A Revision Update, and Revisiting Obsessions of Old II

Revision Update:

Getting Chapter Twenty-Six of The Saint of Santa Fe to flow smoothly has proven quite a challenge. Some chapters require more than fifteen drafts before they’re in shape. Chapter Twenty-Six has been such a case. The good news is that this week the chapter should be ready, and since I’ve been working ahead, I’m positive I’ll buzz through Chapters Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight.

All in all, although the progress may seem slow to anyone who doesn’t dabble in writing novels, this was a good week.

An Invitation to Revisit a Posting:

Some novelists refuse to talk about future projects. They believe that do so will offend the gods of inspiration, or something along those lines. Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban, and Roberto Fernández, author of Raining Backwards, are two writers who refused to share with me projects they were working on because they thought their work would become jinxed.

I have no such qualms.

My next project will be a novel based on the life and times of Vasco Núñez de Balboa—the first European to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean as well as the initial leader in the colonization of Panama. Everything I’ve read about this historical character has convinced me that he is worthy of novelization—something that, surprisingly, has yet to be done well. Thus, this obsession of old, is also a current obsession.

Balboa’s story has one of most the perfect villains history could provide: Pedro Arias de Avila—better known as Pedrarias Dávila. I first became interested in Dávila after reading the novel Requiem en Castilla del Oro by the Nicaraguan writer, Julio Valle-Castillo. In this work, Julio, a terrific novelist, poet, person, and friend, tells of Pedrarias Dávila’s reign in Nicaragua—where he caused much suffering and was responsible for considerable bloodshed. I highly recommend reading Julio’s novel because, lamentably, in spite of its outstanding quality, it has been overlooked.

In August of 2005, a bust of Pedrarias Dávila was unveiled on the site of Panamá Viejo—a city Dávila founded. During the ceremony, Francisco Linares, then President of the Patronato de Panamá Viejo, and Gustavo García Paredes, Rector of the Universidad Nacional de Panamá gave speeches in which they desperately tried to vindicate Dávila of his misdeeds.

You’re invited to read my reaction, titled, “When Historians Are Correct.”