Writing Local

It is Saturday morning, a little bit after seven, and I am tucked into a corner of my favorite Indie coffee house, fortified with an iced coffee and a raspberry oat bar, and planning to write myself as close to the end of my current book this morning as possible. Fingers crossed! (Only, you know, not really, because typing with my fingers crossed is decidedly not a part of my skill set). It is cool and beautiful outside (feeding into my determined delusion that it is actually already fall even though we still have another week of August ahead of us) and I am just... ridiculously happy to be here, especially after being laid up for the past two months with health concerns. I love writing in coffee houses, the indie-er the better, I love supporting small businesses, and I love this particular place with all my heart. When I used to come here (Connecticut) on vacation, I would write here nearly every day for the whole week, and so the memories and echoes of several of my books still sit at these tables sipping coffee. Since moving to New England, I pretty much never get to write here, because the hours preclude me coming on weekdays and the crowds prevent me from coming on a weekend... until it suddenly occurred to me (only took a couple of years!) that they open at seven on Saturdays, too, and if I was among the first in the door at seven, I was sure to get a seat before the crowds overwhelmed the place (though may I add that I am happy that they are doing so well!). Sure enough, it worked. I write every Saturday nearly without fail, and I usually write at Panera on Saturdays (Local NaNoWriMo "write-in" groups in Florida caused me to develop a Pavlovian response over the years and though I stopped doing NaNoWriMo (because reasons) I now associate Panera and Asiago cheese bagels with writing books. Also, Starbucks). When, however, I can come write in an Indie coffee house, with hand crafted coffee beverages, exposed brick walls, wood floors and the distant sound of the cappuccino machine and the scent of coffee beans... well, let's just say I am feeling my authentic Indie Author self. When it is (very almost nearly) fall and I am sitting near a window looking out onto the quaint little main street of town? Even better. It also reminds me of other travels in the past, to favorite writing spots in other places, like The Haus Coffee shop in Clearwater Florida, and Pourhouse and SOMA coffee in Bloomington Indiana, and brings the memories of the books I wrote there back to me as well. Writing a book is a long term and personal relationship and remembering the writing of them is like greeting an old friend. Depending on how noisy and crowded this place actually gets in the next couple of hours, I may have found my new Saturday writing destination.