My dream team

Allie

The alarm rings. 4:45 a.m. I wake up way too early for another morning and more writing.

I stagger downstairs and head to the coffee maker. Once in the kitchen, Allie, my motivation coordinator, hands me today’s coffee already poured into my favorite pre-warmed mug. She tells me what I want to know: today’s brew is Costa Rica La Minita Finca Verde y Grande. I don’t like surprises first thing in the morning and make it clear to Allie in our preproduction meetings that in order to keep my mind free for the important writing that I’m about ready to sit down and do, that she must brew only single-origin varietal coffees. I can’t be left wondering.

Allie came to work for me after I had to fire her predecessor, who I will not name here. I came downstairs one morning to him having brewed me a cheap off brand coffee which I tasted and immediately knew it was part Robusta. It’s high acidity and nerve-jangling caffeine content proceeded to spoil my writing mind for the entire morning. I had to fire him on the spot, telling him to take his Robusta coffee and go to work for James Patterson.

I nod to Allie a job well done and take a seat at the kitchen table.

Priya

I sit down with Priya, and we quickly go over my 5-minute morning yoga practice I will do just before I begin to write. I usually approve the asanas she had laid out for me. These too are covered in our weekly production meetings. However, Priya must be able to adjust on the fly depending on what I need to bring to my writing that day: Energized calm? Gratitude? Third Chakra Spiritual willpower? If I don’t already have it, she must find the asanas to get me there.

This morning, Priya thought Pigeon would be good. My mind needed to release some pent-up frustrations I encountered while writing yesterday’s scene in which my main character discovers she has unwittingly staffed her newly opened, post-divorce dream coffee house with preternatural creatures.

“I was fooled.” Angellique Basque mused, sipping her now cold latte, “They all interviewed so welI.” I agreed with Priya this morning.

That done I roll up my mat for Priya to clean and store and I am ready to write.

Dan

I leave the sacred space where I do my yoga, step to my writing table and greet Dan, my IT support. By now DAN is almost finished cleaning my laptop screen. Dan, like Allie and Priya arrive to my house by 4:30 every morning. Dan checks the laptop and printer, wi-fi connection and feeds the cat. At times the cat distracts me at this peak time of productivity, and I can’t have that.

Nikos

I almost forgot Nikos. He goes thru my G-mail and cleans up anything I need to respond to. Nikos drafts my blog posts, creates and schedules my social media, and scripts my You Tube and Tik Tok spots. He is also in charge of developing all my Web 3.0 platforms. He works remotely but I am grateful for him, nonetheless.

I am lucky to have my dream team show up every morning to encourage me to grind away morning after morning, half an hour at time. Or some mornings one paragraph at time. And maybe rework that same paragraph the next day. I am lucky to have the support to keep me going even as my first novel sells at a snail’s pace.

I am lucky to have my dream team cheering me on to push through all the challenges and setbacks encountered in trying to get a second, and even third and fourth book out. They energize me so I can keep the blog going and rewrite what I once thought was 75,000 words of perfection. My team knows that I love to write and yet, at times, don’t want to do it at all. My dream team is here for me when no one else is, empowering me.

The alarm clock rings for real. I wake from the dream recounted above. I stagger downstairs, make my own coffee, delay any yoga, flip on my own dirty screened laptop and check my Gmail. Then I can greet my real-life support team, pictured below: