“It’s a terrifically gripping story about aging hippies in San Miguel, but could you make it in Swedish?”

For those of you sending messages asking when my next book will come out, this cartoon of theirs should make it obvious I’m busy translating the manuscript into Swedish, and it’s . . . challenging: All those umlauts! Endless episodes of YouTube’s Say it in Swedish. 

Seriously, I think this “plagiarism” may be yet another data breach or an AI imitation of another novel that just wants to be mine. It doesn’t have a chance, using words like “hippie” (when anyone who read my first novel, The Fourteenth of September knows the proper word is “freak”). It’s irrelevant anyway, my book is about “expats,” (a very particular species of hippies.) And what’s with the “aging” reference? I mean, okay, they’ve got some time on them, but my characters are up for a big Querencia of a life change, that takes vitality!

As for news of my writing vitality—which we all know has been ebbing more than than flowing—well…it’s a book itself.

Chapter One: Mea Culpa

January 3 (it was a long New Year’s weekend) to February 28.

I’ve been thwarted by the effects of an old neck injury I seriously aggravated while spending 8–12 hours a day at my computer during a 26-day artist residency at Ragdale Foundation last year. All I can say is it’s a bitch to try to finish a novel-length manuscript when you can only manage ten-minute increments of computer time. (But otherwise, the residency was lovely.)

I apologize to those of you who may think I bushwhacked them into thinking my book was finished and ready to go last fall when I asked for your help in coming up with a title. I seriously thought it would take longer to turn La Querencia into Last Sunset in San Miguel, and I admit I was buying time. I also understand not offering continuing status when you’ve gone public with a book is a bit like trying to date back in the day without revealing your astrological sign—conversation stopping. Let’s just say I use the word “painstaking” quite a bit when describing my process and I think “pain” is an apt root word for my condition.

Chapter Two:  Humpty Dumpty Gets Reassembled

March 1 to March 30 

Let’s just say pain is not conducive to creativity until after the fact. My Bod Squad (physical and massage therapists and trainer assembled to put Humpty Dumpty back together again) suggested I give up the computer and just dictate. I explained it isn’t quite as easy as in The Queen’s Gambit when Beth Harmon visualized her chess moves on the ceiling each night. You have to be able to relentlessly fidget with your words. Enough said. 

Chapter Three: Back Up on the Wall 

April 1 to present 

But I’m happy to announce that the months-long course of dry needling to my trap muscles (as awful as it sounds) has come to an end and by God it worked. So, Hallelujah! I’m back at it, writing flowing like crazy, with new deadlines. (No, I’m not sharing).

Since so many of you have asked, publication specifics remain in limbo because I haven’t completed a final draft, after which I must await the verdict of my editor to decide if that draft is, in fact, final. And then of course, there is all the usual find-an-agent/publisher frivolity one must endure. So, hang in there with me and I’ll strive to be entertaining in the interim.

Interim Diversions

About that interim. I’ve met a number of awesome writers who blow my mind not only with their work—but also with their volume of work. They somehow achieve this despite leading very busy lives and would probably never use a pathetic neck-injury excuse. They are literary Energizer Bunnies who turn new books out like crazy while racking up awards, running organizations, blanketing the media, raising families, teaching, baking (you know who you are), etc. I love/hate them. They are my “get your money’s worth out of your time on earth” aspirational models. Their latest works alone will give you hours of enjoyment as you continue to await my book. 🤣 Take your time.

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