Detective Rodriguez holds back the branch of the bush hiding the body. The scene is no longer from the 
omnipresent view of the author. I have also moved this scene to the first chapter of book one along with improvements to the description of the body. Lourdes will move to chapter two and the scene of her getting ready for work will be cut down. I’ve also expanded the prologue and added a better sense of urgency to that scene. When you’re getting ready to flee Peru to avoid justice being meted out by Francisco Pizarro and his priests, you need to create that feeling of barely escaping with your life. As you can tell, I’ve started resolving what I and my writer friends think were the problems with those first five chapters. I also have the comments they offered on my synopsis at the writers’ group this past week. I was hoping to get that rewritten over the weekend but things conspired against me. My goal this week is to get the synopsis done and write a new chapter two for book one. I’d like to get more done but I want to keep my goals realistic, at least for this week.
We’ve had a water disaster here in the apartment that has been going on for over two months now. The water
bill previous to the last one received was triple what we usually get. My landlady freaked and insisted I have a plumber fix anything that was leaking in my apartment. I conceded, paid most of the bill and had a plumber in. Then we received the latest bill, it was even higher. Friday I was looking up near the ceiling in our living room and saw that water was leaking through the roof. We had that fixed also. Unfortunately the plumber told us that it was impossible for our water to go up that much from either problem. Now, I guess it’s up to my landlady to get the issue resolved with Sedepal, the water company here.
Sunday morning I had breakfast with Tim and Lourdes. The first in three weeks so I was happy to see them
again. Tim is working hard at his job in the all girl’s high school. He’s finding it to be a little more difficult than he thought. Then there’s all that interoffice gossip and general crap that goes on in any regular job. He’s finding that teaching at a school is quite different than teaching private students. Lourdes is quite happy. They are planning a trip at the end of July to visit Tim’s parents in Canada. I’m looking forward to lots of pictures. Afterwards, Amanda joined me and we headed into Barranco to sip wine and discuss life’s foibles. It’s always great to sit and talk with Amanda about writing. In some ways, only another writer can truly understand what you are going through. Larry is in the US this week as well as Kathy. Hope they’re having a good time.
Steve is back in University studying for his degree in Civil Engineering. It’s a five year program if he takes 
summers off. I think he can whittle it down to 3 ½ if he takes classes through the summer. So far, two weeks into it, he’s enjoying it very much. I also renewed my health insurance with Clinica Good Hope this past week. The cost was $312.00 for the year, which included a free battery of blood tests, an x-ray and an appointment with a physician for a yearly physical. Not bad as far as I’m concerned.
Other chores this week include finishing up my taxes, critiquing a piece of writing by my friend Steve in Massachusetts and getting closure with the water bills. Wish me luck everyone. Suns out today but it feels a like the humidity is a lot lower, maybe a nice walk this afternoon. Have a great week everyone.