Costa Jill

I want to thank everyone for your comments, reviews, purchases, support for Free to Bloom. I’m still beating the pavement to get the word out. In the meantime I keep reading, so next post will be my reviews of others books. And writing, I’ll get back to that after the holidays. Peace and Love to everyone.

From Goodreads and Amazon:

Maddiehopp‘s review 

Nov 15, 11

Kim‘s review

Nov 22, 11 

At 94 pages, this was a super fast and enjoyable read. Each short story exposes the main character’s life in short blips of time and covers a wide range of emotions- fear, anger, love, passion – and so many others. Despite being short stories, there is never a lack of action, imagery, or detail.
At times, I did find myself wishing that some of the stories were more connected with back story, if only to keep myself chronologically grounded.
Regardless, this was a wonderful read that left me smiling throughout much of it. Very good read.

Brenda Bossman‘s review

Dec 13, 11

Read in April, 2011

Free To Bloom is a delightful book about a woman’s adventure in a remote area of Costa Rica. I found it easy to read and loved the descriptions of her tropical paradise as well as her depictions of some very interesting relationships and experiences.

BW –

OPEN BOOK: Southern Zone resident Jill Green relates her experiences living as a foreign woman alone in Costa Rica in her book, “Free to Bloom.”

What is it about Costa Rica that attracts so many accomplished, independent women to start new lives here? In her first book, “Free to Bloom,” California-born, Florida-reared Jill Green tells a personal story about starting a post-divorce, new life as a pioneering homesteader in a remote area of the Southern Zone. Although thinly disguised, these are autobiographical stories told with heart and humor, leavened with soulful introspection.

From the trials and tribulations of building an off-the-grid house to romantic encounters and harrowing adventures in the wild – including an intimate relationship with a botfly – Green’s tales will resonate especially with like-minded women already living here, and with anyone contemplating the leap into life in Costa Rica.

Green is an excellent storyteller, weaving flowing conversational prose with lyrical passages that capture her love affair with the “stark, shocking beauty” of the southern Pacific coast where she has chosen to live. Along with evocative descriptions, she segues seamlessly into perceptive philosophical musings about the simpler, but never boring, life in Costa Rica. She learns to appreciate, too, the slower pace of life here, accepting the Tico approach to time: “… time isn’t something to beat, it’s a continuum of life from morning to night.”

Green’s book grew out of her personal blog, which she posts to keep friends and family apprised of her adventures. Many women will find her personal aperçus concise and compelling, too. After 25 years of a rocky marriage, Green finally sees her way through to breaking free: “I don’t need to be afraid with him any more. I’m no longer afraid without him.”

Living alone in a foreign country can be challenging for anybody. But in light of some recent horrific attacks on extranjera women living in remote parts of the Southern Zone, does Green have any new concerns about single life on her mountaintop?

“When I look at what’s happening worldwide with the bad economy and the poor getting poorer and hungrier, I don’t think things are much different in other locations,” Green answers. “… On my mountaintop near Uvita, I have lots of big barking dogs and a wonderful caretaker and his family nearby. My daughter and her family living in the area also helps. I don’t have second thoughts of living alone here any more than in the U.S.”

“Costa Rica is the place where I became an independent woman,” Green adds. So the title, “Free to Bloom,” is apropos. And although her author’s note states, “This is a work of fiction,” many local readers, from Dominical down to Uvita, are enjoying some entertaining gossip, trying to work out just who is who in the book – especially a mysterious “caveman” who provides a very steamy interlude in Green’s personal growth.

“Free to Bloom,” published by A Cappella Publishing in Sarasota, Florida, is available as an e-book ($2.99) from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or as a real book ($14.99 plus shipping). Visitwww.freetobloombook.com for ordering details and access to Green’s blog.

There’s nothing like a great review. Thank you so much Dorothy. For those who have asked. My soft cover edition is available in these locations in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica.

1. Green Leaf Art Gallery in Ojochal.
2. Rincon de Uvita Farmer’s Market at Diana’s Made by Scratch booth and at the DAWG Library every Saturday from 8 am – 12pm.
3. Call me at 8892 8135 or email me at jill@hinesfamily.com and I will arrange a delivery.
4. Amazon.com will be publishing the soft cover edition by the end of November. It already carries the ebook.

Benny Walton, Carol Krempel, Jim Lash, Jill Green, Beth Johnson

50th Committee - Ellen Collard, Carol Pearson, Ed Music

My Venice High class of ’61 just celebrated  its 50th class reunion. Amazing! A few interesting statistics:

1. There were 119 graduates. First class over 100.
2. 13 have died. Not bad.
3. 7 are missing. Not bad.
4. 33 have been married once for 30-50 years. Wow. That’s got to be a record. Hope they’re happy.
5. 9 are divorced now. Hope they’re happy.
6. 6 are widows. No widowers.
7. 40 classmates attended. Not counting mates. One third.
8. 35 classmates still live in the area.

Everyone in attendance was stunned at how quickly the years passed and how we all feel the same inside. As you can see by the statistics we’re a very cohesive group and honor our Florida roots. The Venice area was a wonderful, beautiful and unspoiled place to grow up. Continuing health and happiness to us all.

Georgia and David Ross - Committee

While attending the reunion I reconnected with several classmates I hardly knew in high school. Too bad for me. Thank goodness we change and grow, and I’m still alive. Benny Walton was one of them. While catching up we found that both of us had written books. Benny’s will be published by the end of the year. It is part of his “Bucket List”, which I’m hoping he’ll categorize here.

Leo and Gigi Morrell - Committee

Though I don’t have much to regret in my life, I hope I still have lots of room for accomplishing more on my Bucket List. So here goes:

1. Writing a memoir of my life including bringing up a deaf child.
2. Expanding my consciousness.
3. Traveling to Europe to reconnect with my past and experience the grand history there – including France, Italy, Spain, Poland.
4. Relearning French and improving Spanish.
5. Taking my children and grandchildren on trips of their choice.
6. Continuing to volunteer worldwide.
7. Although we all must deal with pain and sorrow, being as content and positive as possible.

I challenge anyone reading this to compile his/her own Bucket LIst and post it here. Let’s see what the future holds.

Follow me to Books Inc – The Book Lovers Cafe at 505 NW 13th St. Gainesville, FL on Oct 23 from 4-6 pm

It would be greatly appreciated if my Florida Facebook friends would share this with theirs.

A description and biography follows:

Description – Free To Bloom

Through eleven partially linked chronological stories we follow Danielle as she splits from a long-term marriage to find her way as a single woman living alone in a foreign country. Her search for both physical and emotional contentment and independence leads her to take risks in life and love from jumping off waterfalls, to discovering a gorgeous young caveman, and learning the art of marijuana growing and harvesting. Follow her journey as she intertwines intimate personal insights with wild adventures.

The first story Of Time and the Mountain reveals that beginning a new life and building a house in an isolated part of a foreign country, Costa Rica, is rampant with challenges: physical, emotional and personal. The frayed threads of a long term marriage begin to unravel one by one.

Learning a new language, meeting new people, living in a strange culture, subsisting in a primitive environment without basic necessities bring a need for a little respite wherever it can be found. And find it Danielle does, whether it’s going to local festivals in the mountain villages, finding archeological artifacts, or getting to know both locals and expats.

Danielle travels back and forth between the U.S. and Costa Rica finding adventure wherever she is. New relationships blossom, grow strong, wilt, revive or die, but all are worthwhile experiences. With Danielle’s newborn independence, taking risks in both love and life becomes necessity. A U.S. doctor is shocked by her little parasite in My Friend George. A scary alligator plies Florida waters in Alligator Dreams.  A Costa Rican cave dweller falls in love with her in God’s Caveman. She is horrified by the ‘dog-eat-dog’ world in Puppy Love. At turns she is terrified and exhilarated by conquering the waterfall in Fear of Falling. Getting to know Adrian in California includes experiencing his illegal lifestyle and feeling his paranoia when the cops appear at the pot growing fields in Getting To Know You – Humboldt County.

Join Danielle as she deals with both the highs and lows of her adventurous life; how she deals with conflict, has fun, learns patience and gains contentment as her life blooms into full flower.

Author Biography

Though born in California, and living in France as a child, Jill Green’s formative years were spent on Florida’s Gulf Coast. After college at the Univ of Florida, marriage, two children – one deaf, she started teaching, helped run two businesses and after 30 years, got divorced.

What a turn life took! Now living in two countries, Sarasota, FL and Costa Rica, she forgot her French, but learned Spanish. Living alone took many adjustments, eventually she has become a self-sufficient, adventuresome individual, traveling the world, volunteering with many organizations, climbing mountains, surfing the seas and teaching ESL in Costa Rica and Florida.

After many years working and bringing up a family she has finally become a published writer with her book of connected short stories Free to Bloom about life in Costa Rica and the United States, hopefully the first of many. Although she has written stories and essays for small magazines, her next big project is auto-biographical: the trials, tribulations, joys and sorrows of living with and educating a deaf child who after the fact designed and now runs a successful website www.gatorcountry.com, one of the top U. of Florida Gator football websites.

Back to my more personal revelations next time.

Visit Jill’s personal blog at http://www.costajill.com and her Free to Bloom blog at http://freetobloombook.com

Print books available at selected Indie bookstores and on my Free to Bloom website. Ebooks available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords.

I just got tagged by Sue Ann Bowling to tell 10 random facts about myself, tag 3 other people and link to their sites.

To preface the assignment, I have been trying hard to publicize my newly published book Free To Bloom about the adventures of a single woman learning to live alone in Costa Rica and around the world. While visiting She Writes, a very helpful and interesting site for women writers, I encountered a group called WordPress Bloggers and finally left a comment listing my blog. Lo and behold, I got tagged. I just haven’t got into the habit of PR: surfing sites, dropping comments, linking to others. It’s hard, maybe harder than writing the damn book. Now, according to Sue Ann this is going geometric. Watch out everyone. Here we go.

You’re It:

• Stepping Into The Water – a socially relevant and inspiring  blog and book by my good friend Marisa, member of my writing group, and author of the book The Sharkman of Cortez.
• In The Company of Gentle Heroes – my wonderful friend Sue who has written a memoir of her life as a miiltary wife and just started her blog..
• M C Coolidge Reality On Line – a fellow writer, lively journalist in the Sarasota, FL area and author of the book Sideways in Sarasota, who will join me next Tues. Sept. 20 at Bookstore1Sarasota for a gathering and book signing for local self-published authors.

Ten Random Facts about Jill:

The Hippie Family

1. Became a Hippie during the 70′s, sold everything to travel and live in a van with husband, kids and dogs with the ulterior motive of finding the best oral school for my deaf son.
2. Taking full advantage of his disabilities, my son has become a psychic and my internet guru, making it possible for me to understand enough of the intricacies of an online world to publish an ebook.
3. Thanks to my adventurous daughter whom I have followed all over the world, I now have a home in Costa Rica, the catalyst of my personal transformation.
4. Need to be close to bodies of water–whether riding the surf, kayaking the rivers or jumping from waterfalls.
5. Teaching is a part of my life– first with my son, then high school science, English as a 2nd language and continues as a volunteer.
6. One of my best life experiences was volunteering in Africa and joining a safari.
7. Champion saving the environment and its people– from bringing water and sanitation to the poor, shopping at thrift stores, cleaning up the beaches.
8. Love to dance.
9. Love my kids but realize that grandkids are way more fun. Without the responsibility of their upbringing I become the old lady scientist and bedtime story-teller.
10. Reading  is a joy and necessity. It brought me to writing and ultimately to publishing my book Free To Bloom.

Malawi Africa

Please pass this exercise on. It really made my think about my life past, present and future.

My horoscope nudges me:

“What images would heal and activate my mind?

Full Moon

What scenes would inspire me?”

A full moon,

Its light radiating

From a perfect kiss,

The vibrations

Fusing us together

In a slithery dance

Of mating snakes.

Morning rainbows over the sea.

Morning Rainbow

Blissful faces of the people I love.

Clear splashing rivers with kids and dogs.

Rio Morete

Perfect moments,

To meditate upon now,

To visualize for the future,

To savor in darker times.

My horoscope invited me to visualize five images that would inspire me. The four above inspired the poem. Now I add the fifth. I visualize myself selling my books Free To Bloom. I meditate on it. I savor it. I work at it.

Join me at Books1Sarasota on Main St. for a book-signing with several other local authors on Sept. 20, 2011 from 6 – 8 pm.

I am making a tour of Upstate New York independent book stores at the end of September.

In October I will return to Gainesville for another reading and book signing at Books, Inc. on 13th St. Check here or on my Free To Bloom website.

I’m trying to keep up with this blog and comment on other writers, read Writing  Your Memoir by Hunter that my son lent me on my Kindle, keep up with the latest best-sellers (I’ve got 4 going), attend my weekly writing group, and finish my latest story. Whew!

My challenge for you my faithful readers, is to visualize the five images that would inspire you and let me know what they are. Of course I would appreciate any publicity or suggestions on my book or blog.

Baile Folklórico Casas Viejas

El Porvenir’s Impact on the Community – Spring 2011

At the end of El Porvenir’s 5-day Casas Viejas, Nicaragua construction project the community members of all ages and the volunteers celebrated together in the school yard with a piñata for the children, a local band, students performing folkloric dances, and lots of happiness.

The Casas Viejas community received three new latrines, a handwashing station and a re-connected water line to a school that had been without any of these basic needs for many years. In terms of personal relations even more was accomplished. Although all construction materials and planning was handled by El Porvenir, community members learned to work together and with the volunteers; from Jose, the foreman of the work crew, to his wife, Chepita, who handled all the lunches for the volunteers, to the women and children of all ages who arrived everyday on site to help with whatever jobs were necessary: hauling sand, site clean-up, digging lines, carrying water, etc…

The pride of accomplishment shown in all of us, foreigners and community members alike, as we danced, sang and celebrated the completion of our goals – the addition of basic water needs for the primary school of Casas Viejas.

I’m updating my spring trip with El Porvenir with an impact statement which will appear in the El Porvenir newsletter by Jo Buescher. Thought the rest of you might be interested since I never finished my NIcaragua blog. Sorry.

Next post will continue my struggle with public relations for Free To Bloom.

I open my Kindle to download a little treasure, Bruno’s Dream by Iris Murdoch, and for only $1.99. It’s true she’s old and dead, but one of my favorite authors. Joe Konrath’s  blog Newbie’s Guide to Publishing downloads with it. I immediately click his title ‘Are You Writing?’. Because the answer is ‘No’ I find out I’m an epic failure. Why? I’m reading books, buying new books, reading blogs, doing laundry; anything to keep from writing. And when I finish the article I open my computer and here I am. WRITING. Yea.

OK, It’s not my newest story, High In The Emergency Room, but I’m blogging.

A quick note on my book Free To Bloom. Sales have come to a grinding halt as have my efforts at publicizing it. Can’t seem to get the print edition on Amazon. Book reading and discussion events have dried up, and neither am I visiting my social sites, reviewing, guest blogging nor reading the writer’s news letters that arrive. Sigh.

Playa Hermosa, Costa Ballena, CR our beach from above

Let’s look at a more positive side. What do I do other than writing that makes me feel good?

• On this rare sunny morning in the middle of the Costa Rican Green Season to the tourists, but the rainy season to us, I met my friend Diana at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Playa Hermosa, to boogie board in the excellent warm waters of the Southern Pacific Ocean.
• When I’m stuck inside, like right now and it’s raining like hell, I like to design and make quilts.I’ve been on a quilt kick for the last couple years and love it. When I can’t do anything else I can usually turn to quilting to pick me up. And finding exotic, beautiful, vintage fabric soothes my shopping urge.
• Melanie’s Quilt

• To renew my soul I take the dogs to the river, but have only gone twice  this trip because of the rain bloated rapids.
• Romping, exploring and playing with my grandkids is high on the list, but they’re all in Florida right now.
• And sex in the afternoon, rain or shine is always wonderful.