8r4d 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!

8r4d 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...]