Behind the Scenes: Tangled Dreams

In my second behind-the-scenes post for my Dream Weavers & Truth Seekers series, I’m bringing you back to Decatur, Georgia, which is the little corner of Atlanta that I live in. To clarify – and so the Decatur people won’t get mad – Decatur is its own city with its own government, police force, etc. It’s located about halfway between Atlanta and Stone Mountain, about six miles due east of downtown Atlanta.

So now that I’ve oriented you to where Decatur is, I’m going to bring you to one of my favorite places – Java Monkey, the inspiration for Java Lemur in the series.

Hubby and I had been going to Java Monkey since the early 2000’s, and we attended the biweekly wine tasting for years. Then it became a monthly wine tasting. Then last summer the place changed ownership, surprising all of us regulars, and the wine tastings stopped since alcohol licenses don’t transfer with business sales.

And then last autumn, a disgruntled former employee “allegedly” set fire to the place. It gutted that building and spread to the one behind it, damaging the two restaurants there. They caught and arrested the suspect only recently.

I hadn’t expected my books to end up memorializing a place, but as it turns out, Java Monkey will not be reopening. I’ll miss the cool vibe and the beautiful details that you can see in the pictures below. I went last July and took some photos in anticipation of these books coming out in the summer and autumn, but I never posted them, so I’m happy to share them now. Maybe it will give those of us former regulars a smile and good memories. I’m glad you can see the place I had in mind when I was writing.

The stairs below are where Audrey and Damien first meet in Tangled Dreams:

I’ve spent many a happy afternoon and evening at JavaMonkey, and parts of pretty much all of my books were written there, so I am very sad it’s not coming back. Hopefully whatever goes in that space next will be even better.

How about you? Do you have a favorite coffee shop? I’d love to know.

Want to read what happens on those steps? Click here to check out Tangled Dreams.