Category Archives: The Writing Journey

Blog Entries that have to do with the day to day struggle to put words on paper — or pixels on screen.

What’s Your Poison? 6 Espresso Drinks You Should Know (and try!)

09 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Since I write a cozy mystery series (the Coffee & Crime Mysteries) about the owner of a coffee shop, I read a lot about coffee.  And as much as my doctor might wish otherwise, I drink a lot of coffee.  Now, granted, I am not much of a connoisseur – I like a little coffee with my sugar and cream.  However, I make a point to actually taste various types of coffee (without the sugar and cream), so that I am able to experience and recognize the difference, say, between a Hawaii Kona and a Jamaican Blue Mountain; a dark roast versus a light roast; or a blend versus a single origin.  It’s fun and informative and I’m hoping to share more coffee lore in my books as time progresses.

One of the things I get asked most about is the difference between the various espresso drinks.  So I thought I’d create a little blog post about it.

What is an espresso drink?

The basics:  An espresso drink is one that contains espresso (typically created in a machine by forcing steam through ground coffee beans), steamed milk, and foam in various amounts and in various layered combinations.

An Espresso & an Espresso - a marriage made in heaven!

Espresso & Espresso – a match made in heaven!

Some espresso drinks also contain other ingredients (like chocolate or other flavored syrups, or whipped cream), but all espresso drinks contain the basic three ingredients of espresso, steamed milk, and foam.

My Favorite Espresso Drinks

Cappuccino:  This is probably one of the most often ordered drinks, and likely the first thing you ordered at a Starbucks (outside of a pumpkin spice latte perhaps).  A cappuccino should be made with equal parts espresso, steamed milk and foamed milk, in that order.  Because of the layering, many good coffee houses will serve drinks like this in glass cups or short tumbler, so you can also appreciate the drink visually.

Latte:  If you’re at all familiar with romance languages, you might be able to guess what a latte is all about.  Yup – milk.  A shot of espresso goes in the bottom of the cup (or a tumbler glass, outside of the States) and the rest of the cup is filled with steamed milk, giving the drink a sweeter taste.  Then, a soupçon of milk foam is added to the top.

Cafe Latte

A Lotta Latte

Macchiato:  The macchiato is a step down from the strength of a straight espresso.  Layering is important here and a good barista (like those at my favorite local coffee shop, The Conscious Cup, in Crystal Lake) will make sure that there is a dark espresso layer on the bottom, a layer where the espresso and a little blop of steamed milk mix, and then the finishing layer of foamed milk (some coffee houses I’ve been to omit the foam).

Mocha:  Ah, the joys of chocolate and coffee combined!  The mocha is my go-to coffee drink in the winter.  It’s 50/50 espresso (on the bottom) and chocolate syrup, topped with steamed milk.  Sweet, rich, powerful, it’s a great pick-me-up for those chilly mornings when neither me nor my car want to start up.  Some people like to put whipped cream on top.  I say, go right ahead, there’s always room for whipped cream!

Mocha Mocha Mocha!

Mocha Mocha Mocha!

Americano:  Most espresso drinks call for a shot (30 ml) of espresso.  If you need more volume, but not more jazz (as in a Doppio, where you’d get double the amount of espresso), then you could opt for an Americano, which is the standard espresso shot coupled with twice the amount of hot water.

Cortado:  Not always on the coffee menu here in the Midwest, the Cortado is one of my favorites when I really need a java fix.  A popular drink in Spain, hence the Spanish rather than Italian name, it’s espresso mixed with an equal amount of steamed milk, and is creamy rather than foamy.  Plus, because it is not layered, I can mix in a ton of sugar without anyone being the wiser and calling me a coffee Philistine!

The Cortado

The Cortado – Olé!

There are many more, but I’ll leave some for a future post.  If there’s a coffee drink you’d like to know more about, or want to share YOUR favorite coffee drink, please leave a comment!  I love to hear from you all.  Now, at least, the next time you’re in line at your favorite coffee shop, you’ll be armed with some information, and can perhaps step outside your comfort zone and try something new.  Or, maybe you’ll just impress the the guy or gal in line behind you with your exceptional coffee knowledge!

Be sure to linger over your coffee.  Enjoy it, make it a ritual instead of just slugging it back.  It is a delectable pleasure to be savored.  As the mother of a dear friend used to say, “Just one more sip, George.”

As always,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

 

 

 

 

 

How Did They Build the Pyramids? One Brick at a Time.

18 Tuesday Jul 2017

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So I’m frantic busy trying to finish the first draft on the fourth Ellie Gooden/Coffee & Crime mystery.  It’s due to my editor at the end of July.  The clock is ticking.  I was making steady progress until Wednesday when I was slammed with Stupid Real Life Stuff and I got totally derailed.  I began to wonder if I was ever going to finish this one.

dog and keyboard

Made me wonder how those poor Egyptians felt, staring up at the empty space that would one day be the Great Pyramid, then looking at the seventeen or so stones laid on the ground and wondering how on earth they were ever going to create what Imhotep drew out for them.

pyramidbuidling

But, Sunday I pulled myself up by my boot straps and planted my butt in the chair and managed to put down 2100 or so words.  It felt good, and suddenly that pyramid I’m building didn’t seem quite so daunting.  I might only be halfway to the summit, but I can see the gleaming golden cap over the brilliant white sandstone blocks, shining like a beacon to the heavens… just like this newest Coffee & Crime mystery will outshine all the rest of the cozy paranormals out there for sale on the ‘Zon this fall.

Or…  maybe I’ve just been out in the sun too long and I’m starting to see things.  At any rate, the way those poor, loin-clothed, bare-torso’d wretches built that pyramid is the same way I’m going to write this book.  One lousy brick at a time.  Yes, I’ll probably need some sledges to haul the stones, and some water to quench my thirst and maybe even a foreman or two to crack the whip over my head (hey Nano pals, you hear that?  You get to play with my Indiana Jones whip!).  But I got this.

 

INdy.jpg

Gratuitous Indy Pic!

Anyhoo.  I haven’t been in touch in a while and I just wanted to let you know that I’m still here.  Still dragging the stones up the slanted ramp, all Sisyphus-like.  Still sweating under the hot Egyptian sun for the glory of Ra.  Heh heh.  Or something like that.  Keep on, keeping on, fellow babies.  And as always,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

Character Interview- Charlie McCallum Redux

03 Friday Feb 2017

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Had a really terrific time the other day with author and interviewer Kelly Blanchard, who interviewed a character from my Coffee & Crime Mystery series, the inestimable Charlie McCallum.  Check it out and get a peak inside Charlie’s head first-hand!  Also, make sure you check out ALL her character interviews, with characters from many books and many genres, at her website, Meeting with the Muse.  They are a blast to read and I’ll bet, based on the characters you meet, you’ll find some books to add to your TBR (To-Be-Read) list!

Over the last year or so, I’ve interviewed many of Nan Sampson’s characters. One of those characters was Charlie. If you would like to read the first interview I conducted with him, you can find it on Nan Sampson’s site here: https://nansampsonauthor.com/2015/07/30/an-interactive-character-interview-meet-charlie-mccallum-from-my-ellie-gooden-mystery-series/. In this interview, I was able to catch up with Charlie and see […]

via Character Interview: Nan Sampson’s Charlie — Meeting With The Muse

Huzzah! Forest Outings, Book 3 in the Coffee & Crime Mysteries Debuts Today!

30 Monday Jan 2017

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Hello fellow babies!

dr-johnny-fever

Thanks, Dr. Johnny Fever!

Forest Outings, the third book in the Coffee & Crime Mystery Series, is now on Amazon for sale.  Whoo hoo!!!!  Well… the e-book is there.  It may be a couple of days before the paperback launches.  I’m very excited about this one and I hope you all enjoy it as well.

If you do read it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.  Indie authors depend on those reviews for visibility and I would be eternally grateful.  Which means I would be predisposed to send you chocolate…  jus’ sayin’.  Look!  See all the chocolate you could have!

johnny-chocolat

Oh.  Wait, that’s Johnny Depp EATING chocolate.  Obviously, as much as we all might like it, I can’t actually send you Johnny Depp.  Eating chocolate.  Playing guitar.  Phew, is it hot in here?  Hang on, here’s the correct image.

chocolate-dinosaurs

Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal Chocolates

Anyhoo, hope you’re having a spiffy day!  I’m tickled pink about Forest Outings and it’s inevitable listing on the New York Times Best Seller List.  Hey now.  Be nice.  A girl can dream, can’t she?  And, as always,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

The Bambi Syndrome – Or How Walt Disney and I Are Alike

23 Monday Jan 2017

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“You’re as bad as Walt Disney,” my editor said to me after finishing a draft of one of my WIPs (Works in Progress).  “All your characters are orphans.”

“That’s not true,” said I, vehemently.  “I mean, okay, Ellie from my Coffee and Crime mysteries is, but Ellie’s parents’ murder is part of the series arc.  In my steampunk book, though, the main character, Jonathan… oh.  Still, his father was really old when he died.”

“Yeah, but his mother died when he was young.”

“Okay, okay, but in the space opera trilogy, Peder’s parents—”

“Are dead.  He was dropped off on the door step of his foster father’s estate when he was three.”

Hmm.  I thought back across my many myriad novels, both finished and unfinished and I had to admit, my editor was right.  I seemed to have a thing for characters with dead parents.  If not outright orphans, all of them seemed to have one dead parental unit.  Which got me wondering why.

The answer came almost instantly.  It’s all Walt Disney’s fault.  I remember when I was little, how I had to be taken, crying inconsolably, out of the theater whenever my mom would take me to see a Disney movie.  Bambi, Dumbo, Pinnochio.  Orphans all, and a plot line rife with personal loss.  Is it any wonder I have this template of the hero that includes the death of a parent?  The better question is, what the heck was wrong with Walt Disney?  I didn’t create this monster.  He did!

farewell-bambis-dad

Farewell, my son!

“One could reason,” I therefore proposed to my editor, “that the death of a parent or parents leaves an indelible mark on a character.  Those kinds of traumatic events make for great internal conflict and give the character depth and resilience.  Right?”

“Yeah,” she said, “but you kill them in such gruesome ways.  Remember in that fantasy novel how you killed the guy’s parents in a raid on their village?  And then, just when the kid was living happily with a foster father, you had the house attacked and his foster father eviscerated on the stairs.”  She shuddered.  “I mean, who does that?  Wouldn’t a knife in the back have sufficed?”

“I was going for pathos.”

“An arrow through the chest is pathos.  Evisceration is Roger Corman.”

Pah!  “It was dramatic,” I countered, and ended the discussion.

Still, it caused me to ponder.  Good books are rife with horrific events – not necessarily physically horrific, but certainly emotionally so.  The reader wouldn’t care much about the story if the stakes for the character weren’t high.  Yet even so… it seems to me that writers – or maybe just me in particular – find great joy in torturing our characters.  Again and again and again.  I mean, wasn’t it Nabokov who said that the job of a writer is to chase your character up a tree and then once they’re up there, throw rocks at them?

Think you’re safe up there now?  Hah!  I can fix that.

person-in-tree

Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of Charles Adcock

 

See, this is what it’s like to be a writer.  The goal is always ‘just how bad can I make it for this poor soul?’.  And then, just when the reader thinks it can’t possibly get any worse… heh heh heh.

That’s right.

You kill their OTHER parent!

My non-writer friends tell me it’s probably a good thing that I’m a writer, cuz otherwise I might do all these horrific things to real people (wait, these characters ARE real people…at least to me).  I always smile sweetly and respond with, how do you know I’m not writing from experience?  That usually shuts ’em up.

Illegitimi non carborundum!

What Weight Do You Normally Fight At?

10 Tuesday Jan 2017

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I’m ba-a-a-a-ack!

im-ba-ack

Greetings fellow Earthlings!

As some of you know, I took a rather spectacular fall just before Thanksgiving. Face-planted onto concrete right in front of a bunch of people from the Evil Day Job.  It was spectacular.  Blood everywhere, broken bones, including my hand and nose (and my pride), sprained things, even had to have stitches. I looked like I’d gone a round in the ring with Mike Tyson. Worst part? I spilled my entire large Coca-Cola, my special treat for that week!

I’d include a picture but you might bust something laughing – or try to blackmail me. Anyway, sorry to have been MIA for so long, but I’m back (just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet!).

On the plus side, I’m once again able to type (and write), and Book Three in the Coffee and Crime Mysteries is due out in early spring, so there’s that to look forward!  I think this is the best Ellie book yet.  THings heat up for her both in town, with Charlie and even in terms of the death of her parents.  Lots of fun!  And the cover!  Oh, the cover.  My cover artist, Raven Blackburn, has knocked it out of the park again.  I’ve shared it on my Facebook page and here’s a sneak peek for all of you as well!

coverrevealbanner

Anyhoo, now that my tippy-tapping fingers are back in action, you can look forward to more idle ramblings, pithy musings and giddy babblings soon.  Oh, and as always, the peasants are revolting.

revolting-peasants

Illegitimi non carborundum!

How Carving a Pumpkin Can Change Your Life

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Yes, it’s true.  Carving a pumpkin can truly change your life.  Especially if you’re using a really sharp knife and it slips…

But seriously.  I spent some rather unproductive time last night attempting to create a pumpkin masterpiece.  Now, we ALL know I have no artistic ability whatsoever.  I can draw neither a straight nor curvy line, cannot paint, cannot sculpt, and am not in any other way artsy or craftsy.  I wasn’t only a pariah in gym class… art class was my second least favorite subject.

And yet, as Halloween is my favorite holiday, each year I desire to create that perfect, most sincere Jack-O-Lantern.  In my mind, I am imagining this:

awesome-jack-o-lantern

And each year, I pretty much end up with something like this.

ugly-jack-o-lantern

This year, I finally figured out how it happens.  It’s all about revision.  Yes, there, I said it.  A dirty little writer word.  See, what happens is that I keep feeling unsatisfied, so I keep trimming and deleting and refining and modifying, until… well, it’s like cutting your own bangs, isn’t it?  You want them to be even, but you’re not a professional stylist, so you keep making tiny adjustments when you find they’re not quite right on that one side and then you look in the mirror and you find you’ve got this:

bad-bangs

Yeah.  Stories, bangs, pumpkins, it’s all the same.  And it doesn’t stop there.  For me, anyway, since nothing is ever perfect, and I’m one of those people who need to fix/manage/control my world, I try to tweak everything.  Constantly.  Like, to death.

So I’m trying to teach an old dog a new trick.  Maybe, just maybe, my crappy pumpkin carving, while still probably crappy, is okay.  Maybe the heart and soul that I put into it will trump my relatively paltry skill at carving.  Maybe, by practicing pumpkin carving every day in the weeks running up to Halloween I’ll improve my skill.  Or maybe, just maybe, I need to learn to let what I create be whatever it is and be satisfied with it, knowing that I am my own worst critic and that it probably isn’t anywhere near as bad as I think it is.  (Although in the case of pumpkins, I might have to accept reality… )

I mean, yes, we always want to improve and that’s not a bad thing.  But if we’ve tried our best, constant cutting and trimming and correcting may just end up destroying what we set out to create.  Not just in art, not just in writing, not just in pumpkin carving, but in everything.

So this year, I’m going to go buy another pumpkin.  And I’m going to carve it the best I am currently able.  I’ll even post pictures.  It might not be a masterpiece, but I guarantee it will be sincere enough to make the Great Pumpkin happy.  And for once, this year, I will be too!

Illegitimi non carborundum!

A Pithy Quote for the Day

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

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I was reading a blog by Maria Popova, who was quoting Ann Patchett from her memoir.  It rang so true for me, as a writer, I had to share it.  You can read the full blog post here: BrainPickings, and I highly recommend reading Ann Patchett’s book (available at Amazon here: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage).

“For me it’s like this: I make up a novel in my head (there will be more about this later). This is the happiest time in the arc of my writing process. The book is my invisible friend, omnipresent, evolving, thrilling… This book I have not yet written one word of is a thing of indescribable beauty, unpredictable in its patterns, piercing in its color, so wild and loyal in its nature that my love for this book, and my faith in it as I track its lazy flight, is the single perfect joy in my life. It is the greatest novel in the history of literature, and I have thought it up, and all I have to do is put it down on paper and then everyone can see this beauty that I see.

And so I do. When I can’t think of another stall, when putting it off has actually become more painful than doing it, I reach up and pluck the butterfly from the air. I take it from the region of my head and I press it down against my desk, and there, with my own hand, I kill it. It’s not that I want to kill it, but it’s the only way I can get something that is so three-dimensional onto the flat page. Just to make sure the job is done I stick it into place with a pin. Imagine running over a butterfly with an SUV. Everything that was beautiful about this living thing — all the color, the light and movement — is gone. What I’m left with is the dry husk of my friend, the broken body chipped, dismantled, and poorly reassembled. Dead. That’s my book.

The journey from the head to hand is perilous and lined with bodies. It is the road on which nearly everyone who wants to write — and many of the people who do write — get lost… Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.”  Ann Patchett, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Illegitimi non carborundum!

Don’t Think About Writing…

13 Sunday Jul 2014

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How Not to Think About Writing

How Not to Think About Writing


After last week’s momentous book launch, I decided I deserved a weekend’s worth of down time. I’d been going 4-40 since January and felt exhausted. All I was looking for was two days of doing nothing. Makes sense, right? Recharge the old batteries, gather steam for the next project. All good.

What was it Bobby Burns said? The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley, wasn’t it? Yeah… turns out the old Scot was right.

So I blow off my WW meeting on Saturday morning because of a rum tummy. Tried to sleep in, but His Admiralship wanted breakfast at five freaking thirty. Got up, fed the pushy poodle, then tried to go back to sleep. Kept thinking about scenes I needed to add to Book 2 of the mystery series. Not wanting to lose the ideas, I grabbed my bed side notebook to jot them down — and promptly spilled my water glass into the open drawer of the nightstand. *sigh* Got up, cleaned up the mess (yes, thank you, Nelson, you were very helpful trying to lick up the water), then tried again to go back to sleep. Remembered I hadn’t made notes. Got up again and jotted down my ideas.

At that point, I was wide awake. But I had promised myself I wasn’t going to do anything writerly. So I went downstairs, put the kettle on, made some tea… and started thinking about a scene in my fantasy novel. Nope. Stop it. Not doing any writing today. Stood there for a moment and noticed that the kitchen cabinets needed cleaning. Got out the orange oil and did a spot of cleaning.

Two hours later, the kitchen gleamed. As did the bathrooms and the floors. And as I scrubbed I found myself wondering what my character Charlotte would use for degreasing since oranges weren’t available in medieval times… stop it. Stop thinking writer-type things! Maybe, I thought, as I got up off the floor, knees aching, I should take a little nap.

Oh, wait, not so fast. I needed to take the oriental carpet to this shop my husband found in Lakemoor for cleaning. Lakemoor? Where the devil is Lakemoor? Oh, says he on his way out the door to work, it’s just up 47, take a right on 120. Right around the corner.

Over an HOUR LATER, I finally located the small burb of Lakemoor, but the only thing at the address indicated was an autobody shop. I drove up and down the street for twenty minutes (I’m sure people thought I was either loony or casing the joint), but there is NO cleaners. So I drove back home. But the drive wasn’t completely wasted because I figured out the tricky escape bit for the fantasy novel. Oh damn. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about writing…

So I got home shortly after noon, at which point, it was time to rouse the teenager and get some food down her gullet before she becomes an unholy, crabby mess. That accomplished, I thought, okay, NOW I can sit down and do… um… work on the fantasy novel? No. No writing. Okay, I’ll um… oh I know, I’ll dump book 2 of the mystery series into Scrivener and… oh, yeah, no writing. So… um… er…

I dithered on the couch for about twenty minutes, trying to think of something to do that wasn’t writing related. I even pulled out my Kindle to read something. But I couldn’t settle on what to read. Except that book about how to writer faster… but wait, that was writing related.

Bottom line, I’ve apparently forgotten how to just sit and do nothing. Well, at least anything that doesn’t have something to do with writing. And you know what? I’m pretty okay with that. Turns out, I LOVE writing. Even the icky revision part. I’m actually itching to dive into the editing of Book 2. Maybe this revision won’t take me six months, like the last one, now that I understand the process!

So today, Sunday, I took a breath, allowed myself to think a few writerly thoughts, then did my usual Sunday errands (grocery store, making a few casseroles for dinner during the week, putting my lunch things together for Monday, etc.). And for dinner, the family and I went out to The Claddagh for a good old faux Irish meal. I even treated myself to a pear cider. Yum!

Tomorrow, however, it’s back to work. Both to the evil day job and as a writer. And I can’t wait!

Is there a hobby or avocation you itch to work on when you’re doing other things? Is there a project you can’t wait to get back to or consumes your thoughts at any given idle moment? I’d love to hear about your favorite things. And thanks for dropping by!

Illegitimi non carborundum!