Somewhere deep inside me a writer cringes at the lack of work I have accomplished in the last week. It all started with the “query letter” I need when I submit the first book to agents. I thought it would be easy, the hook line, an interesting synopsis of the book and a little bit about myself. The number of hours I spent staring at a blank page trying to think up the perfect hook surprised me. Then the synopsis, how do you sum up in 500 words a book of 113,000 words? Do they want you to give the story away? Are they interested in who the main characters are? It’s all very confusing. I did a little research on-line trying to find examples of successful query letters. They are few and far between my friends. The ones I did find were short, very short. I would classify them as sweet and to the point, less than a page in length. I thought to myself, great, this should be easy but fear clutched at my breast. In the back of my mind that old saying, “you only have one chance to make a first impression,” keeps tossing doubts into the fray. I finally finished a first draft and sent it to a couple of writer friends for their opinion. Haven’t heard back so we’ll see what they have to say. After that I managed to complete chapter 4 of the new book and start in on chapter 5. I do like where the new book is going and it changes directions a little every time I add to it. The sooner I get my queries out to agents, the sooner I will be able to concentrate on the new book. Hopefully a couple will go out before the weekend.
On Sunday I met Tim and Lourdes for breakfast. They were full of news about their trip to Ica and Huacachina last week. 
They both tried sand boarding and went for rides in a dune buggy. Tim has also taken up surfing recently and is enjoying himself immensely. Lourdes is simply enjoying her time off from University and teaching. Despite the fact that it’s January, they are on summer vacation here in Peru. We talked about other things too. They were interested in my trip to Huanchaco, especially after I told Tim how good the waves were there. That reminds me, my article on the trip has been published by LiP. Here’s the link in case you’re interested. http://www.peruthisweek.com/travel-229-Perus-Huanchaco-beach-Perfect-waves-and-ancient-ruins/
Ahh, the dentist! It’s been an interesting two days with him. I went in on Monday and had the lower crowns installed. They look great and I am very happy with them. Alex, the dentist, told me to come back on Tuesday and we would start on the last of the work. For those who haven’t been following this, it involves two upper and lower teeth on my left side that had to stay till the end to keep my bite intact while the crown were being installed. The upper two teeth are older crowns put in by my dentist in the US several years ago. The first of the two came out fairly easily but the other one proved to be very problematic. Apparently my US dentist used some super glue unknown to the rest of mankind to set it. After hammering away at it for 30 minutes or so, Alex figured it wasn’t going to come out using this tried and true method. So, he started up his drill and was going to remove the material much like they do a tooth. Unfortunately, the crown is also made of some mysterious super material and holds a microchip the CIA put in my mouth to keep track of me. Everyone knows I work for the CIA and travel from country to country causing problems. LOL The drill broke! Now I have to wait for his equipment to be repaired before we can complete my work. At least we got the molds done. Life is interesting here to say the least. Naturally updates will follow. Have a Happy Hump Day everyone.