Learning the Hard Way (Again)

I´ll start by saying that I never have been much good at being happy. Oh, I´ve had my moments, even periods of weeks and months when I was genuinely, truly happy, when the stars were aligned and things were going well and I recognized it and was grateful.

But those times never lasted, and when the light went away, the darkness welled up from its hidey-hole, and there I was again. I´ve tried to fill that hole with all kinds of things: sex, drugs, alcohol, food, friends, travel, books, jokes, you name it. None of it ever works for long. Continue reading “Learning the Hard Way (Again)” →

On the Importance of Books for the Traveler

There are those of us who are never, or rarely, without a book, no matter where we are or what we´re doing. Sometimes we´ll carry it around even though we know we aren´t going to have a chance to read it, our own little personal totem, if you will, that marks and protects us and reveals us to kindred spirits. And while we increasingly fill those interstitial moments these days with social media as delivered to us via our pocket-sized electronic umbilica, we can´t always get a signal, and even if we can, there´s something to be said for the pleasures of immersive single-tasking, and books come in really handy at times like that.

But there´s something about traveling that turns almost everyone into a reader. Continue reading “On the Importance of Books for the Traveler” →

It Seemed Like the Right Decision at the Time

So, I want to tell a sort of funny story (as with most funny stories, it wasn’t funny at the time, but is hilarious in retrospect) from my travels by way of making a larger point about life, politics, and the way things hardly ever work out in the best possible way.

As many of you probably already know, I am currently traveling in South America, and I brought my father, who underwrote many an adventure I took as a younger, broker man, along for the first week or so to wander Peru and see Macchu Pichu. That part of the plan went swimmingly, and though we had to curb our ambitions somewhat so as to not overdo things, we had a wonderful time that we’ll both treasure for the rest of our lives.

Then, at the end, things got a bit squirrely. Continue reading “It Seemed Like the Right Decision at the Time” →

Aventuras Peruanos, Part One: Lima to Cusco to the gates of Macchu Pichu

I should be following my father´s example and taking a siesta. Cusco, from whence I am corresponding, sits at about 11000 feet above sea level, and even half a day walking around is enough to put a strong man (or woman) to sleep. Back in the day, in Colorado, I lived at around 8000, and it never took more than a day or two to adjust. I´ve been here almost a week, and I still wake in the night short of breath. But it´s been totally worth it. Where to begin? Continue reading “Aventuras Peruanos, Part One: Lima to Cusco to the gates of Macchu Pichu” →

Writer Brain, Oh Writer Brain

Why are you so fickle?

I know the answer, of course. My writer brain has been unfocused lately because I have been unfocused lately. I have not kept regular working hours (or days, for that matter), nor kept myself focused on any single project (of which I have too many in need of work even were I the most disciplined and undistracted of writers). When I do that, my writer brain goes into tinkering mode, and thinks about whichever projects it feels like thinking about. Sometimes they are even the project I’m supposed to be working on. For instance, the other day I realized I needed to go back and kill somebody off in my novel-in-progress, both to crank up the pathos and also to provide some motivation a little later on for my protag to think about turning into a good guy. I even went back and started in on changing what I needed to change (there was also a firearm to dispense of; way too powerful a tool to put in the protag’s hands at this point in the game). I’ve also had some notions about Cowboys and Indians, which I think will be pretty good once I get through this next revision.

But what I’m really excited about, apparently, Continue reading “Writer Brain, Oh Writer Brain” →