8r4d I’m logged in at the nearby Starbucks with a keyboard and a #coffee and thinking it’s probably one of those morning when I need to write a short post here to bookmark the efforts I made in the code for this very site over the weekend. [read more...]

8r4d Morning #coffee with a view.

castironguy I had a couple spare hours this afternoon at work to re-focus our #coffee display to highlight some groovy #canadian roasts

8r4d Morning #coffee and a #writing sesh making use of one of my #breakfast coupons at the local dub. A big luscious breakfast everyday would do me in but am occasional indulgence (particularly when i’ve neglected to bake bread this week) is great, right?

8r4d I am a bit of a sucker for convenience in location, so the fact that nearly half my #coffee adventures end up at one of the four starbucks within spitting distance of my house is a sad little surprise. I try to support local, but I spend almost as much on gas as I do on coffee, then, and oil money to me seems dirtier than coffee coin.

That’s my little political rant for the day.

Aside from that, I had accumulated enough points-stars or whatever and cashed it in today for a branded ceramic mug. So, at least if I’m not being consumer conscious, there is a chance I’m queuing up for the environment, huh?

bradsalomons I’ve been spending a lot of time #writing and drinking #coffee but progress on the novel has been a little slow this year so far. I had a great big push late in 2024 to get though the second half and then hit a bit of a block.

Many writing folks will tell you to push through the block and put in the effort and just write, and I did that, getting in my daily word count on other side projects. And that was fine to a point, but none of it was dislodging the plot block in the novel.

Last week I decided to brute force the damn thing and so I’ve set my daily word goal a bit lower and have been writing a bare minimum of words into the novel regardless of other factors.

Specifically, where I was usually tasking myself with sitting down and writing a scene, usually amounting to between 1000-1500 words, now I’m setting the daily goal of 250 words. Yeah, that’s a lot less, but after a week of generously meeting my goal each day I’m nearly 2000 words ahead of where i was last Monday, and that accounts for (sadly) more than half of the words I’ve written in 2025 on this project.

Happily, progress is progress is progress, and the “just write” advice is definitely locked in and valid.

8r4d Touring groovy #coffee stops on a Sunday afternoon.

8r4d Oh, doesn’t this seem familiar. Back at the #coffee and #writing routine as we dive into the first post-holiday day of 2025.

bradsalomons It’s been a weird week of snow and stuff and such and I haven’t done much #writing or had many #coffee sessions, but with Friday here and the month settling into some end of year finality, I made it out to get some words on the page. Of course, I’m sitting here posting this, so you can speculate on exactly just how well that is working out, but—

bradsalomons The Canmore #coffee scene has a #paranormal vibe that I’ve incorporated quite judiciously into my fiction #writing — that is to say the fictional City of Birchmont and setting for my recent word-craft is based heavily on this little town, no doubt, and influenced by our frequent visits. Yet somehow I hadn’t noticed the #cryptozoology vibe in the town until I started writing paranormal fiction—but now I see it everywhere.

I got a couple scenes written while we visited this weekend, so inspiration meets perspiration, huh? The first book in my Stories from Birchmont series will be completed soon, maybe even by the end of November if I stop goofing around and write the last few chapters!

bradsalomons Despite the shartyness of the week so far, I have been making significant progress on my #writing and specifically the #editing of the novel. I’m hoping to have all of part one to the next stage by the end of the day, and this #sunrise view and a #coffee is certainly going to help with that effort. [read more...]

8r4d Spectacles, used books and #coffee on a Saturday #downtown adventure.

8r4d Oh, maybe you can’t tell but my morning #coffee and writing sesh has me trapped here while the #rain tuckers itself out. [read more...]

8r4d If you’re curious how the writing is going, here’s the thing: I spend at least three solid sessions per week giving Starbucks a few bucks for #coffee and a table. I sit here, in one of three locations, almost always in the same chair pounding away words on my #keyboard for a couple hours. My goal is to average 500 words per day, including all days, off days and on days, work days and play days, and in the last six weeks since implementing a lovely little spreadsheet to more formally track that I’ve averaged about 650, again, writing about 3-4 days per week. In essence, that’s a handful of 1500-2000 word sessions.

The novel itself is not so much stalled as I’ve slowed construction-proper in favour of doing some shoring up of the backstory foundations. I got to a point about 80% of the way in where I found myself trying to build a satisfying build to the climactic conclusion on a concept that I had loosely in my own mind but for which I hadn’t really done enough world-building. That kind of writing risks plot holes or weak sort-of “because story” justifications, and I wouldn’t have been happy with that and surprisingly its much tougher to untangle bad writing than just writing it right in the first place. So my last couple months has been a twisting whirlwind of finding yet another new routine to settle into and simultaneously punching through what is becoming a novel-length collection of backstory short stories. Really.

And if nothing else, I’m keeping the local cafes on their toes, too.

8r4d I neglected my parental duties this past week and did not post any birthday pictures, yet here I am a few days later with my #keyboard and #coffee resuming the wordsmithing efforts from the local cafe after buying the kid a fancy latte on her way to class.

8r4d This feels write. And they gave me a free banana bread with my #coffee this morning. Back to the grind.

8r4d …Meanwhile, after a week of free fancy #bakery #coffee drinks here I sit, back to #writing and spending some quality time with my #keyboard in my favourite Starbucks this morning.

8r4d After missing my morning #coffee vibe because of a fast (blood work!) I am back in the cafe this morning highly distracted because of all the millions of newsy things happening around the world and closer to home, too. Sometimes my visits here spawn inspiration. Other times they only spawn tiny sample latte drinks delivered by smiling baristas.

8r4d This morning’s #coffee house writing efforts brought to you by something other than Starbucks for a change. The extra fifty cents for my brew might be worth it for the upgrade in atmosphere.

8r4d Just sitting in the backyard with a #coffee and my #keyboard thinking about getting stuff done this #summer. [read more...]

8r4d We started collecting those Starbucks #coffee mugs with the stylized art and locations on them a while ago, and they have turned into quite a collection, so much so that we’ve kinda sworn off buying any more. That is also a good thing because they changed up the style in North America and they are hard to find. Sure, the new Disney series doesn’t perfectly match the style of the rest of our collection, but I couldn’t help adding just one more #starwars limited edition to my set. And who says I haven’t been to Hoth anyways?

8r4d I’ve had a bout of what some may call writers block. Sitting somewhere with a #coffee trying to type out a block of fiction on a regular basis is a great plan, but sometimes you just sit there and stare at the keyboard and none of it works. Today has been a bit better and I’ve got nearly a full chapter knocked out, but #writing can be a helluva chore. I saw a post yesterday that said something like: Oh so you want to be a writer? Ok: Imagine having a homework assignment every single day for the rest of your life.

8r4d I was drinking my Mackers #coffee this morning and realized that this little #face on the lid leaves the imagination with some wild connotations. I mean the beverage basically comes from the little mouth right where my lips meet it. [read more...]