Coffee Blog

Jitter Juice—It’s coffee time. (COFFEE 2024-19)

Writing Sparkle

Would you rather eat chocolate-covered coffee beans or drink coffee?
Would you rather call coffee jitter juice or Bean Juice?

If we were having coffee, I would share that I would rather drink my coffee than eat chocolate-covered coffee beans. That said, I would also be happy to sip coffee and eat beans simultaneously. The term jitter juice makes me smile, so that is what my answer is for the second “would you rather” question.

If we were having coffee, I would share a picture of the 1980s puzzle. When I first started putting it together, I thought it was going to be easy. I was mistaken. The shapes were unique, and all the faces made it challenging. It was great. I have the 1990s puzzle to do next, but I won’t be starting it for a week or two.

If we were having coffee, I would share editing, writing, and reading news. For the next few weeks, I’m taking a copy editing course. I only have a handful of courses left before my editing certificate is complete. I’m finishing up my rough draft of my parenting book; Is anyone interested in doing an alpha reading of it? Literary Titan posted an author interview and Vizard won the Literary Titan Gold Award. As for reading news, I am currently reading Brandon Sanderson’s The Well of Ascension.

So, Virtual Friend, how was your week?

By Shari Marshall – 2023

17 thoughts on “Jitter Juice—It’s coffee time. (COFFEE 2024-19)”

  1. Hi Shari,

    I’m envious of both your ability to focus on and master these comes jigsaw puzzles. I’m normally too busy to take them on but life is slowing down for me and my wife got me one of those huge puzzle boards with shallow drawers all around it. We done two 1000 piece puzzles so far and it really is soothing somehow. Did you ever settle on a way to keep your puzzle WIPs safe?

    I’m also envious of your editorial skills. I doubt I could ever keep clear on all the rules of English grammar to ever be of much use at the level you’re working.

    On the writing front. I’ve made little progress but for a very good reason. You already know that we are now grandparents to a little guy named Liam and last week our families met in Riverside, CA (~1 hour east of Los Angeles) and we got to spend lots of time enjoying him.

    But the reason we were all there was to marry off our youngest son to a wonderful gal. I did the ceremony at their request so I was nervous about that but it all went so well and now I have 2 DILs to love on and brag about. You would likely appreciate what she does- she’s a police dispatcher for a small, but busy city a bit north of San Diego.

    Anyway, we love her & her family so we feel like we just grafted a whole new brach into our family tree.

    I hope to get a coffee share out today to discuss some of these neat blessings.

    Please keep sharing some of your puzzles as we are now watching for good ones in the 1000 piece range.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Gary! I have been wondering about you. Glad to hear that you are getting so much family time. And do you mean that you officiated the wedding, am I understanding that correctly? If so, that is so amazing and what an extra special touch on an already special day.

      I love that you and your wife are doing puzzles. It really is relaxing and there’s something satisfying about it as well. How do you like the puzzle board with the drawers? I’ve looked at it a few times but just wasn’t sure. I have a board that fits up 1500-piece puzzles. It opens and closes using Velcro, so I can move the puzzle around without losing pieces. I haven’t figured anything out for the two-thousand-piece puzzles yet though, and with the puppy, it might be a while before I can leave a puzzle out on the coffee table.

      As for editing, one of the big things I’ve learned is that an editor doesn’t have to know all the rules but needs to know where to go to find them. My Chicago Manual of Style gets a workout every once and a while.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi Shari.
        Our lives have been kinda nuts, but in mostly fun ways. You have it correct. I “married” both our sons to their wives. Our oldest was almost 4 years ago and then our youngest almost 2 weeks ago. When my wife and I were newly weds, I was a licensed minister with the Assemblies of God church. I thought that I might be a church minister as my vocation. How that changed is a different story, not relevant here, but I turned to IT to earn my keep instead. By the time our kids came along I was teaching Computer Science classes which suited my much better but by that time I’d conducted marriage and funeral services for several friends and family members. For a while I was our family’s go-to guy for such matters. It was pretty cool. But conducting such a service for my own children has been one of the most scary and satisfying things I’ve done for them. As you said, it was amazing – such a huge privilege and responsibility.
        We really love the puzzle board. I especially love the drawers. Our board has 4 large and 2 smaller ones. They all disappear inside the board and we use them for sorting pieces of different colors or textures which keeps them safe without the box. We also use one to store a couple of card-stock sheets for lifting or moving sets of pieces that have been fitted but don’t yet have a spot in the main puzzle. Somehow, they add a lot to the joy of working the puzzle. The boards come in multiple sizes from different manufactures and my wife got me the largest she could find so it would accommodate larger puzzles. Ours came with a lazy-Susan option that I installed with velcro so the board can easily be moved around as we work different areas together. I think ours would accommodate most larger puzzles.

        I wish I could just know all the rules on English grammar well enough to edit, but I really think this is an area where hard rules will be checked with AI’s and human editors will be more valuable with readability or style issues. I know you have both the eye and mind for both and I envy your skills. You’ve worked hard to master this. I hope you are nurturing this with your boys – teaching them to love writing as much as we do.

        Thanks so much for your kind feedback above. It has been a great time to be our kids parents.

        Blessings!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I think that is so great, being the one to perform the wedding ceremony.

          After hearing that your puzzle board has a lazy-Susan option, I think I’m going to go shopping.

          My older boy came home from school earlier this week and said he started a new project. So, I asked what it was about. He said they have to write a report about an author and he is writing about me. I thought I was going to cry. It was such a nice surprise. He isn’t much of a writer, but he loves to draw and paint . . . Perhaps, I can get him to design my book covers one day.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. And this is the grand prize to being a great parent! When your child, who often knows you better than anyone does something like this – it seems to heal any weakness in your heart and leaves you shocked and blessed.
            A few weeks ago, I got an early AM phone call from our daughter, the medical doctor student. She knows that I’m an early riser and am often the only one up at my 6am which is her 9am in Michigan. She called to tell me how one of her friends was struggling in school with support (no details offered) but that this left her amazed because it was something of a failure of her friends father that caused the problem. It was a big deal of some kind and she was left feeling so fortunate that I was her father and always was there for her – blaa – blaa – etc. It struck her so hard that she had to call and thank me. What she described were just the things that I see as what I should do as her father, but her friend was unable to trust that her father would do such things.
            Her call made my day and left me thinking that a prayer I’d made back in the early 1990s when I was a new parent, “Please help me not screw this up,” may have been answered.
            I think you won the same award from your son. Bravo Shari!

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  2. It is interesting to hear about how your editoring is going, Shari. I found out that Amazon editors know less than I do about some editing rules, and I would not qualify as an expert by any measure. Your puzzle looks amazing. I’m just into digital puzzles. I don’t have a good place to set up a big puzzle, and I’m not sure I’d have the patience. But so many of us love jigsaw puzzles.

    Congratulations also on your Literary Award and finishing your parenting book. That’s a brave endeavor to tackle the hardest job in the world. 🙂 xxx

    Have a great week.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Marsha. I think we’ve chatted about the digital puzzles before. They definitely have the advantage of space and working on your puzzle wherever you go.

      I didn’t know Amazon had editors. That’s interesting.

      As for the award, thank you for your support. Our blogging community is so amazing for support and encouragement.

      Happy Saturday.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I hired them to publish Story Chat version one. I would never do that again. It was $800 and they did an awful job. The Kindle version they put up was not legible, and one of the authors redid it for me and put it back up. It was a nightmare. I couldn’t reach anyone for help once it went up and was not readable. I liked the cover they designed and that was about it.

        Yes, we have discussed puzzles before. Two thousand pieces sounds overwhelming. I should try it sometime just for fun.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Shari, Congratulations on your Literary Award and completion of a challenging puzzle. I have no patience for puzzles, but occasionally we have one out which we do as a family with my husband and son doing much of it.

    Hope you have a great week ahead.

    Best wishes,

    Rowena

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Rowena.

      I was talking with someone the other day who said he and his partner have a group of friends who get together for dinner and after dinner, they spend the night chatting and completing the puzzle together. They do this regularly. I think it sounds like a lot of fun to do a puzzle with other people.

      Happy Sunday.

      Liked by 1 person

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