In researching the novel I'm re-writing currently I spent time on location in Cuba where the story takes place. I immersed myself in local color to such an extent that I was initiated into the local Santeria religion. I write literary fiction and so I consume works of both classic and contemporary literature for inspiration. But I confess to a fundamentalist zeal for Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" which I devour over and over again with a mental knife and fork.