Today, The Edge of Chaos is available in audiobook format from Audible. This is cool. And it’s a first for me. I haven’t listened to it yet so cannot comment on the narration by Paul Neal Rohrer or the production quality, but it was released by Audible’s own Audible Frontiers publisher division so I’m guessing it’s put together professionally.
Since I am a huge fan of audiobooks, having one of my own books available in this format is just over the ‘awesomeness-dialed-to-eleven’ line. When I wrote and revised and re-revised and copyedited and proofread The Edge of Chaos, you couldn’t have paid me to read the whole thing again—well actually you could, but it would’ve cost a lot. But that was years ago, and I’m not sick of it any more. I’m looking forward to listening to the story.
As I think more and more about it, I am finding that I want to reconnect with Duvan and Slanya and Gregor and Tyrangal. I want to return to Ormpetarr and cross into the The Plaguewrought Lands. I’m not so much interested in re-encountering Vraith or Beaugrat, but I will happily suffer them for the rest. :)
If you love audiobooks, I invite you to listen to mine. It’s available on Amazon.com and Audible.com. Amazon is really promoting Audible right now. If you sign up for a 30-day trial subscription you get The Edge of Chaos plus one other audiobook for free, 30% off any additional audiobooks, and a free audio subscription to either The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
I personally don’t know if I’d listen to either newspaper in audio format, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how much I love books read to me. So who knows? Have you listened to the news this way? How was it?
Now it’s back to Faerûn for me. For ten hours and twenty-four minutes of spellplague, adventure, and living on the border between sanity and its opposite—the edge of chaos.
June brought more traveling. After getting back from our month in Mexico, Karawynn and I were in Seattle for only three weeks before we lit out again for regions southward. It was great to see my brother and sister and their families under happy circumstances. The previous time we’d all seen each other was when Mom died — a very sad and difficult period.
Mission Possible
Mission Espada
The wedding took place at the picturesque Mission Espada in San Antonio. What a great location to celebrate a new union! Dad and Carolyn both had previous marriages with wonderful spouses who’d died. They are re-starting their lives. Carolyn is much different from my mom, but she is a good soul, and I am overjoyed that she and Dad found love together. I can barely imagine what losing a life-partner is like — a traumatic and painful experience that leads to a scary and lonely and desolate place. That Dad has another chance to love and be loved is a precious, rare, and wonderful gift.
I no longer consider myself Catholic — or religious in any way really — but I was happy to get the opportunity to read at the (traditional Catholic) wedding. Participating in the ceremonial launch of a new stage in my dad’s life meant a lot. These days it is so easy to be cynical about love and commitment, but seeing the happiness that Carolyn has brought into Dad’s life after the heartbreaking anguish of the previous few years strips away any cynicism I have and replaces it with wonder and joy.
Honeymoon Crashers
Carolyn and Dad were generous (or insane) when they decided to invite their whole combined family to accompany them to Costa Rica after the wedding. Karawynn and I joined the twelve others traveling to the Guanacaste region of the Central American country.
Costa Rica abolished its military years ago and has used the extra money to improve education and healthcare — as well as to invest in creating a profitable tourist industry. Tourism is Costa Rica’s primary economic engine. I have a lot of respect for a country that builds an economy around trying to educate the world about ecology and nature. Can you even imagine your country doing that?
The first part of our stay was at the Flamingo Beach Resort on Playa Flamingo in the northwestern (Pacific) part of Costa Rica. This was a typical, if smallish, resort hotel with a nice pool in a picturesque location. Like resorts I’ve visited in Mexico and Hawaii, much of the hotel was open to the outside. But the heat and humidity made just standing around in the lobby feel like taking a sauna. Thankfully the rooms had air conditioning, and the pool was cool.
One of the drawbacks of staying at a resort hotel is that everything is outrageously expensive. We had not been able to afford the all-inclusive package so drinks and food were additional expenses. But the nearest town was a couple kilometers away and none of us had a car. So a few of us decided to risk the impending rain and walk to the nearest grocery store. This decision turned out to be both ill-advised and serendipitously wonderful.
The road traveled along the curve of a beautiful bay, between the beach and fields where (literally) hundreds of bright green parakeets flitted amongst the low trees and bushes. And huge vultures perched on fence posts and stretched out their wings to dry them in the intermittent sun. But just as we’re about half way there, it started to pour down rain. By sheer luck, we’d just passed a local cantina / bar with outdoor tables made from polished slabs of banyan tree. The tables were sheltered from the rain by thatched reed umbrellas. Since the rain had drenched us to the bone in seconds, we decided to stop and wait… and spent the next hour drinking local beer and staring out at the rain-stippled bay. What a great experience!
Not-so Accidental Tourists
Me, ziplining through the treetops
The next day, all fourteen of our group took a canopy tour — a multi-part excursion to Buena Vista that included ziplining through treetops, horseback riding, a local-food lunch, a very fast water slide, and geothermal pools with sauna and mudbath.
While this is billed as eco-toursim, it really is not. It’s a lot of fun, and definitely worth the $125 per person, but it’s really all about fun and not about nature or experiencing the rainforest. For us, that would come later.
The following morning we said goodbye to Dad, Carolyn, and the rest of the family both old and new. We had made plans to spend the last half of our time in Costa Rica in a completely different environment… all the way across the country on the Caribbean coast, and in my next post I will tell you all about traveling there, and our time in the jungle.
Karawynn and I are in Mexico for a month, undertaking an experiment wherein we gather data to determine if we can live here after Claire moves out in five years or so. Karawynn discovered this particular place after detailed online research of a variety of expat communities that matched two main criteria: 1) good weather year round and 2) lower cost of living than in the United States. Thus we chose to visit the Ajijic Mexico area, along the north shore of Lake Chapala about 45 minutes by car from Guadalajara — the second largest city in Mexico.
We’ve been here about a week and half now and here are my impressions so far.
Best thing about living here
Winner: Weather and physical beauty
Lakefront Park in Ajijic Mexico
We decided to come here during the “worst” time of the year for weather. This is the hot season here. It has been in the mid-80s during the day and mid-60s at night. Ajijic is at high elevation so even though we’re well into the tropics, it doesn’t get as hot as it otherwise would. It has been sunny, and during the afternoons the sun can be intense, but most people just stay inside during that time of day. “Siesta” closes down shops and services for a couple of hours.
The most beautiful place I have ever lived was Hawaii. The combination of rain forest and beaches and dramatic volcanic cliffs is hard to beat. But this place is very picturesque. Lake Chapala is surrounded by mountains; there are lots of bright, colorful flowers; and many many birds!
Runner up: Cost of living
It turns out that Ajijic is more expensive than a lot of Mexico. It’s a little touristy town with art galleries and fancy restaurants. It’s like that coast town you go visit where things are just a little more pricey because it’s pretty and a lot of people go there to get away. Ajijic is a popular place for Mexicans from Guadalajara to come on the weekends.
Even so, it’s a bargain compared to what we’re paying to live in Seattle. Plus, there are ways to avoid the more pricey places. For cost of living, I think it’s a win.
Worst thing about living here
Winner: Language barrier
I only know a few words of Spanish so I am finding it difficult to impossible to really communicate with the local folks who don’t speak English. I am learning the language, but have just gotten down the basics of ordering food at a restaurant and asking how much something costs at a store. I’m also finding that I have social anxiety and fear around not speaking and understanding. Some of this is embarrassment at being a stupid gringo, and some of it is fear of making a fool of myself by saying stupid things in Spanish. I’m working at overcoming this fear because it really is counterproductive to actually communicating.
In the time we’ve been here, I have gone from essentially zero Spanish to being able to (barely) get by in a store and a restaurant. The social fear is still there, but I can make myself understood for the most part. I know that as I learn more Spanish (which I am doing as fast as I can), I will get more and more comfortable with interacting with people in Spanish, but I still worry that I might never be able to break through the language barrier completely.
Runner up: Missing home
Claire
It may seem strange, but even after such a short time, I already miss friends and family in Seattle. I know that this particular issue will be a problem for me regardless of where we go, and some of that is related to feeling disconnected from my younger daughter Claire, who (at 13 years old) isn’t the best at keeping in touch long-distance. So this is an issue I will have to deal with in some fashion regardless of where we move… which doesn’t make it any easier of course.
Most difficult adjustment to make
Winner: Writing space
Because we are here for a whole month, this is a working trip for me. But so far, I’ve had a difficult time getting work done. For one thing, I’m distracted by all the interesting and new things there are to do. We’ve spent mornings (when it’s cool) exploring the town by foot, buying food at the various stores and meeting people. The afternoons are warmer and lazier and less conducive to working. And, in the evening, we usually watch a show or play a game.
Other impediments to getting shit done: my laptop is small and slow; the desk chair is uncomfortable. Yadda, yadda. So many excuses, none of them really valid.
I finally decided to try disconnecting from the internet, and was able to knuckle under and write this post. This house has good, fast internet — important for various reasons. Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter, email, and voicemail are a distraction under normal circumstances, but here it’s worse. Far away from home, I am monitoring my online connections with more frequency. I want to feel connected!
If we were to move here, I could set up an office space that would work for me. None of this would be an issue, except for the distracting internet. That will be always be a distraction.
Runner up: Cost of shredded wheat
Yes, you read that right. I have recently grown extremely fond of shredded wheat with bran. Very high fiber, very tasty the way I prepare it. Here, it is prohibitively expensive. A box of Post spoon-size shredded wheat runs between $8.25 and $9.00! I love my shredded wheat, but not that much. There’s a chance that I can find something similar at one of the local tianguis – weekly street markets. I did see a vendor with what looked like bags of spoon-size shredded wheat, and the cost was a good deal cheaper. Tomorrow, I will buy some and try it.
Biggest anticipated problem that hasn’t materialized
Winner: Language barrier
As I said above, my lack of Spanish causes me anxiety and is problematic, but it’s still very possible to communicate here. Because there are a lot of expatriate Americans and Canadians living here, many local businesses have English-speaking staff. There’s an infrastructure set up to make the transition to living in Mexico easier. So in many ways, even though the language barrier is the biggest issue for me, it’s still not nearly as big as it could be.
Many of the expats are also friendly and helpful folks. They’re more than willing, in most cases, to share their knowledge and extend welcoming resources to new people. I knew this might be true, but wasn’t prepared for how much of a help and a reassurance it is. I feel that coming to this location, as opposed to someplace else in Mexico, will mean a smoother transition to eventual integration with the local culture.
Runner up: Communicating with home
I had expected to have difficulty staying in contact with my daughter and our house sitter and other folks from back home. I knew we would have email, although I’d been prepared for issues setting that up. I’d expected that Skype would work too, but wasn’t sure if I’d run into trouble getting that to work. However, none of that was a problem; connecting to the wireless router in the house was dead easy, and the internet was up and running on our laptops within minutes.
Taken by Karawynn Long of the sunset over the mountains. That I can be here and stay in touch with my peeps at home, makes me very happy!
I was also able to have my Google Voice phone number forwarded to my Gmail chat client, which essentially means that I can receive telephone calls to my phone number on my computer’s microphone and speakers. I can make outgoing calls too at no charge to US phone numbers, and send text messages as well. Everything works!
I will note, too, that for the month that we’re here, I subscribed to a VPN service that can spoof our IP so that it looks like we’re accessing the internet from within the US. This is not necessary for the phone or Skype or email access, but required for watching Netflix or Hulu or HBO shows, which we’d planned to do. The cost for this service is $6 per month, and it works perfectly.
Biggest gringo mistake
Winner: Mistaking beeswax skin cream for honey
The local tianguis are full of merchants giving away samples of their wares. These are often food items like cheese or fruit slices, and so when a honey vendor spoke some words to me in Spanish and held out an small bowl containing some pasty-looking substance, I dipped a finger in and … tasted it.
Wasn’t very good. The man told me, “No, no. For your skin.” I grimaced and rubbed some on my face, but it didn’t make the red any lighter.
Several runners up:
Pigs’ Feet Ceviche?
At the local weekly tianguis, I thought that a huge pile of very white meat mixed with onions and peppers might have been ceviche (the “meat” was as white as fish). After asking what it was, a local who spoke English told us that it was chunks of pigs’ feet and skin.
Not asking for the check at a restaurant. Apparently it’s rude for the waiter to bring the check, or even ask you if you want the check, before you request it.
We’ve got another 20 days here, and I expect that we’ll learn a ton more before we’re done! We have our first visitor coming today. We’re going to make the trip into the big city by local bus! Lots of stuff happening.
Welcome to my brand-spanking new website. Isn’t it gorgeous? And slick? Yeah, I think so, too.
How did this come to be? How did my simple little website transform into this aesthetic wonder and practical powerhouse?
In an effort of near-Sisyphean proportions, my partner and web guru extraordinaire—Karawynn Long—designed and coded it for me. Here’s the 100% complete and true story:
How I Got A New Website
(un-embellished version)
Me: I’m going to start blogging!
K:[snorts] Good one!
Me: No, I’m serious!
K:[stops laughing and gives me a skeptical look]
Me: Just because I’ve started blogging a half-dozen times before, doesn’t mean I’ll fail this time! This time I have a strategy.
K: Heh, I’m sure you do.
Me: I do! I’m going to write only about stuff that I’m passionate about.
K: But who’s going to read a blog that’s only about porn and soccer and crème brûlée?
Me:[pondering] Actually…
K: Don’t think about that too much.
Me: I meant topics like writing, editing, and publishing. About events in my life and their effect on me… about stoicism and sustainability.
K: Seriously, no crème brûlée?
Me: The problem is that my blog doesn’t match the rest of my site.
K: Yeah, that is a problem. I could fix that for you.
Me: I’d love that, but do you have the time?
K:[shrugs] Sure. I could use it as a portfolio piece.
Me:[who recognizes a good thing] Oh wow, that sounds… um… involved.
K:[after a few minutes of researching] Not a simple job, but I’ve got this. I’ll do a custom design for you. Might not be done by lunch though.
Me: Oh that’s okay. I can wait until dinner, no problem.
