A Lesson from The Great Gatsby

A Lesson from The Great Gatsby

Jun 5, 2013 | #truestory

I never gave much thought to how families talk. How different conversations might be from house to house until we had this little episode in ours.

The argument grew heated. I wanted no part of it.

Theories were picked apart. Voices were raised. Sneers were more than implied.

The Aha Topic

The participants in this discussion were my husband and my daughter. The topic of debate was whether or not THE GREAT GATSBY should be considered one of the iconic books of the 20th century.

I carried the dirty dinner dishes into the kitchen and listened to them talk. I was glad my high school daughter could hold her own in the discussion. My husband, a fairly brilliant man, made no allowances for her age.

They called it a draw, agreeing to disagree, although my husband was less than chivalrous when my daughter and I came home after seeing the new Gatsby movie.

“Aha! You see my point,” he said, or words to that effect. This was a reference to his view that the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-moons-after-her-for-five-years-and gets-shot-for-his-trouble plot was nothing new. My daughter’s defense of the book was undimmed but our opinion of the movie was that there was too much CGI, too much stylized imagery. It was like too much sickly sweet icing on a good cake.

In short, we agreed with Philip French’s review that appeared in the UK Observer online newspaper.

Back Talk

The Gatsby episode made me think about the way we talk to each other.

Growing up, my extended Italian family talked about people, many of whom were related. It was a mostly closed loop of family gossip and interdependence. We talked about each other, we helped each other, and we talked about helping each other. To this day if my mother has a computer problem she  waits for the family member who works in the IT field to come help and then gives me the details over the phone. No Geek Squad for her.

My husband’s family, on the other hand, talks about neutral externals. Presidential campaigns, the local school district, property prices.

Talking Our Own Talk

Somehow my husband and I have come up with our own family norm: in our household we talk Analysis.  Even when my kids were small, there was an emphasis on seeing things from different angles, thinking about a breadth of issues, and being able to support opinions.  For example, we’d get them to see how a news story is presented differently on CNN, on Fox News, or on BBC World.

It’s a constant steam of critique and debate on any topic. We all have a wide range of interests. More than once I’ve lamented that I live with a house full of lawyers and fact-checkers.

Related post: The Power of Daddy

Will my kids be more prepared than I was for the real world? Undoubtedly. My undergraduate college was full of people with similar backgrounds and college talk was mostly about each other. It wasn’t until I hit graduate school that I realized how exciting it was to be able to sift through information, create my own truly informed ideas and be able to support them.  That analytic bent has allowed me to become a mystery author; I can put myself in the shoes of a detective faced with a seemingly unrelated set of clues and do something with them.

If only Gatsby had figured that out. He might have lived to enjoy more cake and less icing.

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CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

On The Occasion of My First Anniversary of Being a Published Author

On The Occasion of My First Anniversary of Being a Published Author

May 14, 2013 | #truestory

In addition to being a celebration of the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862—which has morphed into a popular celebration of Mexican culture and food–Cinco de Mayo was my first anniversary of being a published author.

For some reason, Amazon lists the publication date as April but THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY was officially released 5 May 2012. Here’s the press release.

Was it only a year ago

The week that it was published I texted myself a wishlist of what I would consider to be success as a published author after 1 year.   Written on the trusty notepad feature of my antique Blackberry here is the complete text:

Success as a writer after a year:

  • Sold 100 copies of  HIDDEN LIGHT
  • 2 books listed on amazon.com
  • 100 visitors to my blog
  • Got published on Huffpost
  • Got mentioned in a blog or other online venue I don’t own

Reality Isn’t so bad

So how does reality stack up?

  • Sold nearly 400 copies of  HIDDEN LIGHT (and received real checks!)
  • 2 books, HIDDEN LIGHT and CLIFF DIVER, are listed on Amazon. Thenext book, HAT DANCE, is scheduled for a late July release
  • This blog has received some 6000 visitors
  • I’ve done guest posts and interviews which are listed here
  • Every reviewer on amazon has given my books a 4 or 5 star rating and 61 percent of CLIFF DIVER reviewers said they wanted to read more in the series.

Sadly, I have not been published on Huffpost but I also didn’t submit anything except a short story last week for Rita Wilson’s project to see what women over 50 are writing. I assume my effort is lost in the slush pile but it was good incentive to write an Emilia Cruz story which I’ll soon make available from this website as a free download.

What I Learned Along The Way

So have I been a huge commercial success in my first year of being a published author? Of course not. This is a marathon, not a sprint. But here is what I did do:

  • Exceeded expectations that I thought a year ago were virtually unachievable
  • Recognized that my goals should be those that I can control and  reasonable for the resources available to me
  • Embraced the fact that I am engaged in a massive learning process to master new skills (blog design, marketing, etc) because there is more to this author business than just writing
  • Realized that I am providing readers with both a quality entertainment experience and a learning experience, just as I had always intended to do

Related post: Why Read a Book About Mexico

Related post: Be Angry and Pray Hard

Looking Ahead

So what will my second year as a published author bring? Here’s the next wishlist. We’ll check the progress on 5 May 1014. In the meantime, wish me luck!

  • 5 books listed on amazon (yes, 5)
  • Redesigned website with free download of Emilia Cruz mini-anthology
  • Re-release of HIDDEN LIGHT with new cover, lower price, and at least 1 promotion

Are you a goal-setter too? Let me know what your goals are and how you stick to them.

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CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

Why Navigation With a Map Still Matters

Why Navigation With a Map Still Matters

Apr 30, 2013 | #truestory

Love your GPS? Love how easy it makes getting from Point A to Point B? If you’re like me, your GPS saves travel time, keeps you from getting lost, and provides an Australian or British voice so you can get directions from Ned Kelly or James Bond, depending on your mood.

But while GPS is a great tool, I think we’re losing the skill of navigation. And basic navigation is one of those skills we need to possess in order to be confident that we can find our way, no matter where we happen to be. Navigating with a real map means–

  • You’re self-reliant. Not wholly dependent on electricity, satellites or the phone company.
  • You’re in control over where you are going and willing to learn new skills along the way.
  • Personal achievement! Another deposit into the emotional bank account!

Plus you get a really cool souvenir.

Related Post: The Art of Travel Without a Camera

In the Ice Age, before internet and GPS, I traveled with (gasp) paper maps! Newer maps, like the laminated Streetwise series by streetwisemaps.com are compact accordions that fold to the size of a business envelope. The older maps are Technicolor murals that led me across Europe, the South Pacific and Down Under.

Revelation time

I recently sifted through the box where I keep those old paper maps and had a revelation:

I probably wouldn’t be writing books or this blog if I hadn’t had those formative experiences, if I had never learned that I could do things and go places on my own with just the help of a map.

Where I’ve been

map of Florence, italy

 Tourist map of Florence, Italy, circa 1981. A friend studied there during my year in Paris.  We met up several times in Florence and made the rounds of the museums. I learned about male anatomy staring at Michelangelo’s David. 

Venice

Map of Venice, circa 1981. The paper is stiff. the muted colors are those of the sea beyond San Marco’s square. Of all my maps, this one is the closest to artwork.

Biarritz

 Map of Biarritz in the south of France where I lived for a month, taking and failing an intensive French course prior to the school year in Paris.

Related post: Girl Meets Paris

Amsterdam mapMap of Amsterdam by streetwisemaps.com. Amsterdam is not big but it is incredibly picturesque and very walkable. The Anne Frank House was more than moving; it was a powerful lesson in history. And humanity instead of hate.

BrusselsBrussels is a lovely blend of big metropolitan city and old Europe. French fries are served with mayonnaise. Still getting over that.

Oslo city

 Oslo is one of my favorite places. The sky is bluer in Oslo than anywhere else on earth. The seafaring tradition + Scandinavian design + the legacy and legends of polar exploration make it a fascinating place to visit. Travel by ferry to the Fram and Kon-Tiki Museums was a highlight.

Pot MoresbyThe map of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, is a huge affair from the country’s National Mapping Bureau. The thick paper is only printed on one side.

Related post: Land of the Unexpected

map of PompeiiI walked around Pompeii in August and the temperature was around 100 F. I felt like I was inside a volcano not viewing the ruins of one. Sweaty hands nearly turned the map (came with admission) to mush. This is the eastern side of the site.

Rome italy subwayRome, Italy is noisy, chaotic, crazy, amazing. Every street is full of clothes I want to buy, food I want to eat, and books, art, & pharmacies with unique lotions and potions. The city is compact enough to walk nearly everywhere but Streetwise’s metro map was very handy.

Mexico City street mapMexico City is so big you need a whole book, called the Guia Roji, to navigate. My copy was falling apart after three years there! This page is the Lomas de Chapultepec area where THE HIDDEN LIGHT OF MEXICO CITY is set.

Sydney, AustraliaIf you ever get a chance to visit Sydney, Australia, take it! Sydney is a beautiful city with lots of things to do and friendly people. This map helped me navigate to the first Virgin Records store I’d ever seen, where I bought Midnight Oil LPs for a friend and Man of Colors by Icehouse (“Had a little accident, nothing too serious“) for myself.

Fremantle, AustraliaThis map of Fremantle, Australia, on the country’s west coast, was created by the Western Australian Tourism Commission. Below the seal it says William C. Brown, Government Printer, Western Australia. The map itself is about six square inches; the rest of the big foldout (both sides) lists things to do such as the America’s Cup Museum or the Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Association Memorial Monument Hill.

As a final inducement to brush up on your navigation skills, here’s what author and Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings had to say in his great book, MAPHEADS:

“Almost every map, whether of a shopping mall, a city, or a continent, will show us two kinds of places: places where we’ve been and places we’ve never been . . . We can understand, at a glance, our place in the universe, our potential to go and see new things, and the way to get back home afterward.”

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navigation with a map

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

navigation with a map

Solve Problems Like a Detective

Solve Problems Like a Detective

Mar 26, 2013 | #authorlife, #EmiliaCruz

 

In CLIFF DIVER, Detective Emilia Cruz starts piecing together a police investigation by using a timeline. Emilia’s love of timelines will be an element of her crime-solving skills in every book in the Emilia Cruz mystery series. It’s her go-to problem-solving device and the best way she knows to start organizing the many disparate threads running through every case.

Off the pages of a mystery series and into real life, however, a timeline is a better planning device than a decision-making tool, in my view. Alone, it can’t help you narrow down solutions or predict consequences.  But pair it with one of the tools below and you have a powerful way to resolve issues:

Pros and Cons

I once bought paper pre-printed with two columns, one reading PRO and the other reading CON. I actually pulled it out when a friend could not choose between a new job that was a risk and the current, safe, job where he felt stale. We literally brainstormed both sides of going vs staying. It was a simple exercise but helped him see solutions through an unemotional lens.

Plot the pros and cons on a timeline to know the time frame each will require. In my friend’s case he took the higher risk job because when he counted up all the pros of the new opportunity, they far outweighed not only the cons, but also the limited pros of staying where he was.

Action items

For years when I felt blue, worried, or stuck, I’d make a list of what was going wrong on the left side of a legal pad. On the right side I’d list all possible action items for changing the situation and achieving a solution.  I’d timeline the actions to see how long they’d take or if I could do them immediately, in the next few days, or in the distant future. Inevitably I’d find something I could do to improve the situation and know when I could do it.

Maybe the list won’t make the problem completely go away but the exercise always leaves me with a feeling of greater control and that is half the battle.

Related: The Ultimate Secret to Productivity

Linear Thinking

A lot of problems feel bigger than they are because we are afraid of unknown consequences. So diagram the linear logic thread and figure out what and when some of those consequences might be/take place. It’s a basic “this action will lead to this outcome” exercise. But in order to work you have to be both realistic and honest.

For example, when we lived in Mexico, friends rarely paid their gardener on time. He stopped showing up and they attributed it to “typical” laziness. A more honest, linear thinking mindset might have recognized that if they wanted a nice yard, they’d have to pay for the work on time. The gardener could not afford transportation to get there on Thursday when he wasn’t paid for his work on Monday, even if they were prepared to pay him for both days on Thursday.

These problem solving ideas are likely to make their way into the investigations in the Emilia Cruz mystery series. But will they help her find a solution to her problems with Kurt Rucker? She might have to deal with corrupt politicians, dirty cops, and drug cartels in Acapulco, but Kurt is without a doubt her biggest challenge!

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CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

solve problems

How to Power Up Your Creativity

How to Power Up Your Creativity

Mar 15, 2013 | #authorlife

For years I thought creativity belonged exclusively to artists, writers and musicians and longed to be part of such a creative elite. Wow, was I wrong. Now that I’m older and wiser (hopefully) I know that we all have the ability to be creative in any part of our lives that we choose.

Creativity is a major component of staying emotionally balanced, finding joy in small things, and boosting self-esteem. Think of creativity like a vitamin supplement. We can exist without it but are healthier and have more energy with it.

Here are my top ways for making creativity happen:

Change your perspective

Seeing things from a different point of view sounds good in theory but is harder to do than it sounds. A great way to enable a change in perspective is to actually see something out of the ordinary.

But while we’d all love to follow in the footsteps of Eat Pray Love, few of us have the funds to take a trip to Italy, India, or Bali. Here’s how to do it on the cheap:

  1. Buy a piece of art that appeals to you on an emotional level. It can be as simple as a art postcard from a museum, a batik fabric from an art fair, or a poster that has an clever or inspirational image. Put it where you’ll see it frequently.
  2. Read a couple of magazines on topics that you don’t usually read. I find that my husband’s watch magazines are unique and different sources of inspiration. Read history, crafts, photography, cooking—anything that you don’t normally read.
  3.  Get a book on industrial design. The images and ideas in books such as Creative Workshop by David Sherwin or Logo Design Love by David Airey stretch your mind. Leaf through your book now and then, asking yourself why certain images resonate, what made your linger on that page, what can you apply to your own environment. Start thinking critically.

Inspiration from the experts

A lot of experts in different industries think about creativity a lot more than most of us and happily share their ideas across social media platforms. If you’re on Twitter, once a week search for #creative and/or #design. You’ll be amazed at all the ideas you find and how you can apply them to any task or problem you are trying to solve.

A few links to check out:

  1. The lifehacker.com website is the king of creativity ideas, including this one on–you guessed it–9 ideas for boosting creativity by Gregory Ciotti.
  2. Jonathan Gunston of bestsellerlabs.com writes about coping with writer’s block with great ideas for moving beyond “stuck” that are relevant for everybody, not just writers.
  3.  I ran across a blog post at destination-innovation.com talking about what not to say when you hear a new idea at work. The advice works at home, too.
  4.  Gretchen Rubin’s happiness-project.com blog and related books are full of thoughtful yet fun ideas for boosting happiness, which contain big doses of creativity-boosting ideas as well.

Get Moving

I’m probably not the first one to say that getting the blood flowing will help generate new ideas.

  1. Take a walk to gain a fresh perspective both by boosting endorphins and making your eyes focus on something new.
  2. Swimming in a pool creates a rhythm without being hard on your feet while a beach swim is a feast for the senses—the sound of waves, the grit of sand, the smell of coconut oil. I always get new ideas while water walking.
  3. Stretching is amazingly underrated. Yoga is a good time investment but so is just simply stretching at home. Dr. Mehmet Oz has a wonderful website with stretching videos and instructions.

As the writer of the Emilia Cruz mystery series I can always use more ideas for boosting creativity. Do you have a tip to share?

creativity

 

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Book Review: THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron

Book Review: THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron

Feb 22, 2024 |

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron is a must-read spy vs spy thriller. Like John le Carré’s A LEGACY OF SPIES, which tells the backstory of his iconic spy thriller THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, this tale of espionage cross and double-cross reveals past lives of...

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New Audiobook! Listen to LISTMAKER

New Audiobook! Listen to LISTMAKER

Feb 15, 2024 |

The audiobook version of the Detective Emilia Cruz novella, THE LISTMAKER OF ACAPULCO was just released on Audible. This is a “Virtual Voice” audiobook from Amazon. It sounds surprisingly lifelike but the voice is not a human narrator. If you have listened to any of...

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About the time I went to Fiji

About the time I went to Fiji

Feb 27, 2013 | #truestory

Arriving in Fiji alone at 1:00 am after a 12-hour flight was unnerving but that’s the way the flights went so there I was, in the middle of the Pacific, with a heavy suitcase, an even heavier bag of scuba gear, and reservations for a hotel that was 20 miles away. I’d never been in Fiji before.

The Fiji You Don’t Know

A nation of islands, Fiji was a former British colony. When the Brits found out that it was the ideal climate for sugar cane, Indian workers from the subcontinent were brought in the raise the crop. Sugar cane passport and shellsbecame Fiji’s main export, sweetening British candy and giving rise to local rum production as well. But land in Fiji–and accompanying political power–is reserved for native-born Fijians, disenfranchising the Indian population. As the Indian population grew to rival that of native-born Fijians, the unequal status was more apparent. The Indian population’s economic and political power grew with the population, until an Indian was elected prime minister. A racially-motivated coup by a native Fijian army officer was swift and bloodless. It returned the former native Fijian prime minister to an interim status but a second coup occurred when the army ringleader took power himself.

The second coup had occurred two weeks before my arrival.

The Taxi Driver I Didn’t Know

I was wary but determined as I hauled my heavy bags outside the terminal to be directed into a taxi driven by a turbaned Indian gentleman. We headed off in the pitch-black Pacific night for Suva, the capital. The taxi was tooling along nicely until we came to an army roadblock. A single Fijian soldier stood guard, wearing a military uniform shirt tucked into a traditional Fijian sulu, or kilt, and sandals. He had an assault rifle, a flashlight, and a long wooden barrier.

Related: Talking money in Papua New Guinea

The Soldier I Wish I Knew

Let me digress here and say that Fijian men are the most handsome men on earth. Apologies to singer Ricky Martin; Karl Urban–the New Zealander who played Eomer in the Lord of the Rings movies; and my husband (whom I hadn’t yet met.) Fijian men are Pacific gods. All are about seven feet tall, muscular to the point of sculpture, and have deliciously dark hair and eyes.

So back to the car. The driver stopped the vehicle in front of the barrier. From my vantage point in the back seat I saw him sweat and shake as the soldier and his nice gun approached. The driver stared ahead, steering wheel locked in a death grip, and didn’t acknowledge the soldier.

For whatever reason I rolled down my window, smiled shakily, and held out my American passport.

The soldier bent down to peer at me through the open window. Up close he was gorgeous; dark mustache  lose-yourself-in-them brown eyes, perfect teeth. “Hello,” he said, making it sound as if I was the woman he’d been waiting for all his life.

“Hello,” I replied, now confused as well as nervous.

He stepped away from the car and studied my passport in the beam of his flashlight. There were no streetlights, no other cars, the airport far behind, the empty road unspooling in front of us only to disappear into the darkness. The taxi driver continued to shake like soupy gelatin.

The soldier came back to the car and leaned down to look at me again through the window. He handed back the passport. “Goodbye,” he said, infusing his voice with Casablanca-like drama.

“Goodbye,” I said, matching his emotional tone.

He moved the barrier, the taxi driver gave a little sob, and we sped off, leaving Sergeant Fiji by the side of the road.

Related: Open Letter to Readers about Sex

In Retrospect

I was reminded of this episode  when I recently unpacked a box of souvenirs. I’d made the first move in a tense situation by offering my passport to the soldier. He was alone in the dark and probably as nervous as that taxi driver. Would things have gone differently if I’d waited for the taxi driver to do something or for the soldier to demand some identification or payment?

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Fiji

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

Fiji

3 Latinas Who Inspired Fiction’s Newest Crimefighter

3 Latinas Who Inspired Fiction’s Newest Crimefighter

Jan 30, 2013 | #EmiliaCruz

Police detective Emilia Cruz is the main character in CLIFF DIVER, the first novel in my new mystery series set in Acapulco. She’s the first and only female police detective in Acapulco, a strong Latina woman who knows the value of family, how to fight for what she wants, and how to hold her own in a squadroom full of male cops who don’t want her and are still trying to break her.

These qualities were inspired by three real-life Latina women whose stories provide inspiration, not only to lovers of mystery series, but for us all.

Marlen Esparza

Marlen Esparza from Vugue magazine

Marlen Esparza photo courtesy of Vogue.com

Known For: Bronze medal winner for women’s boxing at the 2012 London Olympics, as well as 6 US national championships, a gold medal at the 2008 Pan Am Games, and a bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships.

Qualities That Matter: As Esparza’s talents moved her from her Houston neighborhood and into the international spotlight as the first US female Olympic boxer, she hasn’t lost her connection to her roots. In an interview with USA Today’s Hispanic Living magazine she said that when she came home after London, “I realized for me, it was about the gold medal, but for other people it wasn’t about the gold medal. It was how I made something out of nothing.”

Emilia Cruz learned to fight as a young girl as well, tagging along with her male cousins. Her skill lets her defend herself and blow off steam by kickboxing. It also helped her climb the police ranks.

Quote: If you really know…what you want and how to get there, then everything else really falls into place. (Cosmopolitan Magazine)

America Ferrera

America Ferrera 2012

America Ferrera photo courtesy of examiner.com

Known For: Her award-winning role as Betty Suarez in the series Ugly Betty and movies such as The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and 2012’s cop thriller End of Watch. In addition to her film work she’s an advocate for Voto Latino.

Qualities That Matter: Onscreen, Ferrera is fierce, able to project true depth of emotion. The scene in the first The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants in which she sobs out pent-up anger to her father over the phone is a riveting piece of acting. She perfectly captured the gritty cop vibe in End of Watch; the movie’s prep included police academy training and rode with LA cops. Despite her success she comes across in interviews as friendly, normal, and happily resistant to Hollywood elitism.

Emilia Cruz has that same combination of toughness, emotional vulnerability, and frankness.

Quote: On being a producer and creator: It takes you away from that whiny, “Why aren’t there any roles for me?” place to “I’m going to create a path that feels right to me.” (Jezebel magazine, 11 Feb 2010)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Judge Sotomayor

Justice Sonia Sotomayor photo courtesy of biography.com

Known For: First Hispanic judge on the US Supreme Court. Author of memoir, My Beloved World.

Qualities That Matter: Justice Sotomayor doesn’t give up when the going gets tough, as she’s described in interviews about her college experience. Not only was she very much a minority at Princeton, but she struggled with college-level writing skills in English, her second language. She attacked the problem directly, asking professors what was wrong with her papers and taking classes with professors who could help—even if they were tough teachers. An admittedly stubborn person, in an interview she recently said that she has a “personal need to persevere, to fight the fight. And if you just try and be stubborn about trying you can do what you set your mind to.” (Interview with Scott Pelley, CBS News, 13 Jan 2013)

Emilia Cruz has to be tough in the same way. If she backs down, she won’t achieve her goals. Or respect herself. But it means she’s often in opposition to powerful forces in Mexico: corruption, cartels, and a culture of machismo.

Quote: Don’t ever stop dreaming, don’t ever stop trying, there’s courage in trying. (Bronx Children’s Museum gala, quoted by CBS News, 11 Jan 2013))

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Latinas who inspired

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

Latinas who inspired

The mysterious case of 4 Jars of Inspiration

The mysterious case of 4 Jars of Inspiration

Jan 29, 2013 | #authorlife

Ready to sweeten life? Throw out a sour mindset?

As the author of a mystery series–a relatively solitary occupation–I can’t afford to let my inspiration  ebb away. I’m constantly looking for new sources of motivation, the confidence to tackle new projects, an trying to keep negative thoughts (I’ll never sell a book again) at bay.

Here are a couple of ideas to keep the inspiration flowing and the motivation high. Go get a couple of empty jars, some paper to cut into slips, and a pen. Now.  Really.

The Small Victories Jar

This is a variation on one of the rituals I wrote about in a New Year’s blog post. Keep a jar somewhere you’ll see it every day before you go to bed, along with some slips of paper and a pen. Before you go to bed write down at least one small achievement for that day. Maybe you resisted temptation and didn’t buy a latte. Maybe you didn’t make a cutting remark to that co-worker. Maybe you got that report done on time.

When you are feeling blue, read the slips of paper that have accumulated. You will realize that you have more strength than you thought.

The Memory Jar

This suggestion for a jar comes from www.shoegirlcorner.com. (She’s nice. Read her blog.) Her suggestion is to write down good things that happen and put them in a jar. Date the slips of paper and write a short description of the event. To take it a step further, have everyone in the family contribute. Pull the papers out and read them on special occasions or anytime you are feeling nostalgic.

The Pay It Forward Jar

The December edition of InStyle magazine had this tip in its Entertaining section. When you are hosting a party, fill a jar with notes that contain a suggestion for random acts of kindness. As your guests depart, let them each pull out a suggestion they could do the next day, such as “Let someone else go first in line” or Compliment a stranger.”

Take this one step further by pulling out a suggestion yourself once a week or so. See if what they say about acts of kindness rebounding on the giver comes true.

The Purposeful Tip Jar

When I was young, my family held formal meetings where we made group decisions about things like buying a new television. We took turns recording the minutes (years later my mother and I found my sister’s entries in the meeting notebook and laughed until we cried) and all contributed to the fund for big purchases. The lesson about incremental saving was a powerful one.

Start saving change with a specific goal in mind. It is amazing how much change we all have lying around. Gather it up, put a label on a jar and give it a purpose. Not only will it ensure that pennies don’t get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner but when you have saved enough for the item, you can put a new entry into the Small Victories jar!

Do you have a suggestion for creating inspiration? I’d love to hear it!

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sweeten life

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

The Friday Fiesta: From Guatemala to Antarctica, with Museums and Manners, too

Jan 25, 2013 | #noticed

bottle with sailing ship insideAs a fiction author I love to weave  unique cultural gems into the plot. Most of the time I draw on my own world travels and experiences living in Mexico and Central America.

In these Friday Fiesta posts I highlight cultural stories worth celebrating. The unique, the odd, the thought-provoking. Enjoy and share to make the world a little smaller today.

Navigating the Ship of State in Guatemala

With an intro that declares “A potential “failed state” is clawing its way back to something like normality,” the online version of The Economist magazine recently took a look at Guatemala. Last week, after being in office for a year, President Otto Pérez Molina pointed to improvements in security, public health and fiscal reform. The murder rate has gone down substantially, more criminals are getting caught and punished—including corrupt police—and “the death rate among those with acute malnutrition has fallen by half.” The president’s job can’t be easy in Guatemala which had a 36-year civil war; half of children under five suffer from malnutrition and drug cartels help keep it on the list of the top 20 most violent places in the world. But even slight progress is better than no progress at all.

#FollowaMuseum

With the teaser “A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive,” the folks behind the culturethemes.blogspot.de blog work to promote museum exhibits and other big cultural events by asking folks to join Twitter hashtag tweet fests related to those events. The next one is 1 February. Tweet a great museum experience, with the museum’s handle, using hashtag #FollowaMuseum. You’ll get a culture fix and great ideas for your next outing.

Antarctica Rescue Goes “Forward”

Hard to imagine for many of us, but it is the Antarctic summer right now. This means nearly 24 hours of light, manageable temperatures, fewer wind and ice storms. Yep, it’s the South Pole tourist season, the height of international travel. But Antarctica and the seas around it are never danger free as the cruise ship Fram recently found out. Incidentally the word “fram” means “forwards” in Norwegian. The cruise liner is the namesake of Roald Amundsen’s much more famous ship Fram, now on display in Oslo in the museum I’ll be tweeting about next week! But I digress. The good news here is that when today’s Fram was caught in pack ice off the coast of Antarctica, ice-breaking vessel HMS Protector, on patrol in the region, was able to “crack through the 13-foot-thick ice that had encircled the cruise liner.” Neither ship was damaged and no one was hurt. Skol!

Mind Your Manners

Simply put, I love this website. Etiquettescholar.com gives you tips for manners everywhere. From table settings, to wine selection to tea etiquette, the website is a fund of information to help you enjoy smooth sailing anywhere (okay, maybe I’m taking the ship theme a bit too far.) Surf around the sight before your next international travel for some great tips.

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Friday Fiesta: The Real Big Bird, Famous Birthdays, and Beer for Fido

Jan 11, 2013 | #noticed

Coming 30 January! CLIFF DIVER: An Emilia Cruz Noveldog in birthday hatAs a fiction and mystery author I love to weave  unique cultural gems into the plot. Most of the time I draw on my own world travels and experiences living in Mexico and Central America.

In these Friday Fiesta posts I highlight cultural stories worth celebrating. The unique, the odd, the thought-provoking. Join the movement and share your own good news stories on Twitter with hashtag #FridayFiesta.

Red Robin

The 1to1media.com website carried this super story about the Red Robin restaurant chain’s official policy of random act of kindness. Red Robin’s signature “Ymmmmm” also means that management and wait staff are empowered to cut customers’ bills, offer on-the-spot specials for customer events and other actions that elicit customer testimonials. We’re not talking just a few comments a sidebar. There are so many comments on the Red Robin website that it is a whole section. Now go get a burger.

Sistine Chapel aged 500 and colder

About three years I was lucky enough to tour the Vatican. I walked through the Sistine Chapel with my head canted back in awe and the rest of me roasting in a herd of tour groups. This amazing space celebrated its 500th anniversary last October and several websites like the Cultural Travel Guide celebrated the occasion with a story or retrospective. But keeping this 500-year-old wonder in good shape is a herculean act of historic preservation: dust, dander and other “bodily debris” from the thousands of tourists who pass through every day dirty it up. The UK’s Guardian quoted the director of the Vatican museums, Antonio Paolucci as saying that the Vatican will install a special carpet and air handling systems to ensure that “visitors who traipse sweat, dust, skin flakes and hair into the 16th-century chapel will be ‘dusted, cleaned and chilled.’” Maybe next time I’ll bring a sweater. One that doesn’t shed, of course.

A Tubular Birthday

London’s subway system, the Tube, is 150 years old this year. Guardian reporter Stephen Moss celebrated with a 52-mile ride on the Central line, including the 6 miles used before 1994. His commentary is consummately British and clever (From Epping I go just one stop – to Theydon Bois. I’ve never been to Theydon Bois, but have always been captivated by the name, which suggests a Victorian actor-manager or a well-meaning but talentless amateur captain of the England cricket team c 1910) and the journey, as well as key moments in Tube history, comes to life in his words. He does mention the price of a go-anywhere ticket, which made me gulp, but it is a ride on a piece of history.

Beer in the Doghouse

According to paste.com, Boneyard Brewery in Bend, Oregon, has created an alcohol-free beer for dogs made of vegetable broth, water and spent grain from the brewery. Paste.com says the beer, which is sold in 16 ounce bottles, can be enjoyed by Fido as a treat by itself or mixed with dry food for the ultimate dinner. Let the party start!

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The Friday Fiesta: An Outdoor Seat, Music, Chocolate, and a Story

Jan 4, 2013 | #noticed

As a fiction author I love to weave  unique cultural gems into the plot. Most of the time I draw on my own world travels and experiences living in Mexico and Central America.

In these Friday Fiesta posts I highlight cultural stories worth celebrating. The unique, the odd, the thought-provoking. Enjoy and share to make the world a little smaller today.

Have a Seat

The website theverybestop10.com brings us a montage of park benches around the world that is surprisingly startling and thought-provoking and nearly had me running for my passport. From a bench that looks as if it is part of a giant slingshot by German artist Cornelia Konrads to book-shaped benches in Istanbul and a shark attack bench in Bangkok, these photos and the imagination behind them are a guaranteed smile. Check it out—there might be a bench near you.

The Landfillharmonic

There are a few YouTube videos on the small orchestra created in Cateura, Paraguay, using instruments made from trash from a local landfill. I recommend a quick view of this 3 minute short. The stringed instruments sport odd shapes and labels from the boxes, cans, and other containers cannibalized to make them but the music—and obvious dedication of the music teacher–is worth celebrating. You can check out this Facebook page for more about the orchestra and the documentary about it from an often overlooked part of the world.

Saving Chocolate

The cultureist.com online magazine—one of my favorite feel-good online locations—carried this interesting story about cocoa farmers in the impoverished Democratic Republic of the Congo. Candy maker Theo is producing two new organic, fair trade certified chocolate bars: Pili Pili Chili, “an intensely warming blend of cocoa, vanilla, and spicy peppers; and Vanilla Nib, a scrumptious mix of cocoa, creamy vanilla, and crunchy cocoa nibs.” The website reports that Theo says the “fast-growing, high-yield crop requires minimal re-planting, prevents deforestation, commands solid global prices, and is a major source of income.” Theo chocolate is sold online and at Whole Foods Market stores.

Story Sees the Light of Day

“The Tallow Candle,” a handwritten early story by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Anderson—author of “The Little Mermaid” and other famous tales–was recently unearthed in a box of miscellany by local historian Esben Brage in the National Archive in Odense, Andersen’s home town. Published in English by Danish media outlet politiken.dk after validation by experts including Ejnar Stig Askgaard of the Odense City Museum, Bruno Svindborg of the Royal Library and Professor Johan de Myliu, you can read it here. As the UK’s guardian.co.uk reported, “The story tells of a little candle, dirtied by life and misunderstood, which eventually finds happiness after a tinder box sees the good at its heart and lights it.” Given the news lately, this discovery is pretty timely. We all need a little more light in our lives.

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Walking the Mouth of Hell

Walking the Mouth of Hell

Dec 28, 2012 | #booknews

warning signI ended up with the yellow hard hat but what I really needed were safety goggles. My eyes watered from the cinders in the air. Heat rose from the black porous rocks that lined the uphill path and within minutes my jeans were damp with sweat. The smells of sulphur, rotten egg, brimstone, eddied in the strong wind.

We were climbing the marked paths around the multiple calderas of the still-active Masaya Volcano, 23 kilometers from Managua. The area is a well-preserved Nicaraguan national park–the country’s first–that includes Volcán Nindirí, which last erupted in 1670, and Volcán Masaya, which blew in 1772. The relatively new Santiago Crater was formed between the other two in 1852. Moon Guides has more about the volcano here.

park entrance Masaya

Masaya is a well laid out national park

Masaya crater

Steam billows from the Santiago crater, which experienced a partial eruption in April 2012

At the top of the first rise, we turned and tried to catch our breaths, heat wafting up from the path that wasn’t so much of a path as it was a long series of steps cut into the sides of the craters. The visitor’s center only a few kilometers from the park entrance had offered an informative series of rooms about geology, tectonic plates, Central America’s volcanoes and other scary things cloaked in science, where we’d learned that the Masaya volcano occasionally belched out the type of magma that hardened into lava bombs upon exit. The steps we climbed were bound by lumber and these big lava chunks.

rocks

Bubbly black lava rock was everywhere

We found the relatively small San Francisco crater at the top of the path. San Francisco was long dormant and the big bowl in the ground was now covered in grass and scrubby shrubs, with the occasional yellow flower poking through. As I looked over the stunning landscape with the crater at my back, the wind threatened to whip the camera out of my hand.

crater

The San Francisco crater looks like a green bowl

Nearly a mile away, we could see the smoking Santiago caldera. Above it was the cross placed there in 1529 by Father Francisco Bobadilla to exorcise the demons he believed lived within. The Spanish explorer Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo called the smoking volcano the “mouth of hell.” He had himself and another man, Friar Blas del Castillo, lowered into the caldera thinking to find gold there. He didn’t find gold but probably spent the next two days blowing ash out of his nose and wondering why his ear wax had turned black.

cross above volcano

The cross high above the volcano dates from 1529. The walkway to it is closed due to landslides.

Mother Earth has a sense of humor, I thought to myself as I watched steam billow out of the Santiago crater. It was a unique sight. Powerful and a little scary. We watched the steam drift, getting thicker and thicker, until it obscured the far side of the crater’s lip.

When we’d first driven up to the main viewing area, along a curving road that led up from the visitor center and the guard who handed out the hard hats, we’d been able to see maybe a third of the edge but now most was hidden behind a white cloud. All parking was facing out, in case an evacuation was in order. The wall built at a low point in the crater’s lip barely came to our knees but any rush of vertigo was lost in the stunning view.

sign

In case the lava bombs start falling and we have to know which way to run

We started back down, our shoes crunching on the black lava gravel. We were heated by the rocks but cooled by the wind. I started thinking about some of the other odd places I’d been and the risks I’d taken and the choices I’d made.

drop off edge

The Santiago crater is 1640 feet wide and 656 feet deep. I didn’t measure it.

volcano plain

Looking out over the plain at the craters left by the inactive volcanoes

signs

Older signs are scratched and damaged by eruptions

Masaya volcano

An incredible, majestic view

An active volcano is an unexpected thing, a sign that the solid earth is alive and moving to its own inner music. We can’t control it, which means there are risks along the lava path. But when you reach the top, inspiration and power are there for the sharing.

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volcano

CARMEN AMATO

Mystery and thriller author. Retired Central Intelligence Agency intel officer. Dog mom to Hazel and Dutch. Recovering Italian handbag addict.

 

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