Mood Altering and Mood Setting Drinks

Eyes open-coffee in hand. This is the way many people start their day. Some prefer tea or cola, but most crave some kind of heart pumping caffeine.

The chill of fall hits the air; hot chocolate comes to mind or perhaps hot apple cider. Christmas conjures up visions of eggnog or hot tea and Champaign rings in the New Year. Some people are teetotalers and others are milk chuggers, and some are both. People have drink preferences and so do characters. That preference may reveal much about who the character is and where she came from.

Think about the man who was dubbed “Public Enemy Number One”. This is how the New York Times described him right after he’d been found guilty of tax evasion. "Capone tried to smile again, but the smile was bitter. He licked his fat lips. He jiggled on his feet. His tongue moved in his cheeks. He was trying to be nonchalant, but he looked as if he must have felt--ready to give way to an outburst of anger. It was a smashing blow to the massive gang chief. His clumsy fingers, tightly locked behind his back, twitched and twisted."

Imagine what Al Capone drank. How would he hold his glass? Wikipedia states  wealth permitted Capone to indulge in a luxurious lifestyle of custom suits, cigars, gourmet food and drink (his preferred liquor was Templeton Rye from Iowa), jewelry, and female companionship.

Miss Marple seems to have a lot of Agatha Christie’s personality and they both loved tea. The perfect hair, impeccable dress and marvelous posture is the image I have of them as they sit on the edge of their settee and sip tea. One lump or two, cream or lemon for your tea--care for a fresh pastry?  

This Agatha Christie  game site describes her novels as being like stepping back in time to a refined and glamorous age where gentlemen in natty suits drink martinis, cigarettes are in holders, and stories are written on typewriters. Dead Man's Folly, is careful to preserve the right atmosphere in both time and place.

Carolyn, my West Virginia character loves fresh brewed “Sweet Tea” in the summer and hot “Apple Cider” in the winter. What is your character’s favorite drink? Do your antagonist and protagonist share a favorite drink? What’s your favorite drink?

Resources:

Wikipedia

Jayisgames

Photos:

Cider *creative commons, Seattle Coffee Gear/brownbean.com

Christie *wikimedia.org

Capone *slated.org

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3 comments Cherley Grogg, Christmas drinks, coffee, cold weather writing, Drinking and Writing, drinks, emotional hot buttons, mood, moods, New Year's drinks antagonists, protagonist, Tea, whiskey

In the Mood

As a child, I enjoyed daydreaming and I loved climbing as high as I could in a tree so I could enjoy the total solitude. Sharing my thoughts and feelings with nature, there's a poem  by David McCord called "Every Time I Climb a Tree" and when I read it, I'm instantly transported back to 1962.

In many ways, mood effects writing.  Mood directly relates to what a person writes, where they write and how they write.  Sometimes creativity needs a boost.

Autumn puts me in a day-dreamy mood. I love to sit outside or walk through the woods and …think. Just think. Let my mind go where it will. Listen to the birds, smell the Fall air, crunch the leaves under my feet and dream.

Karle Wilson Baker's poem Days goes like this:

Some days my thoughts are just cocoons-all cold, and dull and blind,

They hang from dripping branches in the grey woods of my mind;

And other days they drift and shine-such free and flying things!

I find the gold-dust in my hair, left by their brushing wings.

Writers are moody creatures. We get in the mood to write and our minds concentrate on the heroine in our next story or we're trying to figure out the best way to kill a really good person.  First, we have to create the person whom everyone loves and deeply cares for, before we knock them off.  In the meantime, life goes on, the phone rings, the baby cries, our husbands demand our attention and we find ourselves getting in a discouraging mood. Finally, we get everything settled down and return to our writing, but now we are not in the mood.  

To get back in the mood, I read poetry, take a walk, listen to music or get a hot cup of coffee, open my blinds and stare out the window—daydreaming. Is there a poem or song that takes you back in time? What do you do to get in the mood? 

Share your thoughts, your memories and your mood in the comments. (Bad moods welcome—good moods appreciated).

Resources:

Days http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/days-3/

Every Time I Climb a tree http://www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Poetry/tree.html

Photos:

Rachel by Cher'ley Grogg

Autumn by Mexicanwave http://www.freepicturesfreepictures.com/

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6 comments Cher'ley Grogg, daydreaming, Fall trees, Family, Memories, mood, moods, Moody, ood writing, poems, songs, tree climbing