`One Hundred Years' -- and counting

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — After a career that included 11 novels, four collections of short stories and several compilations of journalism, Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez last year gave friends the disappointing news that he had "run out of gas" and was quitting writing. The author was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1999, and after treatment at UCLA Medical Center, he recently was pronounced free of the disease.

But now Garcia Marquez, who turned 80 on Tuesday, has told friends that he has begun writing his second volume of memoirs. The news arrives as an unexpected birthday present for Colombians, who are gearing up for a monthlong celebration as the nation pays tribute to its most famous son. Capping off the month will be a gala event in the colonial city of Cartagena on March 26, with a guest list befitting a global personage and including famous authors, monarchs, statesmen and former President Clinton.

His longtime friend and collaborator Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza said by telephone last week from Portugal that "Gabo," as Garcia Marquez is known here, is picking up with his memoirs in Paris in the mid-1950s, where his first bestselling volume, "Live to Tell the Tale" (2004), left off.

"He asked about dates and places for some help in refreshing his memory," said Mendoza, who recently ended a stint as Colombian ambassador to Portugal. "I told him, 'Gabo, be faithful to your memories, not your biography.' " Mendoza is godfather to one of Garcia Marquez's two sons, Rodrigo, a successful Hollywood film director.

Garcia Marquez declined a request for an interview. No publication date has been set for the next installment of memoirs, but if his past works are prologue, it will sell millions in various translations around the world.

In addition to Garcia Marquez's birthday, the celebrations are marking the 25th anniversary of his 1982 Nobel Prize for literature and the 40th anniversary of the 1967 publication of the book that won it for him, "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

Also being observed is the 60th anniversary of the 1947 publication of his first work of fiction, the short story "The Third Resignation."

The Cartagena Film Festival, now underway, is showing all nine films made from his works. The 10th, "Love in the Time of Cholera," recently wrapped shooting in Cartagena. Directed by Mike Newell and starring Javier Bardem, it is slated for release this year.