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.