Sunday, February 22, 2015

Gotta Go to Guatemala

I haven't been blogging because I've been working on my book. FINALLY! I went to the Surrey International Writer's Conference in Vancouver BC in October 2014. I got to meet one of my writing heroes, Diana Gabaldon. She invited me to sit with her at lunch & I will admit that I was more star struck by her than I was when I met Hugh Jackman.




What I realized at SIWC is I CAN do this! I scrapped my previous story and have started a series which I started writing in January. I know it won't be ready to pitch when I go back to Vancouver for the conference again this year, but I'll be a whole lot closer than I was last year.


I was making slow progress in my writing, what with the holidays looming ahead, so I decided to put it on the back burner until January. When I came back to it, I realized that I had written my heroine from the wrong place.

Of course I had this epiphany at about 3 am so I didn't wake Rob up to tell him my new idea. Even though I wanted to. It's a really good idea, but I decided it could wait until morning. I did some preliminary research online and figured out where I wanted to reset my novel and went to bed somewhere after 4am.

As Rob was leaving for work at 7am, he gave me a kiss and told me goodbye. I sat up in bed and said "I've gotta go to Guatemala" then flopped back down on my pillow and buried under the covers. Rob asked for some clarification which was met by some mumbled nonsense.

When he called me at lunch later that day he expressed his concern about my morning declaration about Guatemala. "Have you given up on writing then and decided to become a drug mule? I'd really rather not go that route myself."

That man knows how to make me smile! I explained my idea and the driving need to go to central America for research. "Can't you set it in Cancun? I can sport fish & you can research. Besides, I don't think Guatemala is a big tourist destination, my love."

In the end we've compromised--meaning he acquiesced & is humoring me but I did add an element that will also take us into Belize so he can fish & we can both do some diving around the researching excursions. That's compromise, right? Either way, I'm going to Guatemala!

A Birthday Worth Counting

For my birthday in 2013 I went to New York for a week with my dear friends, Crystal & Ali.

It was one wild week!

We did the usual touristy things
Top of the Rock at night
Empire State Building
Central Park
Statue of Liberty (more like boated past the Statue of Liberty due to the government shutdown)
Time Square
Broadway show (met Tony Danza following & he was a jewel)
Chelsea Market
Highline Park
Grand Central Station
Bryant Park
Union Square...you get the picture



My favorite spot was World Trade Center, it made me weep.







There was the Tunnel to Towers NYC run going on the day we went to the Tower so there were firemen, military & police galore just finishing the race--always a perk!




























































Then we did some not so touristy things...

I was on a quest to get several different fire station shirts for Rob so we met loads of amazing firemen (honestly one of the best parts of the trip if you ask me--who doesn't love the FDNY?)

We got thrown out of a shop on Canal Street. Apparently Ali is too good at haggling. We then followed a purse lady on Canal Street who led us into several different shops, a McDonald's, and finally led us to some guys car to look at purses (yeah, we're probably pretty lucky we didn't end up getting abducted into white slavery or something honestly). Then Purse Lady freaked out on us because we got teased by some NYPD that were standing by the subway and we stopped to talk to them. Knock-off Michael Kors purses or good-looking NYPD cops...hhhmmm, not much of a contest there. Sorry Purse Lady.

I thought we were going to be bumped off in Little Italy. For future reference ladies, when I say I'm starving & need to eat now, it's time to go that's code for we're going to be killed in the gellato parlor if you don't shut up IMMEDIATELY!! I'd like to tell you more of this story but I dunno nuthin' and I'm no rat! HaHa...Yikes!

We had a Fast & the Furious style bus chase trying to catch our bus one morning. Made it, barely. Don't think anyone has gone 95mph down that road in Jersey before though.

I wandered into Hell's Kitchen by myself...and still felt safer there than I did in Little Italy!

I managed to get myself lost while Crystal & Ali were at the Met, and ended up on at a pier on the Hudson River where I sat at a table talking to a woman that turned out to be HUGH JACKMAN'S publicist!! Not even kidding.

And she introduced me to him when he and his wife arrived for a party on said same pier 30 minutes later.  Hearing him say "hello Michelle" in that purring Aussie accent--Yowza!


















Definitely a birthday worth counting!