I’m writing this while sitting at one of my favourite bars here in San Miguel de Allende, La Azotea…The Rooftop. I’ve been here quite a while, the view is magnificent, I’m in philosophical mood, and I feel great.

In my entire working life–that’s 30 years, including paper rounds–I’ve never felt more positive or inspired about my working future. Okay, I admit it, I’m into my 5th round of happy hour drinks…that’s 9 glasses of sauvignon, between you and me…and yes, I’m pretty sozzled.

But I also woke up feeling inspired, as I stepped out onto our patio to eat breakfast beneath an energising blue sky while surrounded by a kaleidoscope of colourful bougainvillaea and butterflies, the only audible distractions my hungry protesting cats and the once rusty cogs whirring in my over-filled head.

But…

I’m onto something. I really am. My writing, I mean, and within my writing, my protagonist Hiram Kane is inspiring me further (he’s a guy I wouldn’t mind being).

I’ve spent much of the last 25 years–yes, a quarter of a century–worried that I’d never be good at anything. Self-doubt is the burden of many a creative person. I’ve dabbled with this and that, and for several years I was a decent English teacher. I’ve even sold a few paintings. But back then I was never inspired. That’s all changed now.

It’s not to say I’m a good writer, but that’s almost irrelevant. What’s important is that I’ve finally found something I’m at least confident I CAN be good at, and might already be. Time will tell, but the omens are good.

My guy, Kane, basically my imagined, fictional self, is a good guy, and very good at what he does.

Maybe, just maybe, so am I.

“Barman? Uno mas, por favor.”