Interview with Mark Saunders

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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Can you
give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Nobody
Knows the Spanish I Speak</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> is a humorous memoir about dropping out late in life,
selling almost everything, and moving to the middle of Mexico, where you don’t
know a soul and can barely speak the language.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>The story arc of my memoir is a simple one: we lose our jobs, drop
out, and move to Mexico (Act 1); we experience conflict, both good and bad,
before moving back to the States (end of Act 2); finally, we resolve our
biggest conflict by moving back to Mexico (Conclusion), where we hope to stay
longer this time.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
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</b>My wife and I were the last persons we ever thought would drop out and move
to Mexico, especially when we did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>We were in our late 50s at the time, did not have much money to back us
up, and were not the adventurous types. We were both working in high-tech, for
different companies, and coincidently our jobs were going away around the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>At our age, we felt boxed in—or
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>So we sold our condo in
downtown Portland, Oregon, with the spectacular view of Mt. Hood and Mt. St.
Helens and lived in Mexico for two years off the proceeds of the sale. Put
another way, we gave ourselves a self-funded, open-ended sabbatical. Funny
things happened to us almost immediately and I thought I should start writing
about what was going on, and do so mostly from the point of view of someone who
was totally ill-equipped and ill-prepared to live in a foreign country.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
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</b>In violation of such mainstream media expectations, in moving to Mexico we
didn’t get car-jacked, kidnapped, mistakenly shot at, or ripped off by a shady
contractor hoping to live in Panama on our life savings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>We had, however, our share of mishaps,
made some dreadful mistakes, got in and out of trouble, and learned a thing or
two about life, Mexico, and each other. Even though my memoir reenacts no
homicides or rescue attempts, my story covers plenty of interesting ground,
landscaped with prickly pear cactus, scorpions, mammoth speed bumps,
lung-choking dust, yoga, disco, firecrackers, car repairs, lost-in-translation
moments, and a near-death collision on a two-lane highway. All right, that last
bit is an exaggeration. The two six-wheelers missed us by a good five inches.<br />
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My book is not part of a series, although I am working on a sequel. The working
title for the sequel is “The Duke of San Miguel”; the second book will be
partly about moving back to Mexico and partly about our new dog, an 80-pound
male, apricot-colored Standard Poodle named Duke. He literally stops traffic
whenever we take him out for his walks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>And at least once a week a Mexican family on vacation will ask if they
can have their picture taken with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>Of course, they always ask us to move out of the frame. We’re thinking
about putting a sign around his neck and charging for the photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
have a favorite character? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our car, a black Audi Quattro. Although it doesn’t have any
speaking parts, it has a strong presence and reasserts itself frequently, sort
of like a cross between a pastrami sandwich and Banquo’s Ghost.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
factors influenced your decision to go with a particular agent or publisher? </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Once my
manuscript was nearly completed, I took the usual steps: researched the market;
created query letters; put together a 50-page proposal. But as it turned out, I
didn’t need my proposal. One of the principals at FUZE knew me and found out I
was working on a book about dropping out and moving to Mexico. She asked to
read my manuscript when it was ready. I sent it to them. They liked it. I
signed. Cue the trumpets. And it’s been a rewarding experience. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How did
you choose your book’s title?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I wanted a title that would combine Mexico and humor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>One early title was (groan) “Two Years
Before the Masa,” which wouldn’t work, I realized, since the Richard Dana book
referred to disappeared from bookshelves a long time ago and only serious cooks
knew that tortillas come from masa or corn dough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Then, I thought of going with “A Year of Doing Nothing,” but
had to scratch that title once we entered our second year in San Miguel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I tried “Lost and Found in Mexico,” but
there’s already a documentary film with that title. Then, I chose “We’ll Always
Have Parasites,” thinking it would make a great title, but ran it by a few
people and they all thought it sounded like a book about stomach disorders.
Eventually I settled on “Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak” for the title
because it’s a chapter from the book and because it captures, in six words, my
total confusion and incompetence as an expat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nobody Knows the
Spanish I Speak</i> is, of course, a play on the old spiritual “Nobody knows
the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus” and, I think, it’s a title that
says this is a light-hearted book about a non-Hispanic living in Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Plus, as bonus points, our car mechanic’s
name was Jesus and he knew a lot about the troubles we had with our car.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes and No. I did and I don’t. I belonged to two such groups
when I lived in Portland, Oregon: a critique group for playwrights and a
separate group for screenwriters. Both were invaluable, very helpful, and I
miss them. In San Miguel, I am a member of a wonderful writers’ organization
called The Literary Sala. However, it’s a monthly gathering where two guest
writers give a public reading from their work. Critiques are not part of the
program. Occasionally, I meet for breakfast with other writers in town and we
discuss what we’re working on, but we don’t critique each other’s works. We
criticize the coffee instead.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What is
your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Post-college my resume read like a good-grief of odd jobs:
military journalist, medical librarian, college instructor, book packer, mill
worker, business owner, technical writer, software documentation manager,
marketing manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>If I could have
thrown in gold prospector and hobo, I would have been Jack London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Between and during those jobs, I always
worked on creative projects, mostly writing and cartooning and, like many
writers, all of it in my spare time, either writing before or after work or
over the weekends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>While at work,
in addition to my regular job, I’d also be doing what’s known in the computer
industry as “background processing,” working out story problems in the garage
of my mind and jotting notes down so I wouldn’t forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>If I happened to get mugged coming home
from work, the unlucky guy would get scraps of paper and Post-it Notes with
bits of dialogue, plot points, and partly developed scenes on them. Not exactly
stuff you could easily fence. So my writing process, as a part-time writer, was
catch-as-catch-can. Today, I am a full-time writer, with more can than catch. I
would prefer to be listening to music, but as I type these words our dog is
barking furiously and someone is ringing the doorbell. Oy.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you
outline your story or just go where your muse takes you? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Both. Once I have an idea for a story or chapter or play or
screenplay or letter to the editor or ransom note or grocery list or whatever,
I create an outline. Before starting, I need at least the bare bones of an
outline, a sense of direction with some stops indicated along the way. I can’t help
it; I was taught by nuns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>(Even
though I first create a roadmap, that doesn’t mean I’m going to follow it all
the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’m basically a wordy
cartoonist with a short attention span, the kind of guy who is easily seduced
by detours.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The time I invest in
an outline varies, depending on the project. When writing screenplays, for
example, I create a detailed beat sheet, including dialogue, before writing any
scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>It seems I am always
writing, whether I am looking out the window, watching a TV program, walking
the dog, or sitting at my computer screen. My muse must be lazy because I do a
lot of sitting and staring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>That
said, I believe I am at my happiest and most productive when I am lost in a
writing project. It’s been described elsewhere by much smarter people as the
concept of “Flow,” which in Mexico has more to do with backed-up plumbing than
creativity.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did you
hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I was one of the lucky ones. As part of my contract with
FUZE, they provided me with an absolutely amazing editor. By the time we were
done working together on my book, she knew my book better than I did, inside
and out, left and right, chapter and verse, word-by-word. My original
manuscript was going to be modeled along the lines of a David Sedaris
collection of stand-alone essays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 
</span>My editor convinced me to give it more of a narrative thread and guided
me through the process of making those connections. Now I’m a true believer. I
would never publish a book without first running it by an editor. I also feel
fortunate in the book designer that FUZE selected for me. In my opinion, the
book designer knocked the cover, as well as the inside design, out of the park.
It’s exactly what I was hoping to get, a whimsical, colorful cover that reminds
me of one of those Road Runner cartoon landscapes by Chuck Jones. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Besides
writing, do you have any other passions? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Food and drink. If a cartographer were to divide my body
into distinct neighborhoods like a map of Manhattan, I would, of course, have
uptown, midtown, and downtown sections. Likewise, there would also be two
large, generalized areas known as Eastside and Westside. (In case you’re
wondering, I sleep on my Eastside.) My body would be host to a medley of
smaller neighborhoods, from historic to modern, charming to seedy. Upper Body
would include such areas as Bald Peak and Braintown. Whereas the far end of the
island, a large section known as Lower Body, would end in Toeville, my own
private Montauk. But my favorite neighborhood, bar none, the one where I seem
to spend so much time and devote far too much interest, would be a midtown area
that locals refer to as NoJo—or North of Johnson, an area known to doctors as
my stomach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Don’t get me
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I love the Johnson
neighborhood. It’s one of my favorite haunts and I know every corner of it
intimately. I always have a good time whenever I visit it or share its
side-street pleasures with another. In fact, some of my favorite moments have
been spent on the Johnson playground, even with its aging equipment. But there’s
no place like NoJo.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s
next for you? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Lunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Fuze Publishing website: <a href="http://www.fuzepublishing.com/"&... </b></span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TwoEnd..." height="1" width="1"/>