The First Thing That Came to Mind is Coffee

Daily writing prompt

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

I just ordered some coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s. We drink good coffee in this household — we roast it from green coffee beans and brew it up in a Moccamaster. We have the best coffee in town, or at least the freshest. Which makes me wonder — why do we go out to cafes at all?

Atmosphere. When we go out for coffee, it’s generally to get writing and other creative endeavors done. I could do this at home, but the stimulation isn’t there. Sometimes I need noise and distraction to write. This doesn’t make sense to most people, but anyone with ADHD might understand.

A good cafe has more than good coffee, although I would say that good coffee is the minimum needed for a cafe. A good cafe has to have what is called atmosphere. “Atmosphere” is a nebulous term, but it generally means a space where someone feels comfortable sitting there. Each good cafe treats this differently, with anything from wood tones to aged brick to white and bright.

Haven, our favorite coffee place at the moment, has a variety of comfortable spaces. In the front is the busy section, close to the counter. This is where you’ll hear loud socializing. The other day, two tables were playing Mahjongg. I had never seen real Mahjongg played before. The back has quieter socializing and students with their laptops and books. Off the back room is the small nook with three booths, where Richard and I hole up to write. There is also a meeting room with a big screen and a computer hookup. All the spaces have bright light except for the booths, which have dimmable lighting, including rainbow light. I like writing to the rainbow light. The thought that went into putting this space together boggles me.

Yesterday at Haven, Richard and I took notes on the plot for the newest book. It hasn’t truly jelled yet; I’m not ready to set up the outline yet, but I’m closer. Because of the coffee.

Warming Up To Writing

I’m using the blogging as a way to warm up my writing muscles, which haven’t been getting a workout for a while. Kind of like stretching, I guess.

Plotting the latest book is going slow. I know that it’s going to be humorous, and it’s going to involve Barn Swallows’ Dance and husband-wife influencers, and a good amount of the humor is going to be the members of Barn Swallows’ Dance trying to hide the less standard parts of their reality — the immortals, the Garden with its gifts, the flying cats (who are not cooperating with the collective’s plans).

Other than that, I am having trouble with theme and plot. Plot especially. I am not to the point where I can block out the plot in Scrivener (the software I use to write the book; I highly recommend it for writing).

I’m going to talk about theme and plot with Richard today over coffee at Haven. That’s where I am right now, nicely caffeinated.

Writing Time Will Return

I still haven’t laid out my new story yet. It’s April, and that means it’s a busy time wrapping up the school year and the semester at the same time.

Summer won’t be so busy. I need to start a routine for summer so I can get things done. My work duties will be supervising interns, and that largely means scheduling site visits. The rest of the work can flow around my other work. It’s a very different time of year for me.

I need some time at coffee. Coffee and writing. I have been doing Saturdays at Haven, and that’s where my big brainstorming a new story day happened last week. But to write, I’m going to have to do more coffee time again. This summer, I promise myself.

It’s only about three weeks till summer break, and it’s going pretty fast. Two weeks till finals. Soon writing time will return.

I Have an Idea

Yesterday, my husband and I did some brainstorming on a new novel in the Hidden in Plain Sight world. I realized there is a ten-year gap between Avatar of the Maker and Carrying Light that would house at least one novel. I had one idea — there is a danger to the Garden.

Then I realized the Garden wouldn’t let anything happen to it, being the Garden and all. But what if someone were disrupting the collective? Not a preternatural matter, but human meddling? From there I got the idea of a conglomerate that wanted to buy the collective to harness its magic, not knowing what magic really meant. It didn’t take much to imagine underhanded methods on the part of a multinational health food corporation.

Somehow, I got the idea that the conglomerate would reach out using influencers, and the thought of corporate-sponsored influencers tickled my funny bone. My story idea turned into comedy, which I hadn’t counted on. What would the collective do to keep their home unspoiled by corporate America?

The collective would try to look normal, but things would slip. The cats would fly. The food forest would repel their guests. There would be strategic pauses as the Nephilim mindspoke each other. And the collective would gaslight their guests into thinking they imagined all that. Maybe Elaine would create illusions, or Allan would guest DJ and spin a mood-altering show. There’s nothing like nonstandard reality to plant doubt in someone’s mind.

I haven’t written a comedy for the Hidden in Plain Sight universe. Not to say I can’t write funny — I write funny for the Kringle Chronicles (the Christmas romance series). But this is a new twist for me. It’s going to take a lot of brainstorming before I can put the bones together on my outline.

Hidden in Plain Sight

I think I’m at the end of the Hidden in Plain Sight series, and that’s part of the reason I am facing writer’s block. I have been with that series for over ten years, and my involvement in that world has been extensive.

My books involve an ecocollective in the middle of Illinois, an experiment in living with a small carbon footprint, on a working farm, with principles of pacifism. But the place has secrets. A fight for humanity on its grounds. Two trees that give people inexplicable talents. Immortal beings and their long-lived offspring. Flying cats. Barn Swallows’ Dance is, necessarily, hidden in plain sight.

I have written seven books about the world. Gaia’s Hands introduces us to the collective and its miracle food forest, which grew up literally overnight with Jeanne Beaumont’s talent. Apocalypse pits the pacifists of Barn Swallows’ Dance against three immortals who want to end humanity. Reclaiming the Balance visits justice, as even the utopian collective falls into prejudice and discrimination. Avatar of the Maker involves a young adult who is called to stop a battle among immortals that could decimate the world. Carrying Light takes the reader to the edge of the riots that will ultimately bring down the United States, while Whose Hearts are Mountains explores the world on the other side of those battles. Finally, Hiding in Plain Sight features an early glimpse of the immortals as one of them falls in love with a human.

One of the important themes of the books is relationships. Not only the romantic ones, of which there are many — the 6000 year old linkage of Adam and Lilith, the odd couple Jeanne and Josh, the star-crossed lovers Alice and William — but the everyday relationships of the members of Barn Swallows’ Dance. The characters, and how they relate to each other, are important.

Barn Swallows’ Dance is almost itself a character. Part utopia, part cauldron of preternatural turmoil, it serves as a uniting principle of the stories. (Only the prequel, Hiding in Plain Sight, does not feature the collective).

This is the world I am leaving behind. It hurts, but I don’t know what else I can write in the series. Nothing is speaking to me. I feel like I have explored everyone’s stories.

What can I do to top this?

Trying to Get Back Into Writing

I’ve been gone for a little while. I am struggling with getting myself back into writing. Motivation is not there — I haven’t been writing on any books, either.

Part of it is lack of faith in my writing. That’s pretty normal for me. I go through that a lot of the time.

Part of it is a lack of ideas. I think I have written all I can in the Hidden in Plain Sight series, and I don’t write on the Christmas romances until it’s Christmas season. I have a novel and at least one short story sitting on my computer, but I don’t have any ideas for either. They’re all at an awkward place where I know where they have to go, I know how to get there, but there’s more spaces on the template that I don’t know how to fill. It’s like the novel should be a short story, and the short story should be a shorter story. But I know that wouldn’t do them justice. Like I said, a lack of ideas.

I still promote my writing on various channels. I have my Loomly (social media software) programmed through September. I don’t have much faith in their success, but I do have inertia.

The part of me that writes for the love of it is at a loss. The part of me that writes for recognition is burned out. Maybe it really is time for a break now.

Hobbies I’ve Abandoned

Daily writing prompt

Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?

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I lose interest in hobbies all the time. Usually, after a near-obsessive interest in them and buying plenty of supplies. For example, scrapbooking. I was going to scrapbook my wedding. And I did, until I got married, and then I never finished it. It’s been almost 20 years, and I am not done yet. It’s all sitting in a box somewhere. I discovered that I don’t know how to lay things out on a page so they look interesting.

And then there’s gardening. I am quite interested in gardening until I actually plant something, and then I forget to weed. I’ve even gone so far as to start seedlings in my basement, many many seedlings. I can’t find them in the garden by the end of the season.

It’s embarassing how many hobbies I’ve abandoned over the years. Breadmaking (I had two sourdoughs that were healthy during COVID) and fountain pens (they’re all sitting in a case) and sewing (I never had the coordination for that).

Writing is the only hobby I’ve maintained over the years. Even when I get tired of it, I persevere. I finished my problem novel the other day and immediately went to edit it. (I will put it back into the drawer to get some perspective, I promise.) Writing feels like a hobby I can actually accomplish.

Done with the book

I am finally done with “Hiding in Plain Sight”, my latest book. And I am done with the whole thing. I think this book needs a long hibernation in a dark drawer before I touch it again. It is not a good book, and I don’t say that lightly. It is the first draftiest version of a first draft I have written since my first copy of my first book. It tells rather than shows way too often, and I don’t know if it’s salvageable.

At the same time, I already know what I need to do with the last two chapters. I just don’t know if I have the energy to do it yet.

This Story

The story I’m writing is going so badly. I don’t think I’m ever going to finish it, even though it is mostly done. There’s not enough action in it; too much emotional drama; too much talking. There’s not enough there there.

I should probably finish it and then relegate it to a figurative drawer somewhere to age. Or rot. I’m not sure which.

I’m not feeling a strong affinity to writing lately. It could be because of this book. It could be that I don’t like this book because I’m not feeling like much of a writer. I’m not sure which, but this book is making me grouchy.

Big Audacious Goals for 2026

I have two Big Audacious Goals for 2026, although neither of them are very big at this stage.

I plan to publish two books this year, Avatar of the Maker and Kringle Once More. The books are already written and edited. The added material (About the Author, Dedication, etc.) are already added. They are formatted. All I have to do is have a cover made for Avatar and upload, then click and we’re published. The publication dates are October 1, 2026 for the Kringle book, and January 1, 2027 for the other.

The reason it’s a Big Audacious Goal is because of the insecurities I feel as a writer. I am one of the many indie writers that doesn’t get many sales. I assume I am not a good writer because of this. In actuality, I am one of the many indie writers hampered by obscurity, the large number of writers in the indie industry, and preconceived notions of indie publications. (And possibly because I’m not a good writer.)

Other Big Audacious Goals — I plan to finish a book this year. I have two in limbo — the romance Walk Through Green Fire, and the Hidden in Plain Sight novel Hiding in Plain Sight. The latter, although close to finished, is a mess, with too much sitting around and talking and not enough action. So that’s an ambitious rewriting project. The former is something I put aside to write Carrying Light, another Hidden in Plain Sight novel that I wrote last year but somehow didn’t put on my Big Audacious Goal list.

Why didn’t I put Carrying Light on my Big Audacious Goal list last year? Probably because I thought writing another novel wasn’t that audacious given that I had already written several. But any new creation is audacious. How could creation not be a shot against the bow of Things As They Are?

So I have Big Audacious Goals. I have other goals, not yet fleshed out. I have ideas, which are not yet goals. I have enough to keep me busy this year.