Ever tried to sit in a Starbucks in downtown Denver and focus? If you haven’t, don’t bother!
Brad had to be downtown for an indeterminate amount of time and I went with him, so I prepared to wait that long, however long that might be. With my two 5+ hour laptop batteries and my laptop, I was set. So he goes to his thing, and I go to Starbucks.
Oh my goodness, it was loud. Every suit in downtown Denver, or so it felt, visited that Starbucks over the course of the day. The music was loud, so the people were loud, and it was just–loud. It was jam-packed, too.
So I got my vanilla latte and chose an outdoor table. Even there, it was loud. Yay for headphones, I brought mine and started the playlist I use for drowning out background noise. It was no match for my surroundings, but it helped. I got some writing done, although not as much as if I was at home and undistracted.
After a couple of hours, the sun found a way through the high rise buildings and filled the outdoor seating area. I didn’t want my laptop overheating, so it was time to brave the great indoors.
It was just as crowded and loud as before, but I found an out of the way table. I also found it impossible to focus, my background-overriding playlist… I couldn’t even hear it. So, I turned to Linkin Park. Can that guy scream, or what? He was louder than my surroundings. Most of the time. It was pretty impressive, in an I’m-not-real-pleased kind of way, how the background did manage to outshout him part of the time.
I did get some writing done. 601 Suspense Street is now 214 pages. If I can knuckle down and work diligently over the next few days I’ll have it out for pre-order before The Lodge at Whispering Pines is released August 14th. That’s the goal.
Happy reading to you all, and now I’m going to get back to writing.