Calling out coffee drinks “Tall cocoa!” It was my shift. My morning at the controls of the elevated four group La Marzocco espresso machine. It was an espresso bar as theatre stage, a relic from the days before Starbucks customized and cranked out location after location. It took two steps up from behind the bar …
Howard Shultz and I were partners once. The Starbucks Coffee Company in my historical fiction novel Tripio was, in real life, far and away the best workplace I have experience, before or since. There have been a lot more workplaces since I hung up my apron than I care to admit. My point is, it …
Take the time We live in a world where brevity is prized. Hacks, links, flash fiction. I could think of more but I just don’t have the time. Ha. Ha. If you can say it quickly enough it doesn’t even have to make sense, like a tweet. Seriously though, if the prize or reward doesn’t …
Don’t waste your time writing trash Don’t waste your time writing that trash you write. Hey, I should know. I’ve written more than my share. It took four seconds to find an example from on old file. See below: Mid-step brooding was halted for an instant though as Altonstreet realized that Philpatrick would have …
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 …
Have an espresso today. Today is National Espresso Day. I have a doppio everyday. If you don’t know what a doppio is, then its fair to say you won’t know what an espresso is. If you read the link above then you will get a good idea of what the drink is. The …
The story of a coffee house Tripio opens with a prologue, which was the suggestion of my editor. He felt the book needed something to grab the reader right away. My immediate reactionary, immature and arrogant thought was that Tripio is great and that its greatness demands patience! Those thoughts did not travel from my …
“Who would read a novel Starbucks novel?” I asked the facilitator of my “Author Development” class. Her answer would be important to me. After all, I had just written one. She looked my way and made eye contact for a moment. She then looked out above my head towards the wall behind me …
“Those who manage to be where their coffee is will grow, stretch and emerge stronger, smarter and more prepared as we find peace and gratitude in the pause after the sip” This expert is from the above book and has been modified by me. This morning, I am where my coffee …
Hello from Rainbow Lake! I’m not really at a lake fishing. I haven’t been posting much because I am getting closer to publishing my YA fishing basketball novella, Ironjaws. Yes, it is a novella that combines basketball and fishing. Can’t be too many of those out there. But the world at large doesn’t seem …
Coffee Novelist 
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