Hi.
Coffee: Cafe Pajaro Extra Dark, Trader Joe’s Brand; I’ve said this before, but this roast is like coming home: rich, complicated, delicious with nostalgia, but by the third cup you’ve forgotten how to drink it; the sour comes out.
I’ll let you in on a secret: there were two prior iterations of this website. The first was a brief blog on tumblr. It had some flash fiction and a travel blog. It started at an open mic in Hillsborough, at a cafe/bar that doesn’t exist anymore. I’d been invited by a friend I was kind of in love with. Before the show, we walked around a dilapidated lot next door. There was a toilet in tall weeds, broken in a hundred pieces. We looked at that toilet for a long time. I told some stories about it, its owners. So did she. L was creative like that. Later, the concert seemed like chicory in coffee, completely alert, and I knew I had something to write about. Six months go by and life takes over; I forgot that ceramic magic.
Then there was website #2: a real winner, mostly stories (that are too old and unpolished to post here), designed immaculately by a friend who’s an artist, a musician, a bit of a wanderer, and a web designer. We worked together on it for a few months and when it was up it sort of saved me. Except I didn’t know what to do with the site. I hadn’t found the right voice for my stories, and since the site was hand-crafted, I couldn’t ever figure how to manage the content. So that’s gone too.
I’m coming up on a year of keeping my Coffee Log. I haven’t added much fiction to the site, but that’s only because I’m still trying to publish what I’ve written. It’s been a busy year. And it feels a little different this time, like even if I don’t know where it’s all going, I’ve given enough gas to the tank and oil to the gears that it’s bound to end up somewhere.
Third time’s the charm. Thanks for hopping on the ride.
Novel Count: 6,712
Currently Reading: Nothing! Will pick a new book after the holidays.
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The windows of my Corolla are all rolled up and the radio is off. Earlier in the week, or maybe the week before, I spent a while moving fast food cups and odds and ends off the seats and out of the car so now it’s mostly empty. I think about this for a second while L stretches her legs in the passenger seat.
Gareth Livesay, The Depot, Hillsborough NC Sometime in June 2013
Livesay Writing 