Two Years

This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of when Ibis and I moved to Zihuatanejo and into our condo. When I say I never thought we'd be here that long, that's a mild understatement. We assumed all along that we'd be in Mexico for a year and a half, maybe two years, but when we moved to this town, Ibis had already been in Mexico for six months and me for three.

We've had some amazing experiences since moving here -- enough to fill a book or two, some might say -- and I know we'll take those memories with us wherever we end up. I just really hope we can move on to the memory portion of the deal soon. I'm ready for a change.

A question for you: is there a time period or event in your life that you knew -- while it was happening -- that it would forever influence your life?

We have our nephew again for the weekend so I may not get to your comments as quickly today, and I'll probably skip posting for tomorrow.

Déja Vu!

I mentioned a couple days ago that we're watching a lot of playoff sports right now, but I don't think I made you fully aware JUST HOW MUCH sports are dominating our lives right now. Since we're in the conference finals for basketball there's a game on every night, and we're also trying to see all the Red Wings hockey games. I'm a bad hockey fan and haven't been watching the other series so basketball is winning out.

The Red Wings played Chicago for the Western Conference Championship and they won last night! Woot! It was a fun series since the majority of my friends are back in Chicago and the two teams have a rivalry that goes waaaaaaaaay back. After the way Chicago embarrassed themselves Sunday afternoon, I was happy to see they played a good game and forced the third overtime of the series. Well done.

(Sorry if you're not a sports fan -- I need to get this out of my system.)

Saturday is game one of the Stanley Cup Finals and for the second year in a row we'll be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Let the trash talking begin!

(That means you, Melissa.)

Oh, and lest I neglect my husband, congrats to Barcelona on winning the Champions League final against Manchester United! I'm cheering for Nadal at Roland Garros, but Ibis likes Ferderer. Grr...

Like I said, lots of sports...

Gah!

I was all set to write a post about the unexpected side effects of our new hammock -- number one being my bladder is getting stronger because the second one of us gets up the other one steals it -- but then the cockroaches attacked.

I, being the nice wife that I am, was looking for the steel wool to clean a grill pan that Ibis had used for lunch. I opened a drawer and two cockroaches scurried out of a stack of nesting measuring cups. I screeched a little and jumped back, but continued my search. I didn't find the steel wool, but as the drawer was still open, I figured I should make sure there weren't any more inside. I flipped them out of the drawer.

Big mistake.

Apparently they took the name "nesting" too literally.

TEN -- I kid you not, TEN -- cockroaches scrambled out of the stacked cups RIGHT AT ME!! I screamed and jumped out of the way, right into the garbage can that was sitting out. The full garbage can. But I couldn't stop because they were all running my way.

Now here's what I want to know: what the heck kind of creature runs AT a person who, to be fair, should be the scarier of the two (or eleven)?

I already had the bug spray out after the first two, and I went to town. Six died pretty easily -- if you count kicking and squirming for ten minutes easy -- and four more popped out while I was cleaning. At least two got away...

Needless to say I felt like I was losing my mind for the rest of the night. Every time my hair blew across my cheek I was sure one had returned to avenge it's family's death. At one point I felt like something was crawling on my foot and when I looked down there actually WAS another one nearby. That didn't help the hallucinations any.

But -- that didn't stop me from thinking of you, my devoted blog readers. The camera is usually sitting out so I snapped a couple pictures of them as they gasped their final breaths. They don't look nearly as scary in pictures as they are in real life, so I hope you'll be satisfied with a picture of my garbage instead. The black thing on the rug is the "nest."

I apologize for how blurry it is. I was still shaking...


I think maybe I'll stay in the hammock from now on. I know they can fly, but at least I'll see them coming.

Funny, Because I Feel Like I've Read My WIP 500 Times

Over the weekend I decided to reread Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. I'd hit a bit of a slump with my editing, plus I have a friend reading through my current draft and she brought up several things I'd overlooked. Big theme-type things that I really can't ignore any longer. I've put a few things aside through my various drafts, telling myself that I'll deal with it the next time around. Well, now's that time.

I've come to the realization that Mr. Maass is my muse. Or if not my muse, he's the portal to my muse. I took over three pages of notes while reading, resolved the big theme issues, and came up with a couple ideas I'd never even considered. I spent Saturday and Sunday working these little snippets into my wip and I'm really happy with the improvements.

Ibis has been a good sport, letting me babble at him about different writing bits -- something I try not to do too often -- and when I explained my big breakthrough I nearly smacked myself in the head. It sounded so ... simple. So obvious, in fact, that I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. Oh well, at least it's in there now.

Now for some bits I marked while reading that really got my wheels turning:

- Are the stakes in your current manuscript as high as they can possibly be? Can you define the stakes right now? Can you point to the exact pages in which the stakes escalate...? (pg. 59)

- Trials and tests are the stuff of character building, of conflict. Ask yourself, who is the one ally your protagonist cannot afford to lose? Kill that character. What is your protagonist's greatest physical asset? Take it away. What is the one article of faith that for your protagonist is sacred? Undermine it. How much time does your protagonist have to solve his main problem? Shorten it. (pg. 78)

- I would like to suggest that if you do not have a moment of unexpected tragedy or grace in your novel, you consider where you might put it. Shatter your protagonist with a tragedy, or give her an unexpected gift. These things happen in real life, and in a novel they lend an enlarged perspective, a sense that the universe is paying attention. (pg. 96)

- Does the protagonist in your current manuscript have a strong inner conflict, or perhaps conflicting sides? If not, why not? Adding aspects of character that cannot easily be reconciled will ensure that your character cannot easily be dismissed. Inner conflict will keep your grip on your reader firm. (pg. 110)

- It is worth remembering that even when deepening some aspect of story, rather than moving the plot forward, it is essential that tension be present on every page. If your heroine and her sidekick are standing still, it ought to be because they disagree. (pg. 192)

- A breakout novelist needs courage, too: the courage to say something passionately. A breakout novelist believes that what she has to say is not just worth saying, but is something that must be said. It is a truth that the world needs to hear, an insight without which we would find ourselves diminished. (pg. 231)

I'm noticing that these excerpts all deal with the larger issues I'm facing right now. Funny how that works. I realize this last one may not apply to most stories, but it definitely applies to mine. I didn't plan for The Other Side to be a message book, but with each successive draft I've realized that's what it is. I don't really know how I feel about that -- I often tell people I never set out to be "the immigration girl" -- but I'm willing to see it through.

I've talked about this book so much over the weekend that one person went out and bought it and another is going to look for it at the library. If you haven't already read it, you should. I'll try to calm down now, but I just love this feeling of it all coming together.

This is also my 500th post -- how fitting it's marking what feels like a milestone in my writing!

Happy Memorial Day!

With both the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing, we've been watching a lot of sports, and in turn, a lot of American commercials. Two in particular stand out, but for completely opposite reasons.

The first:

The Craftsman automatic hammer that doesn't require you to swing the hammer. The commercial opens saying, "Logic says you can't pound a nail where you can't swing a hammer. So much for logic."

Holy cool.

As the wife of a carpenter I'm especially interested in this, and I foresee this being a part of our household in the future.

The second:

Speed Stick deoderant that asks "What's your pit type?"

The first time I heard it I thought it was an auto racing tie-in. Nope.

It goes on to ask:

- Sweaty?

- Hairy?

- Sensitive?

Are you kidding me?

Now, I worked in advertising for seven years so I know full well the kind of weird, strange, and "outside the box" ideas get tossed around at late-night brainstorm meetings -- especially if alcohol is served -- but we never actually pitched those ideas to our clients. And even if we did, they didn't go along with it.

Maybe they figured any kind of attention is a good thing, but I don't know. Gross.

So, I'm assuming you're all drooling over the hammer. My question for you today is... which one are you? :P

Back to Normal

I had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday with my wip, but I'm going to save that post for Tuesday since I suspect most of you are off frolicking over the long weekend, and I hate when a post gets buried.

Instead I'm going to share a few more pictures with you. Yesterday Ibis and I went to Barra de Potosi, our favorite beach about half an hour's drive south of Zihua. I posted pictures from there when our friend Andy was in town and I'd never seen it busier.

Barra over Easter weekend


This is what it looked like yesterday. (That couple was really going at it for the first half hour we were there.) This is what it normally looks like, and why we like it so much. (Minus the couple, of course.)



If you recall, on Thursday I complained about how hot it is, and how a haze has descended on Zihua.


Well Friday it lifted for a bit just before sunset. This is what it normally looks like. The colors just amaze me, every time.


Finally, the reason Barra is my favorite beach is it's usually deserted, the water is very clear and there are tons of fish, which means the birds go crazy. I can spend the entire afternoon watching them glide over the waves, swoop high into the air, then dive straight into the water, wings tucked to their sides.

Yesterday there was a large school of fish moving across the bay because this flock of birds followed it for ten minutes. Very cool to see.

This Might Help

This won't make it any cooler, but it will certainly make it more bearable.

Ibis likes it too.


We still have to figure out a few logistics, like how does the other person watch TV while one of us is in the hammock, but I trust we'll find a solution.

(I feel like I should host a game of I-Spy with these pictures, lol!)

Do you have anything unique in your house? I already know that Robin has a kitchen painted the colors of a psychotic clown and Turkey has melted ice cream all over her walls (the color, not really ice cream), but does anyone else have something they want to share?