Morning Coffee 87: December 11th, 2023

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Good evening. As I write you, I’m currently walking the nearby track in silence. The lights around the track just turned on. I should’ve put on another layer before leaving house. The hoody is tied tight around my face, leaving only enough room for my glasses. I’m a few days into a long vacation. Spending a lot of time writing. A lot of time thinking. A lot of time with Rose. Parks, libraries, coffee shops. All the good places. When we walked into the library, neither of us said a word to each other. She started making pretend coffee in the dollhouse. I started working on a writing project. We were both silently in our element. This is the first time since starting the weekly newsletter that I’m over a month ahead on the all the writing. It’ll probably be two months from now when I’ll exhaust all the writing that I have up to this point. I’ve been able to move topics around as needed. I had to move a topic back from this week, so I can write about the books I’ve been working on. More on that in a second. As always, I hope this letter finds you well.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. How to Build a Book
3. How to Journal
4. Journal Entry
5. Changelog

How to Build a Book

A project that’s been on the back-burner for years now, has finally come back alive.

Alchemy.

Repurposing two decades of lyrics and turning them into poetry books.

They’ll start off as individual books, known as the Alchemy Collection, and eventually, they’ll merge together and turn into one big book, with a hardcover version, titled Alchemy.

The five tools I’m using

• Ulysses is where all the poetry lives. My writing app, already organized and prepared for this project.

• Text Case is what I’m using to help format each poem. I copy all the words for each poem, pass it to this app, and then it gives it back to me all lowercase.

• Midjourney is what I’m using to create the artwork. I’ve written a phrase that I’ll be using for all the books, only changing the keywords to match each concept.

• Canva is the design app that’s putting all of this together. All the artwork, and all the words, turning it all it into an actual book.

• Kindle Direct Publishing is the last tool I’m using. It’s where I upload the PDF and choose the pricing. From there, I preview how it looks as a book, and even order a proof copy to make sure everything is correct before it goes out to the world.

How to Journal

Write your journal entries as real stories when you can. As real scenes. Make them as visual as possible, so when you read it in the future, it brings you right back to that very moment.

December 1st, 2023

Rose opened her eyes and immediately stood up to put her pacifier on the window seal. She’s learning that she can only have it when sleeping.

“Good job.” I said.

She then climbed out of bed and started heading to the living room.

“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked.

“No.”

I was curious to that response. That’s a new one.

As she walked into the living room, I heard the stool moving around. Then silence. After a few minutes, I went see what she was up to. She was back laying down, this time in her bed, with a different pacifier. She created a plan in her mind on how to do the right thing and still end up with the pacifier.

Proud dad moment.

Changelog

I recently did some updates to the site. Quality of life improvements.

• Header icons have changed.
• Added a book icon to prepare for all the new books on the way.
• Changed the music icon to a microphone.
• Added playable albums back, this time as album covers with a play button.
• Made becoming a premium member even easier with a “Pay what you want” link.
• Removed the newsletter archive.

Let me know what you think.

This is Morning Coffee: a weekly newsletter that arrives in your inbox every Monday morning. I write about productivity, technology, and cool things I find on the internet. My wife wants this to be my only job, so pay what you want, purchase my books on Amazon, or join my Music Program.