Off on another writing retreat in Tangier

I'm headed back to Tangier today for two weeks of writing and avoiding holiday craziness. I'll be back in time for Los Reyes, the gift-giving day here in Spain, also known as Epiphany. No father can avoid that! In the meantime I'm getting back to my Tangier novel. It's contemporary fiction set in the city.

The last time I was in Morocco I wrote 26,000 words. I've been looking over what I've written and see that I have a lot of work ahead of me. While I have a theme and a general mood, plus lots of local color, the nature of my protagonist and the full plot haven't gelled in my mind. That will come in time. The American Legation has been kind enough to let me set up in their library, where I'll be distracted by their excellent collection of books on Morocco.

I probably won't be blogging much for the next two weeks. The blogosphere tends to get pretty quiet at this time of year anyway!

Photo of the Tangier medina courtesy Julian Henderson. I don't bring a camera along on these trips.

A Civil War veteran in Tangier

While I was in Tangier I learned of an interesting connection between the American Legation, pictured here, and the Civil War.

In December of 1777, Morocco became the first country to recognize the United States. Diplomatic relations soon began and the American Legation, now a museum, was built in 1821.

One early consul was Felix Mathews. Mathews was living in California when the war broke out and organized a Union cavalry force in the California militia to patrol the area. He rose to the rank of colonel.

His service had started earlier than that, however. He had been in the navy and served with Admiral Farragut, who later commanded the Union navy during the Civil War. He spent time sailing the seas and suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa. Once he left the navy he went hunting silver in Utah and got into several skirmishes with the Indians.

His real name was Felix Mateo. He was born in Spain and immigrated when he was young. Like many immigrants, he Anglicized his name. Mateo/Mathews was appointed consul by President Ulysses S. Grant, another Union veteran, in 1869. His connections with Admiral Farragut probably played a big part in getting the job.

More on writing in Tangier

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from a writing retreat in Tangier. Not only was it hugely productive but it shifted my thinking about my career.

I originally got into writing with the dream of having a successful career writing both fiction and nonfiction. Well, the nonfiction part happened and the fiction didn't. Oh, sure, I've had several short stories published and a novel that has received good reviews and poor sales, but the vast majority of my effort has gone into developing my careers as a history and travel writer.

I need to change that. No, I'm not quitting my day job unless one of you happens to be rich and wants to be a literary patron, I'm just shifting emphasis. You see, I was really happy for those ten days on Tangier. I was doing nothing but writing a novel and getting into random situations that informed my novel. Like meeting Arabs, Berbers, and Saharawis. Like meeting French millionaires and children addicted to sniffing glue. Like wandering through the market at night and discovering that it smells of popcorn.

I'd spend long hours in cafes and in the courtyard of my pension writing it all down and working some of these details into the developing story. I delved into my protagonist's head. I immersed myself in the story.

I haven't been doing enough of that. Over my 13 year writing career I've squished my fiction writing time in between my nonfiction research and writing. It's always been secondary; now it's going to be a priority.

So I've changed my habits. Now the first thing I do in the morning is fiction, not email or blog posts or the thousands of other things that demand my attention. The email is being drastically cut down. When I returned after ten days offline I found more than 500 new messages in my inbox. In half an hour I was done looking at them. I read and responded to all the important one and the ones from friends and deleted the rest. Yes, it's really that simple.

Have you had a shift in your writing career? What prompted it?

Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

I'm baaaack!

After ten amazing days in Tangier, I'm back in Spain. I went there on a writing retreat to work on my next book, a novel set in contemporary Tangier.

I cut myself off from the internet, music, video, and all those other distractions that are only important when we have them around. I wrote 21,000 words in longhand and outlined the whole novel. It's amazing the progress you can make when you have nothing else to do.

It was nice to fully reconnect with my fiction, something I haven't been able to do for far too long thanks to all the other writing responsibilities that demand my time. Writing longhand was wonderful too. It made me write more slowly and focus on each word and phrase.

Of course I didn't spend all my time hunched over a notebook, although I did carry it everywhere. I explored the city more than I had time for on my previous visit and met lots of interesting folks who I'm looking forward to seeing again.

Yep, I'm already planning my next trip. This time I'm going to rent a cheap room in the medina and stay for a whole month, probably in November. The kind folks at the American Legation have given me access to their excellent library, complete with a desk and wifi. If I'm going for a month, I'll have to take my computer. I don't think my editors would take kindly to me disappearing for that long!

Going on a writer's retreat in Tangier

I'm heading out, folks! I will be spending ten days in Tangier working on my next novel, which not surprisingly is set in Tangier. While I'm there I'll be focusing exclusively on fiction and will not be getting online and will only be answering calls from family. I'll be completely out of circulation from June 21-July 2.

To avoid distractions I won't be bringing a computer, camera, or music. I'll have some reading, of course, and a couple of notebooks to write in longhand. All I'll be doing is writing and getting into all those random weird situations that fuel my writing. While I'm still working on the sequel to A Fine Likeness I feel I need a break before finishing the final 20,000 words on that one.

The genre of this new project is a departure for me. It's contemporary fiction (or "literary fiction" if you want to get snooty). No Chaos demons, gun battles, or sword fights in this one! A new genre and ascetic surroundings will make for an exiting experiment.

See you at the other end of the rabbit hole!

Photo by Almudena Alonso-Herrero of yours truly at the Tomb of Ibn Battuta, the greatest traveler of all time.