Writing – Page 8 – Costa Jill

50th Class Reunion Made Me Do It – Generate My Bucket List

P1011592 — Benny Walton, Carol Krempel, Jim Lash, Jill Green, Beth Johnson

p1011583-300x225-6274955 — 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:

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

P1011641 — 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.

p1011643-300x225-9934540 — 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:

Writing a memoir of my life including bringing up a deaf child.
Expanding my consciousness.
Traveling to Europe to reconnect with my past and experience the grand history there – including France, Italy, Spain, Poland.
Relearning French and improving Spanish.
Taking my children and grandchildren on trips of their choice.
Continuing to volunteer worldwide.
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.

Books Inc. – Best Indie Bookstore Gainesville – Free To Bloom

: Books Inc. – The Food Lovers Cafe

blooomcover750-194x300-7116417

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’m It! Ten Random Facts About Myself.

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:

pict0018-300x200-2672196 — The Hippie Family

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.
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.
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.
Need to be close to bodies of water–whether riding the surf, kayaking the rivers or jumping from waterfalls.
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.
One of my best life experiences was volunteering in Africa and joining a safari.
Champion saving the environment and its people– from bringing water and sanitation to the poor, shopping at thrift stores, cleaning up the beaches.
Love to dance.
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.
Reading is a joy and necessity. It brought me to writing and ultimately to publishing my book Free To Bloom.

p9140601-300x225-6469053 — Malawi Africa

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

Inspirations For Life

My horoscope nudges me:

“What images would heal and activate my mind?

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.

p8141405-e1315338264188-225x300-2569698 — Morning Rainbow

Blissful faces of the people I love.

Clear splashing rivers with kids and dogs.

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.

El Porvenir/Casas Viejas Update

p2110908-300x225-8113481 — 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.

Life’s Goals Before Death’s Ghouls?

p4151178-e1312990950796-225x300-2666926 — Goals or Ghouls?

Will I reach my goals before the ghouls reach for me?

Goal 1 – Writing the Damn Book Free To Bloom

My writing dates back 50 years. I had a fantastic HS English teacher who made us read Chaucer, taught us to write long essays, made us speak extemporaneously in front of the class and paddled even the girls for tomfoolery (but we wore crinolines then and it didn’t hurt a bit).

Through the years I dabbled in writing: published several newsletters, worked in my sister’s publishing house, took poetry at New College, published my first article in the Volta Review, a respected magazine of audiology and continued writing articles and stories for small magazines, but I never made the big time. I had lots of excuses. Don’t we all?

I had a husband, two children and a job. My son was born profoundly deaf and after the ‘shock and dread’ wore off I was determined that he learn to communicate and live as normal a life as possible. To survive the many difficult areas of my life I started keeping a journal. It became the therapist I couldn’t afford, a place to get things off my chest. Slowly it developed into a treasure cache of important memories, catchy little phrases, and a few precious gems. The older I get the faster the memories evaporate except for the tragic, the ecstatic and the ones I’ve written down.

I’ve dreamed of writing a memoir, but as time passed raising children, running two businesses, becoming a teacher, gaining a 2^nd home in Costa Rica, losing a husband, my writing foundered mainly because it always came second, third, last.

Then I joined Patrika Vaughn’s weekly writing group in Sarasota. It gave me the deadlines that my scientific brain required. I had to submit something at least every other week to be critiqued and I learned how to critique others. The former got me going and the latter taught me how to write and not to write. The members, one by one, started publishing their books. Under her nom de plume, Regina Perry published Play Girl, and Marisa Magnani self-published The Sharkman of Cortez, a biography of her husband.

I’ll never be one of those bulimic writers that can vomit out a chapter each day, every day, but I was accumulating a body of work worth publishing. With the help of Pat’s A Cappela Publishing and my computer guru son Ray I did it.

The most difficult part, the writing, was over; or so I thought until I started on Goal 2 – Getting the Word Out. See my next post.

Advice from Joe Konrath – Are You Writing?

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.

jills-photos-023-300x225-9558613 — 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.

Kids and dogs at the River Morete