Help Find My Dog, Please

Our little Shih Tsu Ralph is missing. Coffee and cream color, in the vicinity of Puertas del Sol, near the river. Please call if you see him or are approached by a person trying to sell him. $100 reward. No questions asked.

Contact Susan at 099-425-3998.

Looking for blog writers: Expat? New Role in Life? Write For This Blog!

Bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta tell their story with song.

Something interesting happens to many expats when they first move abroad. It causes them to see themselves differently - not just in terms of language and culture - but physically as well. 

If this describes you, please consider writing a blog post on this site. Let me have your information in the comments section. This could be your new opportunity to soar!

Thanks,

Susan Klopfer
Author, The Plan

The Caja Mountains from my window -- writing from home, as a retiree, is a treat. I retired early and moved to Cuenca, Ecuador to give me the time and setting for writing a book. And it's coming out soon! sk

An update on my book: The Plan is about to go to the editor. Yea! I've been working eight hour days to get the final chapters completed. The wonderful thing about digital publishing is that readers don't have to wait for a year or more to get a book in their hands.

Important News: The Writers in Transition (WIT) group is giving our  monthly reading and you are invited. It's free at the California Kitchen in Cuenca. I'll be presenting Chapter 2 of The Plan, so I really look forward to your presence. Here's more information:

WIT Presentation - Click Here for Time and Day

Just recently, new information about a horrid prison camp in the southern Andes of Chile, Colonia Dignidad, made international news. Former victims and their families are suing the state of Chile over this horrid prison that was allowed to stay open until very recently.And what does this have to do with my new book? Plenty, believe me. So I've needed a little extra time to make updates.

As an expat in Cuenca, Ecuador, I have TIME to work on this new book -- all of the time in the world. I love the freedom of being able to have my own office next to my bedroom, so that I can get up at all odd hours of the night and write. Unfortunately, my best ideas come at 3 a.m. (It's not easy being my bed partner.  Ask my husband, Fred.)

P.S. We had a sad day. Our little dog was stolen.So today will be spent taking around flyers, posting ads, etc.


Here's a quick summary of what this new book is about:

A white Vicksburg, Mississippi private detective shoots himself in the groin while perched on the corner of his bed, cleaning his favorite rifle after a dove hunt. Suicide, concludes the state pathologist, a man nationally known for his amazingly quick (and frequently sloppy) reports. Detective John D. Sullivan’s death takes place one year after leaving his temporary job in New Orleans, where he was working for his old FBI boss and friend, Guy Banister, who dies strangely just six months following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Forty-eight years pass before Clinton Moore, a quiet and effective, gay black Mississippi Delta lawyer, gives a damn about what happened to Sullivan – and only after Moore’s best friend, a black Alabama lawyer, is murdered for knowing too much about what? Mollie Johnson and Sara Mercury pick up on the case IN SOUTH AMERICA , after Moore, himself, is killed – for knowing too much.  About what? Did someone go missing in Colonia Dignidad? Who?

ISBN-10:  0-9826049-7-1

ISBN-13:  978-0-9826049-7-7

The Plan is set for publication in May of 2013. 

Place on the Tallahatchie River where Emmett Till's body was dumped in 1955. This is one of many photos I took in the Delta when doing research for Who Killed Emmett Till? (the basis for my new fiction novel The Plan. I enjoy photography and use my pictures to help give readers a look at the places that I'm writing about. You can do this too when you retire.Think about places you've gone and put the information to writing books, poetry, music, plays! 

What Retirees Do -- in Cuenca, Ecuador

Living in such a beautiful environment, how could you NOT write about it??? Since we moved here last fall, one thing that keeps me busy is writing. I belong to a local group -- Writers in Transition, and we meet every Thursday at 12:30 to share our chapters, short stories, poems. and other written work. We listen to each other and offer criticism (help). Then, on the first Thursday of each month, we give a public reading. People in Cuenca are invited to come have dinner and listen. It's a great opportunity to get  important feedback on our work  Guess what -- you're invited!!

The WIT Group

(Writers in Transition)

presents

An Evening of the Spoken Word

at California Kitchen Restaurante

Luis Cordero 5-65 y Honorato Vasquez

4 April 2013, Thursday, 7pm

Free Admission ~ Cash Bar

Authors

1) "South American Time and Customer Service", by Susan Schenck, author of Beyond Broccoli and The Live Food Factor

Susan will be reading excerpts from her upcoming book Expats in Cuenca: The Magic and The Madness

2) "He's Alive" from Chapter Six of "Methuselah's Promise", by Chris Petersen, author of Methuselah's Secret

The next chapter of my new book about the Longevity Drug

3) "Red Creeper", by Frances Augusta Hogg

A writer learns the importance of being vigilant. 

4) "Life and Death on the Mississippi" First Chapter from the novel The Plan, by Susan Klopfer

This first chapter of my historical fiction novel is set in the Mississippi Delta. Two black lawyers and a white detective (former FBI agent) are separately murdered between the years of 1966 and 1997. Chapter 1 opens with the final murder of Clinton Moore, a 56-year-old lawyer. Two shooters are involved: the first is a young man who Moore has known and defended twice for driving while intoxicated. The second shooter, whose bullet takes Moore’s life, is a professional hit man. Moore tells his story from the grave, and in this first chapter he presents various conflicts that tie all three murders into a mystery waiting to be solved.

5) "Picking Cotton", by Manon Stephenson

It is Manon's continuing saga of her youth and the humorous adventures of her alter ego. 

If you're a writer, you might also want to join us on Thursdays at the California Kitchen. You're invited! Drop by for this Thursday night's reading to learn more.

Susan