“No, No,” Calliope said wagging her finger and pointing at my desk. “That’s much too dull. First you must write about writers and coffee.”

She gazed at the sprawl that is my desk while writing, shook her head, and disappeared. I suppose she has a point. Reference books, notes, and pencils surround my computer. And next to the mouse, a mug of coffee growing cold.

Coffee & Writers

Coffee has a long linkage with creativity. (So does alcohol, but we won’t go there today.)

In 2013 Michael Koh referenced a study by the National Writer’s Association that concluded 110 per cent of poets and authors “have taken or take this certain easy-to-obtain mind-enhancing substance to complete their work or get through the day.”

Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, claimed “Coffee: Induces wit. . . take it without sugar—very swank: gives the impression you have lived in the East.”

I ran across one reference that reported Ludwig van Beethoven, composer of Ode to Joy, breakfasted on coffee he made himself at precisely sixty beans per cup. I hope it was a large cup.

J. S. Bach, another famed composer wrote, “Without my morning coffee I’m just like a dried up piece of roast goat.” This led me to wonder how much roasted goat Bach consumed.

Lest you think creative coffee consumption has waned since the nineteenth century, Michael Koh reported that Americans consume an average of three cups of coffee daily, with writers doing their share to keep the numbers up by consuming four to five cups of coffee a day.

Honore Balzac, a prodigious French writer, explained the phenominon. “Coffee glides into one’s stomach and sets all of one’s mental processes in motion. One’s ideas advance in column of route like battalions of the Grande Armée. Memories come up at the double, bearing the standards which will lead the troops into battle. The light cavalry deploys at the gallop. The artillery of logic thunders along with its supply wagons and shells. Brilliant notions join in the combat as sharpshooters. The characters don their costumes, the paper is covered with ink, the battle has started, and ends with an outpouring of black fluid like a real battlefield enveloped in swaths of black smoke from the expended gunpowder. Were it not for coffee one could not write, which is to say one could not live.”

Which leads me to believe Albert Camus should choose coffee over death, because as an Unknown source wrote:

“Life’s too short to drink crappy coffee and cry over boys who don’t care.”

Photo of Writing Desk by Author.

Other Illustrations from Wikimedia Commons.

Calliope, extracted from The Muses Urania and Calliope by Simon Vouet. Public Domain.

Inside a Coffee House in Sheridan, OR by Visitor7. Creative Commons Attribution.

Michael Koh. “Coffee: The Writer’s Addiction.” Thought Catalog. Oct. 14, 2013.

“The Write Track: How Famous Writers Drank Their Coffee.” Mr. Coffee Blog. Nov. 23, 2014.

Mason Curry. “Coffee!!!” Daily Rituals. Slate. April 19, 2013.

Kyle Van Pelt. “3 Ways Coffee Boost Creativity & Makes You a Better Writer.” Goins, Writer.

The post “Should I Kill Myself, or Have a Cup of Coffee?” – Albert Camus first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

So, what do you call it when 400 or so writers congregate in the same place? A Writers’ Conference. These events occur across the country this time of year, and, as social events, they’re distinctly odd. People clutching bags or briefcases line up alphabetically to retrieve their registration packets. Most keep their eyes straight ahead, trying to remember why they wanted to come to the conference. Which is why today I’m sharing my version of the Top Ten Reasons Writers Go to Conferences.

Top Ten Reasons Writers Go to Conferences:

10. To attend autograph parties filled with people gushing around a successful author hoping the fairy dust will rub off. – Wow! So that’s what success looks like.

9. To eat catered meals with people uncomfortable talking to each other, but trying to be pleasant. – Are you going to eat your dessert?

8. To learn how to self-publish a book in 18 excruciating steps. – What do you mean by “upload the manuscript”? Up to where?

7. To learn how to write a successful novel. – Noooo. Don’t make me take out the prologue.

6. To find out how to use social media. – I don’t want to and you can’t make me.

5. To find out what a “platform” is and how to build it – My book is my platform.

4. To learn about tax write-offs. – The trip to Paris should be tax deductible. It was research.

3. To find out why editors are so critical – I’m not cutting the scene and you can’t make me.

2. To learn how to sell a book – Honestly, it’s so fabulous it’ll sell itself.

1. And the Number One reason writers emerge from their caves: To meet an agent who will fall in love with my book and get me a six-figure advance. – Please, please, please like me.

I’ll be attending the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference at the end of the week. Once again held at the Sea-Tac Airport Hilton. I’ll let you know what happens.

Acknowledgements:

Featured Photo – a Portrait of Jean Mielot by Jean Le Tavernier, 15th Century, US Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The post TEN REASONS TO GO TO A WRITERS’ CONFERENCE first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Historian sniffs: “It isn’t a picture. It is a painting. Oil on canvas, mounted on a parquet panel.”

Writer pouts: “You know what your problem is? You are too literal. What are paintings if not pictures telling a story. Who do you think this woman was?”

Historian: “As the title indicates, she was an anonymous Victorian lady.  Although, I am not entirely sure ladies engaged in billiards.”

Writer: “Shows what you know.  I read that in 1426 there was a Frenchwoman who could defeat all challengers.”

Historian: “But was she a lady?  No respectable woman would play a game exposing so many, ahem, points of interest.”

Writer:  “There you go again.  Too literal.  Women began participating in public competitions sometime after 1900.  And this picture is dated 1906 or before.”

Historian:  “Look at the painting.  Such detail on the carpet.  The subject is not playing in public.”

Writer:  “I agree.  Can you see what’s behind the picture?”

Historian: “Painting. “

Writer:  “Whatever.  Step back from facts and imagine who this woman might be.  The details on her gown, the train.  This is an evening entertainment.  The lady is relaxed, confident.  Has her eye on the ball, so to speak.”

Historian:  “And respectable.  Notice she does not bend over too far.  Look how the artist designates the placement of her legs by the flow of her dress.”

Writer:  “Exactly.  Hmmm…who might she be playing?  I think she must be in the library.”

Historian:  “That would be the only correct place for such a large game table.  I have seen them in conservatories, but this is an interior room.”

Writer:  “I think she is playing with her brother.  Perhaps he is home from school – perhaps a college in Oxford.  Maybe he brought a few friends.”

Historian:  “Really!  Next you’ll suggest she’s playing for money.”

Writer:  “No.  She is playing to prove a point.  Billiards is a game of analytical skill and manual dexterity – abilities open to both sexes.  Win or lose, she has the right to play.”

Historian:  “You may be on to something.  That could be what inspired the artist.”

Writer:  “Or not.  That’s the miracle of art.  There are technical points of time, place, and skill.  But, if one looks deeper, there is always a story.

HISTORIAN & WRITER LINK ARMS AS THEY WALK OFF THE PAGE

The post HISTORIAN & WRITER DISCUSS A PICTURE first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

When I began thinking about this blog, I did some research. According to En.wordpress.com/stats, there are over 55 million blog sites at wordpress.com alone. WordPress reports 500,000 new posts daily, and 600,000 comments. How incredible that so many of us reach out to share our news and interests with a global audience. I am humbled to join such a huge community.

If you’ve been around my website, you know quite a bit about my interests already. If you came directly here, then take a few minutes to stroll around my digital paradise. Be at home. My first few posts will be about writing. And, then I’ll share experiences from my upcoming visit to England – last bastion of true royal pageantry.

I call myself a writer, but who is that, exactly? And, what is the difference between a “writer” and an “author”? [Sidebar: I once owned a card game called “Authors.” It was like “Go Fish” except with authors’ pictures. Louisa May Alcott was the only woman. I suppose Miss Abbot did not approve of Mary Wollstonecraft.]

However, I digress. Getting back to the main point, I made a quick visit to Dictionary.com. Here it says a writer is a person engaged in writing (there’s a news flash), or a person who commits his or her thoughts to writing. An author, on the other hand, is a person who writes a novel, or some other literary work. An author “creates” things. Unlike the author of important literary works for serious people, the writer writes books, articles, stories, especially as an occupation (like a journalist I suppose). So, I guess a writer hopes to earn a living and an author keeps his or her day job while writing something for future English majors to analyze.

I define a writer as someone who wants to communicate with all kinds of people – not just English majors or people who read the “New York Review of Books.” I have stories to tell about real people (mostly women) who struggled to live the best way they could with the goal of leaving the world a better place than they found it. I have experiences and observations from my travels to share. I hope these topics interest you and that you will return.

The post SANDRA WAGNER-WRIGHT’S BLOG – WRITER, HISTORIAN, TRAVELLER first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.