Notes: Aztec Shadows

I spent a very long time doing nothing on this work. I think part of it was waiting for my Philippines trip in February 2011 - maybe that was just an excuse. I had most of the ideas pre-written in my head.

Finally, when I returned, I started working hard on Mexico. I wrote 1-2 completed stories each week until I completed the entire project in May. Still, I started in November and finished in May - 12 short stories in under 7 months. Not great, but definitely not too shabby.

I avoided / skipped talking about both the music and dance cultures. I don't know why, but I did. I concentrated more on the Aztec and Mayan influences, as well as the importance of corn / maiz to both their culture as well as the world culture. I also spent a moderate time talking about the religious culture of Mexico - and the Spanish influence on the Mesoamericans that predated the age of the Spanish conquistadors.

One thing I was unhappy with was my overall approach to the Mexican food scene. In many other stories, I had the characters making food with their adult counterparts. For some reason, I drifted away from this. Maybe I'll fix tht in re-writes.

I also did not devote enough time to the Spanish language - and its use of additional letters and accents beyond the tilde. I do think I'll fix the one story quite a bit that deals with tilde - including the double-l (ll), accents, and maybe even the different lingual sounds.

Overall, I liked what I produced - enough to make me want to go there - then again, I've always thought of living in either Oaxaca or on the Mayan Riviera or Guadalajara.