Last week’s blog identified three forces in Mexico that inspired me to more and hopefully better production in my writing. But motivation is not the same thing as inspiration. Today, I want to address inspiration. Writers are routinely asked where they get their ideas. I have long suspected that those most inclined to ask are the people for whom the idea of writing a novel is a foreign (and as magical) as pixy dust on faireys’ wings. I am equally in awe of anyone who can pain

San Miguel de Allende was recently named the world’s number 1 city in a Conde Nast survey of its readers. That’s right, NUMBER ONE!! Paris? An also-ran. London? Chopped fish ‘n chips. New York? Forgettaboutit! No one here takes this coronation particularly seriously except the mayor, who is widely believed to have higher political goals. The city dates from the year 1541. In the decades following the Cortez invasion, it became a significant way-station along the roads connect