August and the Language Barrier

One of the most difficult battles in my writing career has been the language barrier. Spanish was, and remains, my native language. The American Dream has reached outside North American borders, and I wanted to become a writer with a publisher in New York City. I figured all I had to do was write in English. A simple plan, right?

At nineteen, I was blessed with a job where I had to speak and write in English. Then there was the reading. Every early customer presented me with books. That’s when I discovered Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Ken Follett and Clive Cussler. I got proficient, and people kept telling me I was good at speaking too. Match that praise with the desire to put ideas in writing and you have a recipe for publishing dreams.

I started my first novel in 1998 and made the rookie mistake of showing it to people who cared for me and didn’t want to break my heart. I can’t help but wonder if someone who disliked me would have helped me improve faster.

The very best thing I’ve done is investing in the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English dictionaries.

The second thing that helped me improve has been the support of native speakers willing to go through hell correcting the typos that would spring out of nowhere as they tried to navigate my stories.

I have writing friends who show me mistakes and help me make corrections. I will not claim I am master of the language, but one of those friends claims she can now concentrate more on plot or character development than grammar mistakes. And although the wars on Oxford comma and splitting infinitives still rage on, at least the difference between irony and coincidence is no longer a mystery to me.

The August edition of The Big Thrill is out and I contributed a piece about Preston & Child's new book Old Bones:

Up Close:  Preston and Child by J. H. Bográn: http://bit.ly/2K5NNbk 

Author Spotlight shining on JH Bográn

Thanks to author Lisa Towles, there is a new interview where I discuss about my new release, Poisoned Tears, but also about my writing choices, and why I write in two languages.

Here's the link. Don't forget to leave a comment.

https://digitalraconteur.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/author-spotlight-j-h-bogran/


Also, here's a direct link to the book available for pre-order.

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Tears-J-H-Bogr%C3%A1n-ebook/dp/B01MTDV2D5

Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/poisoned-tears-jh-bogran/1125784661?ean=2940154010204

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/703341

About The Lost City of the Monkey God

I was familiar with Douglas Preston’s work in thrillers, but when I found out he’d write a non-fiction book about Ciudad Blanca, I added the title to my reading list. 

As a Honduran I’ve heard legends of a white city in the region of La Mosquitia, located in the eastern tip of Honduras, so when a story broke out back in 2012 about a discovery I became curious and excited because the possibilities for this discover were endless. Would it turn out to be our Pyramids of Cairo, or our Machu Pichu? In 2015 Nat Geo released a documentary; I must have watched it over 10 times, partly because I played it for my advanced-English students in the university.

I’m sharing here a few thoughts on The Lost City of the Monkey God. It’s a fascinating tale that deals with an ancient mystery in Honduras.

The opening chapter where the author recalls the warnings, and the dangers of what they would be encountering during their excursion into the jungle, made me realize my own jungle adventures as a boy scout were a walk in the park by comparison.

The book covers the several years of effort, frustration, trial and error, and finally, the exploration of a civilization what established and flourished over five centuries ago in La Mosquitia. It has a loose format structure that comprises several sections; among them, Preston’s meeting with Steve Elkins—the driving force behind the quest—, a summary of the several tales surrounding the White City and previous searches for the city, then it goes into a detailed explanation of Honduras’ current status as the most dangerous country in the world. But Preston digs deeper and brings the situation into perspective of the tumultuous history, the stint as a banana republic, and the recent use of the territory as pit stop for the drug trade.

But the clincher was the use of space-age technology to map the area from the air that happened in 2012 and where after analyzing the data they could share their information with the world. It would take another three years before they could organize an in-site dig that finally occurred in January 2015. I particularly enjoyed the semi-diary Preston used for that section as I felt I was in the jungle with them.

The team went into unfamiliar territory for their love of solving a mystery; however, a few weeks after their return, they realized that although they had not removed any relic from the site, they did bring something back with them. This information would later become an important part to solve the puzzle, and to my inexpert opinion, they nailed it.

Get your copy of this new Best-Seller here:
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Monkey-God-Story/dp/1455540005

Douglas Preston and Lincold Child discuss about Crimson Shore

This month The Big Thrill released my interview of the authors Preston and Child. We had a nice chat about their newest book with protagonist Agent Pendergast.
We also discussed about their method of writing and if it had changed over the years, and of course, as a Honduran myself, I had to ask about the recent descovery that Mr. Preston participated with National Geographic.

Here it is:

http://www.thebigthrill.org/2015/11/crimson-shore-by-douglas-preston-lincoln-child/