Pyjamas, Crazy Hair and Joshua Files

Yeah! First time showing DARK PARALLEL in Australia, Melbourne to be precise, St John’s Primary School, Clifton Hill. My good pal, Professor Magda Plebanski (already known to this parish…) is a resident of those parts and kindly arranged for me to visit the school during my brief but lovely stay with Magda and her family.

(Photo kindly taken by Little Daughter on my BlackBerry!)

The reason for such a wonderful opportunity to spend time in Australia was the wedding of my baby sister Adriana to Shay. That’s two of my sisters married to Australian men!

As luck would have it, Adriana and Shay also live in Melbourne, which gave me the extra excuse for a long-overdue catch-up with Magda.

(Also known to this parish in another, more secret capacity…as the alter ego of Dr Magda Poborsky. Leave a comment if you understand the cryptic reference…I like to keep tabs on the ARGers…)

Adriana and Shay get married

Adriana and Shay were married in a Persian ceremony at a Victoria State heritage property, the Boyd-Baker House.

It was my first time meeting Shay, who is a lovely guy, just what you would love in a brother-in-law. Also my first time meeting my sister Grace’s partner, Lance, a former WWF wrestler of the Von Erich wrestling family!

Honestly, the people you meet in the Caribbean, you wouldn’t believe it.

My sister Grace and the still-fabulous Lance.

The weird thing was that I was meeting all these Mexican family and friends (Magda) in Australia! Adriana’s childhood friends joined Shay’s friends and family (many from Iran) to dance the night away. I went to bed early but may or may not have walked back through the woods in full moonlight – the ‘Super’ moon to get cake at 3.30am….

And it was pretty strange, to be having that experience, so far away from where we all started out.

Australia! It’s a heck of a long way away but you can’t forget it!

On top of the Eggli. No skis.

As I tell kids when I visit schools, the Eggli mountain near the Swiss town of Gstaad is where I broke my leg skiing, the ‘lucky break’ which gave me the time and mental space to start my writing career.

I hadn’t been back – until today! Visiting my brother Michael and his family, I joined them at the top of the mountain. In fact I’m writing this post whilst sitting on a deck chair, facing the sun and a gorgeous view of gleaming snowy mountains. In fact…is that a tinge of tanning I can feel on my face?

Michael has given me his iPod with his playlist of Ed Reardon’s Week. Essential listening for writers, I’m assured. It’s probably because I insisted that we check to see if the airport WHSmith’s had my books. All authors torture themselves like this. Luckily I left happy – they had ZERO MOMENT.

My tiny, three year old nephew and niece are schussing around the piste as if the skis were extensions of their legs.

I’m in the middle of a bunch of author visits – last week with kids from St Edmund’s in Hindhead, Bampton Primary, Cheney School Oxford, and St Bartholomews, Newbury. Next week – College du Leman in Geneva. Photos and a big round-up to follow.

Coming soon: On March 10th Children’s author Katherine Langrish and I swap blogs for the day! Two teenage readers, Libby and Patrick Caffrey have read West of the Moon, a new abridged version of Katherine’s Troll Fell trilogy, and also The Joshua Files. They’ve put together some questions for Katherine and I – we’ll be answering on 10^th March. It’s all part of Katherine’s West of the Moon blog tour.

I’ve been reading WEST OF THE MOON and telling a very simplified version to my three-year old niece and nephew. Trolls stealing young children, evil Uncles Baldur and Grim, it’s going down a storm! I overheard my nephew playing a game later which featured Uncle Baldur as the villain…

Ah. The shiny shiny snow beckons. Maybe I should take a little walk around the top of the mountain.

Frank Boehmert and MG Harris

Ultra Secret New Project features a key sequence which takes place in a French town shown in this blog post.

But at the end of summer, my travels took me back to Europe, this time to Berlin. I walked the streets where the final scenes of the novel will be set, plotted a course for the Big Chase, and had a good look at the (secret) location of  the novel’s climax.

My first time there, imagine! All those years visiting Germany, I never visited Berlin. I rather regret not visiting before 1989 now, or soon after. The city has utterly transformed since then. In my lifetime few major cities have changed quite to much. I’d quite like to have seen it before.

I’d like a chance to have a bit of Osstalgie (newish German word meaning nostalgia for the good-old-days of the DDR, when they were properly Communist and austere.).

But no Goodbye Lenin for me and my good pal and long-time travelling buddy, Rebecca. We sampled the delights of Europe’s coolest capital city: cafe life (Kaffee und Kuchen, Berlin cuisine, the best Mexican tacos I’ve eaten outside Mexico) cultural life (museums and a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Marienkirche of Alexanderplatz).

Not neglecting, of course, Cuban salsa! Where else but Berlin’s fabulous Havanna nightclub. One of the best salsa nights I’ve been to In The World! Lots of cute guys to dance with…

Another great pleasure was that I finally met the wonderful German translator of Joshua Files, Frank Boehmert! Here is Frank’s own version (auf Deutsch) of the event, featuring the same photo taken by my pal Becs.

MG in Berlin

So here’s some of Berlin’s new architecture. I’m standing in front of a glass wall on which is etched the German consitution.

Das ist Extrem Cool.

It's France. But where?

It’s been quite a while since I blogged. Apart from having family and friends visit and move to Oxford, I’ve been busier this summer than I usually am.

Busy with writing and busy with researching!

As I type this I am 74,000 words into Ultra Secret New Project. I haven’t written an uncommisioned novel since Jaguar’s Realm (I’m still holding onto that by the way, in case you’re wondering, haven’t decided when the right time is for Jaguar to hit the world…). I remember blogging about the final stages of writing Jaguar’s Realm and this feels a bit like that.

1. Tiring!

2. Someone had better publish this book after all this effort to write it…

3. Drained.

Usually I do all my research trips before I start writing a novel. In the case of Ultra Secret New Project, however, I visited the two foreign locations during the writing itself.

The first location is shown in this photo. At the bottom of the photo you can also see my two Brazilian friends, Ana and Deborah. Loyal travel companions and veterans of an MG Harris research trip, (they’re mentioned in the dedication of Zero Moment), Ana, Deborah, as well as Ali and Kizzie, once again braved foreign lands to scout a location with me.

But where in the world are we?

Prize for the first correct answer in the comments – a Joshua enamel badge and a signed Invisible City postcard.

Halloween at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

Originally uploaded by mgharris

Well it isn’t for the faint-hearted, tired or the Disney-phobe. We arrived yesterday at 9am and parked in the Pluto car park. When we left after midnight there were only 6 cars left of around 1000 spaces. Everyone else had wimped out!
Ha, amateurs, to those with staying power, the candy!
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party is a ticket-only event which takes place on select evenings during October. The actual Halloween date sells out way in advance.
Too bad we didn’t think of that when we booked our hotel and flights some months ago. We ended up buying tickets from a scalper on eBay, some clued-in guy who bought them up well ahead of time, and made out like a bandit. As my friend Donna’s husband Ben remarked yesterday, at this point buying those tickets in advance is a better investment than any stock.
Party-goers get to enjoy a special parade (Boo To You) and fireworks, trick-or-treating and dance parties, plus late night access to the rides.
After lining up multiple times for the free candy that was being handed out all over, and seeing the mayhem around popular rides like Peter Pan we headed for the relative quiet of Tomorrowland (quiet apart from Stitch’s wild disco dance party, where we mamboed with Pluto and Goofy.)
There we adults finally allowed the kids off the leash, and let them ride the Peoplemover alone, where i’m told they discussed confidential ‘girly’ stuff. And in our own separate car we kicked back, exhausted, and temporarily child-free. ‘The best ride in the park’ was the verdict of Donna (fellow author @writerdonna of the LITOPIA Daily podcast).
Best ride of the day: Splash Mountain.
Best score on the Buzz Lightyear ride/game: Donna with 270,000 odd points.
Best snack: the Pineapple Whip at Aloha Isle in Adventureland.
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Random observations from Disney

Originally uploaded by mgharris

The Twilight Zone ride Tower of Terror is out of order for a bit.
I’m still very spacey from some cough medicine I took last night. How cool that you can buy such effective drugs over the counter in this country!
Also my appetite has failed to return post another attack of some kind of virus. (I hesitate to say H1N1 but it kinda probably was…) thank goodness, really, because food here is so yummy and tempting that a bird-like appetite is all that stands between me and massive weight gain. The cupcakes are frosted six-inches high! And apples smothered in thick layers of caramel.
What is a girl to do?
A High School Musical float has just appeared next to the Starring Rolls Café where we’re having breakfast.
I bought a Jack-O-Lantern shirt for tomorrow’s Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom.
Oh how I love Disney. And did I mention I’m feeling a bit jazzed? You’ll get no sense out of me today.
Hasta luego. X

MG Harris

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Mission Space Green Team is for wimps

Originally uploaded by mgharris

Thus spake Little Daughter after experiencing the most hardcore simulator ride I’ve ever come across, Epcot’s Mission Space.

Despite numerous warnings, before and just prior to the ride, we chose the more challenging Orange Team mission. We laughed when they told us it was not for the wussy. I’ve never been on a ride where they tried so hard to talk you out of it. If you have any doubt whatsoever about which mission to pick, the ‘mission trainer’ urged, pick Green Team. Or dip out completely and go do some mission training at a console.

Remember Tomorrowland’s old ride, Mission to Mars? Well, this is a new mission to Mars but that’s where the resemblance ends. Once you’re in the ‘training capsule’ you’re subjected to actual G forces, as well as the usual simulator stuff, sudden turns and drops.

Fully, fully awesome. We last visited Epcot during the millenium celebrations and it’s changed quite a bit. Yet still, the ‘wow’ factor isn’t quite what it was in my first visits in the 1980s.

The truth is that the gap between Epcot’s vision of the world and the actual world has narrowed. Little Daughter’s jaw didn’t drop as mine had on first seeing a silent monorail glide around the futuristic buildings. How could it? She’d seen sleek monorail shuttles at the airports of Singapore, Detroit and Orlando. Fountains emerge from flat ground to dance in front of Heathrow Terminal 5. She’s been on the insanely high London Eye and seen our capital’s swanky new skyline.

Epcot is still seriously cool but it’s no longer an experimental prototype.

Do kids today even know what EPCOT means?

But then I’m nostalgic enough to miss Horizon and the Carousel of Progress.

*sob* damn you Disney, what have you done to my childhood memories?

Best ride at Epcot for little kids: The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Most physically challenging ride at Epcot: Mission Space Orange Team
MG Harris

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Josh Garcia’s Mexico

Photo on left shows the sleepy old town of Tlacotalpan on the River Papaloapan, in Veracruz state.

Trip 1 – Veracruz State: Port of Veracruz, Tlacotalpan, Catemaco

It was here that Cortes and the Spanish Conquistadors first arrived in 1519.As a native of central Mexico – the capital, Mexico City, I hadn’t visited Veracruz until 2001. During the summer of that year, urged by my late aunt Josefina, I took the family to see this unique part of the republic.

It was the state’s Caribbean heritage that my aunt thought would attract me. She was right. El Puerto de Veracruz (Port of Veracruz) has a strong hint of Cuba’s capital, Havana, although on a less grandiose scale. Tropical rhythms mingle in the main city square, dancers and singers rub shoulders with street vendors. It’s not unlike the Havana you’ll see in the opening section of the 1958 film of Graham Greene’s novel, “Our Man in Havana”.

“You must also visit the witches of Catemaco,” my aunt insisted. “And Tlacotalpan! It’s like going into the past.”

Mystic witches, watery towns that seem to be locked in a forgotten past, plus some of the most spectacular scenery you’ll see anywhere in the world – snow-capped volcanos, impossibly green terrain ripe with coffee, vanilla and banana plantations, the vertiginous surroundings of the Orizaba mountain range, spectacular ancient ruins: Veracruz is one of the most rewarding and unspoilt regions in the republic of Mexico.

Read the rest of this article including tips on getting there, where to stay and notable Joshua Files locations in Veracruz, featured in ‘Invisible City’ and ‘Ice Shock’.

 

 

 

Cake Frenzy in the Birthday Week

Originally uploaded by mgharris

It’s a week of birthdays in my brother’s family. Michael, his wife and twin children all have birthdays in the last week of August.
And me too!
It’s been a week of cake. If you read this blog you’ll know how fond I am of me cake.
I type this on my BlackBerry with delicious red nails, fresh from a birthday manicure. One gift was a recipe book from the Hummingbird Bakery, source of London’s finest cup cakes.
Between trampolining sessions (see above) mountain strolls, and multiple birthday celebrations I have found a few minutes to spend alone with the ms of Joshua 4. And now I think I really am ready to hand it over to someone to read.
I know I’ve said this before but this time I think I mean it…
Meanwhile we continue to tweak the jacket of Zero Moment. Sneak preview soon I promise!
With Joshua 4 handed over, ZM in its very final form, could it finally be time to turn my attention to Quite Secret New Thing…?

MG Harris

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Dreaming of Lake Bacalar

Originally uploaded by mgharris (Photo taken by David Harris)

There’s a freshwater lagoon in the south of Quintana Roo state in Mexico, that is twenty-seven kilometres long and boasts water of seven shades of blue, from aqua to midnight blue. The lagoon of Bacalar, or Lake Bacalar as it is also known, is mostly a wildlife reserve on one side, with limited development on the other.

I visited the lake with my family in Oct 2007 whilst travelling in the QR and Campeche region, collecting photos and sampling locations for ‘The Joshua Files’. At that time I’d written the first two books but not yet visited Becan or Chetumal, both of which feature in ‘Invisible City’.

Our day at the lake was particularly delicious. The water is like a giant freshwater pool, crystal clear water and a sandy base. We ate ceviche and fish tacos at the lakeside restaurant. The next day we came back with my cousin Oscar Raul, who I hadn’t seen for years. In the meantime he’d turned from a cheerful wannabe rock drummer college freshman into a chic geek with eyes on a European doctoral position. As the first serious geek in the family I had long ago recognised Oscar Raul as One Of Us. My sister Pili (BA geology MA theology, angling to do a doctorate too) and I frankly had been waiting many years for him to join us.

So, a happy reunion.

We drank Dos Equis lager and watched the sun go down. I stayed in the lake until dark with my two daughters. All day long I wished fervently that there was some way that I could write Lake Bacalar into ‘Joshua Files’. Lakeside houses, speedboats, jet skis…what’s not to love?

Well, in Joshua Files 3, ZERO MOMENT (out spring 2010in the UK) I found a way to set something pretty important to the plot in Bacalar. The story takes a turn in that direction in Joshua Files 4 too.

I have around 17,000 left to write of Joshua 4 and then *sob* there’ll only be one left.

Joshua 4 also features another incredible location that we visited on that amazing 2007 Mexico trip. More anon…
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