MIDNIGHT IN MIND

               Blog Day for the INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

            The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. Remember, the question is optional.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are: 

  PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue!

 

September 2 question – if you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner who would it be and why?    

Ooo!

My own beta partner who’s an author living or dead?

OMG! That would be fab!

Mine...pens down...would be Gertrude Stein... a famed icon of modernism.

Why?

Let me digress and tell you about Gertrude Stein's character in one of my favorite movies Midnight in Paris. 

It's a Woody Allen movie starring Owen Wilson as the writer, Kathy Bates as Stein, and Cory Stoll as Hemingway.

Here’s the short synopsis: it’s present day. A writer goes to Paris doubting his ability to write a novel. One night he’s out walking and at midnight a 1920’s car pulls up and the occupant, Ernest Hemingway, tells him to get in and takes him back in time to meet Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and other writers and artists.  The writer then kvetches to Hemingway about his unfinished manuscript, and Hemingway introduces the writer to Gertrude Stein who offers to read the manuscript and critique it, which she does.

OMG! I would LOVE it if she could do that for one of my manuscripts!

But just as much as her critique, I would love to have been at Stein's home on a Saturday evening for her formal gatherings that brought writers and artists who helped define modernism in literature and art. Attendees often included:. ErnestHemingway. Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder, Henri Matisse, and many more. She called them the Lost Generation..  

Well, there you have it...

Gertrude is my pick for a beta partner. 

Imagine the conversations? The inspiration? The imbibing? 

And speaking of imbibing...

Hemingway, a frequent guest of Stein...

Is not only known as a famous writer but also a famous imbiber.

So in the spirit of him...

And the others of the "Lost Generation"...

And also to the only book of his I've read - A Moveable Feast.

I raise my bottle of  Absinth...

So?

Who would your beta be?

 

Always,

Em-Musing

 

COFFEE HOUSE BLUES

In a few days…

I will be going on stem cell therapy….
Here in Mexico.

I have 2 cervical discs…

And 2 lumbar discs…

Suffering from stenosis…

a.k.a. pinched nerve.

The stem cells are given by injection….

And, as the doctor said…

The stem cells will find what needs fixing.

Well, she didn’t use those terms…

But you get the idea.

The doctor also said…

“There are two things you can’t drink:

Coffee and citrus juices.”

No biggie, right?

Right.

No wait!

YES, BIGGIE! 

Giving up citrus is one thing…

But Coffee????

WAA WAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

If you’re not a coffee drinker….

Than you perhaps you don’t understand…

Besides the caffeine withdrawal…

There’s the whole ritual of coffee…

Coffee is how I start my writing day….

And I’m not alone…

See for yourself….
Some writer's thoughts on coffee.  

"Coffee is a lot more than just a drink; it's something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and have a second cup" -

Gertrude Stein 

As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion, ideas begin to move, smiles arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle."  
Balzac 

"It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and orderd a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notbeook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write.

Ernest Hamingway.  

"It is inhumane, in my opionion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait inline behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet then when seriousl heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles."  

Dave Barry 

So?

What about you?

Are you a coffee fiend/fanatic/fan/addict?

What's your brew?
Or…

Do you prefer another beverage when writing?

Always,

Em-Musing

Me on my September roadtrip
in Veracruz, MX holding 
bags of Havana Blend coffee. 
Veracruz is a major coffee producing 
state.