Rainy day in Firenze

Four weeks into our new life, and things are pretty great!  My dad is here visiting, and we spent the day up in Firesole visiting the old monastic cells of the Fransiscan missionary order.  Those monks really didn’t have a whole lot of space!  Will thought it was a haunted house and didn’t want to spend too much time there.

I was thinking that this would be a great week to get some writing done, but I’m not as grounded here as I am at home.  At home I can always just sink into my writing time.  Here it’s a bit of an effort, probably because we don’t have a lot of baselines yet.  But I have to get moving on it.  This is my week to get a whole lot of writing done.  Just check back next week and you’ll see.  I have a book to finish!

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Settling in to life in Italy

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here three weeks now, and harder to believe that we’re just getting into a groove.  I’ve learned a great deal about Italian playgrounds, Italian toystores, and Italian ice cream.  I’m hoping at some point soon to learn a bit about art and history as well.  Keeping to a writing schedule is more difficult here than at home.  Everything is so much more fluid, and work is actually a lot harder – different preps, different class lengths, different tests, etc.  But I’m starting to get back on track.  I’m working on the third/fourth draft, depending on how you look at it, of American Caliphate, an archaeological mystery that takes place in coastal Peru, where I spent some time working on excavations.

I’m also thinking about Henry Grave’s next adventures.  Mediterranean Grave is picking up a little steam, but I still need lightning to strike to blow it into the next level of public awareness.  A little help came this week from the good folks at The Sacramento News & Review, one of the finest papers in the land.  Check out their review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/blogs/post?oid=1922550

my new part-time business

I’ve been weighing some new business opportunities to generate some much-needed money, now that we’re living in Florence, while also paying the mortgage back in Sacramento.  I think I’ve chanced upon a winning idea; there have to be a lot of people in Nigeria, and I’m planning on sending the following e-mail to most of them:

Ibako Ndigabe

Lagos, Nigeria

Dear Mr. Ndigabe,

My name is Abraham Lincoln VIII.  I am the mayor of Franklin, America, and I am in contacting you to discuss a most important financial venture that will be of great assistance to me, and great fortune to you.

My father whose name was Abraham Lincoln VII was in possession of several banking accounts here in Philadelphia before dying, and has since been unable to recover the funds therein.  My father has informed me personally of your great and honest character and instructed me to enlist your help in retrieving these moneys and treasury notes that were collected by our great ancestor, Abraham Lincoln I, who was the founder of our great country.

It is my desire to  transfer these funds out of the United States to Nigeria, where I dream of opening an orphanage for teenage mothers, but as a public official, I am barred from opening accounts overseas.  If you will agree to help me, I will sign a document that guarantees you 25% of all of the funds in our accounts, an estimated $112 trillion U.S. dollars, and I will also share with you the profits of the orphanage for a period of three years.

In anticipation of your eager acceptance of this offer, and in recognition of the fortune that will soon be yours, please contact me at your earliest convenience, and provide your bank account number and password, your government identification number, and your mother’s maiden name.

It is with great pleasure that I look forward to receiving this information promptly, so that I will not find it necessary to contact a different person in Nigeria with whom to conduct this most important business.

Sincerely,

Abraham Lincoln VIII

Franklin, America

Firenze

Greetings from sunny Florence, where it’s been cloudy most of the day, except for that odd and unexpected frigid ice storm that pelted us without mercy or warning.  But hey, it’s still Florence, and still pretty great.  I guess that’s why they call it the Sacramento of Europe.

On another note, Allen Pierleoni of the Sacramento Bee, interviewed me and it appeared in Monday’s edition.  Here’s the link: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/24/3346018/mediterranean-mystery-afloat.html#storylink=scinlineshare

As a result of this article and a nice blurb in the Sacramento City College faculty news, my Amazon sales rank is taking a nice trip into the low five figures, which is where I like to see it.  One day soon I hope to make it to the four, three, and two figures, moving in tandem with my salary as a California public employee, but you have to be thankful for what you have!

I’m jetlagged, but starting tomorrow, I’m going to be writing up a storm!

Read my book, damnit!  There have to be at least two or three of you readers out there.

Media releases and contest entries

It’s been a busy week here in Sacramento.  I got my twenty author’s copies of Mediterranean Grave and I’ve spent the last few days bundling them up to send off to reviewers (I hope) and contests.  I’ve also sent out dozens of media releases and postcards in hopes of getting some traction.  I was interviewed for the Sacramento Bee – they’ll be doing a writeup of me and the book in a couple of weeks.  I just finished writing a letter to the New York Review of Books.  Their website says that they get tons of books and review only a few, but I figured I would give it the long shot.  You never know.

We’re leaving for Florence on Friday so we’ve also been packing and getting ready.  I’m hoping this move will inspire me to great writings!