I’ve managed to send off a few more queries this past week. Unfortunately, it was only a few. I’ve also started work on book two again. I’ve decided to change the storyline in the book and make it more about cops being murdered and less about a big drug bust. As a result, the first new chapter I wrote this week was a construction crew finding two more bodies at their site. One dip of the gigantic metal claw into the earth and it came up with an arm dangling from its iron talon. Rodriguez will be called back from his exile in the jungles to work on these murders. I’m excited to be working on this book again. I can’t tell you how much I loathe editing and the business end of writing. I realize it has to be done though.

The writers’ group met this past week. Kathy submitted the beginning to a short story or a novel. She hasn’t decided yet. It was very good for a beginning writer and I particularly loved the dialog. She needed a few more adjectives to help flesh out some locations and some work to make her main character a little clearer. I hope that she continues to work on the piece and make something out of it. I’m not sure if we’ll meet this week, it seems that we are a busy bunch and writing pieces for critique has dropped to the bottom of most of our lists. Victoria is working on her poetry and song writing. Amanda is doing research for her third book. Katrina has guests and teaches full time and you all know what my schedule is like.

I had my usual meetings with friends this past week for coffee, lunch or breakfast. On Friday morning, Larry joined me at the Patio where we discussed progress on our writing projects. Larry is building a website so that takes up a lot of his time. It has to do with business English for non-English speaking businessmen. He’s been getting a lot of good feedback on the project so far. Keeping house staff seems to be an ongoing problem for his family. I don’t envy them that. Afterwards, I met with Kathy for lunch and we talked about the critique she received the day before. From there I wandered over to “Oh Jess’s” new cupcake store. It just opened this past week and she makes the most delicious cupcakes. The address is Calle Berlin 581, Miraflores in case you want to stop by and enjoy one of her delicious creations. Here is the link to her FB page https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003585168607 in case you are interested. Saturday I met Tim and Lourdes for breakfast at Sandwich.com. Tim’s friend Keith joined us also. Afterwards we stopped and bought Tinka Tickets (Peruvian Lottery), unfortunately I didn’t win. Tim will be leaving for Canada around June 11^th and Lourdes will find out this week if her visa is approved so she can visit him and his family while he is home.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and I spent the morning thinking about my wonderful mother. In the afternoon, I enjoyed a late lunch with Steve and his Mom, Jaita at a restaurant in Lince. It was a nice time spent with friends and my Peruvian family. I hope all of you were able to share the day and make it special for someone. Have a great week everyone. I’m off to Nasca on Friday. Look for updates after I return.

My friend Amanda and I finalized our plans for a trip to Nasca with Aaron this past week. We’re all paid up and very grateful to him for the excellent work he’s done in making the arrangements. Amanda wants to do a fly over of the famous lines and I want to visit the ruins of the temples they built. On the return trip, we will stop in Ica for one night. We will stay in the oasis called Huacachina just outside of town and take a dune buggy ride through the desert. It should be a fun trip. I’m just not looking forward to the 7½ hour bus ride to get to Nasca. Amanda and Katrina will be leaving Peru in June. I’m going to miss them both tremendously.

The writers’ group met last Thursday. We critiqued an excerpt from Katrina’s book, as yet untitled. I love her writing. She manages to bring back memories from my childhood and growing up on a farm. In the excerpt she had a scene at the kitchen table with the family gathered in for the evening meal. Mac and cheese hot from the oven, it made my mouth water just reading it. A little tit for tat between brother and sister reminded me of times with my own sister. It was a nice session. This week we will be working on a piece of fiction by Kathy. I’ll be glad when I have time to spend on short stories again.

Friday, you guessed it, was coffee with Larry day. He’s still looking to find more students and feeling underutilized at the university. We talked about our progress with writing. Larry hasn’t been able to find time to work on his novel. He’s taken to making a list of things he needs to accomplish each day and that seems to be helping him. Not a bad idea. I may steal it from him. He continues to submit articles one a week to Living in Peru, which are quite popular with the readers. Afterwards I had a nice lunch with Kathy at a restaurant near her apartment. We also talked about writing as well as the progress of things happening in Kathy’s life. Things happen slowly here in Peru; at least it appears that way to us expats. I’m not sure that’s always a bad thing though.

I watched a movie this week that I missed at the theaters here. “John Carter,” adapted from a book titled “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs bombed at the theaters. I think that’s a real shame because it was a great Sci Fi/Fantasy film. The special effects were incredible and the acting above par. I give it 4 Llamas on my rating scale and recommend you rent it if possible. Here in Peru it was only available in 3D which made for interesting watching on my TV. Have a great week everyone and keep that brain active.

I have almost finished with the latest editing process. I have 30 chapters left to go through and I should have those done in the next two days. I am hoping that I’ve done the job well and the agents I will be submitting to in the weeks to come will appreciate the novel more. That all remains to be seen. I still have the synopsis to edit from the critique I received a few weeks back and then I’ll be ready to start the search for an agent again. I’m also anxious to get back to work on my second book.

My first week back from Mexico was full of meeting with my friends. Unfortunately, the writers’ group didn’t meet last week. No one had a piece to submit so we decided to skip it again. On Friday morning I met with Larry for our weekly coffee. He’s looking to get a couple more private students. He’s feeling underutilized at the university where he teaches. I don’t think having some extra cash would upset him too much either. We also covered our writing successes of the past two weeks and had our usual discussion on the world’s problems. Victoria surprised us, she was there for a meeting, and sat in on our talk till we left.

Afterwards, I met Kathy for lunch a few blocks away from the Patio. She’s fresh back from the States and having surgery on her eyes.  Her vision is now 20/30 so she can toss the reading glasses and drive again. She’s also looking for new students. She had a good time back home and was able to spend some time with her two sons and a new granddaughter.

Saturday, I spent having breakfast with Tim and Lourdes. Lourdes brought her young nephew, Sebastian. He’s a very handsome young man, either 4 or 5 years old. A little shy at first, aren’t most kids, but he warmed up rather quickly. Tim is still having problems with landlords and isn’t happy with the way things are going at the school where he teaches. I think South American ways bother him a lot. I sometimes wonder if he’ll ever be able to adjust. As they were leaving my friend Amanda joined me for some writerly talk and to discuss an upcoming trip to see the Nasca lines we are planning. She’s happy with the way the edits of her second book have gone and will soon be sending queries to agents herself. It won’t be long before she leaves. Her flight back to the States is on June 7^th. I’m sure we will stay in touch. I will certainly be anxious to follow her travels and adventures as she heads for Sweden and Italy.

Last, I went to see “The Avengers” with Steve and Antonio over the weekend. WOW, what a movie. It had everything I like in a film of this type. High action, good plot, great special effects, laugh out loud humor and very decent acting. I give it 5Llamas on my rating scale, a first for a movie since I’ve started doing this. My opinion is that this movie should be seen on a big screen, so it’s worth the big bucks. Happy May Day everyone, I hope you have a fantastic month.

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.

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.

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!

We’ve had a water disaster here in the apartment that has been going on for over two months now. The water bill previous to the last one received was triple what we usually get. My landlady freaked and insisted I have a plumber fix anything that was leaking in my apartment. I conceded, paid most of the bill and had a plumber in. Then we received the latest bill, it was even higher. Friday I was looking up near the ceiling in our living room and saw that water was leaking through the roof. We had that fixed also. Unfortunately the plumber told us that it was impossible for our water to go up that much from either problem. Now, I guess it’s up to my landlady to get the issue resolved with Sedepal, the water company here.

Sunday morning I had breakfast with Tim and Lourdes. The first in three weeks so I was happy to see them again. Tim is working hard at his job in the all girl’s high school. He’s finding it to be a little more difficult than he thought. Then there’s all that interoffice gossip and general crap that goes on in any regular job. He’s finding that teaching at a school is quite different than teaching private students. Lourdes is quite happy. They are planning a trip at the end of July to visit Tim’s parents in Canada. I’m looking forward to lots of pictures. Afterwards, Amanda joined me and we headed into Barranco to sip wine and discuss life’s foibles. It’s always great to sit and talk with Amanda about writing. In some ways, only another writer can truly understand what you are going through. Larry is in the US this week as well as Kathy. Hope they’re having a good time.

Steve is back in University studying for his degree in Civil Engineering. It’s a five year program if he takes summers off. I think he can whittle it down to 3 ½ if he takes classes through the summer. So far, two weeks into it, he’s enjoying it very much. I also renewed my health insurance with Clinica Good Hope this past week. The cost was $312.00 for the year, which included a free battery of blood tests, an x-ray and an appointment with a physician for a yearly physical. Not bad as far as I’m concerned.

Other chores this week include finishing up my taxes, critiquing a piece of writing by my friend Steve in Massachusetts and getting closure with the water bills. Wish me luck everyone. Suns out today but it feels a like the humidity is a lot lower, maybe a nice walk this afternoon. Have a great week everyone.

I managed to complete a first draft of my synopsis. I fully admit it’s horrible. I took a look at it yesterday after letting it sit for a couple of days. I put it back in the pile of papers on my desk and went to watch TV. I hope I have better luck today at tackling the job of polishing it up. At least I have the main points of the book in it. Now to make it sound like a synopsis to the great work of literature it really is.

The writers’ group met this week. Other than me, Katrina and Victoria were the only ones to show. I had submitted my query letter and the first five pages of book one to the group. I wanted their opinions on the agent’s comments. Generally they agreed with me and also offered up some excellent suggestions that will help. Polly and Amanda (Kathy is still in the US) sent their comments via e-mail, so the four of them although not agreeing on everything did a great job for me this week. Next week we will be discussing my synopsis. I’m not looking forward to that one.

I met Larry for coffee on Friday again. We talked a lot about the book and changing those first few chapters. That led into a discussion on having a visual image of your main character in your head, not only his physical image but his or her personality. Larry’s having a problem accomplishing this in the new book he has started. Generally speaking whether it’s my short stories or the book I have started, the main character is in my head before I write the first word. I fully admit though, that character can change as the story progresses. We also discussed the latest gaffe by a republican presidential candidate. I’m pretty sure he has alienated all the latino voters in the US. Larry is in the US as of this writing. He’s visiting his sons for about 10 days and I think there a new grandbaby involved. I hope he has a great trip.

We had a little bit of wet on the ground this morning. Lluvista as the folks in San Borja call it, a heavy mist that leaves drops of water on the car and a wet sidewalk is what I call it. I’m hoping this is the first sign that fall is officially on its way. I’m tired of the hot and humid, although for most of my friends the summers here would be perfect. Spring is on the way back in the US as well as the rest of the northern hemisphere. I hope the worst of the storms is over for them. As for here, I’d love to see, feel and hear and nice big thunderstorm. Hope you all had a great week.

The work on this has also affected my progress on book number two. Last entry, I told you that I was changing the main plot of the book. I’ve also come to another realization. I need to make the second book stand on its own. It’s important that I include enough information from the first book that the reader doesn’t need to read book one to understand what’s going on. I’m going to change the first few chapters of the book to pull the reader into the new plot and use the ones I have now a little later in the book. Then if I am having trouble getting an agent to take the first book, when book two is finished I can submit it also without having to worry about the status of book one.

The writers’ group met this past week. We reviewed another piece by Victoria. Her writing in English is still showing improvement and the piece shows a lot of promise. The group felt like the work was incomplete though and we wanted to know more of the story. Her description of the main characters was a little weak also; she used words like handsome, beautiful without giving us a sense of what the two really looked like. We chatted and caught up for a bit before heading out. Amanda asked me if I would like to have lunch with her at the vegetarian menú we like so much. I agreed, so we took our conversation on writing and living in Peru to the restaurant. It was a pleasant afternoon and I left Amanda at the corner as she headed to Café Z for a cup of coffee and to work on her second novel.

Friday’s regular meeting with Larry for coffee was at the Patio this week. Larry wanted to get out of Barranco for awhile so we have agreed to go back to our old stomping grounds. As much as I love Espige de Oro in Barranco, the Patio is the place to be for me. Quiet, relaxing, pleasant atmosphere, good coffee and vegetarian food; it’s the perfect place to meet. I also enjoy it because it seems to stimulate my writing for some unknown reason. We talked about our novels, agents, vampires, healthcare, Peruvian politics and the horrific state of political affairs in the US. By that I mean the great divide that seems to prevent anything getting done these days. I don’t know about the rest of America but Larry and I are tired of it.

That’s it for this post. Hope you enjoyed my ranting. For all you would be writers out there, “Don’t give up.” Keep up the struggle, the reward in the end is satisfying. For me, I can say I’ve written a novel. As a percentage of the world’s population, how many can make that claim.

This past week large storms crossed the heartland in the US leaving death and property damage in their wake. Fortunately, to my knowledge, none of my family or friends were seriously affected. I know that everyone grieves for those who are suffering as a result of these storms. Keep them in your thoughts.

I took one of my nice long walks here in San Borja this past week. It’s been awhile. The heat and humidity of summer increased my laziness exponentially and as a result I hid in the confines of my cool apartment. Naturally my camera accompanied me. The flowers were in full bloom and I a hawk came to rest in a tree while I passed through one of the many parks on my route. It was a first for me and it might explain the lower numbers of pigeons hanging out in my neighborhood. There are areas where old olive groves have been preserved and when you are in the middle it seems the city is far away and calm of the country surrounds you. The shade with sunlight breaking trough spackles the ground, leaves sparkle as they fall from the trees and birds tweet their love songs as you saunter listlessly through the miniature forest. This is surrounded by concrete and glass towers which are hidden by the thick foliage of the trees. Now that fall seems to have moved in here, I look forward to resuming my long walks through the surrounding city.

I was in Miraflores on Sunday for breakfast with Tim and Lourdes. Last week there was an event in Parque Kennedy called “Art in the Park.” They set up blank walls on large boxes and gave them over to street artists to demonstrate their skills. They left the art up for display and I am certainly glad that they did. I am a great admirer of street artists. The skill they display in creating their works using cans of spray paints is amazing. If you’re in Lima, I recommend you stop by Parque Kennedy and take a look. It’s worth the trip. Afterwards, Steve, his Mom Jaita, and I took Jose Manuel to lunch for his birthday. We went to a local Pollos Abrazo and had roasted chicken and Bar-B-Que. I definitely ate too much. It was my last meal of the day. Jose Manuel enjoyed our little surprise lunch very much. I met with Larry for coffee on Friday and we will be moving our meetings back to the Patio for awhile. I’m looking forward to that. I really like having our meeting there much better. It’s quieter and much more serene. On the sad side, there was no writers’ group meeting this past week. We are hoping this Thursday works out for all of us.