“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developingour wings on the way down.”― Kurt Vonnegut Do something which requires faith I remembered this post while emailing an author acquaintance that I was going to sign the agreement to have The Trier manuscript made into a book. This process is not going to happen... Continue Reading →
The cost of coffee It had been over 20 years, at least a coffee wave or two, since I regularly bought whole bean coffee at coffee houses. I was spoiled by Starbucks at the start of my coffee drinking life. Yes, Starbucks was once a coffee company. They sold great varietals such as Ethiopian... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
When my sons were much younger they loved dinosaurs. And so they loved animated series of movies starring a group of singing dinosaurs called The Land before Time. I watched those movies with my sons those twenty plus years ago on prehistoric format known as VHS. I had just left a career at a burning... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Some writing with your coffee? It is not yet seven a.m. on Sunday morning. And I have been up for close to ninety minutes. This is my schedule. I have come to the conclusion that sleeping in is overrated. This is my day off and one hears a lot about how others relish the chance... Continue Reading →
The search is on It is seven a.m. in Columbus Ohio. I am strolling with intent through a gentrifying neighborhood towards my first cup of coffee of the day. My oldest son is still asleep a few blocks away. I am in town to visit him. A few days ago, I texted... Continue Reading →
“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... Continue Reading →
Has Starbucks gone to pieces? Starbucks today and the Starbucks I worked at in Chicago and set my historical fiction novel Tripio in, would have a hard time recognizing each other. For one, there are about 25,000 more stores and 200,000 more employees around than when I wore the green apron. Those numbers tell the... Continue Reading →
