Our rental house days are behind us and we are back in the Casa, which is about 90% complete.  All we need is a kitchen sink…literally…and a few other things…

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I sent in two new novels last week, and now I’m working on I,Q2.  What’s interesting about this book is that the publication is going to be very compressed, which means I have the opportunity of taking you through the writing and publishing of a novel in the period of a few months rather than a year or more.  I,Q2 will be out long before the other two novels even though I’m still working on it.  Confused?

I’ve had hundreds of emails from readers about this…

Here’s what happened.  The short version.  “I,Q Book One: Independence Hall” came out in September 2008.  Before I could started “I,Q Book Two: The White House” I had to finish three other novels.  One of them was “Tentacles” the sequel to “Cryptid Hunters” which came out in September 2009 (5 months ago).  The other two were “Code Red” (not the real title), and “Beneath.”   Still confused?  Don’t worry the publisher of the “I,Q” series was confused too, which is why there have been several publication dates announced for “I,Q2” Which have come and gone.

Bottom line.  I had to finish three other novels before I could get back to I,Q…

I should have the rough final t draft finished by the end of this month.  As of today I am on page 125 of I,Q2.   These first 125 pages have been written over the past year and a half in between working on the other novels.  The pages have been revised many times and are in pretty good shape.  When I get this far in a novel the rest of the pages (and the story) falls into place pretty quickly.

So what I’m going to do for the next three weeks is give you a progress report in this journal of the writing of, or more accurately, finishing of the long awaited I,Q Book Two: The White House…

I,Q2 Final #1:

Up at 5:00AM.  I walk out into the kitchen to turn on the propane stove to boil water for coffee and thought the stove was not hooked up to the gas.  So the kitchen is missing more than the sink!  I should have figured this out last night.  But because there wasn’t a kitchen sink we went out to dinner (the restaurant is pictured below…not the prettiest place, but the food was wonderful, and they played cartoons on TV as we ate).  And I loved the restroom because it had a showerhead next to the sink.  Had we cooked at home last night we would have discovered that the stove was not hooked up to the gas.

I’m working on I,Q (without coffee) waiting for everyone to wake up here so I can bang around outside and boil water on the outside grill.   It is 7:00AM as I write this, and by this time everyone is usually up and about, but not today.  They are all sound asleep thinking they are going to wake up to fresh brewed coffee.  I’ve got bad news for them…

I spent a good part of yesterday and all of today reading and revising the 125 pages.  This is necessary to get back into the swing and rhythm of this story.  It’s always interesting to me how stepping away from a story helps you to see it better upon reading it again.  And this goes way beyond discovering little annoyances like typos.  Time away creates clarity.  I see the story differently and have made several changes to the structure that will make the story stronger by the time it’s finished.

The 125 pages are now completely revised.  Tomorrow I’ll continue the story and let you know how it’s going.  Who knows…  I might even include an excerpt or two in the next few days.  Spread the word.  Let your friends and teachers know about this.  Stay tuned….

If you haven’t already done so join me on FaceBook or Twitter.  You can find  me by going to my home page and hitting the links.  When I make a new post, you’ll be the first to know…

Today’s Distractions:

Note: in these posts I’ll list certain distractions that occur down here while I’m working, but I won’t list all of them because that would be tedious.  The truth is that most distractions are created by me anyway, because I choose which distractions I let bump me off track.  Down here in Mexico (and at my real home) I have many hiding places where distractions can’t find me.  Most distractions I can totally ignore…if I choose to, but here’s a few real and imagined I participated in today…

• Coffee or the lack thereof.
  • Update on the lack of propane gas.  Seems like the stove was working all the time, but the line needed to be “bled” before it could be lit—something apparently everyone knew except me.
  • How was I supposed to figure this out at 5:00 in the morning without coffee in my system?
  • Debate on what we owe the contractor who has remodeled—actually who still is remodeling—the house.
  • Ask contractor to go downtown to the phone company and get them out here to fix the phone connection (which is now on the floor in several pieces due to the remodel).  If the phone works, the internet “might” work.  Last time this happened it took several trips to the phone company over a period of 2 weeks.  Marie finally stamped her foot, which didn’t work.  Marie’s sister stamped her foot a little differently, which worked, but now the phone is out again.  To get on the internet we have to hack into our neighbor’s signal, which seems to be connected to the wind instead of a cable.
  • Checking on the contractors (several times a day) as if they need my opinion.  Down here it is culturally helpful to have a male (even if he doesn’t know anything) show up to glower and smile at the contractor and workers from time to time.
  • Unlocking doors that have difficult locks.  Being a former zoo person with over 20 years of experience messing around with locks.  I’m the go-to guy for this.
  • Breakfast.  Cooked on the outside grill by Marie.
  • Gasoline. Drive down to the gas station and fill up the car and the gas cans for the generator in case the sun lets us down.
  • Disconnect Satellite TV box so Marie can take it downtown and ask them to fix it so her mother can watch the news in the morning…oh, and so we can watch American Idol.  We haven’t really missed TV the past several months, but we would like to get it set up for Marie’s mom before we head back north (and for the family heading down here to stay).  Sorry family.  No TV.  Outrageously expensive.
  • Flies.  Because the workers leave all of the doors open there are hundreds of them buzzing around.  I carry a Mont Blanc pen in one hand and a flyswatter in the other.
  • This Post.  It’s not really a distraction, and it didn’t take too long to write.  But to get it up on the web I had to drive to the closest internet hotspot, which is 3 miles down a dirt road (one way), sit in my car while I formatted and posted this on the blog.

Congratulations to the Winners of the Scholastic Book Fair Fall 2009 National Elementary School Contest!

The winner won a school visit with me sometime this spring.  I’m looking forward to meeting the students and teachers at Harmony Elementary School!!!!

Sent the novel “Beneath” off to my friend Kate Harrison at Dial today.  Can’t quite describe how that felt.  And of course I realize that a novel is never final until it’s in the stores, but I think it’s a pretty good yarn and I trust Kate to make it better.  You’ll be able to read it for yourself this time next spring.

To celebrate I took the afternoon off.  Went over to the Casa, which is coming along fine, which is good because we are giving up our two week renting life and moving back “home” on Sunday.  Then I went really crazy and watched “True Grit” on television, which is one of my all-time favorite westerns.

Vacation’s over tomorrow morning.  I’ll be up early tomorrow morning and start back in on “I,Q Book Two: The White House.”  I’ll probably never be totally caught up, but I’ve managed to loosen a couple of logs the past few days and the river’s starting to flow again.

This morning I Skyped with about twenty wonderful 7th graders from Cypress Lake Middle School in  Ft. Myers, Florida to answer questions about “Peak.”  Their librarian, Dana Thomas is an old friend and a recipient of the 2009 I Love My Librarian Award sponsored by the ALA, New York Times, and the Carnegie Corp. of New York.  Congratulations Dana! You deserve it.

Afterward, I put my feet up and spent the rest of the day working on “Beneath.”  I hope to have it finished by the end of this week.

This is going to be a bit of a hodge podge of things from south of the boarder, with a lot of photos at the end, which will probably not make sense to many of your…but for those who have been down here, you’ll be able to figure out most of them.

The big news, at least for me, is that I finished a novel last Sunday and sent it in.  It’s the first of a three book series for Scholastic.  I’ve mentioned it before here, but it was great to get a draft completed and into the editor.   I haven’t heard when it’s coming out, nor can I reveal the name…yet…but I’ll let you know as soon  as I know.

This week I’m finishing up the novel  “Beneath” for Dial.  These are the final edits.  It’s supposed to come out Spring 2011.

Then…I will finish I,Q, which is pretty closed to being finished.  Ironically, IQ2 will be out before the other two novels.  It’s still scheduled to come out this school year.

The 2 week remodel has turned into 5 weeks, which is not that much difference than a remodel up in the States from my experience.  The remodel formula is 2 weeks = 4 weeks;  4 weeks = 8 weeks;  8 weeks = You should not have even thought of remodeling.

We rented a house last week, then decided to move to another place this week.  Nice condo, but the cool thing about it is that we have internet.  The first time we’ve had it reliably since we’ve been down here.

Other than this…take a look at  photos, which should fill you in on the current condition on the Sea of Cortez…

Our temporary rental does not have internet (although it does have “real” electricity).

The past two mornings (early) I’ve had to drive a few miles down the road to the pool (where they have internet) for Skype visits at schools in Texas.

The students had wonderful questions, and there was even an I,Q cake, which I didn’t get to taste because I’m two time zones away.

The remodel is just about finished, but I suspect we’ll be in the rental for a few more days before we can move back in.

The writing is going along well. I will have more news for you on that front in few days.

Below are some of the photos from the Skype visit…and the pool…

Back down in Mexico. The lovely Ruth and Al picked me up in Arizona yesterday morning for the seven hour drive, made slower by a stretch of rain-damaged road. We arrived just before sundown and found Marie and her mother napping in the car in our driveway.

Uh-oh… This could only mean the inside of the house was chaos. This turned out to be true, but they have made tremendous progress since I’ve been stateside.

It was wonderful to see Marie and her mother after two weeks!

Marie rented a house in the “electric” section for the next week, so we are now in the lap of luxury, relatively speaking, with the exception of no Internet (a constant problem down here). But I should note for those schools I’m Skyping with this week that I have a solution to the problem. A few miles down the road there’s a place with Internet and I’ll use their access for the visit.

I’m thumbing this in on my iPhone.

I will make another (bigger) post later this week (when I find some Internet) with the photos and videos currently stuck in my digital camera. Uploading them now on the AT&T international network for the iPhone would cost more than the rent on this house.

Below is the view from the back patio where I’m writing and the tiled fireplace in the house that I really like.

Stormy flight into Pheonix late last night from Dallas with flooding and tornado warnings…a bit strange for Pheonix.

Went to my nephew Josh’s school on short notice, but the staff rose to the occasion. Perfect venue with attentive and enthusiastic students.

Saw a relaxed coyote cross my sister-in-law’s backyard the morning. She’ll have to keep a close eye on her dogs. This coyote was way too comfortable. He’s been there before.

My last day in Texas…at least this month. I’m at Chisholm Trail Middle School in Rhome with librarian with Pam Kemp and her son Tyler.

I wonder how many Chisholm Trail Schools there are across the country? I know I’ve been to several of them.

Clear day here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

I spoke to 6th, 7th, 8th grade, and again, they were a great group of students.

They think they might have found a cryptid here on a golf course. It is a strange looking creature, but we’ll have to wait and see what it turns out to be.

Pam and Tyler kindly drove me to DFW. Writing this as I wait for my flight to Phoenix. Tomorrow I speak in Scottsdale at my nephew’s school, which will be great fun.

Marie reported that there is a big wind and rain storm on the Sea of Cortez. Looks like I’ll miss it. I head south on Sunday.

I’m at Medlin Middle School today with librarian Margaret Wallace speaking to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

A bit foggy and damp in the Ft. Worth area this morning, at least where I’m staying. Reminds me of Portland, but it looks like it’s going to burn off quickly.

Good students with good questions and a very nice staff. I had breakfast and lunch in the library with several teachers and a few students. Great day. Thanks!

Went to Tex/Mex dinner with Sunni, the wonderful Amy, and Jax (aka Jackson). Jax could not get a word in edgewise.