Let's blame covid

The end of 2018, I sold my home and moved in with my son in Needles, CA. The plan was to help him with his fixer for a year or so while I decided where to live next. His siblings with children both live in areas I can't afford. I had a minor foot surgery scheduled for the end of January 2020. Once that healed, I was going to find my own home again!

Of course it didn't happen that way. Instead of house hunting, I was shopping online and wearing my painter's mask when I had to go to the grocery store. I watched more television in 2020 than I have at any other time in my life, binge-watching series I'd heard of but had never seen and calling it research for screenwriting. Right. A lot of it was simple inertia. But I wasn't a complete slug. I kept working on my novels and editing.

I finished up 2020 by publishing Peg's Story: Detours and Running Away: Maggie's Story. Peg's the mom in my first novel, Running Away, and readers had asked for her story. The character took over at the bus station and shocked me by bringing trafficking and other issues I hadn't anticipated into her story, so it took forever to write. Maggie's Story is a mildly revised version of Running Away - primarily updating quotes from Peg's journal to match the new book.

In March 2021, I published Tough Times, which is Michael Dolan McCarthy's story lightly revised, re-titled, and given a fresh cover. I can't believe I never posted here about these books! I've done a wee bit of promotion and sales are happening, but I really need to do better. I have entered the books in some contests and have submitted several short stories to publications. No great results yet, but a lot of it's still out there. I'm continuing to write and submit. I've also done some editing this year.

One good thing about COVID - Capital Film Arts Alliance in Sacramento went online with their screenwriter and other meetings. I got to rejoin and participate from eight hours away! That got me working on my scripts, too. I prepped and submitted a feature-length script of Tough Times and three shorts to the Austin Writers Conference and Film Festival. They had over 14,000 entries for a handful of awards. No, I didn't win. I did attend the conference in October, which was exhausting and exhilarating all at once.

Other bits about 2021:

I spent about ten weeks on the road - two cross-country trips and one to the burn area in Northern California - going to a reunion, visiting family, looking at real estate, and going to the conference in Austin.

I've spent a lot of time on cars and insurance. On June 9th I made the wrong left turn and a truck killed my Kia Rio. No injuries, but I was due to leave on the first big trip, so I bought my son's 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage. On June 30, I was driving on a dark road in Wisconsin when a really big deer tried to fly over the hood. While he smashed into the windshield, his forward momentum carried him on across the car instead of his landing in my lap, so I wasn’t hurt. However, that was the end of that car, too. Not my normal June.

I finished the trip in my first automatic - a 2010 Ford Escape. Still getting used to it; still searching real estate; still writing and editing while I figure out the design of my future.

Tiger!

So, I finally made it to India. The tour was pricier than my usual mode of travel (a moment of insanity at the time of booking), with hotels that were more posh than I required, but there were definite perks. The small group ended up being five of us - two couples and me. We got lucky in that personalities meshed well.

We had one primary tour guide throughout and he treated us as guests rather than tourists. We started in Delhi, went to Agra (Taj Mahal), then to Ranthambore National Park, Jaipur, then back to Delhi to fly home. There's SO much to tell, but I'm also catching up on work, so for today let's talk about Noor, the tiger.

We went out into the park, which has limited access, in open jeeps. I figured IF we got lucky enough to see a tiger, it would be fleeting and in the distance. There were three of us in our jeep with the driver and a naturalist who told us about the birds and animals we were seeing. Well into the park, the driver suddenly shouted and started driving like a maniac down the track which was basically a rough logging-type trail. The naturalist turned to us and kept saying "Tiger" - and there were three or four jeeps ahead. I was still expecting to see a tiger at a distance, probably running from the commotion.

Instead, the tiger stalked down the trail toward us, not the least frightened. Knowing how much damage an angry house cat can do, a chill passed through my gut considering how much damage this tiger could do in a matter of moments.

And she was definitely annoyed by us.

She sprayed urine at the jeep with our tour guide and the other couple - yes, definitely annoyed. These pics may be mine or Lina's (the other lady in our jeep) or maybe from our tour guide, Chanchal Srivastava.

The local drivers and naturalists were all stoked by this encounter as well. The monsoon season had just ended, so between tall grass and abundant water, they didn't really expect to spot a tiger, let alone have this experience. They said March is a better month to spot them because they'll go to the few places they can find water to cool off.

www.sherimcguinn.com

Adventure: Getting Ready for India - again

Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Anonymous Gift and Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 1997

First of all, having worked on Suzanne Blaney's Impressionism: Inspiration & Evolution, I now know our art museums are excellent resources for public domain images - but you need to give credit as specified. I haven't got my own photos yet, but this one's a beauty. Photos like this first piqued my interest in India as a child, plus the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Then I actually had a roommate in college who'd grown up with diplomatic parents in India - and she didn't pick up after herself! And then movies introduced me to Shah Rukh Khan and the music of A. R. Rahman and beautiful landscapes.

My local bookstore owner in Arizona had previously been a nurse and she had traveled to India as part of a medical Yatra with a group of doctors from Ohio. She wasn't going again, but she hooked me up and, in January 2014, I was all set to go to India for five weeks with a group of doctors I'd never met. I bought my own plane ticket, but they would take care of accommodations and food while we traveled to villages where they'd provide medical services and I would teach CPR. I was even learning Hindi, though there are so many languages in India I'm not sure that would have been of great use out in villages.

Then my son was in an accident. Goofy on a concussion and pain killers, he insisted I not be contacted because I was in India (I hadn't left yet), and he told his siblings he just had a broken arm. When they kept him overnight, his sister got suspicious and let me know he was hurt and what hospital to call. Bless the nurse who ignored HIPAA enough to let me know he was still in ICU awaiting surgery on a broken back. I never remember names, so she's safe. I made the fourteen hour drive in about twelve.

He was still in the hospital the day I was to leave for India and he would need help with the back brace because his dominant arm had been shattered as well. The five weeks I'd cleared for the trip was exactly the amount of time he needed assistance.

Looking back, I wasn't completely comfortable with the arrangements for my arrival in India. The docs were from there originally and I wasn't sure if anyone was actually meeting my flight or not. So, rather than try to do that again, I have paid a crazy amount for a week tour of the "Golden Triangle" - Delhi, Agra (the Taj), and Jaipur - plus Ranthambore National Park. I paid a "solo" surcharge - next trip I'm looking for a company that specializes in solo folk. However, the cost included my flight, hotels with good reputations, and a small group.

Meanwhile, I did the Visa application online - MUCH easier as a simple tourist, checked what inoculations I had and got one I needed, and have contacted my cell carrier (because I will NOT have service there and we decided I can turn off the phone as I leave the US and my texts etc. will be waiting when I get back and turn it on again). We've got my cheap little notebook working good enough for email and possibly Skype - and since I'm with a tour staying in nice hotels, internet will probably be available enough. It's only a week.

I've been reviewing my guide books, too.

Maybe I'll have time to review a little Hindi, just for fun.

www.sherimcguinn.com