Tag: coffee

The Morning Rush!

On By Victoria LK WilliamsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

And the morning rush is on!

Have you ever done this? You get up early, thinking you’re going to get so much accomplished and get a head start on the day. You’re doing fine; until you look at the clock and realize either you’re way ahead of schedule or you have time to do a few extra things. Then, holy cow! You’re so far behind you’re going to be late.

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And that’s just the start of your adventure into the day. You hurry to slap on some makeup, comb your hair as you fly out the door and, as you back out of the driveway, make your first call of the morning to let someone know you are running behind. Then you hit every red light on your way to your destination. It doesn’t matter that there’s not a car coming up in the opposite direction and you’re the only car at the intersection. You don’t dare do anything by wait, because the way your morning is going, there is a traffic cop watching, just waiting for you to make the wrong decision.

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Just then, you realize you forgot your morning coffee so you’ve got to make a quick stop, because that morning cup of coffee is your life line. Of course there’s a long line at the drive through, so you think you’ll save some time by running inside and there’s an even longer line inside! Your morning cup of coffee has suddenly turned into a 15 minute fiasco.

Then you finally get to your destination and you can’t find a parking spot so you’re walking and walking and walking. By the time he reached the doors to your destination your half hour late, and you are scratching your head trying to figure out where the hack so did your morning go so wrong. You started off with such good intentions!

So, do you have a make a graceful entrance into your workplace and try to salvage what’s left of your morning…

OR do you say I’ve had enough and head to a peaceful location to play hooky?

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That Morning Cup of Joe

On By Victoria LK WilliamsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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 There’s a gremlin in my coffee pot and he struck again this morning. I do everything that I’m supposed to do; put in the proper amount of water, set the right buttons and I even put in my favorite flavor of coffee to ensure that I’m really enjoying my first cup of the morning. And what happens? I only get half cup water of coffee! Where did the rest of the water go, how can it just disappear? After closely looking around, I find that there is no puddle of water behind the coffee maker it’s just gone! This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, either.

How can I possibly function this early in the morning without a full cup of hot coffee? We Americans are so used to having our coffee in the morning, it’s almost an addiction. You can follow some cars first thing in the morning and they’re either turning into Mickey D’s to get that hot cup of coffee or they’re ready to wait in line at Starbucks for the special brews. Most advertisements that we see that show someone starting their day off with a cup full of that hot luscious brew. Now, not everybody starts their day with coffee; there are other types of liquid addictions. There are some people who start with a can of sugary soda, others start with a hot cup of Earl Gray Tea, but we all want something refreshing in the morning to get our minds turning and our bodies moving.
Are we addicted to caffeine, or is it all psychological? The media plays such an important factor in our life; if you look you’ll find coffee cups in commercials and throughout the shows we watch. And as a writer we seem to be just as addictive this habit as the next guy. The writer is often portrayed as someone who will sit down to their desk with a pad of paper and a cup of coffee, ready to work for hours writing the great American novel.
So, about my Gremlin problem…do I get a new coffee pot do I go back to the old-fashioned way of making a pot of coffee on the stove top? Will I ever get that missing half cup of coffee?
What about you? How do you start your day: are you a coffee, tea or soda person? Or, are you one of those lucky few that you just get up and grab a glass of OJ and start your day with “bright eyes and a bushy tail”?

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Rituals of Writing

On By Victoria LK WilliamsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Every job has a set of tasks that need to be done to complete the job to your satisfaction. You have a goal to accomplish, often with a time frame in mind. You need to have your work tools ready at hand to be used, you need to be at the right location, and you might have to have some help lined up in case you run into any problems. Once you have all this lined up, you are ready to start. Hopefully all will go as you planned and your results will be everything you hoped for.
 thQA9LL7NIFor an author, writing is a job just like any other job. Our tools are just a little different, that’s all. We need our writing medium, be it paper or computer. Pens are always on hand for jotting notes as we compose. Some of us may use more technical items like a voice recorder or even a voice computer program where we can speak our words out loud and they “magically” appear on the screen.
But the most important tool that we need is our imagination. Somehow our thought have to be reigned in and put into some kind of logical order so that we can express them to others. There are some authors out there who can just sit down and start composing coherent thoughts and get their story easily down.
Then there are others, like me, who need to go through a warm up processes.
Some may do a quick bit of exercise to get the juices flowing. Or maybe a spot of peaceful meditation before they pick up their pen. For me, I need to make sure that all of my other day-to-day tasks are either done or out of sight to insure that I am not distracted.

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I think that if you asked most authors, you would find that there are certain items that they need to have within easy reach to help them with their work. It might be a cup  of hot coffee, or a glass of wine. A plate of healthy snacks might need to be on desk next to them. After all writing can be hard work, and we need to keep up our strength. My must have for writing time is a cup of coffee or a large ice tea (depending on the weather) and a dish of M&Ms (preferably dark chocolate).
Then there is the atmosphere. For some there needs to be quite, no outside distractions.  There are those who write only in a strict office setting in front of a desk, in a comfortable office chair.   Other’s thrive in chaos, and get their best work done amongst the sounds of TV & kids. Most seem to need some kind of background music. My taste run towards new age or instrumentals with nature sounds in the background. I actually do my best writing in my car, parked along the river, or on a towel by the beach.

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But not matter what the tools, what the setting, what necessary fortifications, or even what the atmosphere; the author has a job to do.  That job is to create a story that will keep the reader’s attention and give enjoyment for as long as they read along.