The Early Years – Becoming a Writer
Writing the Walking Tour Series
When I began writing the Walking Tour Series, in 1977, it wasn’t supposed to be a series. I just began wiring aout San Miguel. I was here, the research material readily available, and so it began. I had no idea what that first book would lead to, I just did it.
The idea wasn’t mine to begin with. My friend Peyton Breckinridge came up with the idea first, but he couldn’t remain sober long enough to do the work so I took it up. The research required delving into history books written in Spanish, ages ago, and if you’ve ever read a Spanish language book you know how frustrating it is. They begin in the middle, wander around the subject, viewing it from every angle, return to the beginning, and sometime later get to the point. Its madening. But there it is.
The first book contained no pictures except a cut and paste one, and I mean I cut out the picture, pasted it onto the master page, and used that to photo copy the book, fold in half and staple. that was it. A twenty-four page, 5.5″ X 8.5″ book (U.S. post office classifies a book as having 24 pages) with a black and white cover of plain paper that sold for the equivalent of $7.00 U.S.
It was a success! And it began my treking around Mexico, the nearest colonial cities first, doing the necessary research, plotting out the walking tour parts, and later taking pictures, with one of the first cheap, HP digital cameras, to include in the books.
Guanajuato was my second book since it was close by, and my daughter lived there. It took several trips to find out the secrets of the place. (There are no public libraries there, only a few private ones that are open to the public, but you have to tell them which book you’d like to see. As if I knew. And you have to do your work right there. They don’t lend.) That was to set the trend for all of the rest of the books. I had to do the research here in San Miguel with what I could find in our public library, and occasionally order Spanish language books (all subsidized by the various University presses).
Now, the books number eight. I’ve found that the farther from San Miguel they are, the slower they sell, so I’ve stopped doing them, and turned instead to the “Adventure and Ecotourism,” and the “Driving Adventures” books.
The first books that I had written, “Mexican Kitchen, and “Living in San Miguel,” became the first in the Gringo Guide series. I added the Bullfight book, and began peddling them outside the local bullring. From that experience I learned not to expose myself to the public , and changed the book to include Charreadas, and Cock fights, “A Gringo Guide To: A Bullfight, A Mexican Rodeo, and a Cockfight.”
About that time an old friend, William Stephensen, who had driven down to San Miguel from California, in an old Mazda, and while staying with us had car trouble. Not able to find the parts the car needed here in Mexico he signed the car over to me and flew back to California. I was able to have the water pump rebuilt in Celaya in just a few days, and I had just what I needed. Transportation to Morelia to finish the Walking Tour book I had begun years before, and from there to see the Monarch butterfly sanctuaries ..and the Adventure and Ecotourism series began, and now consist of four titles.
My uncle, Charlie Carr, bought several of my books, and convinced me to write the complete history of Mexico. A project that took several years to complete in between my other various books.
While I worked on the History, I had an opportunity to go to the Huasteca. My brother and a friend of his, on a visit to San Miguel, offered to pay for a short trip, to wherever…. I had always been interested in the Huasteca area of Mexico. It sounded so mysterious…. So off we went, and had one of the biggest adventures of our lives. The result, “A Driving Adventure in the Mexican huasteca.” And that began another series “Driving Adventures,” that now consists of six titles.
And so it goes. I have no idea what’s next….
Living and Writing in Mexico 