Present Day

San Miguel de Allende, Corner of Portal Allende

Present Day
Back when I graduated from High School I wanted to be a writer. Having written a few things over the years I thought I could do it, but I had no idea what to write about. The experts always said, “Write about what you know.” I knew about High school, but I damned sure didn’t want to write about that. Wanted to forget it.
That was when my brother invited me to visit him in Mexico where he was studying art. That was a start. When I got here it was obvious to me from the beginning that Mexico was just what I needed to begin “living”.
On my own, at eighteen, in a foreign country, not even speaking the language. So I began to live. I didn’t write much of anything for the next several years, concentrated as I was on the living, and the learning. The culture was totally foreign to me at first, but I began to get the hang of it being absorbed in it 24/7. The language came quickly too, the result of the aforementioned absorbtion. Marriage, and three kids were another result. So I had to make a living, working at a hundred different things we managed pretty well.
So after eight years while still making a living I began to write. In a magazine I learned about the “New Desktop Publishing” industry that was just beginning. Now, I read, you didn’t have to be a slave to a typewriter. You just typed your work once, and then made any corrections, additions, deletions quickly and easily. And then you printed it out for publication.
I enrolled in a school to learn how to use the computer they sold me, and aquired a word processing program along with my purchase.
That began my experience with computers, in late 1985. I bought PFS: First Publisher and a good dot matrix printer. My first project was a cookbook, “A Gringo Guide to a Mexican Kitchen.”. Every writer knows that after the Bible, cookbooks are the next best selling books.
My wife and I worked together compiling recipes of traditional Mexican food, and Spanish/English glossaries for fruits, vegetables, meats, cooking utensils, etc. By the spring of 1986 I had my first book ready for publication, and offered it for sale, on consignment, at a local book store. That was the beginning of my writing career.

Guanajuato, Portal Colonial

My cookbook sold pretty well, and I began my next project, “A Gringo guide to Living in San Miguel.” And so it has gone. Upgrading my work as I grew more experienced I began to make a name for myself, here in San Miguel. And 26 years later I’m still selling the cookbook with lots of additions, but I never had to retype it once!