#WeekendCoffeeShare – 12/31/16

December 31, 2016December 31, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 5 Comments

If we were having coffee, I’d invite you into my sitting room. It’s a chilly, grey day here in Virginia, but the heater is on and the room is cozy warm. I’d offer you some espresso or Earl Grey tea and some little tarts that I made. There’s lemon, chocolate, pumpkin spice and coconut, my favorite.

If we were having coffee, I’d wish you a Happy New Year and tell you how grateful I am that 2016 is over. For a year that started off with so much potential, it sure turned south very quickly. Everything seemed fine for me until late April, early May. I started to get depressed over some stupid stuff with a friend and by June, I became suicidal and ended up hospitalized for a few days. Of course, the docs there medicated me and I couldn’t concentrate to write again until October, and only by taking myself off the meds. The US Presidential election in Nov bummed me out in a major way. I’d been a Bernie supporter and was appalled at how he’d been treated. I did cast my vote for Hillary, but reluctantly. I am definitely not okay with Trump as our upcoming President, but I am not going to allow him to upend 2017 for me.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you how excited I am for 2017 to begin. Not only will I be working on my health this year, but I will also be taking some online writing courses to help with my fiction writing. I do have a few writing projects for this upcoming year – Horror Tales in February, another Jack Diamond story, another Rayne Fallon story, and possibly another Astraeus story near the end of the year. I am really hoping that the writing courses will help me improve my storytelling. I plan on editing those previous three stories above later this year too. If I can figure out all the hows, I may put all of my novellas on Adobe .pdf and offer them for free. I think it would be easier for people to read them in their entirety in one place instead of on my blog.

And finally, if we were having coffee, I’d wish you a safe trip home. I’d pack a few tarts for you and your family and bid you a fond farewell until next weekend.

Dear readers, I’d love to hear about your week. How did your Christmas go? What are your hopes for 2017? Any major plans coming up for you? Leave me a comment. Much love!

This Weekend Coffee Share has been brought to you by Part-Time Monster and Friends

#WeekendCoffeeShare – 12/17/16

December 17, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 5 Comments

If we were having coffee, I’d invite you into my warm living room where I’ve set up a table filled with bagels, cream cheese, raspberry cream cheese danishes, tea and yes, coffee. I have French Silk, Espresso or if you’d prefer, a nice morning blend. It is very cold today and icy on the roads, so I hope you’ve traveled safely here.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about a great meeting of minds that I watched on YouTube this morning. Noam Chomsky and Harry Belafonte Jr on the same stage (@25.31 on the video) with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!. Noam gave an eloquent speech beforehand on Donald Trump and the decline of America as a Superpower. It is worth listen to as well. You can watch it here:

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about a great show I watched last night on Netflix called The OA. If you have Netflix, I would encourage you to watch it. It had many elements that I love. A bit on the spooky/eerie side, a wonderful protagonist, a detestable antagonist and an overall sense of hope in the bleakest of times. It’s also some amazing storytelling! You can read about it here. A note of caution, there may be spoilers in that review that you may want to ignore (the author tells you when to stop if you don’t want spoilers).

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that my muse, Catharine, woke me up yesterday morning with a question, “Where’s home?” That question has led me to begin a new serial titled Andromeda Dreaming. I’d just finished a serial and had no plans to begin another one. This one is in the YA Science Fiction genre. A 9 year old mourns the loss of her parents and her homeworld. She is stuck on a foreign planet, having been ejected from the space exploration ship her parents’ had worked on when it came under attack. She comes to realize that she will never fit in with her adopted family and planet. It’s a bit of a coming of age story. If you like Science Fiction and YA stories, I hope you will join me each Tuesday and Friday as I write this story. Bring coffee along!

If we were having coffee, I’d have to let you go now. I have a HUGE list of books I need to read and review and really should get to that now. I’ve enjoyed the visit and hope you will join me again soon. Take some danishes on your way out and please travel safely.

If we were having coffee, dear readers, what would you like to share with me? Leave me a comment.

#WeekendCoffeeShare – 12/11/16

December 11, 2016December 11, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 3 Comments

If we were having coffee, I’d invite you into the warm kitchen for brunch. We’d have a slice of south west quiche, a dish I learned from a lovely Mexican family when I lived in Oklahoma, and cups of Finca las Granadinas, a delicious coffee from Honduras. There’s a delicate balance between the spiciness of the quiche and the rich, bold flavor of the coffee. I think you will enjoy them both.

If we were having coffee, I would confess that we should have had this coffee and conversation yesterday, but my internet was down most of the day. We had an arctic blast come through here with high winds and below zero windchill. The company that my wifi is through had promised to winter-proof their system before winter actually hit, but some of their ‘optics’ (their word, not mine) still isn’t winterized. After huge gustings of wind that lasted several hours overnight, I awoke to no wifi. I have no clue what they are doing. I never had these kinds of internet issues in OK no matter the weather (unless power went out). I think this is a young company and they are going through a learning curve. I just wish they’d get up to speed, but since they have a monopoly here, they don’t have to hurry. They know their customers have no choice but to put up with their BS.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you how excited I am that 2017 is almost here. I’ve been working through writing projects for next year. I won’t make the same mistake I did this year. This year, I had planned major writing projects for every month except January. In the end, I only accomplished four projects. My big mistake was not giving myself time off and pressing myself to keep going. Along with some personal stuff, this resulted in a major depressive break. Next year, I plan on taking Jan, March, June, August, Oct, and Dec off from major projects. So hopefully by the end of next year, I will have completed six major projects. My plans include more Horror Tales in Feb, Poetry in April, StoryADay in May, a continuation of the Jack Diamond story titled Raised Stakes in July, a vampire story in September, and a completely new story for Nov’s NaNoWriMo (still working out what kind of story I want to write). I have three projects that I will be shelving until probably 2018 – Killer Tales (about serial killers that I began in June of this year and never completed), another addition to the Astraeus story and a project I began back in college in 1998 that I hope to complete this time. I have a huge list of writing projects that I want to complete, but I am realizing that I can’t do them all in one year.

If we were having coffee, I’d invite you to read my paranormal mystery, Seeing You. I’d planned to complete it for Nov’s NaNoWriMo, but I was plagued with illnesses all during November and I had to take some extra time to finish it. The last part will go live today around 2 or 3 pm EST. So if you haven’t read it yet, you will have time to catch up.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I am mostly well now. Just a small cough left, but the doc said my lungs are now clear. No more pneumonia. Now I am taking probiotics from all of the antibiotics I had to take to get well. If I hadn’t been so ill, I would have eaten yogurt while taking the antibiotics, but I couldn’t stomach it.

And finally, if we were having coffee, what would you like to share with me? Leave me a comment. Tell me about your day. Share something fun that happened, or something not so fun.

This delightful coffee share is brought to you by Part-Time Monster and friends.

#WeekendCoffeeShare – 11/26/16

November 26, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 9 Comments

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that the last time I shared coffee with you, it was back in May. I was sick then and I am sick now, but this was also before The Big Crash. The Big Crash, as I’ve been calling it, happened in June. I’d been growing increasingly depressed for whatever reason (I still don’t know why) and kept trying to ignore it. By June 2nd, there was no way possible to ignore it any longer. I’d begun having thoughts of cutting and burning, and yes, even suicide. Just thoughts, no actions. Those dark voices were also back. I knew I needed help and I needed it fast, so I checked into a psych hospital for a while. I also got medicated again, which lasted five months. Yes, I’ve stopped taking the medicine, ignoring appointments to see the psych doc and therapist. They would be furious with me, but I cannot write while medicated and writing is what I do.

If we were having coffee, I would invite you into my sitting room, which is just a sectioned off area of my bedroom. There are two comfy chairs, shelves of books and a gas heater. It is warm and cozy, perfect for a chilly day like today. We’d have some choco-coffee (a mixture of coffee and hot chocolate) and cinnamon rolls with gooey icing. I made them for Thanksgiving and they still taste wonderful. Come, sit and share with me.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about all the plans that got foiled this year. I wasted five months of writing projects. I’d had projects lined up from June through October, some fun ones too, but depression got in the way. I won’t call them failures, just wasted opportunities. I’ve shelved them until next year. I’ve learned that I can over-extend myself. I hadn’t scheduled in time-off. Something I will rectify next year.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that since making a come-back in late October, I have been working on a novella for NaNoWriMo. It is titled, Seeing You, a paranormal mystery involving a witch and the FBI. I became sick two days into writing it and have been sick one way or another ever since. First it was the tummy flu that lasted almost a week. Now it is a serious cold, possibly flu that turned into bronchitis. I am still plodding along on it, even though I am a day behind and have been almost the entire month. I am not stressing though. If I hit the 50k mark on the 30th, so be it. If not, I will still finish the 50k words into December.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you how lovely Thanksgiving was this year. My brother did most of the cooking, as usual. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing and macaroni & cheese. Dessert consisted of homemade cinnamon rolls, pumpkin pie and apple crumble pie. With all of those carbs, I am going to have to do a serious cleansing diet in January because I know Christmas will be a near rinse and repeat. My niece showed up with her two daughters. It was lovely to spend a little time with them, even though I was sick. I adore Stormy, my niece, and her daughters, Skylar and Autumn. If I could afford it, I would spoil all three of them constantly.

And finally, if we were having coffee, I would invite you to tell me about your week. Did anything fun happen? Anything not so fun? Or just randomly okay? Regardless, I’d love to hear all about it. Share with me in comments.

This delightful coffee share is brought to you by Part-Time Monster and friends.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: 5/7/16

May 7, 2016May 7, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 9 Comments

If we were having coffee, I would invite you onto the front porch for a nice cup of espresso and some fresh-baked lemon cookies. It’s late afternoon and there is a cool breeze blowing. The sky is getting dark. We’ll have a storm soon.

If we were having coffee, I would beg your forgiveness for not inviting you over sooner. It’s been over a month since our last visit and I really have no excuses to offer you. Oh I could say I was busy writing, but then I am always busy writing. So that’s no real excuse. My health wasn’t failing during April, so that’s not an excuse either. Laziness, perhaps?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you how excited I am that we will begin planting our garden this upcoming week. It’s been a chilly start to May, but we have been assured that warmth is coming. Brother has already planted some basil and it is popping up nicely in little pots on the back porch. And Dad found a squash, cucumber and tomato plant that have already begun to grow out in the furtherest part of the garden. He calls them volunteers. *laughs* He’s placed soda bottles over top of them in the hopes of saving them from the birds. They may or may not yield anything.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve had some bouts of depression lately and have no explanation for them. Maybe it’s because of the lack of sunlight or perhaps my diet. I really don’t know. I have Bipolar and this feels very much like cycling. One day happy, the next day sad. Thursday was a very bad day for me. Yesterday so-so. Today I feel the dark clouds looming overhead and I am trying not to succumb to them. I am not on medication, so there is no telling how long this will last.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I am sorry to cut this visit short, but those clouds out here are getting menacing and I would hate for you to get caught in a storm. I would give you a bag of cookies and thank you for your time. Hope to see you again next Saturday, my friends.

If we were having coffee, what would YOU tell me? Let me know in comments!

This delightful coffee share is brought to you by Part-Time Monster and friends.

#WeekendCoffeeShare – 02.27.16

February 27, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 2 Comments

If we were having coffee, I would serve you some delicious savory crackers and cheese with a cup of organic decaf coffee. It is late in the afternoon and I wouldn’t want you to stay up all night. We would sit by the fire in comfy, over-stuffed chairs as it is mighty chilly here in Virginia today.

If we were having coffee, I would lean in close and whisper to you.

“I almost decided not to share coffee and a conversation today. My life is a bore.”

But then I remembered that this is the last chance to share coffee with you before March. Wouldn’t want to end the month without sharing something.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you of the movies I have watched the past couple of weeks for research.

“You see,” I would say, “next month I am writing a WhoDunIt over at A Whispered Wind. It will be in a film noir style. So I needed all the research I could get.”

I would give you a list of the movies, because well, I like lists:

He Walked by Night (1948)
The Strange Woman (1946)
The Red House (1947)
Too Late for Tears (1949)
Mike Hammer’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Notorious (1946)
Penny Serenade (1941)
Jigsaw (1949)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The 39 Steps (1935)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
D.O.A. (1950)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

I would tell you how fascinating all of those movies were and how much great research I derived from them.

“Film Noir has always fascinated me,” I would tell you. “The suspense, the darkness, the adventure!”

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about how sad I am to see February end as it marks the end of my Horror Tales. And then I would laugh and tell you, “There’s always June, though,” and wink.

If we were having coffee, I would have to apologize and tell you that although my life is boring, my muses aren’t and they are demanding that I get back to my writing. So I would have to cut our conversation short this week. I would thank you for stopping by and give you a tin of the savory crackers to take home with you.

“Bundle up! I will see you next week!” I would shout and wave as you wandered off into the late afternoon chill.

If we were having coffee, what would YOU tell me? Let me know in comments!

This delightful coffee share is brought to you by Part-Time Monster and friends.

#WeekendCoffeeShare – 02.20.16

February 20, 2016February 20, 2016 / Ravyne Hawke / 27 Comments

If we were having coffee, I would serve you some delicious shortbread cookies with your morning roast. Today being an unusually warm mid-morning in February, we would sit out on the front porch with sweaters on and have a chat.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about my “gap” moment very early this morning as I stood at the kitchen window waiting for the kettle to boil for my morning tea. I spied through the maple tree a most glorious sight. An orange, pink and red layered sunrise! Time stood still. The moment lingered. I was lost in awe. The kettle whistled and reality slammed me back into the kitchen.

“If only “gap” moments lasted longer,” I would say with a long sigh.

If we were having coffee, I would cackle with glee. You’d stare at me, oddly.

I would whisper, “I am just so excited, you see.”

And then I would tell you that there are only 40 days left until the beginning of the A2Z Challenge and how thrilled I am to be participating.

“This is my second year,” I would tell you. “Are you are joining in too?”

If we were having coffee, I would tell you how excited I am about watching The Martian tonight.

“I didn’t get to see it in the theater, as there are none close to me,” I would confide. “I loved the book and hope they are true to it. Science Fiction is my favorite genre!” I would say as I clapped my hands.

“What’s yours?” I would ask curiously.

And finally, if we were having coffee, we would end our chat by gazing at the small neighborhood where I grew up and reflect on how it has changed, and yet remained very much the same.

If we were having coffee, what would YOU tell me? Let me know in comments!

This delightful morning coffee share is brought to you by Part-Time Monster and friends.

	Brian Beck on A Cautionary Tale about the Pa…
	Parnormal Date Cant… on A Cautionary Tale about the Pa…
	Five Minutes A Day… on Five Minutes A Day – Day…
	Ravyne Hawke on A Cautionary Tale about the Pa…
	dale reigns on A Cautionary Tale about the Pa…