MEXICO!!!

Hello! This long blog silence has been due to vacation! Jim and Clementine and I went to Mexico. More details and specifics later. For now, here's some general Mexico ambience and color. It's magic. A magical country. I mean, just look. Every minute of the day there, I was questioning why there isn't more flair and pizzazz here. What's up, America?

The whole time I was finishing Dreams of Gods & Monsters, I was fantasizing about being done and going to Mexico. Jim and I had been once before, to Chiapas, pre-Clementine. Loved it, mango-smorgasbord that it is. The above region was less mango-prolific, alas, but remarkable in other ways. And the best part about the whole trip was that we were in the company of some of my favorite writers! Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Kelly Link, as well as Kelly's daughter Ursula (Clementine's age) and husband Gavin Grant (publisher of Small Beer Press and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet), and Cassie's husband Joshua Lewis, also a writer, and everyone was so terrifically fun and smart and nice. 

I want to be back there, in the sun and splendor! If I had to guess, I would say that the Portland wind is angry at us for going away, and is bent on vindictive destruction. The house is shuddering. Maybe even cowering. Hopefully the roof will hang on! 

More later. I've returned home inspired to work on a new project. It just *might* be set in Mexico. Hasta luego!