Name:
Blue Brick Café
 
Date & Hours Visited:
Thursday, 29 September 2016, 11.15am-3pm

Free Wi-Fi?
Yes
 
How Busy?
Initially very quiet, but it got busier at lunch time and then quieter again around 2.30pm.
 
Staff Attitudes:
Very friendly. When I ordered cake I said 'If I'm spending so much time here I should order more', and the server said 'Oh, don't even worry about that!'

Noise Level:
The coffee machine and the music on the radio were somewhat distracting at times, but I won't complain too much about BBC Radio 6. The chatter in the café, although part of the friendly and welcoming atmosphere, could also be distracting at busy times.

Seating:
Mostly wooden, rustic-looking chairs and tables (seating 2, 3 or 6), which are very cosy and comfortable. Some outside seating as well, although even including those seats the café's capacity is only about 30 people. The 2-seater table I used was the only spot I could see with a power socket.

Food/Drink Price:
Fairly competitive for the area, especially some of the breakfast options and their daily soup. Their starter salads are £6 each and lunch main courses are £9 each, which is still pricey for me, though. I had a £3 glass of fresh grapefruit juice, a £9 spicy chickpea stew and a £3 slice of pistachio and spinach cake.

Food/Drink Quality & Selection:
Delicious, creative, homemade vegetarian food. Full disclosure: I've eaten here many times over the past year, although this was my first time working here. I adore their Fullest Vegan breakfast, which includes homemade beans, sourdough toast, mushrooms and spinach, roasted tomato, vegetarian sausage, and bubble and squeek.

As for this visit, my grapefruit juice was fresh, as advertised, and very tasty. The stew was rich and hearty, not too spicy for my wimpy taste, and served with brown rice, 2 vegetarian sausages and green salad, helping to justify the £9 price tag. The cake was also just lovely, with a pleasantly chewy sponge and a light mascarpone icing that had just enough sweetness to it.

Would I Work Here Again?
Yes, ideally during weekdays at non-peak meal times, but even when it was busy I found I was able to work. There was never any pressure for me to spend more money or free up the table, and the staff are attentive without being overbearing, making Blue Brick a good occasional alternative to working from home.
 
Overall Ranking:
 8/10

And another thing…
In case you couldn't tell, I love this place. It should reek of pretension, especially in this neighbourhood, but instead it's a welcoming little place that quietly makes very good food and is happy for people to sit with a coffee and a laptop for hours. Blue Brick Café may very well be the standard by which I judge all other cafés.

Hello readers,

It's high time I posted about editing on my editing blog, and I might as well start with an FAQ. These are some of the questions I'm asked most frequently when people find out that I edit romance and erotica fiction. If any of you have questions of your own please feel free to post them in the comments below or Contact Me privately, and I'll try to answer them in my next post in this series.

Enjoy!
​Maya


1. Are erotica authors less receptive to feedback than other authors because the text is more personal to them?

Thankfully, this hasn't been my experience so far. Anyone who writes a story has some attachment to the characters they create and has written things that personally resonate for them. How receptive an author is to editorial input is more a matter of their understanding of an editor's remit, their own attitude toward the writing and editing processes, and the strength of the relationship they have with their editor. I've been fortunate enough to work with erotica authors, as well as authors of various other genres, who are eager to improve their texts and who engage respectfully with my suggestions and comments even when they disagree with an editing choice that I've made.


2. Are these stories more thrilling to edit than texts in other genres?

Honestly, no. I don't edit erotica because I'm looking for a cheap thrill—I do it because I believe that stories about human sexuality and intimate relationships deserve to have the same high-quality writing as other literature. When I edit any type of fiction I read a text in a very particular way, even during my initial read-through before I start making any changes to the text. I am looking for a coherent narrative, interesting characters that grow and change throughout the story, and a sense of the author's style and voice. There is enjoyment in my work, but it's the same enjoyment I'd feel reading about a compelling character, rich setting, exciting plot point or elegantly crafted sentence in any fiction genre.

All that said, I do look at whether any of the story elements take away from the overall eroticism and whether the story would appeal to its intended audience. I will sometimes suggest changes to create more evocative imagery or remove elements that break a reader's suspension of disbelief, especially if I am doing structural editing or copy-editing, but also when proofreading if changes can be made at the word level. This often leads to the removal of...

​
3. What are some of the most un-sexy things you've read in a sex scene?

Thankfully I haven't yet read anything to rival the hilariously misguided winners of the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award, but I have come across sentences that were seemingly constructed using a random adjective generator. In those cases it's worth reminding the author that long, meandering sentences filled with flowery descriptions for every person and every action can distract the reader rather than entice them. Sometimes less truly is more, and the author should be confident enough in the characters, setting and narrative to avoid over-describing them with adjectives and adverbs. Verily, I say, heartily and with purposeful intent, such powerfully, mind-blowingly, epically tragic word choices are made at the unwary author's engorged peril.

The most memorably unsexy word choice I've seen, however, has to be the use of the words 'bowels' and 'intestines' during a lovemaking scene. The author was clearly trying to emphasise the depth of one character's, er, physical closeness to another, but there is nothing appealing about the word 'intestines'. Moreover (and not to be too blunt about it), no matter what kind of sex you're having, if your lovemaking involves those parts of your lover's anatomy then something's gone horribly wrong and you should seek medical attention immediately!

Name:
Café G Artisan Kitchen & Coffee House
 
Date & Hours Visited:
Monday, 8 August 2016, 3.30-4.45pm

Free Wi-Fi?
Yes, with no password required
 
How Busy?
Fairly busy. Most of the tables outside were full, but the café is quite spacious and there were half a dozen free tables inside.
 
Staff Attitudes:
Friendly, although my needs were few and my interaction with them was pretty minimal.

Noise Level:
I sat near the back, and there was a Gymboree kids' play group in an adjoining room that I could hear clearly for about half an hour. After that one of the staff turned on the radio. First two songs: Karma Police by Radiohead and Island in the Sun by Weezer, which I enjoyed but found distracting. The café patrons were pretty quiet, give or take the occasional baby crying.

Seating:
Wooden-top tables and plastic chairs or booths. I sat on a booth seat that was very comfortable. The table was just big enough for my laptop, tea and snack.

Food/Drink Price:
Fairly pricey for my money, although competitive for East Dulwich: A large yogurt-topped raspberry flapjack was £2.75, and a pot of Earl Grey tea was £2.15.

Food/Drink Quality & Selection:
The flapjack was very sweet, probably too sweet for some peoples' tastes, but I loved it. The tea was a little on the bitter side for me, which I often find with Earl Grey in coffee shops, but still just about drinkable and passes the Starbucks test (Ugh, Starbucks Earl Grey is the worst.) The café has a good selection of breads, cakes, coffee, tea, milkshakes and smoothies, although the menu info is on a few different chalkboards on the walls around the cash area and it's a little hard to see all the options.

Would I Work Here Again?
Probably not, although I may occasionally drop by for a cake with one of my friends who has kids.
 
Overall Ranking:
 5/10

And another thing…
G Café sits comfortably in a niche of child-friendly cafés, which is a smart move in Yummy Mummy central. One of East Dulwich's defining features is its abundance of affluent (and predominantly white) young families, and on weekdays the streets, pubs and shops are full of moms with prams.

This café is exactly what they're after. Moms with cash won't bat an eyelash at a £2.15 price tag for a pot of tea, their babies can exhibit normal baby behaviour without drawing tsk-tsks and head shakes, and their strollers can easily navigate the wide spaces between tables. I willingly surrender the place to them and will choose to work elsewhere.