I just tried a new tea, Royal Mandalay Chai, a vanilla chai latte. Now, I'm a tea drinker mostly, and I do love chai, but with the sudden revival of the teatottler, hideous mock-ups are arriving on the American shores, teas that the British would have turned their noses up at and the Japanese would have been offended over. And we drink it. Why? Hell, my bottle cost $0.59! In a capitalist country, why not!
These "teas" showing up on the market are a discredit to the true art of tea.
"Art of tea?" you may ask.
Yes, there is an art to it.
I patiently learned how to brew a good cup of green tea, and I don't mean the American style pop-teabag-in-water-shove-in-mircowave routine. That makes a horrible concoction we are forced to think is tea. I mean loose leaf sencha (excellent brand of green tea, healthy, full of flavor but subtle, and at least it's not in a baggy). Once you try a good cup of sencha, it is difficult to go back to drinking other teas. I now only use my Lipton teas to mix Kava with. I like chai when I'm in a playful mood, but nothing beats ending the day with a cup of sencha. That is something you can't get from teabags and sugary powders.
I've also experimented with herbal teas, mostly for health, not as actual drinks. Chamomile tea if I can't sleep (although Kava is replacing that), mint tea for upset stomach (often with fresh mint I grow in the window), raspberry tea for... um... feminine trouble.
But these generic teas, like this Royal Mandalay my mom bought me....
Sure, you might be able to get it cheap, sure it takes little or even no preparation at all, but isn't part of the enjoyment of tea in taking that time, five minutes out of the day, to properly brew the tea, make sure it is not too strong or too weak, watch the tea leaves, enjoy a moment of reflection?
That is the art of tea.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Novel Nightmares
Writing a novel is a frightening ordeal. I'm not talking Stephen King. I mean spending months working out the story, more months researching, countless midnights typing until your hands are stiff and you wake up wondering why your fingers are soaking in your margarita glass... but realize it does make them feel better. And after all that planning, just before you send this beautiful work off to be slaughtered by the publishers, you think "but there's more to the story! If I just add another couple chapters..."
Before you know it, you've spent a few more months typing away into the dark hours of the night, watching with horror as the sun rises and shines through your bedroom window and you realize the alarm clock will go off in exactly twenty minutes. Before you know it, your sweet little novella has turned into a full novel, and that novel has turned into a freaking huge epic... and that epic has sequels!!!
Well, my sweet novella lost its innocence almost seven years ago. That's when the mindblock broke and the words came pouring out so fast I couldn't keep up. I dropped college classes so I could type more. I even dropped an English class! And when it was over, my sweet tale had developed into over 600 pages (written in only a few months). And now, seven years later, I have broken it into a series. Yes, it will be a serial story. I hate those, but it was either that or convince a publisher to print a way-over-a-thousand-page novel by a relatively novice novelist.
Oh, maybe my day will come when I can write out a massive work and my publisher will thank me that it's so big, there's no way it could go into paperback (hums the Beatles' Paperback Writer for a moment in reflection). For now I'll be happy if they accept this as it is. That is, once I finish writing the damn thing!
still singing: "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two"
And today (well, yesterday, it's nearly morning again), I had an epiphany which I'm going to kick myself for when my brain isn't befuddled. I broke my story down further, into five novels (I had so hoped for a sweet little trilogy). It works so much better this way. It really is five separate stories, especially the last two segments. Still, that means a god-awful lot more writing, and my margarita glass isn't staying cold anymore with summer approaching.
Before you know it, you've spent a few more months typing away into the dark hours of the night, watching with horror as the sun rises and shines through your bedroom window and you realize the alarm clock will go off in exactly twenty minutes. Before you know it, your sweet little novella has turned into a full novel, and that novel has turned into a freaking huge epic... and that epic has sequels!!!
Well, my sweet novella lost its innocence almost seven years ago. That's when the mindblock broke and the words came pouring out so fast I couldn't keep up. I dropped college classes so I could type more. I even dropped an English class! And when it was over, my sweet tale had developed into over 600 pages (written in only a few months). And now, seven years later, I have broken it into a series. Yes, it will be a serial story. I hate those, but it was either that or convince a publisher to print a way-over-a-thousand-page novel by a relatively novice novelist.
Oh, maybe my day will come when I can write out a massive work and my publisher will thank me that it's so big, there's no way it could go into paperback (hums the Beatles' Paperback Writer for a moment in reflection). For now I'll be happy if they accept this as it is. That is, once I finish writing the damn thing!
still singing: "It's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two"
And today (well, yesterday, it's nearly morning again), I had an epiphany which I'm going to kick myself for when my brain isn't befuddled. I broke my story down further, into five novels (I had so hoped for a sweet little trilogy). It works so much better this way. It really is five separate stories, especially the last two segments. Still, that means a god-awful lot more writing, and my margarita glass isn't staying cold anymore with summer approaching.
Starting a Blog
Yeah, so it's my first blog. I've read them, I've read about them, and I kept saying I'd get one of my own. Well, UserFriendly today convinced me to do it. AJ and his blog. I love that cartoon strip!
We'll see what turns up on this thing. I love to write - a little too much - so who knows what I'll share with the big WWW out there.
We'll see what turns up on this thing. I love to write - a little too much - so who knows what I'll share with the big WWW out there.
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