Nan Sampson - Author

Mystery, Magic and Mayhem

The Writing Journey

It’s almost here!

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Fringe Benefits, book #4 in the Coffee & Crime Mystery series is almost here.  I’m reading over my proof copy now and I’m so excited I could do the dance of joy.  This one was so much fun to write.  You get a really quirky ghost, more insight into the murder of Ellie’s parents and the dark entity that is dogging her, a great deal of fun with Per and Charlie and the gang, and a pretty cool M.O.  (thanks to my brilliant husband, the chemist!)  The evil day job has been grueling this month, so my time has been spent elsewhere, but I am working with what little free time I have to get this out the door to you guys.  Just a few more days and I’ll open it up to you, my bestest fans, at a really sweet price!  So don’t turn that dial!  Stay tuned and you’ll be hearing from me in a matter of days.

Pssssst – if you don’t want to miss out on special book pricing, cool recipes PLUS a free short story set in the Coffee & Crime universe, featuring Charlie and Erik the Red, sign up for the Coffee & Crime Sleuth’s Club here:

Coffee & Crime Sleuth’s Club

Thanks, and as always,

 

Snack-Pairings for Authors

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Ever wondered what you should be eating while writing a certain genre?  I recently polled members of a writer’s retreat and here is the consensus view.*  😊

*The views represented in this infographic only represent the opinions of the select individuals polled.  Your snackage choices may vary.

Snack-Pairings for Authors.jpg

Rules for Writer’s Retreats – or how not to spend $500 at a New Age shop and actually get some writing done

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Traditional Pop Tart Toast
The Traditional Saturday Morning Pop Tart Toast (many thanks to the Mad Hill Hunters of Lake Meep)

I recently spend a lovely three-day weekend on a writer’s retreat with a couple of good friends who are also authors, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about considerations for a fun and productive writer’s retreat.  As always, these are just my personal considerations.  Your mileage may vary.

Nan’s rules for a successful writer’s retreat:

  1. Location location location. Requirements include comfortable chairs; enough table space for all writers to spread out with laptops, research material, notebooks, etc.; many power strips and places to plug them in; outdoor space, weather permitting; comfortable sleeping arrangements; spaces for privacy and alone time.  It can also be nice to have interesting places to go for quick breaks (local wineries, The Mustard Museum, crystal shops, the International House of Wine and Cheese have all proved to be acceptable diversions for my group).  However, while field trips are great for refilling the creative well, beware that they can also be a time suck.

TIP:  Try NOT spending five hours on Saturday at the local crystal shop, no matter how much fun it is.  Not that I’d know anything about that…

  1. Meal Planning. You’ll need kitchen space and advanced meal suggestions and preparation OR tasty and budget-appropriate eateries nearby.

TIP:  Try NOT to over-plan the food.  With one group of writers I go on retreats with, we always seem to bring enough food between us to get us through a zombie apocalypse, despite the planning – that’s the trouble with getting a bunch of moms together.

  1. It’s always good to go on retreat with people who have similar social needs.  If you need long hours of solitude, with no distractions, then traveling with a group of chatty women who also want to catch up on each other’s lives may not be the right mix for you.

TIP:  Always bring your noise cancelling headphones.  That way if the rest of the group wants to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody fifteen times in a row for inspiration (including head banging at the appropriate part), you can turn your back and remain in a state of silent and productive bliss.

  1. Sacred Separation. Do you best to allow your time at the retreat to be sacred time, time that you devote to ‘being there’ fully.  Do your best to keep contact with home and work at a minimum, as you would at a spiritual retreat.  Allow the mental space of a retreat to do its job, whatever that needs to be.

TIP:  This means that when your teenage daughter texts thirty-seven times to squee about a new season of her favorite anime show, it’s okay to text her a short reply, but DO NOT ENGAGE in a full-scale, hour-long text-athon.  Set expectations and then get off the phone.  It can wait until you get home (by which time, she will have moved on to something else anyway).

  1. Setting Expectations: Speaking of which, make sure you let your friends and family, and your work know that you will be unavailable for phone calls, conference calls, meetings, emails, texts, etc.  If you must make yourself available, make the time periods brief, and work them into your retreat schedule carefully.

TIP:  What I tell my family:  Only call me if the house is on fire, and if you can put it out, then it’s not on fire.  What I tell my staff:  Only call me if someone gets let go, and if it’s me, don’t call me until after the retreat, so you don’t spoil my time off.

There are probably other tips, but these are the ones I rely on these days.  Do you have tips for retreats?  If so, I’d love to hear about them!  Don’t be shy – share below!

Take care and as always,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

The Best Way NOT to Write a Blog Post – or Worldbuilder’s Disease, the Silent Writing Killer

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I frequently get behind schedule when writing posts for my blog.  I think this infographic sums up the ‘why’ pretty readily.

Writing Infographic, Blog Post Procrastination, Nan Sampson, Coffee & Crime Mysteries, fiction writing, worldbuilder's disease
The Effects of Worldbuilder’s Disease

Of course, this kind of behavior is also why I frequently get stalled writing my novels too.  In the fiction trade, we call this “WorldBuilder’s Disease”.  It is a devastating ailment, characterized by dry eyes, head aches, pale skin, difficulty in focusing, frequent bouts of boring our loved ones with minute trivia about obscure topics, and most horrifying of all, an utter lack of progress on one’s WIP (Work In Progress).

Hi.  My name is Nan and I’m a Worldbuilder-aholic.

It’s a sickness, I tell you.  Creating languages, political systems, histories that stretch back thousands of years to the dawn of time, maps detailing every town on a continent and a listing of all the pubs (well, pubs are important!), building whole towns in Minecraft (yes, I did this for the town of Horizon from my Coffee & Crime Mysteries),  designing multiple religions and their associated pantheons complete with origin stories and mythologies, producing detailed family trees for  walk-on characters for seven generations, detailing musical trends (what song is that bard playing in the inn that night?  Is it part of a larger musical movement?  Does the Bard Guild have an approved playing list?  Who controls what’s on that?  Why?  How did this come about…).  And on and on.

worldbuilder's disease, writing procrastination, writing research, nan sampson, fiction writing, the coffee & crime mysteries
Time for an Intervention

Will any of this appear in the actual novel?  Probably not.  Does it make the world richer and deeper?  Well, yes.  But only to a point and mostly only to me.

Is it fun?  Oh, hell to the yes!

Welcome to the world of a writer.

They say (you know, ‘THEY’) you should only build enough of your world to get you through what you’re writing.  Take a few details and go deep, instead of going broad and shallow.  Those of us with Worldbuilder’s Disease say, why not go broad AND deep!

The problem, of course, and why the pundits say what they say, is that all that research and the fifty thousand link bookmarks and dowloaded articles and spreadsheets will completely derail actual progress on my books.  All that time I spent creating the 3,000 year history of the continent across the sea from where our heroes live is time I could have spent actually finishing the novel.  Perhaps it’s enough to know that the Empress who rules over there is a nasty piece of work.  Heck, the heroes won’t even get to that continent until book 4 in the series!

Do you have Worldbuilder’s Disease?  It doesn’t affect just writers.  Do you fall down internet rabbit holes when researching anything online?  If you do, share below which particular rabbit holes are most dangerous for you.  And know that you are NOT ALONE and that some day there WILL BE A CURE!  In the mean time, keep focused, wear internet blinders and most of all,

Illegitimi non carborundum!

Nan

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

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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.

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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!

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