Cafetière Books

Bonjour. Welcome to my website, Cafetière Books. Which, en Français, means… Yellowstone National Park? Not exactly. It means: “coffeemaker.” Because who doesn’t want to pour a cup of freshly brewed coffee when getting ready to snuggle into a comfortable chair with a book?

One of the benefits of never having grown up is an endless imagination. My motto: If I can dream it, I can write it. Coupled with love of words, my favorite writing genre is literary fiction seasoned with inspirational fantasy. Embracing comfort and core values is important to me, in all times, and now, in these increasingly troubled ones. Coffee and uplifting books. A perfect marriage.

Why, the picture I took at Yellowstone Park, one partly cloudy day? Because, my first published book, The Geyser Girl of Yellowstone Park, is a fable about a child of mysterious origin whom Old Faithful geyser and a mother buffalo adopt from infancy. Reared with the stories, teachings, and proverbial sayings of her elders, she gains spiritual ascendance daily; during which time, she makes a vow to protect Yellowstone’s heritage and gains a close, protective circle of human friends.

When the circle is breached and her life in peril, she and her father are forced to choose between her safety and her sworn duties.

Ages 11 through 111. The Geyser Girl of Yellowstone Park: An Allegorical Fantasy Novel: Brooks, Myrtle: 9798454839789: Amazon.com: Books

I was born in New York City in New York Hospital, Manhattan, and spent the first two (formative) years of my life in Jackson Heights, Queens. After that, the family kept moving further and further upstate. It was like, when you say goodbye to someone you’ve known and visited for much of your life, and you get in the back seat of the car and look back through the rear window. And she’s waving to you. Until she’s smaller and smaller… and then you don’t see her anymore. And it was then, I came to realize a huge piece was missing in my heart.

In 1991, I returned home so poor that I had not a single possession save a bag with a few articles of clothing and some personal items. I remember going into the Walgreens at Port Authority bus terminal and buying a small, flaming-pink pocket mirror. It is still in my purse. Glued together because the plastic frame cracked when I dropped it more than once. It reminds me how wealthy I was to return to the city I love and cherish.

Below is the back cover of Songs to New York, my second book. The photo is of the IRT 7th Avenue Line’s 103rd Street station. After a few months, my Mom and I lived in a residence hotel a few city blocks from there. Across from our window was a picture window belonging to the brownstone next door. It became my inspiration for my first of the ten short stories: a cat who rode a bicycle, and his owner, who lived in the apartment behind the glass.

Mom loved the idea. But it took years to gain the maturity to complete and polish the collection. Two years later, I landed a job with the Post Office working overnights as a clerk. During our 3 AM lunch breaks, I added more stories. Then, when I became a window clerk at a station, I completed the ten as a rough draft and shelved them until it was the right time.

Is there a Post Office story among the ten? Of course. A tired overnight clerk clocks out, takes the subway to Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood and meets a mysterious woman who takes “The Sanctity of the Mails” seriously.