Coffee Novelist

Ohio River Traditions

Coffee Novelist

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March 11, 2020

Whitman. Twain. Melville. VanSchaik. (I’m the tan one)

Yes, that is a list of a few of America’s greatest writers. But it means something else to me.

You see, every summer for the past five years, I’ve managed to take a short mid year holiday at a rental house on the Ohio River. I discovered these rentals when I was hoping to escape the trials and turmoil surrounding my family several years ago. Since that first visit the mid summer trip to the holiday rental house has become many things.

It is still that getaway along the banks of the Ohio River. It is confirmation that my family and I are still here, surviving and even thriving for another year. It is the place that confirms I have worked hard all year and earned this time off. It also gives us the place to tell other folks we go “every year”, which presents to those folks a picture of stability in our lives. It is also simply fun to physically remove oneself from day to day life. Speaking for myself, I have also found spiritual renewal on the banks of the Ohio River. I will, can and must return every year.

As we have visited the rental house each year, we have created our own traditions: a visit to the “swimmin’ hole not far away, a trip to Tell City Pretzels, floating on inner tubes off the dock.

A tradition of mine is always bringing a book to read. Not just any type of book. One that is as American as the Ohio River, corn fields and small towns. So, I started with Huckleberry Finn. Last year it rained so I was able to read a good deal of Moby Dick. I most often buy a copy of the book I have chosen second hand, so I can leave it for the rental’s library- a wicker basket on the floor in the living room.

It is still winter as I write this post. It is a good time to be thinking of the summer getaway. I use my tax return money to fund this annual pilgrimage. That dinero grande is due in a couple weeks. I have already decided to add one more item to the list of traditions experienced on the banks of the mighty Ohio. This summer during the trip, as my future place in American Letters demands, I will leave a copy of Tripio in that wicker basket on the floor of the rental house.

May I help who’s next?

A dream for my novel

Coffee Novelist

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March 7, 2020

“Society often forgives the criminal….it never forgives the dreamer.
– Oscar Wilde

I am willing to write this post on the proposition that anyone reading it has had daydreams for their novel, whether it is finished yet or not. A side bet I would make is that the dreams are not of the novel ending up on top of hundreds of other copies with it’s cover ripped off, resting in peace at a Walmart Returns Warehouse.

No. Hell no. My dream for my novel,Tripio, is that it ends up being made into a movie, perhaps produced by Tom Hanks or a person of like stature.

That said, I have the opening in mind for Tripio’s film adaptation. This dream for Tripio has been in mind for a while. Now, luckily, I am sharing it with you. Roll it!

Dominic Cooper would be a good choice to play Jay

Establishing shot-exterior– A crowded Chicago street corner in the early 90’s. Intro music in background as a bus pulls up to the corner.

Interior shot of passengers getting off the bus– A handsome you man (me obviously) hurriedly stuffs a notebook into his backpack and gets off the bus.

Quick cut to interior of Starbucks. Though familiar, it is a 90’s location and the store is trashed, the line of customers is long and staff are disheveled and tired looking.

Exterior shot-1990’s vintage Starbucks on corner from earlier shot-The young man is seen from a distance entering the Starbucks. I think distance works here to enforce that the young man (Jay) is still alone with his thoughts.

Cut back to interior of the Starbucks– Jay enters the scene. This shot is from the espresso bar. Jay carries himself confidently but wearily as he knows the closing shift ahead will be long. He wanted to stay in his apartment and work on his novel. He looks for a place in the long line of customers to cut through so he can get behind the counter and punch in.

A shot of a dozen customers in line, none paying attention to Jay– We hear bits of their conversations. Jay decides on a place to cut through the line. It is between two older men. As Jay politely steps through the two older men, we hear their conversation:

First Man-played by me : “You don’t like coffee? Well wait until you try this stuff.“

Second Man-played by Howard Schultz: “I’ll wait and see for myself.”

Jay pays no attention as he slides behind the counter. More customers have come in behind him. The two men continue to talk, oblivious to Jay. The line closes behind Jay as he disappears. This shot foreshadows that, later in the movie, Jay will be swallowed up by the growth of Starbucks.

I think it will make a great movie.

“May I help who’s next?”

What to do with Tripio?

Coffee Novelist

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March 4, 2020

There it sits a few feet away. In book form. My book. The novel I wrote. What to do with it? The box actually arrived three days ago. I knew what was in the box and opened it with a kitchen knife. Tripio was bigger and thicker than I thought and expected. It didn’t “feel” like 333 pages when I was writing it. Wait, wait! On second thought, I did plan every word, comma and space. Because I wanted the final printed, for sale edition, to end up being 333 pages. Threes. Tripio. Three story lines. What I genius I am!

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Of course the above is nonsense. Except maybe the part about me being a genius. Actually, if I were that smart, I would have done something brilliant with my five proof copies of Tripio. Yet, after I took one out of the box and looked it over with a smile, I let them sit in that box for a couple days.

Those couple days later it is occurring to me that I think I was afraid I wouldn’t like Tripio anymore. Tripio arriving as a real book was like your best friend from high school or college dropping by after not seeing you in twenty years. Would you still like him or her ? Would he or she like you? I wanted to retrieve the journals I kept while writing Tripio and find the entries that I wrote in which I was excited about the creation of Tripio. I wanted to find the passage I wrote when I knew Tripio was great. I knew was doing all I could to write a unique and wonderful book. I did not. I simply went about my work week. I let some friends a family know that the proof copies were in my possession and that was about it.

I think that it felt odd to have Tripio back in the house because I had been practicing giving it away. I have made it an intention during my morning yoga to release attachments and expectations to and for Tripio. It is no longer mine. It does not feel comfortable to have it to myself again. Like the old friend whose jokes no longer makes you laugh. What do you then do? After a couple days the answer came.

I decided to take my old friend Tripio out in public where we could relax together and get reacquainted. That was yesterday, the third day after getting the proof copies. I packed Tripio in my bag and we headed off to Coat Check coffee https://www.coatcheckcoffee.com/.

It made sense. It was a way of coming full circle. Remember that Tripio was actually begat 25 years ago in Chicago’s coffee houses and early Starbucks locations.

So, in the spacious and calm environs of Coat Check, my dear old companion and I got reacquainted. The coffee of the day was an Ethiopian, always a favorite varietal of mine. This felt right. As the barista called out the occasional drink order in the background I read over the first chapter and felt relieved that I still liked my dear old friend. Relieved and needing to relieve myself, I got up to use the facilities. Upon returning to my table, I saw my old friend awaiting me, looking content and relaxed on that table next to my mug of coffee. It was Tripio at home again and sure all along that this would happen.

Tripio and I were still friends.

“May I help who’s next?”

I asked for a review and received much more

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March 1, 2020

I want my historical fiction novel, Tripio, to sell. And sell. And sell some more. If you have a book on Amazon, then I assume that is a goal of yours as well. To that end, I recently attended a class on just that subject. The class was called, “How to sell more books on Amazon”. Tripio was published last spring on Amazon and I had not yet formulated a coherent strategy to sell Tripio on Amazon. It was time to get to work.

I had heard from other sources that getting reviews was the most important and powerful thing you could do to help sell your book. I have one 4 star review to date. The class reinforced that I needed more. I have since made it a priority to relentlessly badger my dear family and friends who have read Tripio to write a review. I have done this with folks who I only see occasionally as well. Most, but not all, remain friends.

Earlier this week, I received an email from one of the person’s mentioned above. The first paragraph told me that the email sender had indeed placed a review of Tripio on Amazon and Goodreads! Eureka! Pay dirt. I briefly considered texting work with my two weeks notice. I did not. I quickly checked Tripio’s Amazon page to see the actual review. I forgot that it takes a few days for anything to happen on Amazon.

Fine. I settled down to read the attached email. In it, I found the true value, the reason, the validation for having written Tripio. It was worth way, way more than a mere review.

I am having a tough time with this post. I say that because I am only just now beginning to understand why Tripio came to be. I’m not trying to be noble, but those reasons had nothing to do with getting reviews or making money. Here in the email attached to the review, was captured why I wrote Tripio in the first place. To be transparent, I have known the person who sent the email their entire life. So the person had a proximity to Tripio that 99.9% of readers won’t have. The person understood Tripio to the last comma. Reading the attached email brought tears to my eyes. Every second I worked on Tripio was worth it. I had been validated. Tripio had helped someone. It may have inspired a friend of the email sender to begin writing. After reading the email, I thought I was done with Tripio. It has served its purpose. What could getting more reviews and selling more copies do for me now? Goodbye.

I can’t stop though. I have no choice. I can’t stop the journey of Tripio anymore than I can snap my fingers and stop my heart from beating. If Tripio is the novel I hope it is then I have to see it through. I hope readers can “feel” what the insider felt upon reading Tripio. Only time will tell. Time will tell if I am a good enough writer to enable any and ever reader to take from Tripio what the email’s author and I know to be in there.

I’ll pretty sure be able to tell when they leave their reviews on Amazon.

“May I help who’s next?”

What I hope for Tripio

Coffee Novelist

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February 16, 2020

It is just past seven a.m. eastern time. I intended for this next blog to be follow up to the previous post, “Writer’s block?”. I wanted to backtrack and retrace my path to Tripio by emphasizing that I could not have produced Tripio without giving up booze. I will follow up, I promise. But today I can only state that there is nothing better than waking up on a Monday morning with a clear head!

The first thing I did this morning, using my clear head, was to check my phone. There was a message that had arrived at 12:51a.m. There was a photo attached. To get to the photo I had to think, enter my code and click. Way too much to do without caffeine. Luckily, the phone was on the way to the coffee makers. Yes, plural. I have a traditional drip maker and an espresso machine. I made it back to my phone, crema topped double espresso in hand, and was able to access the photo.

That is me as a Barnes and Noble manager. That would be at the time of the epilogue in Tripio. It was sent to me by my second oldest son, who also appears in the epilogue of Tripio, as himself. It is a good photo of me for a change. It ignited many strands of thought in my wonderfully clear and appreciative mind. I just wasn’t sure which strand of thought would take hold long enough to sit down and write about it. So, I did the dishes. to buy some time.

As I did the dishes I found today’s topic: My hope for readers of Tripio.

I hope that somewhere in Tripio that the reader can find a small piece of what I felt when I saw that old photo of me first thing this morning. Because the story of Tripio is truly the story of my life from my mid-20s on. I looked at the photo and saw so, so much. There was birth and death. I want the reader to take that from Tripio. There was jobs and family and money and sex. I want the reader to take that from Tripio. There is fear of what might happen and decisions about life that will affect you forever. It sounds selfish to start those sentences with “I want” but I have been asked that a lot: What do I want from Tripio? But what my answers mean is that I hope that what a little of what I left can be picked up, out of Tripio, and put into your own life. And when you are done reading Tripio, I hope you can say something like, “You know, things didn’t work out like I planned. But I do have a really good life.”

“May I help who’s next?”

Kevin Knox review

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February 13, 2020

I got a speeding ticket earlier this afternoon. It seemed like I was going with the traffic but got singled out. That put me in a “why does the world hate me?” mind frame. I have also just received a “No” from Bill Kurtis on a request for a blurb for Tripio. On top of all of that, I am a lifelong, die-hard Ohio State Buckeye football fan and Urban Meyer announced his retirement a few days ago. Why does the world hate me, indeed?

I was still considering this on my couch after dinner, when I glanced over to see my downstairs computer. It was not at all far from where I had parked my backside. With just little effort, I could check my Tripio gmail inbox. Maybe some good news awaits me there? Or, wait! What if there is no news? Or worse, bad news? I was in the thralls of “intermittent reinforcement”, at least as I understand the concept. If I knew one way or the other, I would not be tempted at all. I had just recently discovered the term in the Alan Jacobs’ “Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction”. I congratulated myself on my new name for not being currently able to do anything constructive. That afterglow didn’t last long however. No longer able to contain myself, I had to check the Tripio gmail. It was five steps and a click away.

You read before you the words of a changed man. I did in fact receive news. News I consider to be great, in fact. In my email was a response to the first blurb request I had sent for Tripio. It was from Kevin Knox. The response I read in my email was a the first real review of Tripio. This was from someone who was the Head of Coffee Quality with Starbucks during the time Tripio was set. Mr. Knox appears in the book as the “coffee God.” He had just finished Tripio and found it “a vivid and authentic journey through the heady early days of Starbucks expansion.”

Wow. Damn. It is hard to say just how great I feel. I simply say this: Even if the world still hates me, it’s alright because Kevin Knox liked Tripio.

“May I help who’s next?”

The Mind Garden

Coffee Novelist

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February 9, 2020

As I promised in my first post, this is not a quick path to writing a bestseller. Before I go on, I cannot help but tell everyone that I just received a commitment for a blurb for Tripio from retired Starbucks President, Howard Behar.

http://howardbehar.com/

As an author who has written a novel of historical fiction in which Starbucks is a third of the plot, this is very exciting news. I am planning to publish Tripio on Amazon KDP on April 11^th, 2019 by the way. But that is getting ahead of myself.

“Every thought is a force sent out” -James Allen

It would have not been possible for me to have written Tripio if I have not first come to understand, at least to some degree, how the mind works. The words that appear on any page at any time anywhere do not just pop out of the blue. They are a product. They are a result. In fact, many times they are a collaboration of our three minds.

http://som.org/the-four-cycle-course-of-study/

The above image was useful for me in the year I spent at the School of Metaphysics (SOM), unlocking my thoughts and enabling my mind to be moved to a place where it could, and eventually, would create Tripio. From there, I have used, and for the purposes of this blog will continue to use, the term my “Mind Garden” to encompass all three minds.

My mind garden was still a wreck as I sat down for my first class at the SOM on April 28^th, 2016. It was a rocky, weedy plot of ground. It was not ready for planting, growing, seeding. There are many reasons for that: grief, stress, self-pity, lots of drinking. You get the point. Did I mention drinking? I did not yet understand as the class started that I had the shovel in hand, ready to crack open that plot of rocky, weedy earth and plant the seeds of Tripio.

Has it been a year since that was posted? Tripio has been published and is doing what it should be doing. I have been using my mind garden to work on my next novel entitled “Back outta the World“. I feel like I’ve done so much since I started this blog. I could go into it all. I have in fact. Right here in this blog. Well done, Jerry. I hope the next year is as rewarding.

“May I help who’s next?”

Mental cardio-A Red Apron recipe-practices to keep the mind in writing shape

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February 6, 2020

It is Saturday morning and later I will head off to my local Get Fit for a weekend workout. Sure, I go for my cardio workout. My goal, as suggested by my GP, is to get my heart rate up to 150 at least once during my time on the cross trainer. It isn’t easy. But the getting up, the climb, to the accelerated heart rate is what does the most good. Simply running in place for 20 minutes with only a slightly accelerated heart rate apparently has little benefit.”It’s the climb” as Miley Cirus would sing.

While exercising I have my Pandora app selecting some workout appropriate music. Recently, I’ve been favoring Abba. If “Mama Mia” doesn’t get me moving, then it just isn’t my day.

Since Pandora is free it has commercial interruptions. I know I could move on to an upgrade or source my music by some other means, but this task never seems to make it to the top of the pile of things to do. So, I stick with Pandora and the commercials, even if I hate them more and more. How dare they try to steal my thoughts at the time they are doing me the most good? It is almost a physical pain to be moving, sweating and cleansing my body, mind and spirit and have a commercial begin “Hey!”

I used to simply rip out my ear speakers and toss them violently off my head until my phone said the commercial was over. I was then safe from a commercial violating my mind for several more songs or hopefully until the conclusion of my workout. Still, I felt cheated of a minute of my precious and wonderful workout time. A time I use as much as mental cardio as physical. But, I have recently found a solution.

It is not switching apps, accessing a different source for music or ditching the phone altogether. No. I decided to use the interruptions to make my mind healthier, just as interval training makes my cardiovascular system stronger by making it climb and stop and restart.

Now I use the commercial interruptions as my interval training for my mind. You see, typically I have found that when the body is moving the mind, especially the subconscious mind, it says “Hell yea. I’m free to do things”. So I listen to my mind while working out and it usually brings me pure, fearless thoughts for my books, the blog and my life as a whole. I later use these healthy thoughts to affect my life in positive ways. I have seen it work. To have an unwanted voice try to reach into my head during this time is unacceptable to me. The challenge can be to remember them. I use voice memos or even post it notes to help do this. This is especially useful when a thought of a scene or character in Tripio or BotW would show up and it would be hours before I could get to my laptop.

So, this morning when I’m on the cross trainer and a thought stealing commercial comes on, I will smile. I will simply remove the ear speakers calmly and begin my mental interval training. I will start “the climb”, which to reiterate, the part that does the most good. It strengthens my mind against unwanted distractions, interruptions and commercials. It make them easier to ignore, which of course is the last thing the folks behind the commercials want out of me. So, to them I say, bring them on. Make my mind clearer and stronger.

Oh and Thanks, Miley.

“May I help whose next?”

Please answer this question!

Coffee Novelist

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February 3, 2020

And the question is this. The following is the question: Do you know what a Tripio is? Have you heard or seen it used anywhere in any context? I know that is actually two questions but there may be two parts to any given answer so…

The reason I am seeking help from you all is that I have recently taken a class at the IWC called “How to sell more books on Amazon”. As a self-published author (I prefer to be described as direct published-but that’s not in question here) I had to attempt to come up with a real, sustainable strategy to sell Tripio on Amazon. Fair enough.

Snag is, according to the wisdom I learned at the class, a novel’s title should be easily searchable on Amazon, Google, etc. And the word “Tripio” is not.

What to do about it? I have already created a post that defines a tripio and will post it again, and again, again if I have to. I have made a video showing me creating a tripio on an espresso bar, in real time. Is that enough? Have any of you all seen or read the above? Another question, I know.

I just don’t feel in my heart that I can change the title. It defines the book in so many ways. There are three story line running alongside each other through the entire book. Three shots make a tripio. Three story lines make Tripio. I just don’t know if I can do it, just for the sake of searchablity. That is why I am asking for help.

So, back to the original question, you know what a tripio is?

May I help who’s next?

Help! I’m going to be on a Podcast

Coffee Novelist

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January 28, 2020

Recently, I was at a coffee house on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a good friend. We were catching up on life and it’s challenges. This was a local coffee house with art on the walls and old couches situated against those walls. After an hour or so of coffee and camaraderie, my friend and I got up leave and as we headed out the door she encountered a man she knew. After a quick intro, my friend, who has already read Tripio, said “You should have Jerry on your podcast.”

And that was it. He asked me to be a guest in a couple weeks. This was after I ran to my car to retrieve a copy of Tripio. As any good direct published author would do, I always travel with a copy of my book, just in case. This time it paid off.

I have tried numerous times over the past year to be guest on a podcast but to no avail. A podcast spot had taken a lower priority on the journey of Tripio. Is was still an aspiration, yet one that had yielded nothing positive so it was hard to keep trying. And now, without trying, I was to be on a podcast. “Damn. What the f*** do I do now?’

One thing I did do was read a post entitled ,”77 Pieces of Advice for Podcast Guests from Hosts” by Dan Moyle. That helped. Yet as the day neared, I questioned Tripio, my coffee acumen, my ability to match verb and subject to form a coherent sentence.

On the fateful day, I was told that I was the third guest, sitting behind two regular contributors. Everyone was friendly but I still felt like the odd man out. This only enhanced and further agitated the swarm of butterflies in my stomach. Once the first guest had completed her segment, I did something the old me would have never done: something.

I am shy and introverted. A fairly typical writer type. All good. But in order to get the world to notice Tripio, I have had to do things that I was new to and uncomfortable with. Lots of them. Maybe that is the real value in all this? Then,out of the blue, I recalled a favorite wisdom. This one from Elanor Roosevelt, “You must do the things in live you think you cannot do.” I feel that putting Tripio out for the world to read has caused some personal growth in myself. Faith? Belief? Maybe. Whatever it is, it got me off my chair. I walked over to the guest and her friend and made conversation. She was human. I began to feel more at ease. In a few moments, guest two was finishing and it was my turn. Now, after hearing myself speak for few moments and not be laughed at, I was ready.

I felt like I did well for my few minutes and will put the results up on the blog when I receive the edited Podcast. For now, I have four (not 77) tips from my experience that helped me. For fun, I’ve paired the steps with those needed to make a great cup of coffee.

1) Use the best coffee beans you can find = prepare, prepare and prepare more. Listen to a couple podcasts in advance. Review your book for new things to talk about. A lot may have happened in this world since it was published. It is helpful for the book to be topical and appear fresh. Don’t rely on old or dated beans.

2)Grind the beans for the coffee brewer= If you are using a French Press pot, grind the beans coarse. For a cone shaped filter, a finer grind is needed. Do not force your message or book if it isn’t’ the right fit. Don’t use the time given you to do an infomercial for the book. I able to work in Tripio several times during the podcast even though our actual topic was coffee culture as a whole.

3)Use hot, just-off boiling, water to extract maximum flavor when brewing=Let the host guide you. He or she will be able to fill in or pull back when needed. And don’t forget, the podcast may be further cleaned up before posting.

4)Enjoy the cup= Now that the coffee is done, share it with your host and listeners. Relax and tell stories. Tell fun and quirky stories about your book, how it came to be. As a writer. it is expected that you will have stories. I had done my research and was able to recall the story of Kaldi and his goats, who are given credit for “discovering” coffee, after the host unintentionally prompted me on topic.

There you are. I hope it helped. If not, try to brew another pot tomorrow morning…

” May I help who’ next”