By now some of you are wondering: Why isn’t Lucia posting? Has she fallen into a crevasse? Is she drinking too much? Having a depressive episode? Oddly, none of those are the reason. The reason is odder still.
That’s right. During vacation, the subject of Dad’s funeral kept coming up. Aspects were sufficiently crazy that it was hard to say very little, but on the other hand, saying anything more was… well… Anyone who has one of those functional/dysfunctional families (which is nearly everyone) will understand that weddings and funerals can be weird. While driving down, I related a conversation with my neighbor, during which I mentioned the family behavior was crazy. She said, “I’m Sicilian. You don’t have to tell me!” She and I agreed that crazy funerals would be so much more bearable if one were a Larry David sort and able to turn it into a book. We also both agreed we were not Larry David sorts.
But Jim’s reaction was: Why not write it? He pointed out that after his Father died, he felt he had to make a DVD of his Dad’s life and he felt he had to do things like frame some photos he found and so on. Even if my book is terrible, it will likely be cathartic for me. Also, even if he’s the only reader, it might be fun to read. He also reminded me: When writing, remember your Dad’s advice and grins. Of course I knew what mantra he meant.
So we joked on the way down, I came up with names and so on. We mentioned it to all the cousins all of whom heard bits and want me to write a book. Mind you: My thought is I am unlikely to have any talent. Still, with work, I can write a book that at least Jim, his cousins and a subset of my relatives will enjoy.
When I returned, I resolved to write the book. Sort of. I first decided I needed to read some “how to write fiction” books. I found two that help me. The steps involving developing both characters advise characters need to be complex; those on plot point out the need for “disasters”. Achieving both goals required me to imitate Dorothy of Oz, click my heels and repeat this mantra over and over,
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”
I have now finished on Step 9 from “How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method”. Tomorrow (or the next day) I start step 10. I’m sure I will continue to repeat the mantra while doing so.
For those wondering, step 1 is writing a one sentence summary. Really. This is it:
Among other things, this sentences is supposed to help me when “marketing” my book. I’m supposed to trap book publishers and agents in elevators, tell them “I am so exited about my new project!” and then blurt out the one sentence before they have a chance to escape. This is supposed to make them say, “Wow! How (unique|interesting|positive adjective or your choice)! Tell me more!”
I’m then supposed to tell them my five sentence summary (which is step 2.)
The book also warns trapped book publishers will not often not ask me to tell them more. I assume you do not necessarily want to read the five sentence summary and so am not inserting it here. I know for sure you do not want to read step 9 which is the excel spread sheet detailing scenes.
Rather: I assume most of you are wondering about my point in blogging this. My point is to let you know that blogging is going to be very, very, very light until I either get board of trying to write “the great American novel” or I finish writing “the great American novel”. I have no idea which event will happen first nor when either will happen. (Odds makers can decide.)
Obviously, I’m neglecting all the bettors, but so I need to:
- Announce winners. Tomorrow really is a natural gap day. Based on advise and some reading I’ve assigned myself before step 10, which is a crucial part. So, I might actually do that. (Obviously, I broke my most recent proclamation about resuming blogging.)
- Get someone to post on the status of sea ice. (Volunteers? If you can make graphs and show averages that would be great.)
- Post new bet forms.
- Post topical open threads. (There’s a lot about Steyn going on. I’ve read it… but didn’t post.
Anyway: Sorry for neglecting everyone. But, oddly, I need to do this. It’s actually fun for me, though obviously, it’s killing the blog. I’ll at least try to keep it open for people to discuss as it’s good for that.
Hey, no worries.
Life happens. I agree it will probably be cathartic to write that book.
Thanks Anthony. Step 10 is “writing the first draft”. In the interest of minimizing rewrites I hunted for and found an article called “Writing Really Good Dialog”. So, I have to do a little of that sort of reading before writing the first scene. (The ‘snowflake’ book seems good at telling you how to balance your plot and your characters and keeping track of stuff so the fair skinned green eyed blond introduced in chapter 1 hasn’t turned into a mocha-chocolat creole lady marmalade in chapter 3. Even if her appearance isn’t crucial to the story, you don’t really want it to change (unless that’s part of the plot, of course.)
I have a draft post done on translation of IPCC estimates of forcing to effective climate sensitivity. I will try to have it fixed up before the weekend. I’m pretty sure at least Nick Stokes will be inspired to comment; but some may not like it.
Great! Some not liking it is fine. That fosters discussion.
:> That’s way neat Lucia.
Well, I don’t know that I’d enjoy reading a summary, but I hope I get a chance to read the final product (or something close) someday. I hope you get it published (if you finish it) or elect to post parts of it maybe or something.
Lucia,
By some mild parallel I am reading an excellent alternative history, “Papa and Fidel” by Karl Alexander. It recounts the Cuban adventures that might have been if Fidel and Hemingway had become pals. Your father’s Cuban roots makes me think you might like the story. I only mention this because a dimension you might find invigorating and inspirational to explore is to create your own universe. God only knows you have the technical horsepower for it, and your frequent references to your many creative talents. Be bold and not only think outside the box, create your own box and then step out of it. There is probably a rule 11 in writing about unsolicited advice, but you didn’t mention it. ;^) Best wishes on your endeavor. I think I would join many here in saying that I look forward to reading your family’s stories, in whatever genre you choose to create it.
hunter
The current book happens on earth and no one famous appears in it. I’m setting it in Milwaukee, changing everyone’s names, pruned us down to 3 siblings, some people have combined characteristics– and there is no attempt to have any one person match any one real person.
But some of the things happened. For example: Dad really did want his ashes placed in a bottle of Jack Daniels and hurled towards Cuba (of if that was impossible in the Gulf of Mexico.)
In the real life event: Everyone including my Mom– the ex-wife– agrees Dad wanted his ashes doused in Jack Daniels. Dad bought a commemorative bottle at the distillery. He knew no one would drink the contents because the distillery is in a dry county, so it’s colored water. But we are to use that bottle and we have it. For various and sundry reasons (that will become clear in the book) Dad entrusted Jim with the bottle and it’s been in our pantry for years. When I was talking about needed to buy a bottle, Jim said, “Silly, silly. It’s in the pantry!”
But in the book, that will happen a little differently because I need to let the readers know about Dad’s wish early in the plot line. So…. I need to change things. But, in real life, the daughter really does want to fulfill her Dad’s wish about the Jack Daniels. (There are still some “happenings” going on. But turns out I don’t need to know the outcome to write the book.)
When we were discussing the “certain best seller”, we would discuss different things that happened. Sometimes I would say, “That’s for the sequel.” Obviously, if this book did get published and sold millions, I would take to writing more. In which case, I might try things involving historic events. But more likely…. I’d take inspiration from the photo of my Dad’s grandpa the Tamany Hall Connected Judge with Fidel. Really. I have such a photo. But that’s also a story–a very short one.
I suspect my mother’s family has just as many colorful characters as Dad’s. But Dad’s family moto of “never let the truth ruin a good story” along with the tendency to tell all the stories means I have relatives we refer to as:
1) Grand Pa Harry’s uncle “wink-wink” Bill Tiernan who owned a bar but was rumored to do other things (inter alia run rum… but that’s not why the family called him “wink wink”. Everyone ran rum.)
2) An aunt my sisters and I refer to as “Aunt Spawn” (short for “spawn of satan”.)
3) Cousin Sebastian the French Foreign Legionaire who ended up a professor in New Zealand.
4) Maria who seems to have been a kept woman…
5) Uncle “Wink-winks” twin brother John who was a law professor at Notre Dame but got involved in a divorce, custody and possible bigamy scandal that was of sufficient interest to be covered in the New York times. (If I recall correctly, the either not-ex or ex husband was a haberdasher or something like that. )
With all these people in my family, I don’t need to make up Fidel meeting Hemingway. I can just consult my inadequate knowledge of all these people and embroider their lives.
With some luck, ( and careful application of alcohol) I could get other family stories out of other people. But none of those do anyone any good if they don’t learn how to pace stories, turn the cartoon of real people into good fictional characters, write good dialog and so on. Whether I can remains to be seen.
Quite likely, this story will be read by.. oh…10 people!
Good luck with the writing.
check out Smashwords.com and Createspace.com for alternative publishing outlets.
Writing is good for the soul…playing the publisher’s game is not.
enjoy life
kaluza
Lucia, once the first draft is written, is it possible to ensure that no copy-editors get to correct it, since I for one find that your, er, “idiosyncratic” relationship with spelling and grammer is a delight to read!
Charles,
My thoughts are: You try to get a publisher but limit the time window for that. Then you self publish– even if it’s only an e-book.
Steve Ta.
I’ll need a copy editor for typos, grammar, commas, to verify typesetting conventions. An example of the latter: some people italicize internal speech (that is, when someone thinks a sentence, but doesn’t say it), some people don’t. But whichever one does, it should be consistent. Obviously, an author can check that themselves, but at some point, it really is good for someone else to look at it.
That said: I’m not going to worry about that until I have a draft. (I already know who can do the cover art. And no, I don’t mean Uncle John who was a “Mad Man”. He could have 20 years ago, but I doubt he’s 80 now. I don’t think he’s used his crayons in a long time. )
Steve Ta,
If this works, at some point, I can create a character whose speech will fulfill your dreams for ‘idiosyncratic’. Also, some stuff will be communicated by email. Typos and poor grammar are required in that.
In fact… it might be a good idea to give that characteristic to the “Irene” character. (That one does many of the things I actually did in life– like shepherd my father from Florida to “Milwaukee”).
My sister sent me a “Dear Annie” type email where a guy claiming to be a college professor complained about his wife accidentally making up words. One of the words was “bomblastic”. I ran to the basement, found a nearly unused spiral notebook, wrote “Great neologisms” at the top, and then wrote “bomblastic”. This is a great word which quite obviously means someone who blast bombastic language at the top of their lungs.
If the book becomes a best seller, you can take credit for planting the seed of this idea. 🙂
“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”
Lucia,
Being a book reader of some notoriety, I can only say that sometimes the truth is the best story. Carry on.
Andrew
Lucia,
A friend is in the process of changing careers from civil engineer to author as retirement approaches and after half a dozen novels, several short stories, and numerous non-fiction articles on a variety of professional and historical topics is firmly convinced that self-publishing is the only route for new authors. The reasons are 1) traditional publishers have no interest in newbies, 2) they make you do all the promotional work anyway, 3) they only pick up a microscopic number of authors, 4) traditional publishing is fading away, and 5) self-publishing is flexible and rapid (once you learn the required technology). You fortunately already have a web presence so getting noticed won’t be as hard as it is for an unknown. For now concentrate on the writing; the business stuff can wait. You might consider lining up some beta readers to critique the first few chapters. It will be easier to correct novice writer “idiosyncrasies” before they become habits deeply embedded in the story. Find folks you trust to be critical, who know grammar, and like reading.
lucia,
The advice given me by an acquaintance of mine who is a career editor of significant success is that if you want to write, write. Piers Anthony, the SF author, has a forrmula about writing: Of 100 people who want to write a novel, one will. Of 100 who do write a novel, 1 will get published to some acclaim. His formula predates the age of easy self-publishing, but I think it is nevertheless an interesting comment and corallary on the editor’s advice which summed up is “writer’s write”. Which is of course borrowed from the Billy Crystal character in “Through Momma From the Train”.
I think any tall tales about your father’s time in Cuba would fascinating and colorful. He would have been a relatively young man in Cuba when Castro took over. That was a wild time on so many levels that your motto, never let truth get in the way of a good story, could really work well for giving meat to your story.
Good luck and great success in your project,
Good luck and great success with your project.
Gary
That’s my plan. To be fair to “the Snowflake Method” book, it’s oriented of focusing on writing, not marketing. So, the main reason for writing the sentences is to focus the author herself on what the book is about and to figure out what’s important. It’s supposed to describe the ‘story goal(s)’ (here: get Dad into proper care facility, later more specifically, fling the ashes) and the conflict that might prevent the story goal from being achieved.
That actually helped me a lot because knowing what is not important helps me know what sorts of episodes to leave out. I also know that I need to get the topic of “the final wish about the ashes” introduced early.
That said: When something serves a double purpose, the author of the snowflake method book mentions it. So, the 1 sentence happens to serve a double purpose. After all, if it tells the author what the book is about, it also can be used to tell a potential publisher what the book is about. But I wrote it for the first purpose. I just tall all a’ y’all the other one.
lucia,
Maybe, but you might be surprised when you open it.
Writing is hard work. I wish you all the best.
If you want ice charts, I have lots.
hunter,
I agree with that advise. I told Jim my goal is to have a first draft within 1 month of the end of my vacation. Because I couldn’t just sit down and start writing the novel (which is, evidently the “Steven King) method, and I couldn’t just write an entire outline for the whole flipping week (which is evidently the “Robert Ludlum” method) I budgeted week 1 to reading books on “how to write”. Jim lookes a bit askance when I told him that. I inferred he thought it was a “delaying tactic”. But I got two books from the library, got one from Barnes and Nobles and one from Amazon.
I quickly figured out that the one from the library was useless for me. (I’m advised to find my inner child, or get therapy to delve into my soul. Obviously, if I don’t know where my inner child is, I’m not going to find it in a month!) The other one is less loosie-goosie, but also doesn’t give concrete info.
The other two are useful to me. I’m now doing delaying tactics of “visting the mother in law” (which needs to be done.) I’m reading “how to write diaglog” and such like (because really, I do need that advice).
But by tomorrow, I must start chapter 1. If it’s crap, it’s crap. One thing I can already tell: Like computer programming, if something is wrong, you can fix it. During development a buggy program never breaks the computer, or kills the programer and so on. It can be fixed.
So: yes. Write. (The novel. Not comments at my blog.)
BTW: other good reason for short delay between banging out outline and starting chapter 1. I added a sentences to include both the Jack Daniels bottle and a bottle of Bacardi. The latter is useful for the Cuba connection and has some symbolism. (Bacardi family started in Cuba. (See wikipedia “… José set up a Santiago de Cuba distillery”. Dad’s great grandfather manufactured and sold pumps used in distilleries. His factory was in Santiago. )
These tid bits are not important, but a slew of them have been bubbling up since I finished the outline. Each needs to be “dropped” in the “right place”. They are small– but I think important.
“how to write diaglog†– another word for the neologisms?
DeWitt–
Do you want to blog the ice charts?
Oh- hunter. Ideas for ‘sequels’ bubble up. So, I need a notebook for those. Dad in Cuba can have its own story. Of course it’s also fictionalized. It also doesn’t happen to be this story. Jim and I discussed Dad’s Cuba story. I told Jim some of those stories belong in the “sequel”. We both laughed.
Then I thought of a title.
The working title for the book you are suggesting is “3rd generation sunburn”. That title is why the “Dad” in the story needs to be blond– just as Dad was. (OMG. I just googled the Dad’s great-grandpa’s last name: http://where-is.biz/index.php?qcountry_code=CU&qregion_code=15&qcity=Auza Note proximity to Santiago, Cuba! )
SteveTa,
Heh!! 🙂
lucia,
You are approaching this as only an engineer can ;^).
If the story veers into the SF/fantasy world, let me know. I can give you a contact in that world (and lives not far from you) who may have some ideas to offer. The assimilation of the many threads of Latin culture into the USA, and the varied impact of that dynamic assimilation process is one of the frontiers of literature. Your life falls into that broad range in many ways. The mid-west sensibility and tech-goddess pov you bring makes this even more interesting and compelling.
Write on, lucia.
Kurt Vonnegut cuts to the chase with this advice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
Hunter,
Things about assimilation you are saying are true. But the first book isn’t ‘about’ that. It contains references to Cuba only to the extent that (a) Dad did live there and (b) Dad did wish to have his ashes flung. But it has to be clear that the family did not flee from post Castro Cuba. After all: My Dad spent a large portion of his childhood in Cuba, but he was born in NY. His father was the son of a Tammany hall politician. Beyond that, in real live, my grandmother Lucia’s father was an American civil engineer from Missouri. Her mother was born in Cuba, but was sent to boarding school in…. Philadelphia!
So, my Cuban grandmother was a natural born US citizen; she did not need to naturalize to get US citizenship. She was a dual citizen at birth. When grandma-Lucia’s father moved the family back to the US, her mother already had friends in NY — these were girls who’d also gone to boarding school in Philadelphia.
That side of the family kept moving back and forth between Latin America and the US. The family does capture some Latin flavors, but these are somewhat idiosyncratic. This experiences is not going to match that of most recent immigrants (or possibly anyone). If the book is good, they might appreciate the Cuba/Latin America hooks. But they won’t be picking up many latin culture vibes in any book about my family. Certainly not the present book because these vibes won’t be in this book which is about things that happened after 2007.
Excellent project.
November is National Novel Writing Month, but there is no reason not to do it earlier. One month for 50,000 words. You can do it.
http://nanowrimo.org/
DonB- The writers and literary people I know would scrifice small animals or sell souls to produce 50k good prose in 30 days, lol.
lucia,
Your story *is* the assimilation, in my perspective. A huge part of Latin culture as I have lived it is the mobility between the country of origination and the coulntry of residence, and A and B are interchangeable in most cases. The lovely Mrs. hunter, for instance is from the country that once called Panama a province. She and her sisters go back and forth regularly, some to live part time here or there. This blending- American born, yet drawn deeply to the family/cultural roots is very common throughout Latin American culture. Unlike, say, Norwegians or Germans who would move her for life, Latinos see it as sort a moveable feast of cultural delights. Some of the most memorable experiences for the young hunters have to do with discovering their South American roots by way of direct long term visits. This is fairly typical in my observation for many with South American or Central American/Mexican roots. Don’t underestimate the implicit influence this has had on shaping your world view…often in surprising ways.
FWIW:
Some of the “Auza” entries here are relatives.
http://poweltonvillage.org/interactivemap/files/3616baring.htm
If I’m not mistaken, even my great-great grandfather was naturalized American. The entry is
“1884 Directory: […]
Francisco J. Auza was a wealthy sugar planter from Santiago, Cuba. He was born in 1862 in St. Jago, Cuba. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1878 and was naturalized as a citizen in 1884.
”
I know Francisco J. Auza went back to Cuba because his daughter was born there (as was his grand daughter, my grandmother Lucia.)
Those of you who see the reference to Dad’s cousin who ran away to the French Foreign Legion might notice he shares the first name with “Sebastian M. Auza”. So I guess that’s where the name “Sebastian” comes from.
Oh… I have to stop. But I found this. I think it matches what Popsie Wopsie always said
http://www.ecured.cu/index.php/Ingenio_Santa_Ana_de_Auza
(That page is actually terrific if I ever write the history of the family in Cuba. I’m pretty darn sure this bit explains why my great grandpa arrived in Santiago:
“A partir de la mejora en las vÃas de comunicación, este estimulo productivo influye en otras esferas de la vida social: aumento demográfico, se fundan algunas escuelas públicas y privadas, aumentan los establecimientos comerciales, se evidencia claramente un progreso pues solo se benefician todos los vinculados al proceso productivo directo, los dueños y los de otra forma de propiedades de aquellos tiempos.”
Paul Harding came from MO and was in charge of building a rail road.
Dad named our chihuaha after “Uncle Pancho”
“Ya en 1884 Don Francisco Auza, anciano, deja la administración del trapiche a su hijo mayor Francisco Auza Gómez (Panchito), quien interesado en ampliar la producción se asocia a una rica santiaguera, Isolina Escariaga, para asegurar el respaldo financiero de la actividad económica del trapiche. Con esta nueva sociedad se introducen adelantos técnicos, convirtiéndose entonces en un ingenio. En esta fecha también se asienta el padre de Félix BenjamÃn Caignet y tiene incidencia en la construcción del ferrocarril de la zona, procede este de Guantánamo donde habÃa llegado desde HaitÃ, paÃs donde fue un importante colono francés. ”
In Dad’s stories, the family didn’t just install power plants, they either manufactured or were involved in import export of the machinery to sell to other sugar farmers. This just tells you the plant has a lot of power plants
“También se instala una planta eléctrica en 1910 para uso de la industria y la población, lo que permitió un aumento de la producción azucarera en 1913 de 80482 sacos de azúcar de 325 Lb.”
In 1918, the sugar farm changes hands. I know that soon after that, Paul Harding takes his wife and daughters to NY. My grandmother Lucia elopes with a handsome Tamany hall connected Harry Tiernan around 1924 or 1925. She has 3 children fairly quickly– my Dad the last of these was born in 1929. During the depression she goes back to Cuba. But it’s clear from the story above that the Auza’s no longer own a sugar farm. (Dad’s recollection is they sold motors and owned a department store.)
Anyway, lots of that story matches what Dad said. Wow! (This means some of the more colorful ones are probably also true.)
Hunter,
If you think the back and forth is the assymilation, you’ll love my time wasting discover. Talk about back and forth!!
The Auza story is fascinating. And Auza today is apparently a small agrarian town in Cuba. Your family legacy, as it were, lives on. Sadly the back and forth for thos with Cuban heritage is severely limited these last >50 years. I hear there are credible stories of Hemingway getting drunk and hanging out with Che and watching Cuban revolutionaries machine gun counter revolutionary resisters. We know a Cuban refugee whose family owned proeprty next to Castro’s family. He was a young teen and ran notes and intel for Castro. He got in a fight with one of Che’s pals after the revolution and ended up living in a small sweat box for a few years until he swam to Gtmo and ultimately to Texas. Crazy stories. Which is why I am finding the alternative history of a friendship between Fidel and Papa H so compelling: never let facts stand in the way of a good story.
To check or not to check?
Should we let Lucisims’ stand
or “get board of trying”?
As my Mom likes to quote:
“TB or not TB?
That is the question.
Consumption be done about it?
Yes, but not for a lung lung time.”
Oh nooooo! I even saw that one and thought I’d fixed it. But, I guess board of a project = the project seems stale and flat.
Writing a novel – good for you, Lucia.
My brother has written a four novel series which he has self published and is in the process of writing a fifth book. My oldest son’s father-in-law, whom I know fairly well, has published his first novel and is working on his second. Both these people were several years older than you, Lucia, when they started writing. I enjoyed reading all their books, first and foremost because I can appreciate the amount effort and motivation it takes and secondly because you see aspects of people’s thinking that you think you know that are best, and maybe exclusively, shown in their writings.
Writing about what you know best is usually a good starting point. It helped me in freshman English. There were times when the ability to write for an audience and against your instincts can also be helpful as I recall from some papers I wrote for a history professor whose political philosophy was much different than mine. I also recall obtaining a good grade from a professor teaching an English class, who was an attractive mature lady who never had married. I wrote about the different kinds and manifestations of love and included that which could occur (from afar) between a teacher and student. She read it to the class.
hunter,
Note “Aged 6, Castro was sent to live with his teacher in Santiago de Cuba,[5] before being baptized into the Roman Catholic Church aged 8.[6] Being baptized enabled Castro to attend the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, where he regularly misbehaved, and so was sent to the privately funded, Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago.” Dad may have gone to La Salle (I think as a child he went a schools run by the either Christian or Franciscans but I don’t know which and likely no one alive knows any more. Though Uncle Chico may.)
Dad always said his cousins knew the Castro family. Likely they did.
When they moved back to the US, he went to a Jesuit school: http://www.canisiushigh.org/about.cfm?subpage=51
“It’s actually fun for me, though obviously, it’s killing the blog.”
Lucia, don’t underestimate peoples ability to argue amongst themselves with only the occasional need for prodding. You’ve already done more than enough to establish it and keep it going for a long time with infrequent re-fueling.
Anyway, I’m shore you won’t get board whilst “so exited about my new project!â€.
“The latter is useful for the Cuba connection and has some symbolism. (Bacardi family started in Cuba.”
The Bacardi family initially financed Fidel Castro and his revolutionary activities until Castro prevailed and took their distillery away. The family became very anti-Castro, like many others in Cuba, when they found out Castro’s Communist intentions. I coached a kid named Joe Bacardi in Little League back in the 1960s who claimed to be from the Cuban Bacardi family. He was a nice kid and an excellent second baseman.
Kenneth,
In the mid-1970’s there was a Joe Bacardi living in Houston who claimed to be a Cuban Bacardi as well. I think they had moved their rum business to Puerto Rico and Joe was in Houston doing something with volunteering for the Boy Scouts? We were both dating the same girl at U Houston and I was totally unable to compete- he had the better car, more $ etc. and I was a just a student schlepping away. I wonder if they were the same Joe? or if that was a popular thing to say… There were a lot of Cubans settled in Houston as refugees from Castro’s horrible revolution so it would make sense for a prominent Cuban to show up in H town.
lucia,
Castro’s family was well to do. They had a substantial sugar cane operation, supposedly. In the alternative history I am reading, Fidel and Papa Hemingway are having a nice break from revolution and are hunting quail, but the army is showing up and making things a bit dicey. That connection you have found between Castro and your family, and Castro’s in and out from the US- he was in the US three months on a honeymoon and thought about going to a US university. In spring 1959 immediately after the revolution he was the toast of the town in many cities during an 11 day tour. He even made it to Houston.
Hunter,
I wouldn’t call it a “connection”. I’d say that
(1) The eastern province of Cuba had a very stratified society including some wealthy land owners who were mostly of largely european descent and lots of impoverished people who were mostly of non-european descent.
(2) Both lived in the same province Castro’s father and the ‘main’ Auza family were from the “largely white wealthy land owner set so
(3) The Auza’s knew or were at least acquainted with the Castro’s.
There just weren’t that many people in the “socio economic” group, so all the land owners in that Province tended to know each other to some extent. That’s not to say they knew each other well. Whether one would call this a “connection” depends on the definition of “connection”.
As for whether Castro’s family was wealthy: Depends on how you look at it. When Castro was born his father’s wife was still alive and his mother was the housekeeper. I’m not sure quite how much money trickled over to the housekeepers household. But when the father’s wife died, Castro’s father married the housekeeper. According to Dad, this resulted in “talk”.
(Also according to Dad, lots of men had “two families” and the “good guys” supported the kids in the “other family”. In contrast, the “bad guys” were the ones who catted around but then did not support the resulting illegitimate kids. Supposedly some of his cousins born on the “wrong side of the blanket” went to school with him. At first, he found this confusing. Then he and Chico were told that these kids who said they were 2nd cousins were one of his grandmothers brothers kids (or grand kids) but they were never to discuss this issue in front of the various wives.
That said: It was unusual for anyone to later marry the unofficial wife even if the official wife died. So the Castro situation was unusual. According to Dad, actually marrying the maid and “legitimizing” the kids was not looked on with great favor. (Note: “Legitimizing” was an actual official process in parts of latin america. Given the ‘standard’ procedure I’m not sure how it worked with Castro as my understanding is a “natural” child could be legitimized but an “illegitimate” one could not. But perhaps only the marital status of the woman matters to decreeing the kids is “natural” to start out with. Or perhaps money could make anything happen. Who knows?)
OTOH: this is just what Dad said. He was only a kid in Cuba.
the hardest part of writing fiction is getting the character to get out of his chair, cross the room and open the door.
lucia,
Your analysis is spot on, but I would remind that the vast majority of all Cubans are of European descent or African/European descent, since the native Caribs were almost completely wiped out long ago early in the Spanish conquest and colonialization.
Steven,
I hope you are well entertained by this little detour and don’t find it too silly. You are probably the most well qualified literary critic/writer posting here so thanks for tolerating these literary meanderings.
hunter,
I think Mosher posted famous quip. I just can’t find who did whose, so he may have paraphrased.
The thing is: I think sometimes it can be hard to describe characters doing mundane things. This is especially true because (also sometimes) the writer needs to use “actions” scenes to reveal the characters personality so that they don’t (among other things) end up writing passages of boring narrative like “Keiran was a 5’11”, 190 lb middle aged red head whose waist was spreading owing to [ blah, blah, blah, blah] prone to [blah, blah, blah]. He rose from his chair and walked to the door.”
So you eventually want to try to show what he’s prone to, and give the reader an impression of his height and weight somehow– often in ‘action’ sequences (with ‘action’ being defined as any act including brushing ones teeth.)
Hunter mocked my statement about 50,000 words in 30 days. The point of the write a novel in November goal is to prompt amateur authors to write quickly, to get in the habit of writing. Write in haste, edit at leisure.
My daughter wrote her 50,000 word novel last November, but the editing is slow.
“It took Joyce Maynard only 10 days to write Labor Day, The New York Times best-selling novel that serves as the basis for the movie of the same name that opened earlier this month.”
http://www.vnews.com/lifetimes/books/10567371-95/author-excited-to-see-her-novel-labor-day-become-movie
Maynard has been writing for 42 years, and two years for her recent book is more typical.
lucia,
Sure.
I am 74 and have been writing for a few years. I have two kindle books and I am working on the next one. I write and edit. I never know what is coming next. That keeps things fresh and alive for me. My first book has a long segment of character development that one reviewer complained was too long. It is, but it said some things I wanted to say.
It takes about a year for me to get about 100K words and another six months for the editing. My wife does that and she hates it. So do I as a matter of fact.
You have all the material in your mind or at your finger tips. I think you will find that it just pours out of you. Your problem will be selection and keeping on point.
I find writing cathartic. Hope it goes well and that you find the process a joy. The next Hemmingway comes to mind…Cuba and all.
hunter (Comment #131599)
The Joe Bacardi I coached would have been of college age or a little older in the mid 1970’s. The Bacardi clan as I recollect settled initially in the Miami area and the team I coached was located in the far south suburbs of Chicago.
“hunter,
I think Mosher posted famous quip. I just can’t find who did whose, so he may have paraphrased.”
ya I cant recall
Lucia,
I think it’s wonderful that you are writing a novel.
looking forward to it
DonB,
Please excuse me if my comment came across as mocking you in any sort of personal way. I was thinking of two particular authors I know, one unpublished, and one continuously published for over 30 years, both of whom struggle to get their writing on paper at anything close to 50,000 good words per month. All this talk about writing has me thinking about words on paper/screen, and how I might be able to make facts stay out of the way of a good story…….
Kenneth, the Joe Bacardi I knew in Houston was in that age range. But Jose is not exactly uncommon and the Bacardis were a large family. But who knows? The world is so often actually quite small in terms of relationships and conincidental meetings.
Lucia,
This is terrific. I hope you’ll publish here, and in installments.
hunter,
I think the question of how fast on can write depends on what part one calls “the writing”. I plan to have the first draft done by Sept. 6. Really. I”m on track. I haven’t written a word.
Josh put me in touch with his wife who writes. She pointed me to an excellent book: Booker’s “The Seven Basic Plots”. I read the first half this morning. I am delighted to report that my plot is “The Quest”. Really. Seriously. The plot nails ever element. It will even very litterly start with “The Call”. Quite literally in fact. It will start with a phone call!
Books with this plot like include “Odyssey”, “Watership Down”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” oh… and the book of Exodus. It contains all sorts of soooper-dooper dramatic stories where characters have brushes with death. On the one hand it seems totally odd that my story which will not have any brushes with death (well, other than the one that has to happen), has a plot that matches “The Quest”, but it does.
(It makes me very happy to see my plot matches one of the seven plots. This suggests I actually have one.)
j ferguson,
I think you have to be really good to publish as you go along. Toying with the idea of publishing and marketing, I’ll defer any decisions. But I’m sure that if I can’t find an official publisher within a year, I will self publish.
When I was at the Alzheimer’s unit, I was telling my mother-in-laws hairdresser something about this. Including the craziness and other things. Then I told her something specific that had happened. Her jaw dropped in amazement and she said “I have to read the book!” She was smiling in delight that my story did have the quality of book you have to read. ( She was not faking it.)
lucia,
since 6 September is , depending on how one counts, about 16 days away, I can only repeat my comment about wroting output in summary form: “wow”.
The book writing you guide you mention looks very intriguing. Yes, the plot er sure sounds like a quest. Which happens to be the most popular plot, if I recall.
I agree completely on publishing as you go. I dimly recall that an SF author wrote a short sotry while on stage during an SF convention once. I am unable to find a citataion for this, but to me, that would be the boldest display of writing under pressure imaginable.
Hummm… maybe you can work global warming into the story as a background theme? Like, Chicago becomes ever more like Central America in terms of climate, if not politics. 😉
SteveF,
Too short. But the plot my involve getting a friend to supply a boat. (More details later. 🙂 )
SteveF,
Chicago went banana republic years and years ago.How can climate keep up with human foible?
“(It makes me very happy to see my plot matches one of the seven plots. This suggests I actually have one.)
it has to match one.
think of plot as a Kantian category of experience
if you have an experience and its plotless, just wait. you’ll wake up.
if you’re dreaming and its starts to have a plot, you’ll wake up
gross generalizations of course.
campbell, jung, frye…
hmm in one sense its impossible to narrate without adopting one of these patterns. at least thats the argument.. I used to hate this argument..
Mosher,
Alas, while it must have a plot to be a story, it is possible to just write a series of events. I suspect it is always possible to pull a plot out of life but it requires editing events end experiences so they make a good story.
One of my parents was a good story teller when speaking. The other one rambles. Most people ramble when speaking. A very few don’t; that’s why Scheherazade got the big money!
I wrote 7 pages yesterday. Lots of typos… lots. But the flow is ok. “The call” part of the quest is written. All main characters are introduced. Today, (or Monday) “Irene” sets off to Florida. Before she goes she will be adopted by a cat. (There are two cats in the story. They “matter”.)
What a great project Lucia. In the middle of my blogging heyday, I took up the task myself. I wrote 2/3rds-ish of a sci-fi novel and enjoyed the experience as much as many of my projects. A book on organizing the process would have been very useful for me but I took the approach of writing the story as quickly as I reasonably could type. I kept the story self-consistent through familiarity with the characters. Now if I go on to finish it, I’m going to have to go back and read it thoroughly because there isn’t a spreadsheet type outline of each scene. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process though.
Its a great exercise for the mind.
JeffId,
Writing Novels for Dummies says there are three basic ‘creative paradigms’ (but each has tweaks). One is “seat of the pants”; in that you just sit down and write. (Steven King does this.) One is write a very, very detailed outline for the whole thing; then follow the outline. Then write the story; Robert Ludlum does it. Then the “snowflake” method is kinda-sort of a way to go about creating the outline; then write the whole thing.
I would imagine it is a bit like writing songs…. you start with a melody (the theme of the novel) then fill in the lyrics (details of the story) as you go along. At least that is how I would approach it. Of course, I have never tried writing a novel. 😮
I read somewhere John Clancy was selling insurance and decided to write a book. On the other hand l. Ron Hubbard was a writer and decided to invent a fake religion. I didn’t meet Hemingway, but I met Fidel. He’s arrogant, a closet racist, and homophobic. Typical for somebody who came from the valley.
My paternal grandma used to brag she was descended from French settlers who were forced to run away from Haiti. But my mom, who had a tense relation with her, and whose grandfather was half Chinese and half Dutch used to laugh and say she must have been a slave the French brought to Cuba.
On the other hand, my dad was extremely proud his dad’s family was “pure Basque” from northern Spain. Imagine our surprise when DNA studies showed he was a plain vanilla Celt. All that basque pride and feelings of superiority over Spaniards who allowed themselves to be conquered by the Romans turned out to be bogus.
SteveF,
Evidently, the “theme” usually the last thing to emerge (unless you are Ayn Rand!) It seems that everyone works differently. For me: I had to have a sense of what the ending is, and to figure out where to start. It wasn’t going to start with “….. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday …”
Among other things, I was born on Monday. 🙂
So far, it’s helped me to have a general idea of the plot. That helped pick from the long list of characters I had thought about when driving back and forth on vacation with Jim.
I do have a theme– so that helps with emphasizing things. But I need a plot and characters to actually write. Otherwise, I can’t bring myself to sit down and write anything. Otherpeople might need other things.
Fernando,
My great-grandfather who met Fidel briefly was not much impressed with him. That said: the meeting was brief. (Note: The great-grandfather was not my cuban grandmothers father. It was her Irish-American father in law. )
You never know. My paternal grandmother’s family claimed the initial Auza arrived in Cuba from Spain and — like your family– claimed to be pure Basque. I”m not sure that was true and Basque who I’ve met say “Auza” does not sound like a Basque name. But if a lie was told, it may have been told by him when he arrived.
Int…er…est…ing. Did you know the Galician’s are Celts? Father Auguirre suggested Galician when my Dad told him his n-great grandfather claimed to be Basque but was named Auza.
Do you know the last name? Maybe we’re related !!!
Also, my grandmother’s grandmother was nick named “Mama Yolla”. Rumor has it a daguerreotype photo existed of her. The Tiernan’s (Dad’s paternal side) said she was certainly not white. But the Auza’s insisted she was 100% purewhite. (Those who have lived in latin america know that 100% pure white nearly never is.) Should I ever write a story about “The Auza’s”, I could just decide what makes a better story. While we have lots of details on everyone else’s antecedents here are shrouded in some mystery though supposedly, her father did own land. Creaole-haitian slave? Daughter from ‘wrong side of the blanket’? We don’t know. I’ll probably never write such a story, but these families stories are often interesting.
“Fernando Leanme
On the other hand l. Ron Hubbard was a writer and decided to invent a fake religion”
as opposed to an authentic religion?
Doc and Fernando:
“Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
@Fernando Leanme,
Your father might not have been wrong.
Basques and Celts seem to have a deep connection.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1256894.stm
As to meeting Castro, wow. I have heard he is a truly baffling, complex person. Which makes sense for the longest reigning tyrant in the world at this point.
hunter/ Fernando,
Galicia (the Celtic region) also is in northern Spain as is the Basque region. Granted, they aren’t the same region… but still…
Surely this is a good place for some Gallego jokes. My daughter returned from a year in Barcelona with a bunch of them, all of which were insulting and politically incorrect, and none of which I can remember.
I am under the impression Franco was a Gallego. (Franco also was a master of what my Father calls a “Gallegado” which is the quintessense of passive aggressive behavior. Mind you: passive aggressive is highly under-rated and in this instance it was used to keep Hitler from invading.)
Franco “passive aggressive”? Recall he was the only fascist standing after WWII and lasted until he died of old age in 1975. However he did go fascist light after the war. I am pretty certain he had nothing to do with the Basques and fought them and other sub-groups in Spain harshly. He suppressed the Catalan dialect, if I recall, seeking a unified Spain and Spanish language. The Basques, with their idiosyncratic language were suppressed as potential separatists.
hunter,
Gallicia is not the Basque lands. So being ‘gallego’ is not being Basque and has nothing to do with being Basque. Galicia is also not Catalan. Galicia is in the North-West side of Spain, Basque is North-East, Catalan South and very East. These are three different groups.
The story about Franco being passive-aggressive is related to how we went about refusing Hitler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_at_Hendaye
The ‘refusal’ evidently took a long time with Franco constantly hinting that he would let Hitler pass through “any time now” and then just constantly finding reasons why it was not the right time. This sort of stalling tactic is, in my book, a classic ‘passive-aggressive’ act.
Doing this when it is strategic is not the same as always being passive aggressive.
lucia,
Point noted on the Gallego. I was responding more to Fernando’s comments on Basque/celt connections, which s the article shows are pretty deep.
The slow walk Franco gave Hitler is a pretty good example of passive aggressive. And I guess going ‘fascist light’ could be considered passive/aggressive as well.
Also, Galicia has traditionally been a relatively poor part of Spain (certainly nowhere near as well-off as Catalonia), and hence the source of much emigration to America over the centuries. (A little like Ireland in that regard.) I understand that in some parts of Latin America, the term “gallego” is almost synonymous with “Spaniard.”
Gallegos are famous for their inscrutability. There’s a saying that if you meet a gallego in a stairwell, you may not be able to tell whether he is going up or down.
Their celtic background is buried rather deep, but still visible in places. There are current contributions to the “celtic music” scene, for instance, coming from Galicia.
Basques may be genetically closely related to celts, but culturally they are worlds apart, as their language shows.
All this talk of Spain and Cuba is making me very hungry. Pintxos…Jamon Iberico…frijoles negro…maduros…
I hope the book is long on descriptions of great meals. And while you’re at it some mambo or salsa to set the scene, por favor.
Gallego jokes:
1. – porque los Gallegos siempre ponen zanahorias en las ventanas?
– para mejorar la vista
2. – porque los Gallegos no salen de Galicia?
— porque cada 50 metros hay “Retorno”
j ferguson,
lol we love zanahorias. We buy them pickeld Mexican style.
My wife is from Antiochia, a part of Colombia that sounds very similar to Gallego. Those jokes could easily be about Antiochanios.
We honeymooned in Galicia. Coming from Wales, there were many similarities – mountains, rain, mist, really dodgy building but the seafood was the best we have ever had, the beaches were lovely, the people friendly and tortes delicious.
The lovely Mrs. hunter has been to Spain several times, once for an entire summer as a grad student. She has wanted me to get to Spain asap for quite some time but work, life, money, etc. has prevented my diong so. The anecdotes I am reading here are encouraging me to make a point of getting there with the huntress sooner than later.
Hunter –
Yes ASAP. Spain really a special place. My son just returned from a short visit. When I complained that he hadn’t returned my calls he said, “Dad, it was 1:00 am. You should have known we were at dinner and then going out.”
The government operates hotels around the country called Paradores. They are often ruins of castles and other old structures that have been re-purposed. The one in Jaen is a Moorish Castle. The parador in Segovia overlooks a Roman Aqueduct. Galicia is one area that I haven’t explored but this hotel looks interesting.
http://www.parador.es/en/paradores/parador-de-baiona
As for Cuba, what a shame that we (Americans) can’t easily visit that country.
We stayed at the Paradore in Pontevedra. All marbley staircases and dark spanish furniture, half tester beds and dining terraces. Mind you, we love walking and browsing so found little places to eat in the evening. Loads of festivals, music and otherwise, especially http://www.galiciaguide.com/pontevedra-festivals-2.html. Also the fantastic pimiento de padron – sort of green mild chili peppers panfried/grilled with seasalt….
Fab shoes and home of Zara. But we digress…..
Galicia. Sooner is likely to be better than later.
In 2001, I was a guest at a dinner in Oviedo attended by the local worthies, maybe 30 of them. The occasion was the purchase of a very pricey machine tool by my client, an engineer with a national railway.
After we’d eaten and had more wine, MORE WINE, there were introductions and then an informal discussion amongst us.
I was asked by our host, the mayor, if, as an American, I would answer a question which I might find rude, but they could think of no assuredly polite way to ask and were very interested in what my view of the topic might be.
And no, it wasn’t why I don’t know how to punctuate.
It was “Have you ever watched the Brady Bunch?”
“No, why would you like to know?”
Why they wanted to know was that almost all of the 30 cable channels available in Oviedo were consumed by old American reruns such as the Brady Bunch. The discussion then morphed to KFC, McDonalds, blue jeans, music etc.
The drift was their very great concern that their culture was being swamped by American Cultural Imperialism. They told me that the Spanish economy couldn’t fill the cables, nor provide the variety of merchandise that America (and by now China) offers. They couldn’t compete with us.
You might suppose that these were more senior among their citizens, but they weren’t. Except for the mayor and the Chief Engineer of the local rail yard, they were in their thirties.
I apologized but suggested that I didn’t think there were Imperialist tendencies pushing this, more the usual drive by entrepreneurs to make money.
I don’t think they were satisfied with this. Someone got up and said that he thought their culture would be indistinguishable from ours in a generation and he was quite distressed by it.
I suspect that this concern is global.
jferguson,
That is an interesting comment. My experience is that this type of concern is more common in some countries than others, but particularly common in Europe. In many other places, it seems much less of a concern. For example, in much of South America I have rarely encountered this, and indeed, many of the people I have known well have asked me about gaining US residency. Many people want to discuss specific episodes of sitcom shows, and are disappointed when I explain that I am unfamiliar with sitcoms; I haven’t watched a sitcom show in 25 year or more.
.
The fact that US entertainment producers have a huge (and wealthy) market where most everyone speaks English is for certain an enormous advantage compared to entertainment producers in many non-English speaking countries. It is also an advantage that English is the most common language for business, since that adds to the number of people who are comfortable with entertainment in English. (Many in the Netherlands and Scandinavia speak English almost natively.) I am not sure there is anything that needs to be (or should be) done about all this. After all, no one is forcing anybody to watch/listen.
Hi Steve,
This area is part of my daughter the anthropologist’s domain. Her area of interest is development along the Thai/Burmese border. I have recordings she’s made of Shan rock bands which operate all over the hill areas out of pickup trucks with gensets driving the amplification. They play the latest western stuff – sometimes singing in English. I agree that in most of the world I’ve seen and Asia in particular, nothing could be better than a piece of America.
And BTW, all of the US cable shows seen in Oviedo had been dubbed into Spanish, as were the two Bollywood channels.
But, yes, the thirty-year olds I met didn’t like it. They were engineers, too – good ones. Their wheel-truing machine is a very well conceived and quite different approach to the perennial problem of ridding rail-wheels of flats.
Off topic, but thought it was worth pointing out that José Duarte has another post up on the Cook 97% fiasco.
Lucia: those basques were the Lezas from Contramaestre. My dad said they changed their name to avoid getting hassled by the Spaniards.
The French branch was the Lussons. However, that’s a name found in Cataluña.
Regarding the comment about Celt culture, I suspect that was obliterated by invaders. This country has been inhabited, fought over, and ruined by just about everybody. We have roman ruins about 15 blocks away, and not too long ago they started going deeper and figured out there was a Carthaginian settlement underneath.
Re: Cultural Imperialism (embracing English)
I have visited China many times and one of the first things that struck me was that in the major cities all of the large buildings had an English name in addition to a Chinese name. For instance, you would see the “Bank of China” in English. Also, I visited Ezhou in Hubei province and large numbers of 10-13 year old children would approach me on the street to practice their English. (Would additionally mention how impressive these kids were. Many came from quite poor backgrounds and they were exceptionally hard workers and very nice people)
JD
when I was traveling in CHile some years ago, one of my hosts said that Spanish settlers in Chile mainly came from Galicia, thus Celtic influence. Settlement in English Canada was very Scots-irish and thus also Celtic. I had been somewhat surprised by the physical appearance of Spanish Chileans. French Canadian settlers tended to come from Celtic areas of France (Brittany especially). It seemed mildly ironic that peoples with Celtic background who had adopted different metropolitan languages were now quarreling about the priority of their respective metropolitan languages.
“Spanish settlers in Chile mainly came from Galicia, thus Celtic influence”
A big hero of the Liberation was Bernardo O’Higgins.
This review of Spanish cultures has my stomach growling. A bit of paella Valenciana would go a long way towards settling the noise. (sorry Eli)
Hi Lucia
lurker usually but thought I would add my support after your latest family tragedy, bit belated but I felt you had enough support from your regulars.
good luck with the novel Lucia & as others have said, time to yourself comes first.
ps – chiefio has many good/speculative posts on the history of the Celts, good one to start is – http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/the-celtic-thread-how-to-explain/
Good luck with your novel, Lucia. Will you publish under a pen name?
Jim thinks I should use a pen name. But I can decide that later on!
Lucia,
How about “Dulcinea Aldonza” ? 😉
Heh!!
How about Danielle or Remington Steele?
Maybe Luca Li… they’ll think you’re Chinese… big emerging market there 🙂
Only the cultured will see the joke.
SteveF,
Or people who like Broadway musicals. Or are they cultured by definition?
AJ,
Then I’ll have to add a scene where we eat chinese food.
More or less by definition. 😉
I have had foreign nationals ask me to take them to Broadway plays, even when their English skills are not good enough to really follow the story line or dialog. ‘Les Miserables’ was the worst for this. The desire for this kind of culture is common. I actually saw both the Broadway version of Phantom of the Opera, and the Brazilian presentation in Sao Paulo (translated to Portuguese). I thought the Brazilian version at least as good, with very talented singers in all the roles.
Dulcinea y Aldonza? Not entirely imaginary? Seems like a good name for a date for Anthony – good cuddle when he’s not out on the windmill hunt.
A scene where we chew my food?
If I may (and with apologies if it’s already been mentioned, I didn’t do more than scan the thread), Lucia, why bother with publishers and agents at all?
Digital only directly with Amazon might be worth looking at.
Admittedly, it takes a little more elbow-grease….dealing with editing, cover, self-promotion, etc, yourself is somewhat time consuming, but the upshot is much higher returns from book sales (paid 2 months after sales versus paid lump sum semi annually) and self-retained rights to your work.
No apology required taboo. There’s lots of advice above. The decision about how to publish will happen after I’ve written. Obviously… I’ve missed my “deadline” of first draft by yesterday. I was mostly joking about that. But I am plowing along. It’s sort of an interesting thing to do. I don’t think my style is good, but– more interestingly– I can see that even with my outline, I still need to look over to check for “confusingness”.
I was pondering a post on “if novels were organized like research articles” post, but it would be pretty boring. The fact is: You have to figure out how to interlace plot pacing, tension, character development in a way that is interesting, but also not confusing. So, for example, even if I know ‘who’ my characters are, what they look like, what they fear, love and so on, I can’t just start the book by listing all the characters and their traits to get that “done with”. By the same token, when I get to a point where they appear, I do need to introduce them in a way that doesn’t interfere with plot or make it all boring. So… kinda weird for me. But it’s coming along.