Free Fiction-The Alchemy of Coffee
The short story for this week, The Alchemy of Coffee, started as a writing assignment for a workshop. The anthology we were supposedly writing for was titled, “YUMMY.”
Of course, I didn’t necessarily go food related. Or totally food related. While I can cook, it isn’t something I love.
I do, however, love coffee.
For Christmas in 2014, I got myself a Fresh Roast 500. (They do go on sale now and again, if you find yourself interested.) So I’ve been roasting my own coffee beans for about a year, now. I still feel as though I have so much to learn about roasting. There really are so many things to take into account, like how humid it is outside, how hot or cold it is, etc.
I put as much of that geekery as I could into this story.
I have learned that part of my process, sometimes, is to write a short story that I find I need to expand, in order to find the rest of the world. I don’t mean to. It just happens.
That was what happened with The Raven and the Dancing Tiger. It was another writing assignment for a workshop. And the short story just didn’t end. It became the first chapter of the novel (with very few changes, I might add.)
The Alchemy of Coffee works as a short story, I think. However, there’s a whole world there. And my brain has already (helpfully!) provided at least one of the subplots for novel to follow. Currently, that novel is called Magicless. Okay, so I might already have a cover design in mind for it as well.
But that will wait until next year. I’m heavily into the new novel (The Glass Magician, which also started life as a short story, however, I won’t publish that short story until next year because it first has to be published in an anthology.) Cassie (of Poisoned Pearls) has been talking to me. And there are so many other stories I want to write.
In the meanwhile, please enjoy The Alchemy of Coffee.
The Alchemy of Coffee
Katrissa is magicless, a rare minority in the world. She has no magic guild, no badge of rank. She isn’t fit for the few jobs open to the magicless, either.
She does have one great love: coffee.
Can a magicless girl turn her passion into a meaningful career?
Available at Amazon, Kobo books, and iBookstore.
Here and gone!
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