I am sure it has been used before. Again though, it validating that I can now refer to Aristotle when I am talking to anyone about how I write.

I believe writing starts before you pick up the pen or click on your laptop. I have seen, felt and came to know that clearing and preparing the mind and letting the actual writing come to you works for me. Don’t go looking for your writing, it isn’t out there. If that sounds a little weird but you can see some seed of wisdom, I’ll take it. However, if you find yourself thinking about the post, (miracles do happen) or even talking to someone else about it (I’m being serious) then you can say “Aristotle said that”, which will make you look smart. Which we all like. That, in turn, may lead you back to this blog in order to find more ways to make you look smart. I am not saying you need any help looking smart, but I hope that coming back to this blog becomes a habit anyway.

May I help who’s next?”

Comment Box remorse

Coffee Novelist

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May 11, 2020

So much out there. So damn much. Too damn much. If you are reading this post then you have come to it by deciding to pass up millions of other blogs. First let me congratulate you on how wisely your are spending your time.

It isn’t easy to navigate once you click and fire up the internet. Like nearly all bloggers and writers, I am looking for ways to improve what I do. I do have regular blogs that I access for advise. They show up in my mailbox. I try to keep them to a manageable amount. But more keep appearing. They all sound appealing. I could improve my blog, my fiction, and even my mind by reading them. I have, I fact, achieved all three simply by doing what you are doing now.

I am well into the second year of this blog. I am going to publish my second novel this fall. Put some of those keywords into a search engine and the response would make War and Peace look like flash fiction.

So how do you know what works? Of course, you never know. You think, suspect, consider what may work for you and your book or blog. But you never know. That is because that writer of that post sent to your email box doesn’t know either. I say this now because I’m one of them. Earlier today I responded in the comment section of another post. I left sound, confident and useful advise that has worked for me. An hour or more late, I am suffer from “comment box remorse.” I think I just made that condition up. Possibly not. My comment sounded good, and more importantly made me sound like I knew what I was talking about. As of a few hours after posting my confidence is waning, my courage fading, the caffeine wearing off.

Like I said, my comment box response was something that had worked for me on my journey. There is wisdom in it. This particular comment included advice to ignore most the “static” out here in the blog sphere. To look at it from one angle, I am advising the author of the post to ignore my own comment.

What does does mean to you readers of this post? I’m not sure. I don’t know for sure. I think it is an indication I am an the write path though. Even a single senescent in a comment box should mean something, should come at some cost to it’s author, right? Yes, because true giving is giving from need. So it follows that real advice, or “static”, from your heart must produce a feeling of loss, or it’s not worth writing, clicking and posting.

May I help who’s next?

What I want from Tripio-doesn’t matter

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April 27, 2020

A look back on the one year anniversary of this post

It is school day morning and my teenage son just asked if he could stay home today because he couldn’t get to sleep last night. He was asleep at dinner time and I tried to wake him up. I had made a good dinner, creating something we would both like. I mention my son because he is a motivation in the more practical aspects of the attempt to direct-publish Tripio.

Simply put, I would like to make a little money from it. I need some income to continue to feed him, even if he sleeps through dinner.

Having said that, I did not initially create Tripio as a revenue stream, even if that is what it may become. A year later, it is a revenue drip. In order to achieve said revenue I have had to do many things that I had not envisioned when I decided to direct publish Tripio. One of those things was marketing the book. Marketing is a word which can be defined, I suppose, almost anyway you want it to be. I define it partly as the process of acquiring positive blurbs to be placed on the front and back covers of Tripio. I did receive great blurbs from two Starbucks legends, Howard Behar and Kevin Knox.

http://howardbehar.com

https://www.bookdepository.com/Coffee-Basics-Kevin-Knox/9780471136170

That process has gone surprisingly well so far. Based on that, I am beginning to ponder a price point for the sale of Tripio. One which is now higher than originally planned. I am considering lowering the price to spur a bump in the sales of Tripio. It is currently as low as it’s ever been.

It is worth repeating that I do have hopes for monetary gain from the publishing and selling of Tripio. The current pandemic can’t be helping this goal. As an example, the previously mentioned son is at home from school doing e-learning and e-eating. This has been most obvious in the weekly grocery bill, whose amount has risen way faster than income generated from sales of Tripio.

Today

The original post ended here. A year of posts later and I feel I have learned so much about blogging. One lesson is reflected in the headline to which I added “doesn’t matter”. I do have several more posts on Tripio that explore more existential, creative and benign reasons for self-publishing Tripio. What I want from these posts is to share my experiences with all of you in a concise, entertaining and useful way. That sentiment reflects what I now want from Tripio. I maybe am a year richer in wisdom, if not in the wallet.

“May I help who’s next?”

A plan in uncertain times

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April 22, 2020

In times of uncertainty it is useful to remember that better days will come. I had created this light-hearted post about a year ago. Even though it is self-effacing I am holding myself to it and I am happy to see, upon looking it over now, that year one has been a success for the proletariat. I studied Russian and Soviet history. Hence, I framed my plan in Soviet Russian speak. The wisdom embedded here is that we are free to use whatever device our own tool box gives us in order to get things accomplished. In other words, there is no one size fits all solution for anything in life, especially in a creative process.

The purposes of the Glorious Five-Year Plan, as set forth by responsible officials at Moscow with party approved input by comrade writer Jerry, are the creation of more literary raw materials for development and the introduction of more efficient methods of gaining revenue from said production, including consistent revenue streams on cooperative lines, which in turn will initiate prosperity.

Year one of Glorious 5-Year plan, 2019, will see:

*The publication of Tripio

* The development of the website, www.tripiothenovel.com

* The development and heightened visibility of the “red apron” logo via “red apron recipe”

*The revision of Back outta the World and concomitant selection of editor for same.

*Write new segment(s) for Altonstreet & Philpatrick

*Begin the process of leveraging the success of Tripio to include audiobook etc.

Year two of Glorious 5-year plan, 2020, will see:

*The publication of Back outta the World

*The revision of Ironjaws and concomitant selection of editor for same.

*Write new segment(s) for Altonstreet & Philpatrick

Year three of Glorious 5 year plan, 2021, will see:

*The publication of Ironjaws

*The completion of Altonstreet and Philpatrick and concomitant selection of editor for same.

*Research commences for Our Ship

Year four of Glorious 5 year plan, 2022 will see:

*The publication of Altonstreet and Philpatrick

*The revision(s) of Our ship and concomitant selection of editor for same.

Year five of Glorious 5 year plan, 2023 will see:

*The publication of Our Ship

Means of production will occur during late fall and winter months. Selling and distribution will occur during the late spring and summer. There will be neither on April 22nd in order to observe the birthday of Comrade Lenin.

“May I help who’s next?”

A funny thing happened

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April 21, 2020

A funny thing happened to me yesterday on the way to do my grocery shopping. This was after I went back inside to find my cloth face mask. As I drove off with my mask in the car I was singing aloud to an old Funk Compilation CD that I have been listening to recently. Take a moment now to say a gratitude that this is not a podcast.

But seriously folks… Just before I left for the store I had checked my sales graph for Tripio. The arrow was pointed downwards with a vengeance. Hmmm. Was this confirmation that Tripio sucks? Sure, if I let it be. Maybe it was also confirmation that I should keep up my writing. You are curious why I should keep it up exactly when the arrow points down, the arrow that bestows approval and validation on Tripio and by extension me, is telling me to quit?

Since you asked, I was filled with song because my reaction to the arrow was confirmation of what I always claim; that I ain’t in this writing for money, fame and rankings. So, sleep soundly, James Patterson, I’m not coming for you.

Come to think of it, like James, I slept in yesterday. To clarify, for me that means 6:30 a.m. That night’s rest had a significant part in boosting my spirits. I had nothing urgent to pull me out of bed to the keyboard. When I was in the process of revising Back outta the World for the last time I would be pulled out of bed by the need to get it finished. Sometimes that meant my eyes would open as early as 4 a.m. My physical body was pissed, but got over it soon after I had my morning doppio. ( never fear-I have an espresso machine at home). My emotional,spiritual and mental bodies were in charge then. Now with Back outta the World done, I decided to give myself a break. After some contemplation, I decided to halt the search for an editor and take a break from writing. Well, I am still blogging and working on a short story or two. My four bodies had come to an agreement and I was able to sleep in.

So here I was, singing along to “You dropped a bomb on me” on the way to the store yesterday morning. I was happy that my sense of self, my intention for all this writing had been confirmed. I have said all along that writing is merely one of the results of a well-tended Mind Garden. My singing proved me right yesterday. I am as good as my word. Which is pretty important if you are a writer.

“May I help who’s next?”

What is a tripio? And what would you do with one?

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April 18, 2020

A troubling thing has been happening since I published Tripio. I have been getting asked quite a bit the question: “What is a tripio?”

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This question was first asked me at a class on memoir writing at the Indiana Writers Center. No one in the class with me knew what a tripio was. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I knew what a tripio was since the fall of 1990 when I started at Starbucks. Actually, I had worked at a couple independent, hippy coffee houses even before that, so the word was part of my personal vocabulary so long I assumed everyone knew what one was. Also creating my false sense of security was the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of Starbucks on this earth. Surely, everyone who’s visited a Starbucks has ordered a tripio…right?

I’ll break the silence and continue. In Tripio, the book, Jay describes his tripio, the drink, as “my crutch, my momentum and my solace”. I’m sure that helped clear things up. If it didn’t, I will define a tripio as three shots of espresso which is usually consumed immediately after it is brewed into pre-warmed cup. It is then often consumed with sugar or whatever one wants to add. In Tripio, the book, Jay always drinks his tripios over lots of ice in a plastic cup. Jay needs the caffeine from the three shots and the ice keeps the drink alive and refreshing as he goes about his work day.

Of course, I did not choose to title the book Tripio based solely on the fact that the main character drank lots of triple espressos over ice. There are three plot lines that intertwine and collaborate as Tripio goes along. Jay has three life options facing him as he goes about his increasingly complicated days. After reading Tripio, you will be asked to decide if the option he chose was the correct one for him. Or better yet, you have put yourself in Jay’s place. Even better you recognize a situation in your life that you can compare to Jay’s and consider that situation in new context.

In order to read Tripio you will first have to buy it. Before you do that, you will examine the cover and see that subtitle includes a partial definition of the word tripio. Which brings me back around to the class I mentioned above. I was helped a great deal in choosing that subtitle by the instructor of that class. Thankfully, he was one other person in the room that day who knew what a tripio was. And now, I hope you do as well.

“May I help who’s next?”

Is this fiction?

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April 13, 2020

Is this fiction?

“Is this fiction?” But he wasn’t asking me. The young man checking me out at Von’s on the campus of Purdue University had asked his colleague if my purchase, Don Quixote, was fiction. With the category clarified, he returned to face me with an apology along the lines that he “should know”. Being who I am, I began a lengthy response intended to soothe the young man’s emotional state. I began with a rambling explanation of why I had decided to buy Don Quixote downstairs in the wonderful, cramped, used book section, which is the basement of Von’s, and ended with me apologizing to him for my ever learning to read in the first place.

I stepped outside intending meet my son and his friend, who were finding food somewhere nearby, the used copy of Don Quixote in hand. I didn’t buy it for this year as I have other books to read yet, porch reading weather permitting. I will read Don Quixote as part of next summer’s porch reading. It has become a tradition for me to let a “classic” or two come to me and then read them outside on my front porch where my ability to concentrate seems easier to access than indoors. Don will have to wait his turn.

Is this reading?

My mind and my feet then headed for the venerable Rice Cafe for the rendezvous. About a half block out of Von’s, my feet and mind went their separate ways, as is the norm. My mind took me back to this summer’s reading. It has included lots of Oscar Wilde, Hamlet. The Shakespeare Requirement, some H.E. Bates, the Bhagavad-Gita and The Longest Road by Philip Caputo.

I had taken The Longest Road and Tristam Shandy with me on my annual vacation trip to the Ohio River. This is a highlight week of the summer reading campaign. I was encamped in my delightful reading space on the deck facing the Ohio River on an almost too warm summer afternoon. The deck is raised two stories off the ground in case the Ohio River chooses to flood. I can reach out and touch branches and leaves while the river flows by me, powerfully indifferent. It is a wonderful spot to place the mind on a book.

Raindrops falling on my book

That afternoon some clouds formed rather quickly. This happens almost daily on the river. Since the deck space has a roof covering half of it so I did not stop reading The Longest Trip. My mind on the book, on the deck on the river, I did not, at first, notice that it did start to rain this time.

I heard a “smack!” about two feet in front of me at eye level. I looked up from my book. A large leaf was still shaking and a few tiny drops of water were dripping of it. A drop of rain had hit the leaf. The sound was so clear and close that it caught my attention. The leaf waved gently up and down a few times in confirmation of what I heard. A few scattered small drops of water clung to the leaf. “That” I thought, “Is what reading is.”

Is Don Quixote fiction? Hamlet? The Gita? The Longest Trip? It don’t matter. Categories are created to help us find books in book stores. The “Best of” and “Must read” books lists can be useful. However, it strikes me that reading what is prescribed implies that it is your fault that you are sick.

This is reading

At the core, reading a book is simply energy meeting energy. Like a drop of rain hitting a leaf.

Picasso Don Quixote Windmill

That moment of the raindrop falling from the sky among uncountable others on its never before falling path, hitting one leaf from uncountable others from a tree on its own slower, steadier, original to it, path was, for me, my mind colliding with my book. Not just The Longest Trip, but Tristam Shandy, Hamlet, all of my summer reading, in fact all the books I have ever read. It makes perfect sense to me. If only perhaps, because I have written a novel and am rewriting another, do I come to this conclusion.

The mind is constantly moving. Easy enough to see. Yet, I think, so is a novel, or any book for that matter. I put mental energy into Tripio. It is held there on the page and in between the covers for the reader to take that energy into their own mind. When they meet, a unique combination of energy is created. The raindrop and leaf replicated.

Back to my feet

Where does that leave me? Still looking for the Rice Cafe. I got a little lost. I hadn’t been on Purdue’s campus for a couple years. As for Don, he will have to wait his turn. I wanted to go back to Von’s and tell the young man who checked me out that Don Quixote should be filed under “mental energy’ or “leaf meets raindrop.’ But , luckily for him, after a couple more blocks, I stumbled upon the Rice Cafe.

A repost from about a year ago. I feel even more strongly about this today.

The Starbucks want ad

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April 12, 2020

**The original Starbucks want ad. From a newspaper.**

Going home again to find the want ad

Was it Thomas Wolfe who said you can’t go home again? Not sure why he said it. For me it was easy to jump in my car and drove two hours east to my birthplace of Dayton, Ohio. I wasn’t trying to prove him wrong or anything. I was trying to find the original want ad Starbucks had placed in the Dayton Daily News. The very same want-ad I had responded to which set off a series of events culminating in me getting a job with Starbucks in Chicago in the fall of 1990. Around this time three years ago, I was committed to the editing of the manuscript of my historical fiction “Starbucks” novel, Tripio.

I feel very fortunate to have worked with the editor I did on Tripio. This wise man suggested a more catchy “hook” for the opening of Tripio. Tripio does open deliberately and slowly as Jay is at his writing desk in his apartment, “shirtless and smelling a bit ripe”. Jay has been alone writing in his apartment all day. No car chases or explosions have suddenly taken place that afternoon. Tripio was going to be as close to a real life memoir as I could get away with. And yet, I couldn’t see his editorial reasoning right away. In fact, my first reaction was “Where is the patience, people? This is a novel with three intertwining and intersecting stories. One can’t rush writing this great!”

Where is the ad?

The wisdom of my editor did eventually make me come to my senses. I knew I had to make the opening more attention getting. I loved every comma of my masterpiece but that wasn’t going to make anyone else care about Tripio. My editor suggested I find a way to hook the reader as close to the start of the novel as possible. I based Tripio on several journals I kept for years I worked at Starbucks in the early 90’s. It made sense to review them for inspiration for the hook. I had not mined every line and scribble from those journals. Hopefully, there would be something still in them I could use for my hook. The search did yield something: a short scribbled reference to being “glad I saw that ad” on one of the coffee stained pages. I knew that was where I would start.

The ad said that I Must love coffee

I knew my hook was going to be that original Starbucks want ad. Fortunately, I remembered that the ad included the phrase “must love coffee.” I tried searching the internet using that phase. No luck again. With the “hook” analogy in mind, I moved the boat to a different spot on the water. I took a trip to the main library in Indy for help. Unfortunately their archives for the Dayton Daily News did not go back far enough. I think it may help to remind everyone reading that I we are not discussing today’s Starbucks. Starbucks was unknown outside of Seattle. I did find an old ad for Starbucks as it opened in the Los Angeles market. Close, but it wasn’t want I wanted. It was not the Starbucks want ad that I had to have.

At the Indy library I was given contact info for the archivist at the Dayton Daily News. I called him. He suggested I try to search the microfilm in person. Luckily, I have family who live in Dayton and I could arrange that easily. I did. The visit with my family went well. The search for the want ad did not. In short, I searched the microfilm for hours but came up empty. The search left me disappointed. Therefore, I had no choice but to prove Wolfe wrong again so I drove from old home to current home, this time heading west two hours.

Give it to the subconscious mind

A skill I learned during the writing and rewriting of Tripio now came handy. I needed my subconscious mind to give me the answer. This skill had served me well as I recalled names and places I needed to populate Tripio. I drove past cornfield after cornfield. I let my mind go off task. My subconscious mind nearly always came up with the answer my writing mind needed. I came to believe that the answers are always there. I let more cornfields pass. Suddenly, It occurred to me that in the summer of 1990 I was thinking of moving from Dayton to Chicago.

The realization hit me that the Starbucks want ad would have been in the Chicago Tribune and not the Dayton Daily News. I had been thinking in reverse. As soon as I docked at home I jumped on the computer and subscribed to a month of the Chicago Tribune archives. Within two minutes I had found the original ad. Success. After moving the boat and switching bait several times, I had hooked my hook. The original Starbucks want ad now is part of the prelude of Tripio. I can only hope it that it works as well on readers as it did on me!

Now that I’m a novelist

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April 8, 2020

Yesterday morning at this time my backside was here. I was revising, rewriting, reworking -you name it- my second novel, “Back outta the World”. This morning, I am using that very same backside to sit in the same chair and use the same keyboard. However that exact backside now proudly supports a novelist. Since you can’t ask my backside what all of this means, I will explain.

It means that “Back outta the World” feels finished to me, it’s creator. It is not at all the same type of feeling that came to me when I “finished” it the first time. That scene is brilliantly recounted in my first novel, Tripio.

Since I am posting about the here and now all I can say is that it feels great. I have achieved something that can not be taken away. That is the one statement that can apply to completing both Tripio and now Back outta the World. In fact the lyrics to the classic song, “They can’t take that away from me” are now running through my mind. For the record, ha ha, I love Fred Astaire’s version.

Where was I? Oh yes, on my backside. Sorry – can’t you tell I am in a good mood? Which brings me to the actual topic today: I am now a novelist. I have written two novels. No matter that I started BotW around 25 years ago. No matter that I finished it several times before. Not to worry that I started and finished, had edited and published Tripio in the meantime. The completing of Back outta the World cannot be diminished. Plus the two novels are creatively connected.

Today I want to share with you fellow creators out there this: it is worth to do all the work one must do to finish your novel, poem, story or whatever your writing may be called. It can’t be beat. I spent all yesterday in quiet, personal celebration. That is part of it. I have learned that no one else cares all that much what a writer’s emotional experience is or what was the cost was in time, effort and even money. No one else cares, nor should they, about what left undone while we labored on our creations. Just as well to keep those things between me and my backside. Celebrate and honor that moment when you have finished your personal journey with your novel. That moment is yours to keep forever. Yes, it is true that no else will really want to hear what it took to get your novel done. Then again you get have your own quiet, personal celebration when it is done at last. It is equally true that they can’t take that away.