In August we had the eclipse. We didn’t get totality in Andalucia, but we were able to view with our special protective glasses the moon’s partial obscuring of the sun. The aligning of celestial bodies not quite a mystery but still wondrous. We were on the roof of Diana’s apartment building. I’m fumbling with my optical apparatus while most of the others are smiling confidently with their protective eyewear correctly positioned on their faces.

Feria happened in mid-August when summer was at its peak hotness. Yet somehow the women in their trajes de flamenca seemed not to perspire. No beads of sweat at their brow, no wet circles under their arms, no droopy hair. It’s the feria miracle. Milagro de feria. Something I wish for myself since I’m a sweat machine even in a tank top and shorts. Maybe it’s the traje de flamenca that holds the secret. Wear one and you are shielded from the heat. Or maybe it’s the Spanish women. Their Andalucian DNA has evolved to keep their sebaceus glands in check. Anyway, they’re all lovely in their form-fitting dresses, tassled shawls, and vibrantly dyed polyester flowers pinned to their updos.

August is also the month of Sebastián’s birthday. We took Sebastián out to lunch, but we spoke English because James’s efforts to learn Spanish have been sidelined trying to solve the mysteries and intricacies of the Spanish tax system and other administative necessities of life in Spain. It was a rare experience for me because I seldom speak English with Sebastián. I speak my halting Spanish, constantly rolling my eyes heavenward for some word or conjugation to drop mysteriously onto my tongue. I’ve been learning and practicing Spanish with him for more than three years now. Shouldn’t I be painlessly fluent by now? Rhetorical question.

August has also been escape-to-the-air-conditioned-cinema month. My recent visit to the cinema was with four friends— three Spaniards and a Colombian American—so yeah, I was the linguistic laggard with my not-quite-there-Spanish. The gathering came about because Luisa asked me if I wanted to see El ser querido, the new Javier Bardem movie. Of course, I wanted to see it. Invite who you want, she told me. So I invited Diana. Then when Pablo messaged me about comments I’d given him on a story he wrote, I invited him. Later he invited a friend of his, another writer Noelia. So I was in for an evening of a Spanish-language film plus conversations in Spanish with friends and I knew I was going to be lost a good percentage of the time. But that’s called immersion and I need it up to my eyeballs. Anyway, Luisa, Diana, and Pablo had not met prior to our evening together, and Noelia only knew Pablo. So when the evening was over, we all left with one or more new friends. What I love is how easily Spanish people fall into conversation with others as if they’d known one another for a long time. Here we are (minus Noelia) after the movie, hitting a Chinese restaurant (a favorite of both Luisa and Pablo, as it turned out) just in time before closing.

August means the pub date for Ofelia and Norma is a month away.  After much anxiety, frustration, and finally, joy, I have lined up events in seven cities on the West Coast of the United States. I’m grateful to all the people who helped make these possible because the truth is once you’ve written the book, which is an all-by-yourself endeavor though not lonely by any means, the part about getting the book out in the world is the part that can sometimes make you feel alone, dispirited, and insignificant in that immense literary marketplace with its mysterious points of entry. It requires a network of friends and friends of friends.

You can find my event schedule here. I’m looking forward to seeing family, friends, and readers in each of these places. My first stop is at Warwick’s in La Jolla, CA on October 15.

I ended the month with my first opportunity to talk about my book and my writing in general on the podcast series sponsored by Raven Chronicles Press, a small independent press in Seattle. I was in conversation with Peggy Sturdivant, a writer, workshop and events facilitator, astute reader, and insightful interlocutor. She made it easy, natural, and fun. Major shout-out to Phoebe Bosché for helming Raven Chronicles for several decades and publishing hundreds of writers. Many thanks to all who zoomed in for the talk. It was so lovely to see your faces.

You can watch the conversation here. I mentioned above in the paragraph about Sebastián’s birthday, that I often roll my eyes upward when trying to find the rights words in Spanish. Turns out I do that when I’m speaking English as well. Proof is in the video. Why has no one ever told me?

If you missed the Ofelia and Norma book trailer on social media, you can watch it here.

You can still pre-order the book here.