Rodney Dodig

I want to make a quick apology to anyone coming to my website for the long delay before this entry. A trip to Cozumel Mexico to surprise my good friend Mona for her 60^th birthday took up most of the time.

During the trip I had a few brief moments of leisure time in which I was able to do some editing on my book. I managed to rewrite one chapter. I needed to have my detective sound more knowledgeable about forensics. Therefore, I change the chapter from tell to show by having a lengthy piece of dialog between the detective and the forensic pathologist. I did the entire chapter at the golf course on the island while I waited for Kelly to finish a round of golf. A couple of days later during a heavy rainstorm I managed to get another 100 pages edited. I feel good about accomplishing that while on a vacation. I’m hoping to have the editing finished in a week, maybe two, and start sending query letters to agents again. Then, I can concentrate on book two. A few short story ideas popped into my head as we wandered around the island also.

The trip to Mexico was exciting. I flew from Lima into Mexico City and from there to Cancun. After arriving in Cancun, I caught a bus to Playa del Carmen and took the ferry from there to the island of Cozumel. My actual travel time was 16 hours but I was up for 36 hours before arriving. I planned my trip so that I would arrive a day before Mona and her husband Kelly. Kelly and I had planned my surprise visit for months in advance. He almost blew it a couple of times in casual conversation with her. But, when I snuck up behind her at the restaurant on the plaza, the look on her face when she turned around and saw me was priceless.

We spent the week relaxing and visiting a few of our favorite spots on the island. Wet Wendys for a few meals and their amazing frozen Mango Margaritas, Coconuts for shots of tequila and lunch, and Poncho’s for black bean soup are a few worth mentioning. There were quite a few rain storms during our visit. I personally enjoyed them since we don’t have them in Lima. There’s something so relaxing about hearing the sound of the rain against a window with the sounds of the wind in the background. One in particular kept Mona and Kelly hiding under an awning on the golf course for a few hours. He only managed to play four holes before the rain started.

We took a jeep to the other side of the island on one of the days. It was a bit blustery and overcast but still beautiful. The waves can get a little wild on over there so you can catch a few guys trying to surf occasionally. The bar Coconuts is on that side and on a hill that they claim is the highest spot on the island. Personally, I believe it. There are some great views of the beaches up and down the coast from there. The owner Coco always remembers us and buys a round when we are there. The Rasta Bar was our only other stop that day. We drank beers and watched the waves roll in.

Our last full day on the island was Mona’s actual birthday. We went to Wet Wendys for dinner and surprised her with a cake. The staff came out and sang the Mexican version of happy birthday to her and one of the waiters, Lobo, bought her a shot of tequila. Much to my and Kelly’s surprise, she slammed it down like a pro. All in all, it was a great trip and I had a wonderful time with two of my best friends. Now I’m back in Lima and it’s time to return to my routine.

As the title implies, I have been a busy boy this week. I jumped back into editing book one and managed to get through the first 17 chapters in one day. I’ve decided to rewrite chapter 18 entirely. It has too much telling and not enough showing. The rewrite and rearrangement of the prologue and first six chapters is done. They’re a lot better, at least in my opinion, more action and less telling. I am hoping that all this work will make the novel more appealing to the agents. Getting published is now my primary goal. I think it has to do with some type of validation. If I get accepted and people actually buy the book, then, I am not only a successful writer, I have a little talent.

Amanda and I met with a friend, Aaron, who has a tour company here in Lima. I had asked him to help us make arrangement for a trip to Nasca in May. Amanda wants to fly over the famous lines. I’ve already done that but I want to see the city that is being excavated there. Then on the way back we will stop in Ica for a day at Huacachina and playing on the desert dunes. After the meeting we talked about our writing and the editing process. How difficult it was turning your work over to another person or persons for critique. Then, how you deal with that critique after you have received it. That turned into a conversation on us doing critiques for our friends. Both sides are difficult but they can also be rewarding. Amanda found a great article on how to critique another’s work. Here’s the link for any writers reading through this.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/04/ten-commandments-for-editing-someones.html

I met up with my good friends Fiorella and Jose for lunch last Wednesday. They took me to a private club on the Balta that runs down to the ocean. A beautiful place with tennis courts, swimming pool, gym and restaurant. We talked and caught up for a couple of hours before Fiorella had to leave for a meeting. It was so nice hanging out with them again. They will be tying the knot soon in a civil ceremony and have already bought a house. I am so happy for the two of them.

The next day I joined Tim and Lourdes for breakfast at Café Z. Tim’s landlord joined us, I think his name was Keith. A British gentleman married to a Peruana, nice guy. We also caught up. Tim is finding structured work in a school difficult to transition into. Add to that the 13 to 14 year old girls he is teaching and he’s a little stressed about the work. I’m sure he’ll end up adjusting; teaching is a difficult job, especially when you are teaching kids.

Friday morning I joined Larry for our weekly coffee. We spent most of the time going over the prologue and first six chapters of the book. He agreed with me that they are a marked improvement over the original structure. After that we reverted to our usual discussion on the world’s problems and our solutions for them.

I’ve also been enjoying the discourse on the Facebook ExpatPeru page. There’s quite a few very intelligent members who make significant contributions to my enlightenment on world affairs. Naturally, like any group of humans they can occasionally devolve into name calling and slanderous statements when passions run too high. Usually, all is forgiven in the end though. It makes for great entertainment though.

That’s it for my week. Hope yours was good too, filled with family and friends, good conversation and a glass of wine or two. I’ll have a surprise for you on my next entry so be sure to come back.

After spending a few weeks mulling over how to restructure the beginning chapters of my first book, I am finally finished. Editing or rewriting a book can be quite a chore. Just ask my friend Amanda if you don’t believe me. I have listened to her struggles as she worked to remake her second book. Deleting chapters, rewriting others and editing; all done in an effort to make our fiction more exciting to our readers. The job can be daunting. Careful attention has to be paid; changes in the beginning can affect other parts of the story. The process is much more difficult than I ever imagined. Readers can be very discerning. I am one of them. I tend to notice inconsistencies in a story. You can’t have a character in two places at the same time, unless of course you’re writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Then, all things are possible.

So, I have turned my first five chapters into four, rearranged the scenes and tried to make them more exciting and interesting. Something that will hopefully pull agents and readers in. I still need to do a little polishing on those chapters and my prologue. There are a few sentences that I am not happy with. Hopefully with help from my writerly friends and others who have agreed to look my stuff over, I’ll get all this done by the end of April and be back in the hunt for an agent.

The writers’ group met last week. Amanda, Katrina and Victoria came. I had sent them the new prologue and first chapter to get their impressions. Overall, they liked what I had done and gave me some suggestions to improve them even more. Katrina and Amanda will be leaving Peru in June. Polly is leaving in April. That will leave Victoria and me as the only writers left. I imagine that we will discontinue our meetings at that point. Victoria has two jobs and can’t devote as much time to writing as me. I will miss these get togethers and the people involved. Katrina is heading back to the states to continue her education. Amanda is heading to Europe via a freight ship. Who knows how long that adventure will take? But, maybe new writers will appear on the horizon here in Peru.

I met with my Doctor this past week also to get my yearly physical and the results of my x-ray and lab tests. Everything was normal so I guess I’m good to go for another year. I have put a little weight. That can be attributed to the fact that I haven’t been to the gym in many months. I’m having a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm. I DO realize how important it is to stay in shape though.

Larry and I met for coffee. The first we’ve had since his return from the States. He had a great time with his two sons in San Francisco. He divided his time up equally between the two households. His new grandbaby is thriving. It didn’t take us long though to launch into the ills of the world and our solutions to all its problems. We did discuss the book and the changes I am making to it. He agrees with my assessment on the changes needed and we are going to discuss them in detail at our next meeting.

That’s it for this week. I did win the NCAA BB pool amongst the expats here in Peru. Thank you Kentucky for making that possible. Hope all of my friends all over the world are happy and healthy. Be creative!