I love your writing style, Alicia. In my opinion there are only three kinds of tea worth bothering with: English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast (if you need a huge boot to the system) and Assam, which is like English Breakfast with malt.
As for notebooks, I too have tons of them with just a few pages used. But I don't throw them away. I also pride myself on having acquired enough pens and notebooks from conferences that I could open a stationery shop.
Anyway, I like your approach. I definitely find that music affects what I write, and the tone of the piece. My favourite musical tipple while writing is jazz funk.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to guest post, Mary! You reached out to me when I was a bit of a rut of my own, distracted by life and all the obligations that go with it, and gave me the inspiration to get back out there. So appreciative.
Thank you, Mary, for hosting and thank you, Alicia, for "guesting" your post your 11/17 post. I feel I have gotten my money's worth from the small 3.5x5.5 Moleskine pocket-'size booklet' for my travel companion. I've come to feel more naked without it than without my smartphone. It's great for on-the-run and more discrete note taking.
My other tool is the 7.5x9.5 "dime-store" wide-ruled 100-sheet school composition book I can pick up on sale for a couple bucks at the local Target or CVS. The composition book helps me get down in long hand those very rough draft thoughts that eventually make it onto my computer screen and into more refined and multi-refined versions from there.
I love this! So true. I used to write in those black-n-white composition notebooks feverishly at cafes in San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Manhattan, etc. Hours and hours and hours of scribbling. Stories, autobiography, essays, etc. And tea!! Yes! I quit coffee a little before I got sober in 2010. All about the tea--Irish Breakfast in the morning, peppermint and Chamomile in the eve. There’s truly nothing like sitting down to write at home or coffee shop with tea near by and literary determination in your heart. I loved the line about wandering over in CVS to the moleskins and pens like stink bugs. We writers are a different breed. We really are. Eavesdropping and writing it down for the win 🥇
I love your writing style, Alicia. In my opinion there are only three kinds of tea worth bothering with: English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast (if you need a huge boot to the system) and Assam, which is like English Breakfast with malt.
As for notebooks, I too have tons of them with just a few pages used. But I don't throw them away. I also pride myself on having acquired enough pens and notebooks from conferences that I could open a stationery shop.
Anyway, I like your approach. I definitely find that music affects what I write, and the tone of the piece. My favourite musical tipple while writing is jazz funk.
Thanks again for a hugely enjoyable read.
POS —key ingredient to making the Stash tea sing is to add a dash of nutmeg! Yummy!~Emily
PS —I learned a-lot. Notebooks, pens, eve-dropping…tea!! Stash’s Double Bergamot Earl Gray is a fav!! ~Emily
Thank you Mary and Alicia!! ⭐️👍🤩
What a delightful post - thank you Mary and Alicia for a lovely read! 😊
Thank you so much for this opportunity to guest post, Mary! You reached out to me when I was a bit of a rut of my own, distracted by life and all the obligations that go with it, and gave me the inspiration to get back out there. So appreciative.
Thank you, Mary, for hosting and thank you, Alicia, for "guesting" your post your 11/17 post. I feel I have gotten my money's worth from the small 3.5x5.5 Moleskine pocket-'size booklet' for my travel companion. I've come to feel more naked without it than without my smartphone. It's great for on-the-run and more discrete note taking.
My other tool is the 7.5x9.5 "dime-store" wide-ruled 100-sheet school composition book I can pick up on sale for a couple bucks at the local Target or CVS. The composition book helps me get down in long hand those very rough draft thoughts that eventually make it onto my computer screen and into more refined and multi-refined versions from there.
Phil Church
I love this! So true. I used to write in those black-n-white composition notebooks feverishly at cafes in San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Manhattan, etc. Hours and hours and hours of scribbling. Stories, autobiography, essays, etc. And tea!! Yes! I quit coffee a little before I got sober in 2010. All about the tea--Irish Breakfast in the morning, peppermint and Chamomile in the eve. There’s truly nothing like sitting down to write at home or coffee shop with tea near by and literary determination in your heart. I loved the line about wandering over in CVS to the moleskins and pens like stink bugs. We writers are a different breed. We really are. Eavesdropping and writing it down for the win 🥇
✍️✍️✍️
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Great advice, thanks Alicia.
Love it. I so agree. I frequent coffeeshops like a little spy.