The wine bottle sitting on the table in front of Detective Rodriguez explodes. Glass shards and wine cover his 
shirt. He dives for the floor as another bullet whizzes past his head. I have completed chapters 15 and 16 this week. There is an attempt on my detective’s life as he hosts a Christmas Eve Dinner for Sebastian, his son, Sebastian’s wife and Rodriguez’s girlfriend Lourdes. As a result, I’ve created another sub-plot in my book and created some tension between the father and son. Work on the second book progresses, albeit slowly. I will start Chapter 17 this weekend and try to outline a few more to while the book is fresh in my mind. I’m struggling with the how right 
now. I want to create a fresh approach to the evidence they will find that helps them solve the case. Nine 
bodies have been discovered so far, four are policemen. I worked on editing a short story this week also. I want to submit it to a contest sponsored by Reader’s Digest for unpublished authors. The writers’ group had offered some suggestions for improving it so I set it aside for about 7 months to absorb what they said. Now I’ve made a few changes and feel it’s ready. I’ll send it off next week.
I saw “Snow White and the Huntsman” this week. I absolutely loved the Evil Queen and felt that Charlize Theron did an amazing job with the role. I was disappointed in the casting of Snow White but thought the girl did an OK job. I had a hard time separating her from the “wimpy” girl she played in the Twilight movies. Because of Charlize, I gave the movie 4 Llamas. Worth seeing but maybe rent it. The big screen is not necessary to enjoy it.
Friday, Larry and I met for coffee in Barranco at Espige de Oro. The Patio, our usual meeting spot, is closed on all 
holidays. This one was St. Peter and St. Paul Day. We talked a lot about the three stories by John Crowley that I am just finishing up. I’m going to give him the book when I’m done. I am interested in hearing his opinion on them also. Amanda and I will be discussing them via e-mail while she’s in Europe. Afterwards we launched into progress on our writing. Larry is getting back in the grove with his essays for Living in Peru and has added more pages to his webpage. Then we had to discuss the Supreme Court ruling, something that really doesn’t affect either one of us. Of course world economics took up a few minutes and finally a pass on the things that are happening in Peru. It was a nice meeting.
Amanda is leaving today for the coast of Texas. The Freight Company will pick her up on Monday and help her board the ship she will be taking to Germany. That will take three weeks if all goes as planned. She just returned from her 10 day retreat with a vow of silence. It sounds like an interesting experience in some ways. I’m pretty sure it’s not something I would be interested in doing. Here’s a link to her blog if you would like to read about it. As I said, interesting.
http://myllamaandme.blogspot.com/2012/06/misery.html
Diego and I met on Monday and discussed pieces we had submitted to each other. I asked him for a 
sample of writing by an author he would like to emulate. He sent me “The Glass Bead Game” by Herman Hesse. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything by him, so I hope this will expand my list of authors that I want to read. Our meetings are short and to the point. We haven’t really gotten to know each other yet. I’m sure that will come with time at which point, chat about what’s happening in our private lives will take up part of the meetings.
The photos in this blog are from a long walk I took through San Borja a couple of days ago. I hope you enjoy them. Have a great weekend everyone and keep that creative side active.