It is now mid-summer, and high time for me to write a new blog. I am very excited to have plans to travel to the Yucatán Peninsula the first week of September. While there, I will be accompanied by a bilingual tour guide from that area. My purpose in going, in addition to seeing the beautiful countryside, towns, and cities, and meeting the local people, is to do research for my prequel to Klara’s Truth, which as of now, is titled Artifacts- A Novel.

In my first published novel, Klara’s Truth, which came out in June 2024 through She Writes Press, the protagonist, Klara, had originally planned to travel to the Yucatán to co-lead an archaeological dig with a former colleague there. However, after I was told by several people that I should separate this part of the story from the part in Poland, in which Klara’s Truth is primarily situated, I finally agreed following much resistance on my part. I took a page of advice from Stephen King, who famously and metaphorically encourages writers to “kill your darlings,” meaning that authors should be open to deleting parts of their narratives, including characters.

So, here I am, now ready to return in time to when Klara goes to Mexico the summer before Klara’s Truth takes place in late May 2013. I’m so glad I ultimately chose to make my original novel into two separate novels for several reasons. First, I think Klara’s Truth was a much better and more focused story on its own. Second, I’ve since learned that there’s a lot I do not know about Mexico. For example, Klara was to unknowingly assist her former colleague in surveying and preliminarily digging up land samples from land that was to be developed into a hotel, to make sure it was not sacred land containing Maya artifacts. I want to explore this subject matter further. I hope to get answers from real people, rather than just from books. I love books, but I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to travel to the source itself.

While in the Yucatán, I hope to go to the Anthropology and History Institute of Yucatán, talk with an archaeologist working there, view an active dig site, meet with present-day Maya families and see how they live, talk to a shaman or Mayan Ah-Men, a priest of the ancient calendar, and see the landscape for myself. Mostly, I look forward to soaking in the culture and history of the people and their land, and to then have accurate information to include in my future novel which I hope to publish in 2027. I promise to include photographs in my next newsletter in the fall as well as on social media. Until then.