Skip to main content

The Tazas (Coffee Cup) Book Club


Six years ago, nine, cool, writer chicks decided to start a book club.  Fascinated by the magic of words and how they come together to create stories, we wanted to talk about the books we read.  Half of the nine were published authors; the other half wanted to be. 
          Once we agreed on the idea, we thought it best to wait until the new year.  We chose our first book, our meeting date, and on some basic rules. As the day approached, we needed a place open late enough for us to meet after our regular, weekly writing group.  We chose a coffee shop that had just opened in the area.  
          Hey, we cool, remember?  Writers, books, coffee shop.  Where else would we meet?
          Our coffee shop closed this past fall, but the book club is still going strong.  Six of the original nine members are gone, but we have replaced them with three others.  Whenever you get a discussion group together, it is always difficult to make sure everyone gets a say.  By keeping it to a group of six, those of us with “stronger opinions” are reminded to let the quieter ones speak.
          We started 2017 with book number forty-six. We meet every month or six weeks.  We have read historical and modern fiction, a lot from best seller lists, but we have also read mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and memoir.  We have read books from all age groups and books on craft as well. We have read some amazing books and some real stinkers.
          Now that our coffee shop is gone, we have searched for a new place to meet.  We tried Starbucks, Panera, and a new sandwich shop, all in the same general area.  None have the same feel as Tazas did, so we keep looking. Out of necessity and hunger, we met at IHOP one Monday, and we find ourselves returning there.  At nine in the evening, we have the place pretty much to ourselves, besides their Harvest Grain pancakes are healthy and delicious.

          Since the coffee shop is gone, we have dibbs on the name.  The Tazas Book Club sounds much cooler than The IHOP or The Harvest Grain Book club; after all, as writers, we are aware of the importance of branding ourselves.  
Labels:

Comments

  1. Christmas with CWGJanuary 23, 2017 at 2:15 PM

    I also love the fact that we have a new IHOP server every week, and it's almost always his/her first day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Raquel Martina MartinezJanuary 23, 2017 at 3:37 PM

    Hope it isn't bc of us. Oops.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dating Challenged

I stink at dating – always have.   I sputter.   I hyperventilate.   I fail miserably every time. I blame a pathetically underdeveloped gene that got little use before I married in my early twenties, then atrophied, gathering dust and rust, until I became single again in my fifties.   I decided to use this defect to my advantage when I needed to do some investigative reporting a few years back.   While on a newspaper writing assignment on Boomer-aged dating, I sacrificed my dignity and my vanity for the sake of the story (and I got several). Thank goodness, HoneyBunch saved me from all this when we married.  (He comes up with the best dates.) I’ve decided I will “show you mine if you show me yours.”   I will swap dating horror stories with you, but you have to promise to play along. The trick here is to tell about your worst date in 25 words or less.   You must keep it clean and you cannot name names. Our little contest will run only this week and before my next blogger posting.   Me
8 comments
Read more

Twelve Female Hero Authors Who Influenced Me to be an Author

In honor of Women’s History Month, I decided to share twelve female authors who changed my life forever and who influenced me to try my hand at writing. Some are not widely popular so you might want to try them out. 1.    Charlotte Bront é – English – Her plotting and characters - Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester – are immortal.  2.    Louisa May Alcott – American – I loved how she created a family of Little Women that reminded me of my sisters.  3.    Jane Austen – English – Another author who knew how to build immortal characters. Two words:  Mr. Darcy. Two more words:  hubba hubba. 4.    Emily Dickinson – American - What a poet! Her innovation was pooh-poohed at first, but now we owe her for breaking all those punctuation barriers. 5.    Beverly Cleary – American – She created a little girl in Ramona that reminded me of me when I was a little girl.  I wish I had met Ms. Cleary’s books sooner instead of when I was in my 30’s. 6.    Judy Blume – American - He
4 comments
Read more

Happy Breastday to Me!

I gave myself a very special birthday present this year – I had surgery. Before you think it was to increase, decrease, or “lift” something, let me tell you it was not cosmetic (though I could probably use a few nips and tucks at my age; the infinite number of creams I buy OTC are not working their promised magic). About four or five months ago, I discovered a hard lump about the size of a large marble in my left armpit.  I had been feeling small pangs of pain in my left chest for several months, but I figured it was just my turn to dance with heart disease.  Everyone in my immediate family is diabetic and suffers from strokes or heart attacks, so I thought – here we go; my turn. I was going to tell my internist about the pangs during my next visit, so imagine my surprise when I discovered the lump. The Drama Queen in me immediately manifested herself – cancer, I thought.  I have cancer. I searched some more and found that the texture on the left side of my left breast felt diffe
9 comments
Read more