Writing and Drinking

Tags

alcohol, Irish Whisky, Literary, Scotch Whisky, Single Malt, Strathisla, Whisky, Writers Tears

“Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.”

This quote is from Peter Devries’ Reuben, Reuben and not from Earnest Hemingway

I like to drink. I like the taste of beers, wines, and spirits. I like the sensations of tingling tongues and burning palates. I like the off-centered sensations. My mind works looser but not better. I feel freer to explore ideas, but almost always the result is crap. Writing and human relationship.

I think our brains are finely wired. Our Apollonian and the Dionysian modes are not independent but work in tandem. Each alone is almost useless. Alcohol sends us into this Apollonian mode, the creative world, but it blocks out the rational, focused world. Our thoughts and actions become psychedelic, not constructive.

I also have health issues that heavy drinking would only exacerbate and append. While getting lost in the netherworld of the bottle is attractive at times, getting lost from the world is not as pretty. Yet, I have decided to try to incorporate alcohol into my writing.

I am going to try to use finer drinks as a reward system: accomplish something significant, have a toddy. Some significant milestones include finishing editing chapters and scenes, revisions of stories, and of course any awards or publications (should that ever happen). Finish a chapter, celebrate with a shot of Writers Tears.

Reading is also important to me. I firmly believe any writer needs to read and study what he or she reads. A writer cannot write that killer story without understanding the lessons of both published masters and clunkers. Reading is so important to me, I would almost consider a good old drunk for each book, but I’ll settle for a lone shot of single malt.

I do not condone writing or editing drunk, and not because I think it’s evil. If you want to do it, go write ahead. But I know it doesn’t work for me. I am now calling bottles of spirits bottles of encouragement and each shot a notch in my pen marking success.

Bottoms up!

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Reading Update – 1st quater, 2015

Tags

books, Literary, reading, Writing

I’ve been a busy reader this year. I have set a goal of reading fifty books this year, and I am on pace to achieve it. Yay!

Last year I set the same goal and only reached 34 books. Boo!

So what’s different with this year? Well, I am keeping a journal. In the front, I write notes about the book: new or nebulous words, interesting lines, examples of technique, and general notes about the novel and the author’s writing. In the back of the book I maintain a to-read list and a daily log. I work this list from back to front. When the back meets the front, I will start a new journal. I have shelves full of unused journals I’ve picked up over the years.

Best Book

The Bluest Eye. This book still sits with me.

Enjoyed The Most

Orphan Train. The American immigration story, engaging.
The Fault In Our Stars. A simple story and trite writing, but Green knows how to create and maintain tension.
Carnival. Rawi can write!

Enjoyed The Least

The Crying Of Lot 49. Maybe if I was an adult in the 60’s I might catch on to it. It’s an unresolved conspiracy story. Like Lost or X-Files, you never find truth. A frustrating read.

Worst Book

Hunting Badger. This must have been released by mistake. Disastrous gaps and redundancies.

Learned Most From

Toni Morrison, hands down.
Rawi Hage is a first rate writer.
I made lots of Atwood notes.
Crummey is a fantastic, modern literary writer.

Genre Breakdown:

Literary: 8
Craft: 3
Historical Fiction: 1
YA: 1
Crime: 1

Rating Breakdown:

5 star: 5
4 star: 3
3 star: 5
2 star: 0
1 star: 1

Difficulty Breakdown:

5 star: 4
4 star: 3
3 star: 3
2 star: 4
1 star: 0

Sex:

Male: 8 authors
Female: 6 authors

The List:

Finished	Title	Author	Sex	Country	Genre	Rating	Difficulty
Apr-10	A Handmaid’s Tale	Margaret Atwood	F	CA	Literary	***	****
Mar-29	The Bluest Eye	Toni Morrison	F	USA	Literary	*****	*****
Mar-18	Orphan Train	Christina Baker Kline	F	USA	Literary	***	**
Mar-13	Sweetland	Michael Crummey	M	CA	Literary	*****	***
Mar-06	The Crying Of Lot 49	Thomas Pynchon	M	USA	Literary	***	*****
Mar-01	Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them	Francine Prose	F	USA	Craft	*****	*****
Feb-24	The Fault In Our Stars	John Green	M	USA	YA	****	**
Feb-18	Beloved	Toni Morrison	F	USA	Literary	*****	*****
Feb-04	The Trade	Fred Stenson	M	CA	Historical Fiction	****	****
Jan-31	The Maples Stories	John Updike	M	USA	Literary	****	***
	The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success	Donald Maas	M	USA	Craft	***	**
Jan-17	Carnival	Rawi Hage	M	CA	Literary	*****	****
Jan-17	Bird By Bird	Anne Lamott	F	USA	Craft	***	***
Jan-05	Hunting Badger	Tony Hillerman	M	USA	Crime	*	**

My Novel: Challenges

Tags

Literary, nanowrimo, novel, purpose, scene, sequel, snowflake, theme

I began the piece I’m working on last November. It was my 2011 NaNoWriMo project. This novel was much different from my previous one: I had a story, more or less. I initially didn’t like this story as much, and I would have chosen the first as my first novel, but this one seemed like an easier sell, if I could pull it off.

It’s a story about travelling across country. I won’t say anymore than that, for now. My characters travel by vehicle from the farthest east of the country to the farthest west. If you live in countries such as Ireland or Romania, I’m sure this doesn’t seem like much of an adventure. I live in Canada, and it’s a long frickin way from one coast to the other. There’s also one highway, the Trans Canada Highway. There are other highways. There are two ways through the Rockies, and Ontario has options. But basically it’s a coast to coast run.

Challenges!

We know what the story is, basically. It won’t take a genious to figure out the sequence of events as it relates to scenery. My characters can’t take random hops around just to make it interesting. Scenery and timeline are known; they’re static.

Consider one of the most famous coast to coast stories, The Cannonball Run, a 1981 movie starring Burt Reynolds. It’s not an Oscar winning story, but we were entertained. We knew the storyline, a coast-to-coast race, but that didn’t matter. The events along the way were what mattered.

My big challenges have been answering the questions “what?” and “why?” What happens along the way, and why are we on this trip. How to I build tension? How to I add meaning? How do I keep the reader engaged?

I consider this a literary novel.

I can hear your gears ticking: “how do I write a literary version of The Cannonball Run?” I hear a pause followed by “Good luck with that, John.”

The “why” was actually kind of fun to answer. Why would my characters do this? The easy answer is that lots of people do it. Lots of people travel across the country. Every summer I see licence plates from all over the west coast from Alaska to California. They are all fairly common. A vacation type of trip easily fit into my story. If you feel yourself saying “I’d love to do that,” then you should be ables to understand the pull I feel from my story. “Oh, I’d love to do that!”

Never trust John!

There were places along the way I needed to vist to trigger the transformations I was after, and that was a little more difficult, but I think I did it. And writing that story line brought other facets of my characters to life. They were heading down an “artificial” road, a road that didn’t really make sense, but if it was made believable, it would frame some dramatic transformation.

And I didn’t have an ending when I began writing. I did have a general idea, but it was fretty fuzzy. Writing the story revealed a more logical ending, for me, which nicely frames my characters’ transformations. My first version was rather Cavemanish, but as I’ve pondered it at night while trying to fall asleep, I discovered another layer of meaning which I am now writing to.

When I read Miram Toews’ chicken book, A Complicated Kindness, I cursed her for not clearly revealing her mother was having an affair. And I cursed myself for not picking up the fat that in The Sun Also Rises Buddy was impotent. Picking up on such small but important facts would have changed my experiences with these books. I hope that if Ms. Toews ever reads my story she will be sucked into the wrong conclusions like I was with her book. Revenge will be sweet!

The “what” question answered itself as I wrote. I think my strength is becoming empathetic with my characters and finding their flaws. I had planned themes, and I follow them, but early on another theme worked its way in. I didn’t plan it, but it needed to happen, and it did. I brushed it off as sappy, but it kept hanging around very subtely throughout. It only made sense to fulfill this idea at the end: tell them what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said, the standard writing and presentation outline.

I really haven’t told you much. Sorry about that. I’m writing this for myself today. I’m trying to justify all the crap I’ve written and motivate myself to finish it. Not a problem at the moment, but I have written a lot of crap in it. Last night I ripped out a whole scene and replaced it completely. There were things that needed to happen and choices that needed to be made, and the previous scene was just goofy, so I ditched the airy NaNo scene and inserted the slower but important scene, a sequel as the Snowflake guy describes it.

I’m finding this guy’s structured scene writing advice very useful in writing my story. As I’ve said, we know chain of events, and it’s challenging bringing them to life and keeping them fresh. These scene writing outlines are very useful, and I think they are working very well. When I finish in another month or so, hopefully, I’ll read it cover to cover and let you know.

The Power And The Glory

Tags

classic, don't tell, free indirect style, graham greene, great, Literary, novel, prose, show

I’m almost finshed reading Graham Greene’s “The Power And The Glory.” I highly recommend it; though many consider it a boring read.

I have a picture in my writing room of a Mexican scene. It’s outside achurch with a bunch of peasants sitting on the ground with mats covered in unknown wares. It’s outside a church door with a blurred entrance. For me it’s a vision out of this novel.

Here’s a quick snapshot of it, cropped with a lamp out of view on the right.

Cortès’ Painting of a Mexican Village

Greene doesn’t use much exposition to describe scenery. His work is a great example of showing versus telling, use of symbols and themes, and in painting a very deep character.

Last night a couple of lines caught my attention: They were down off the hills and in a marshy plain. Soon the whole state would be subdivided by swamp. The rains had really begun.

I thought wow!

This was page 198 of 222, and it had already rained quite a bit in the story with numerous thunderstorms passing over and drenching everything. Another had just passed the previous pages.

I noticed the first line right away as a bit odd; because it was my first recollection of any physical description of the landscape. [a quick review found more early on, and these were brief one or two liners.] The second line made me stop: subdivided? I could immediately picture areas I’ve lived in. My current community used to be nothing but trees and bog, and now it’s nothing but trees and bog and homes. I could easily envision my neighborhood with all the homes replaced by swamps. The rain had begun indeed. I now imagined those recent 22 inch florida rains hitting my subdivision and filling up all the yards and driveways.

Powerful images; simple techniques?

So what did Greene do to whack me upside the head with these powerful visions with so few words? It was simple really. First he prepared the situation with many thunderstorms and people taking shelter. Call it foreshadowing: the repeated subtle incidents prepared us subconsciously for more. He slowly built up the images of heavy rains and taking cover, so when he finally does use expostion to describe the scenery, we already have visions of heavy rain and its resulting hardships. It’s symbolism at work. Every time it rains, bad things happen. Now near the end, the really heavy rains hit, and it hints at a disastrous ending.

Then he uses simple contrast: it’s like this now, but it will be like that very soon. It’s much more effective and visually stimulating than writing “The marshes will turn into swamps.”

But the key to the lines is the word subdivided. It’s an extraordinary use of the concept called free indirect style. With free indirect style we see things both through the character’s eyes as well as the author’s. We already know this priest has lived in the midst of peasant Mexico sometime during the first half of the 20th century. This novel was published in 1940. The priest had no knowedge of such concepts as subdivision, not of turning the wild into plots for homes, but the author did. We are being presented a picture of the land in both the priest’s vision and the author’s, a double-hit.

Greene uses free indirect style is several passages, and I found this novel a masterful piece of work on may levels. I highly recommend reeading it.

Links:

Free Indirect Style – About
Free Indirect Style – How Fiction Works
Free Indirect Style – The Blank Page
Free Indirect Style – Susan Swan

The Power And The Glory – SparkNotes
The Power And The Glory – Wikipedia

Term: Cognitive Dissonance

Tags

alzheimers, cognitive dissonance, conflict, depression, diabetes, diet, food, heart disease, Literary, multiple sclerosis, nutrition, psychology, story, technique, tension, western disease

Definitions:

Wikipedia – a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously.

Dictionary.com – an uncomfortable mental state resulting from conflicting cognitions; usually resolved by changing some of the cognitions

Discussion:

If you do not understand what this term means, skip ahead to my later reference sections then come back here. This is not a complete discussion by any means. This is an introduction to the concept and hopefully a collection of meaningful resources.

This term is fairly new to me. I’ve written, discussed, and debated much about diabetes, nutrition, and science over the past six years, and I’ve seen this phenomenon regularly. I’ve seen how it impedes logical thinking and created barriers and conflict in people. As a new creative writer, I think it’s an important concept to understand: our character’s actions may seem completely off the wall, but if based in a fundamental dissonance (idea, belief, value, or emotion) and we show [not tell] the situation correctly, then these actions and conflicts and tensions can become wholely believable and authentic.

One of the areas I see it readily displayed is when areguing the lipid and cholesterol theories. You probably fall into this category too, so feel the tension as I write: Saturated fat and dietary cholesterol is not bad for us. There is no demonstrated science showing they are. In fact, there is much demonstration showing they are vital to good health. The real science says carbohydrates are what’s killing us early: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, brain and nervous system diseases [Alzheimers, MS, Depression, etc].

Can you feel the tension? Every researcher knows I’m wrong. Every doctor agrees with you. The government agrees with you. You agree with you. But the facts all say you are wrong. Since American Food Guidelines were first implemented in 1977 directing [The World!] we eat their way, we’ve only gone downhill, and now it’s catching up with us.

That Worked

So either you believe me or you don’t. There are two reasons: the first is I’m wrong, and the second is you don’t want to believe me or cognitive dissonance. Another fact is tens of millions around the world are now discarding their entrenched beliefs and ignoring their doctors’ and dietitians’ advice, and they are becoming healthier. Your still doubting me. You still think I’m crazy. You don’t believe I eat a 70% fat diet with almost none of the so-called “healthy fats.” I eat real butter, grass-fed meats, and low carb veggies. I eat real cheese and very little fruit. Blah, blah, blah.

You can feel your disbelief. You can hear yourself saying I’m a quack. But you can’t completely throw away what I’m saying: “what if he’s right?” There’s tension in the air and it’s called cognitive dissonance. *I can ovewhelm you with science, but I won’t.

I think it’s important to understand the fictional literary significance.

We can create some very powerful characters and siutations using this concpet. Harry Potter is a prime example. He’s a mild, meek, peace loving kid who just wants to get along, yet he’s expected to be the savior of the magical world. He’s always encountering evil and violence, yet he wants none of it. He’s being thrown out of his “comfort zone” and lives in perpetual cognitive dissonace. Do you empathize with him?

This same struggle is even more apparent with Bilbo Baggins who is the professional thief yet wants only to sit in his hole and eat and drink all day. He goes on to perform fantastical deeds all the while fretting over his insignificant self.

In Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” we want to believe in this secret society and in this outlandish story of Jesus, and I suppose many do, yet we can’t pull our way from our belief in both tradition and science. Brown maintains this tension with dissonance to the very end.

This is a very powerful concept. It requires you fully understand the source of tension in your work and apply it consistently. It’s not until resolution that these above stories release the tension. These stories are founded on it.

Now that you understand it, you can recognize it, build on it and around it, and write that best selling story.

Go for it!

Explanations:

Wikipedia – In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.^[1] The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.^[1] An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that smoking is unhealthy; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the consonant element that the smoking is worth short term benefits. A general view of cognitive dissonance is when one is biased towards a certain decision even though other factors favour an alternative.

About – People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. So what happens when one of our beliefs conflicts with another previously held belief? The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is a discrepancy between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.

Examples:

About –

Cognitive dissonance can occur in many areas of life, but it is particularly evident in situations where an individual’s behavior conflicts with beliefs that are integral to his or her self-identity. For example, consider a situation in which a woman who values financial security is in a relationship with a man who is financially irresponsible.

  The conflict:

• It is important for her to be financially secure.
• She is dating a man who is financially unstable.

In order to reduce this dissonance between belief and behavior, she can either leave the relationship or reduce her emphasis on financial security. In the case of the second option, dissonance could be further minimized by emphasizing the positive qualities of her significant other rather than focusing on his perceived flaws.

Links:

Wikipedia
Dictionary
About
*OnlyAGame
*Examples
*Skepdic
*Amazon – Films

Doctor John!

Tags

A1C, diabetes, DOC, Literary, prose, PWD, retinopathy, Writing

I’ve written a lot about diabetes. Most of the time I respond to forum posts. A forum post can serve many purposes. The member can be looking for help and advice, they might be ranting about a problem, or they may be giving advice. I think that probably covers the gammut: input, processing, and output to the old-school IT folks.

My responses usually involve a certain amount of information. I have experienced a lot with my disease — I am a type 1 diabetic in my 37th year of battle — and I think I have a fairly comprehensive view of management techniques. We commonly say “Knowledge is Power!” and I follow through with trying to provide knowledge to the ignorant. Being ignorant and being diabetic is not a good combination. This is not a disease you want to have if you are stupid. Too much can and will go wrong. I am also not afraid to try new things. I consider myself a willing lab rat, and I consider all possible advice.

When I reply to threads, I usually pick one of four formats:
– this is what I did and why
– this is what I think the issues really are and these are your choices
– that’s wrong and this is right (Ye olde debate)
– good luck with that!

One thing I try never to do is tell someone what they should do. I don’t know them, and I am not qualified to make such statements. In fact, anybody who says “you should … ” get’s a big red X put beside their name in my book regardless of subject. Life is not that simple, diabetes is not that simple, and writing is not that simple. Yes I’m writing about writing.

Here’s a post I wrote this morning.

Keep in mind your objectives. The needs of a child are different than the needs of an adult on a ketogenic diet. For a child running high blood sugars, accuracy and ability to get quick samples is important. You are making immediate decisions which impact your child’s life. When I show ketones, and I almost always do, I merely want to know what color purple it is. I know it won’t be dark since DKA doesn’t happen on a ketogenic diet, but too light means I’m cheating too many carbs. I just now tested between 40 and 80 (4 and 8) and last evening I was 40 (4). My BGs this morning were a bit high at 142 (7.9), but I had a late snack while watching hockey last night, and I bolus conservatively before bed.

Here I was informing someone about ketone testing. I did this because most diabetics and health care professionals have limited understanding of ketones. They typically see ketones as bad, and in my opinion, that’s a wrong approach. I didn’t tell this person that. I didn’t delve into all my opinions about doctors and diabetic educators and the evils they bring. I simple told it how it is. I left it open for those interested to research. “Ketogenic diet, what the hell is that? I’ll Google it.” I’m not writing a book here; I’m triggering peoples’ brains. I want them to think!

Later I responded to a dad questioning if it was okay to feel apathetic about his child’s high blood sugars.

I tell diabetics “great things are accomplished in small steps.” Of course the number is important and we don’t want them, but flushing out the reasons is not easy, and applying practical solutions is often harder. It took me over 30 years to figure it out and I still struggle daily

• – current 5.6 A1C, very very few hypos, and no signs of retinopathy
  
• – dx 1975
  – 911’d nine times 1995-2006
  – prolif retinopathy 1994
  – 4000 laser zaps 1994 – 2000
  – vitrectomy 2006

Keep the head up and feet moving forward.

This thread informs, but it’s primarily motivational. I start out telling them there is hope and that losing battles are expected in this war. I let them know it’s alright to feel defeated but victory is still possible, if not probable. I often “show” them my situation and my turnaround. I want them to visualize what I’ve been through and what I’ve accomplished. A diabetic reading those points will see fabulous facts in the first line. They should say “great!” Then the following five points will tell them I’ve been through a war. It should tell them that turnarounds are possible, that we do it every day. If your not a diabetic, you really can’t relate to what four thousand blasts of laser are like. These are not simply bright lights but are little bolts of flame burning the back of my eye. My retinas look worse than any burned and mangled body. If you don’t believe me, Google panretinal photocoagulation someday when you’re pretty sure you won’t throw up. If you can still stand after that, then try Googling Vitreous Hemorrhage  or Vitrecomy and watch the Youtubes.

I then end it with another motivating line. It’s nothing particularly moving; it’s just a  simple message of hope.

Writing like this is different from writing creatively, but I still try to use literary techniques such as showing vs. telling and using active verbs and sentences. For fun, I wondered if I could write a fictional piece about a diabetic child at school with high blood sugars. It rambles a bit, but enjoy anyway 🙂

Billy attempted to walk home from school instead of taking his usual bus. He knew exercise would lower his blood sugars, and it semed like the cure for the 450 his meter showed him. But brains soaked in high levels of blood sugar don’t function well. Before he knew it, he was looking for a bathroom to relieve himself in, but of course there aren’t any public restrooms in West Allis neighbourhoods. He settled on a row of big bushes running between two houses. He remembered thinking he was doing the bushes a service by watering them, and when the branches hit his face, he knew he should swipe them away, but his hands wouldn’t move. He couldn’t feel his hands or his legs or the large roots as his head hit them. Those bushes might have been his last resting place if old Marge hadn’t come home early from work. She opened the door of her big Mercury Marquis and saw the little body laying in her hedge. “Oh My” she thought, and immediately reached in to see if it was alive. Her cell phone was new to her, but she knew enough to dial the simple numbers – 9 1 1 .

Billy spent the night in the hospital and the next morning his parents grilled him about his day then drilled him on making good decisions. Billy looked at them with big eyes that knew his parents’ words did not match his day. That’s when doctor John entered the room. He slid in silently while Billy’s parents prattled on. The doctor stood and listened. Billy knew he was sneaking, that he was on his side, and he knew not to let on after doctor John winked at him. He knew he had a new friend, someone to tell these big mouths to shut up!

Cafés

Tags

Literary, Writing

Café is one of those words that creates visions. It might be an bright outdoor restaurant on a hot summer afternoon or a dark and cold wood clad hovel behind some grungy door on a back street. Today one can easily see signs of café in various coffee shops. Here in Canada we’re inundated with drive-through Tim Hortons and a growing number of Starbucks and independant shops. I suppose if you serve coffee as it’s own offering — as opposed to after a large expensive meal — then you are a café. Size might matter too. I can’t picture a 300 seat café.

I’ve been trying to write in cafés. Tim Hortons is off my list; because I need internet access. I want internet access. My files are on DropBox, and while I can work on them unconnected, it will force me to synch up before I work on them elsewhere. I’m a forgetful procrastinator.

Starbucks is an okay choice. I like their coffee and they serve heavy whipping cream. Their connection suffices. There is not a lot of seating in them, and finding a quiet corner is challenging. I have written at two of them, and it’s a choice I’ll make again.

I’ve tried a local shop called Java Moose (JM). My problem here is they have too many lounge chairs and don’t serve heavy cream. I hate 10% cream in my coffees — John is on a high fat, Dr. Richard Bernstein, Paleo/Primal diet. Usually at JM I will read. Reading, by the way, is necessary for writing, so it’s not a waste of time.

While in Newfoundland in late 2010 I spent a lot of time in a shop called Hava Java. They had good coffee and atmosphere. I liked it a lot. I didn’t care for the food, though. I don’t do sweets or vegan. But we got along. They stayed open late at night, something JM here doesn’t do.

I’ve chatted with Randy at JM, an owner, but he’s not interested in specialized creams. It sounds like way too much trouble for him. Sorry Randy, but the customer is always right. I bring my own cream in, and I now buy my beans from Beamish Creek.

Lst night I tried a little café downtown called The Magnolia Café. It sounds nice. It’s paired with a restaurant called The Bourbon Quarter, and they serve food and drink from it. I ordered a wine, a plate of beef strips shaped like a flower, then a coffee. $17 and two hours later I’d written my 750 words at 750words.com and edited half a chapter of my novel. It felt free and easy in there, but it didn’t feel … fun.

I think cafés need to feel fun. They need happy, joyful people in front of and behind the counter. They need people that laugh and smile and make you feel good. Age really doesn’t matter, but I don’t complain about all the young people at most cafés. I don’t complain about the old people either. Smiling and laughing makes you feel good and makes the people around you feel good. I feel good about the people that visit Starbucks and Java Moose. They will talk back to you when you say hello and ask them what they are reading. The people at Tims are more likely to be harvested as antagonists in my novels, and nobody there reads. The people at Magnolia were sullen and dull. Sorry, but you were.

I guess Starbucks it is, until something new opens up, a place that serves beautiful coffee, heavy cream, and a selection of real and natural foods, a place with real and natural people, and a place that is fun to be in and write in.