So I dusted off an old TYPEWRITTEN story I found in a drawer. It´s called Picarón. I wrote it almost 18 years ago, and was astonished to find that it held up. Dashing my notion that my writing has improved over the years.

The San Miguel Literary Sala is putting out a second anthology of stories from San Miguel de Allende, so I entered the story. It´s about a guy in his 50s in a Spanish class at El Instituto here in San Miguel. He is generally befuddled to find himself divorced, in Mexico and in a class filled with hungover twenty-somethings.

Hoping it makes the anthology! I´ll find out in February.

Bananafish

I had my class of 8 Mexican high school students read "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger last week, and today we discussed it. Since some kids are using English hour to do independent study to help them graduate, I only had three students today, ages 15 and 16. I found it very interesting that none of them got any of the sexual references in the story. All thought the protagonist, Seymour Glass, was a nice guy hanging out with a little girl on a beach.

Then we talked about the bananafish which goes into a hole and gluts itself. Then I read to them, slowly, these lines, He took Sybil´s ankles in his hands and pressed down and forward. The float nosed over the top of a wave. The water soaked Sybil´s blonde hair, but her scream was full of pleasure.

They looked up at me, eyes wide. "Ooooh!"

These are not unsophisticated kids. But they didn´t get the creepy feeling I got reading about Seymour and Sybil on the beach. Maybe it takes being a parent.

New Title

UPDate! Sean (my 13-year old readaholic daughter and critic) says Annette is an old-fashioned name and is wierd. APologies to my real-life high school friend, Annette. So I changed the name of my YA to Dear Jules. I´ll live with that for awhile and see how it feels.

YA entry for San MIguel Writers Conference contest

I sent an entry in to the Meet the Agent contest sponsored by the San Miguel Writers Conference. It was the beginning of my memoir, the one that´s published by moi on Amazon.
Maybe I´ll win and get some decent feedback.

Today I´m going to send the first 12 pages, as I only have 12 pages so far, of the Young Adult novel I started, Dear Annette. I spent most of yesterday working on a one-page synopsis. It required figuring out my plot once and for all. Exhausting but a chore I´m glad I completed.

THE IMPORTANT PART: I asked my readoholic daughter, Sean, aged 13, to look at the synopsis. She tore herself away from Hannah Montana and read it.

"It´s cool," she said.

"Really? You like it?" My heart was doing gleeful little jumps.

"Yeah."

Then the commercial was over and Hannah Montana back on and she wouldn´t say more. But I liked what I got.

Off it goes to the annonymous judges today. Wish me suerte.

Happy Birthday Expat Women

Have you ever wondered what it´s like to live in another country? ExpatWomen.com is the site that tells you all about. The site features more than 1000 pages of news and information for women living overseas, and for women, and men for that matter, who might want to. Curious about what it´s like to run a business in another country? Hire domestic help? Buy real estate?
ExpatWomen.com is your go-to place. You´ll also find first person stories from women who have made other nations their home.

On January 16, ExpatWomen celebrates its third anniversary of being online. Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary! Check out the site, and you´ll see why it´s a great resource.
www.ExpatWomen.com

The Hardest Part

I´m trying to write a synopsis for my Young Adult novel Dear Annette, to submit with my first twelve pages to the Meet The Children´s Books Agent competition for the San Miguel Writers Conference, which means of course, I have to know Where the Story Is Going!

It´s hard.

I have lots of great scenes but an airtight plot? hahahahahahahaha

Back to it.

teen diary entry contest

First of all, I have to say that I thought I posted the link to my book trailer over there to the left, but it´s a live, moving thing. And I´m a techno-idiot. Lots of other book trailers seem to be coming up but I haven´t caught mine. O well. Featuring book trailers is not a bad thing.

So I entered Nathan Bransford´s Teen Diary entry contest. 500 words or less. I sent in a section from Dear Annette, about the author´s attempt to show off her Puerto Rican accent in Spanish class, and about her mother being a Welcome Wagon hostess, which I think is hysterical. My mom did that for about 15 minutes in 1974. Then I think she found she lacked a required perkiness, and quit. The fictional mom is going to hang in there for awhile.

Anyway, sent the entry in and realized two horrible spelling mistakes. One in Spanish. Horror.
Me, of all people. Me, who has been speaking decent Spanish for more than 15 years.

Sigh.

Maybe he won´t notice.