DUNE BLOG

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Mexico to Los Angeles

On the night after leaving Guatemala we had a roller-coaster ride over seas that the captain classified as "very rough" -- 12-18 ft swells -- which made for interesting sleeping as well as a staggering challenge to go get coffee for me and Rebecca in the morning. Heading up the coast of southern Mexico, we stopped in the sheltered bays of a newly developed resort area, Huatulco. The ship docked only for the afternoon, but we walked through the small town, looked in some shops, and had a lovely table on the beach where we were served margaritas, fresh-fried tortilla chips, guacamole, a local salsa, and sweet fried plantains. It was wonderful (and only underscored my disappointment that none of the tours in the other Central American countries had served the local cuisine).

From Huatulco, we had three at-sea days sailing northward to Los Angeles. I enjoyed the time to read, edit, and watch movies. I edited another short story for a horror anthology, and Rebecca and I spent a lot of time walking around the decks, brainstorming Terra Incognita 2 as well as a new kids' adventure series we're planning. Even with all the relaxing aboard ship, I managed to spend an hour in the gym almost every day (trying not to lose too much ground!). Each night in the dining room we've been taken care of by two excellent servers (George from Romania and Veronica from Mexico). We've eaten way too much over the past 14 days.

For movies, we watched The Golden Compass, 21, The Cooler, American Gangster, Horton Hears a Who, and The Martian Child -- based on the short story, then novel, by David Gerrold ("The Trouble with Tribbles"), who as a single dad had himself adopted a troubled young boy and raised him; Rebecca and I have known David for years, and we watched him go through many of those experiences.

Early tomorrow morning we dock in LA and go through the chaos of customs, retrieving our luggage, and then being picked up by Rebecca's brother Mark. We're all staying with Mark and his family Sunday and Monday until we fly home Monday night. (It's not easy getting a flight home at the end of Thanksgiving weekend.)

We've seen a lot of things, recharged our batteries, did some relaxing and energizing, and I even got a fair amount of work done -- proofed the galleys for ENEMIES & ALLIES, finished the edit of JESSICA OF DUNE, polished two new short stories, and developed the detailed outline for the second Terra Incognita novel. But it'll be good to be sleeping in our own bed again. It remains to be seen if the cats remember us!

-- KJA