my next novel will be about a professional chocolate taster

In April, just days after finding out I was pregnant with twins, I got a letter notifying me I’d received a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation to work on my circus novel and do some research in Ensenada. Despite putting a lot of effort into the application, I’d long ago deemed myself The Kind of Writer Who Just Doesn’t Get Grants, so this seemed to be too good to be true. Good news on top of good news. We all know how the first piece of good news ended, with a D&C and an anxiety disorder. But I’m happy to say that at least things are going well with the grant so far. Two words: research cruise.* The posts above are from my travel journal.

*Because I’m a hipster snob, this is the part where I assert that normally I’d never go on a cruise: They’re tacky and pre-planned and don’t let you think for yourself. But more than one friend had cautioned us about driving through Northern Mexico. One of those friends was a woman who was disappointed that, when she’d visited Egypt, she’d missed the revolution by a couple of weeks. So we decided to boat it. And, secretly, pre-planned/no-thinking was exactly what I was in the mood for.