My Attention Now Turns Elsewhere: Or, Time for a (Hopefully) Short Break

It is not more vacation we need— it is more vocation.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life: Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate!
Robert Browning

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.
St. Jerome

You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin


For thirty-one months I’ve been writing a short essay every week for this weblog. Composing personal pieces has been quite a learning experience. And the muscles I flex in these exercises are quite different than those I use when I write fiction. I believe the practice has made me a more purposeful writer.

Throughout the past thirty-one months I’ve learned to love the feeling of discovery—the “A-ha Experience” that essayists often write about. And occasionally my efforts have been rewarded with the response of readers who’ve taken the time to tell me that something I wrote touched them.

Nevertheless, as much as I enjoy recording my weekly takes on the world, I am in need of a short break (at least I hope it will be short).

My reason for doing so is because my progress in revising the manuscript of The Saint of Santa Fe has been painfully slow; and I need to devote myself—for the time being—to completing this work in which I attempt to tell one of the most moving stories I’ve ever heard: the life work and tragic disappearance of Father Héctor Gallego.

By no means, however, am I abandoning this weblog. I’ve become too fond of the medium. But my postings will henceforth consist of writings by others, or of invitations for readers to revisit my favorite entries of the past two and a half years. Once The Saint of Santa Fe is completed, I will resume my weekly writings.

In the meantime, if you wish, I invite you to link up with me on Facebook, where I will be posting frequent updates on my progress in the revision of The Saint of Santa Fe.