Writer's Block: In The Money

If you won $100 this afternoon, what would you do with it?

I'd go to Cambuí, the next town over, and buy myself a pair of mud-resistant hiking shoes. It's been raining for days and I'm stuck indoors because I only brought with me a pair of shoes that I refuse to get dirty and some Birkenstocks.

After buying the hiking shoes, I'd visit the only bookshop in town and hope they had fiction by Andréa del Fuego, Rodrigo Fresán or José Luís Peixoto. The joys of discovering new authors while watching late night public access television.

I concede that these are not very imaginative ways of spending $100.

Writer's Block: Bump In The Night

What are you afraid of?

I'm afraid of waking up at 3 a.m., like I did last night, hearing the dogs bark in the kennel, a faint bluish tinge seeping into the room past the curtains, then notice that someone is outside, someone with a shotgun who has decided to rob our farm. I'm afraid this nightmarish scenario may have been brought about by our security guard telling my brother that during this time of the year, with so many visitors arriving in town to celebrate Jesus' procession, many of them get the idea of breaking into places where they think there's a lot of money (a misundertanding/mistake when it comes to our guesthouse). I'm afraid of this paranoia taking hold of me at 3 a.m., keeping me from sleeping until the roosters start singing.

I'm afraid of the violence concentrated in Brasil's megacities arriving at the countryside, in towns like this one. I'm afraid of us getting caught up in it. I'm afraid of taking at face value the peace that reigns here.