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 […]

Journaling my mind

 I found it. As I have been writing these posts it has become important to confirm facts and dates. If the writing of Tripio, as recounted in this blog, is going to help even one person find their own voice and thus create their own unique work, then I have to check the facts. In […]

Use what you have in your garden

A recipe for writing? I have two chive plants in my herb garden. I have a sage, oregano and thyme which all have returned this spring. And, for you climate changes doubters out there, my rosemary plant came back this spring. I have had a rosemary plant every summer for ten years and each winter it […]

Funk off, external validation

  Funk off A funny thing happened to me yesterday on the way to do my grocery shopping. This was after I went back inside to find my cloth face mask. As I drove off with my mask in the car I began singing aloud to an old Funk Compilation CD that I have been […]

VanGogh & Tripio are shaking the content tree

          “Just dash something down if you see a blank canvas staring at you with a certain imbecility” Painters block? I take this blog seriously. I know I have come to use humor more frequently as the blog goes on.  However I believe that is an indication of growing confidence in the blog itself. The humor, […]

A trip back to Starbucks store #204

A trip to my Starbucks #204 It is the summer of 1992. In my “Starbucks novel”, Tripio, Jay works at a Starbucks store #204 located on north side of Chicago on the corner of Clark, Diversey and Broadway. In Tripio, for the sake of brevity and authenticity, I refer to it simply as store #204, […]

Two Starbucks books

The tale of two Starbucks green aprons I am reading “How Starbucks Saved my Life” by Michael Gates Gill with great interest and a good deal of empathy. I am marking Starbucks 50th anniversary by attempting to read other books on Starbucks that focus on the baristas, and not the business. My novel, Tripio, does […]

Mental Cardio- self care for the mind

It is Sunday morning and soon I will head off to my local Get Fit for my mental and physical self care routine (masked up for the duration). Sure, I go for my physical cardio workout. My goal, as suggested by my GP, is to elevate my heart rate several times during my time on […]

The editor in my crawlspace

THE SEARCH IS ON FOR AN EDITOR I’m in the process of finding an editor for my next novel. I am in the process of searching for answers, looking for outside help. I am in the need of expert assistance for something I can’t do as well as they could. This happens so often in […]