A writer’s life is all about schedules. You have to set time aside nearly every day to pound on the 
keyboard and add words to your story. I get up in the morning (usually between 6:30 and 7), fix my coffee and breakfast, and then plop down in front of the computer till noon or 1pm on a good day and work. I usually work on the novel but occasionally take time to work on a short story or article, not to mention updating this web page. In addition, I have to schedule gym time (4 or 5 days a week), walks with my camera, meetings with friends for coffee, time to shop for food and other household chores. But, even when I’m doing those things, the stories I’m working on are never completely absent from my thinking. Yes, it’s all about schedules.
I told all my Facebook friends that I was going to finish chapter 17 of book two on Thursday if it killed me. I did finish and even managed a few words on chapter 18. Obviously it didn’t kill me. I also managed to edit a couple of short stories and critiqued some work by Diego. Writing wise, it was a good week.
I heard from Amanda on Facebook. Her ship, the Rickmer’s Dalian, is headed for open ocean. It’s 
unknown if she will have internet connectivity until she reaches Europe. While sailing from Houston, through New Orleans and up to Philadelphia, she managed to post some excerpts from her experiences on her blog. She does a great job of describing the ship, its crew and her experiences so far. I am looking forward to hearing what she thinks of life on the ship as it crosses the Atlantic. Here’s the link to her blog again if you’d like to read what it’s like to travel on a freighter. http://myllamaandme.blogspot.com/2012/07/at-captains-table.html
Katrina made it home to Minnesota just fine. She’s staying with family until she starts her classes at the University. Her birthday just passed and she celebrated by going fishing with her Dad. They caught 50 sunfish, sounds like a fish fry is in the making.
I managed to get a nice walk down to the beach in this past week with my camera. I took about 70 
photos as I walked along the rocky shore. It was a dark grey day but that didn’t keep the surfers out of the water. It’s the first time I have taken a walk at the water’s edge and I found it quite interesting photographically speaking. Some of those photos are in this entry. As I walked down the path and stairs I knew I would have trouble getting back up, and I 
was right. Multiple stops to catch my breath and give my knees a break made me realize that I needed to get my lazy butt back in the gym. So this week, Steve dragged me kicking and screaming all the way back to Gold’s Gym. It’s the first time I have been this year. I made it Monday thru Thursday and plan on going this afternoon also.
I had lots of meetings this week. I met Diego twice for coffee and critique at Starbucks in Miraflores. I find his tips insightful and have modified my chapters due to some of his 
suggestions. Friday morning I met Larry for our usual coffee and conversation at the Patio. Larry’s doing well and we are planning a trip out to Caral. Kathy showed up for a few minutes, she was headed out to deal with more tribulations in her divorce. Ben Jonjak joined us also. We 
talked about writing, agents, publishers and getting published. He gave me an autographed copy of his latest book, “Beyond Birkie Fever,” published under his nome de plume “Walter Rhein.” It’s about cross-country skiing. I’ll read it as soon as I finish “Night Prey” by John Sanford. Afterwards I headed up to Café Z to meet Mark Kennet for more coffee and conversation. I had a little lunch too; the coffee was starting to make me shaky.
Steve, Antonio and I went to see the new Spiderman this week. Great movie but it left me conflicted on how I felt when comparing 
this one with the Toby Maguire movie. In the first movie with TM, I thought the woman who played Aunt May was perfect. She looked, acted and talked like the comic book character. I love Sally Field but she didn’t do it for me in that role. I liked the portrayal of Spiderman in the second better. He reminds me more of the webslinger in the comics than Toby did. Still, all-in-all, “The Amazing Spiderman” is a very good movie. It has lots of action, great special effects, good acting and a great villain. I give it 4½ Llamas on my scale. I saw it in 2D, not a fan of 3D, and it’s worth the money to see it on the big screen.
Have a great week everyone, more next Saturday. Keep that brain working but don’t forget the body. I can say that now that I’m a gym-rat again. I am laughing as I wrote that last sentence.