My name is John Smith, I created this web site in order to share ideas about how and why I came to create a series of stories about a group of twelve fictional characters who lead interesting lives, have adventures and, incidentally, enjoy drinking really great coffee.
These people are known collectively as The Coffee Bar Gang®
The TCBG is a project that I have been working on for a few years now and it combines three activities that I enjoy in my retirement – writing, painting, and making music.
Over time, more coffee-related characters came into existence so, alongside the original TCBG, we now have a new collection of characters known as the Barista Collective.
The Barista Collective is comprised of three separate groups:
1 The Barista Bureau (a crime fighting syndicate)
2 Legendary Baristas (towering figures from History)
3 ‘Block-Buster’ Baristas (contemporary Baristas doing great things)
Having built up this collection of characters along with loads of ideas for their individual action adventure stories, I was faced with a question:
What to do with all this ‘stuff’ crammed into my note books, art folders and PC?
The (obvious) answer of course was – show it and share it!
So, here we are.
My ‘Objective’ for this Web Site or Story Blog is simply to present interesting ‘content’ for readers to sample and enjoy at their leisure.
The Web Site ‘Content’, therefore, will:
- explain how the characters came to life and how their identities were formed,
- present articles, extracts and ‘short stories’ featuring the characters exploits and adventures,
- engage with ideas and discussions about the ‘Process’ of writing, painting and composing musical fragments – e.g. how can we stimulate and direct ‘creativity’?
Eventually, I would also like, if possible, to explore ways to ‘monetise’ some of the Blog activities by publishing short stories and selling associated ‘collectables’ e.g. art prints, coffee mugs, calendars, note-lets and cards, featuring the TCBG & BARISTA characters and their stories.
It would be good too, if we were able to create a bespoke range of coffee products?
So, once the blog is properly underway and, hopefully, attracting some interest and attention, my aim is to install an e-commerce ‘plug-in’ and start trading!
In the mean time, enjoy the Blog and the stories.
Happy Days!