This week I said goodbye to another friend. Tim Olson had lived here in Lima a little longer than I. I met him and his beautiful novia, Lourdes at a going away party for Ben Jonjak, former editor of Living in Peru. Tim kept my life here in Lima interesting. Although I know he had some good times here, I don’t think he was ever really happy living in a culture outside his own. Still we had some great conversations over the past three years and enjoyed having breakfast or coffees together on a regular basis. Once, I visited him in Huaraz over a long weekend when he was teaching English to mining company employees up there. We had a great time and as a result I was able to visit Chavin. A cruise on a sailboat around the islands off the coast of Callao was probably the most fun activity we shared. We had our last breakfast together this past Saturday. He left for Canada today. Buen viajes amigo! Yo espero que tengas una buena vida.
Friday morning I had coffee with Larry at the Patio. Once again we had a lengthy discussion on a wide range of topics. Larry is 
still working on his website. It concerns English for non English speaking businessmen. It’s a lot of work. He’s also concentrating on his “Cloud” readings. He seems to be picking up a lot more people who are interested in listening to his articles. Katrina joined us towards the end. She had some teaching books for him. Katrina will be my next friend to leave Peru. She is returning to the US on June 24th to start work on her doctorate in Political Science. We will definitely have a lunch outing before she leaves. Katina worked as Editor for Living in Peru also and has helped me improve my writing. More about her with my next posting.
Query letters, the bane of a writer’s existence. I managed to send out another six this past week along with varying lengths of my first novel. Now for another long wait while those agents consider my work. My friend and author, Ben Jonjak, has returned to Peru for a month or so. He has volunteered to talk about the process of finding an editor/publisher with me. He has two books on the market now. I believe that he went straight to the publisher with his, which makes me interested in hearing how he succeeded with that route. I’ve started working on my second book again, by going through and editing the first fifteen chapters to help me get a feel for the writing again. Then, I will start working on outlining and writing new chapters. It feels good to be moving forward with this project again.
Last but certainly not least, I want to give a shout out to my friend Mona Stevens. This past Friday was her last day at work. She is officially retired now. I know she will enjoy it as much as I do. I spoke with her last night and her grin was ear to ear. She received an iPad as a retirement gift and we used Facetime. Free calls with video (much like Skype) as long as you have WiFi. So, congratulations Mona, I hope you find all the joy and satisfaction that I have in this new phase of your life. Love and Miss you!