Hippie Days – Eldorado Springs – By My Own Fire

Last journal entry of Hippie Days – July 7, 1974

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Alone under the stars, moon, clouds, mountains, and trees.

The wind carries the smells, sounds and heat of the fire.

I calm down, lighten up, breathe in, write poetry.

I call “I love you,” toward the heavens. To whom?

Life. The world. My children. My husband. It doesn’t matter.

This solitude gives me serenity.

I was lonely cooped up in my box in suburbia – four walls and a roof, with only my small children to talk to. I couldn’t breathe. Instead of escaping I withdrew, became sullen, yes, sometimes unbearable. But now there’s peace and time to contemplate under this open shining sky. My whole being mellows. Even the past looks rosier. Now being alone is nice. Being with people is nice. The children notice the change. Sure we still have hassles but they don’t loom so large and are resolved more easily. Instead of trying to achieve right-mindedness, oneness, goodness, I stop trying altogether, let down my defenses and just open up. As Anais Nin perceived, now I’m “free to bloom”. Of course the cycle will continue. Life will become not so easy once again, but I’ll keep a little of this wisdom each time the wheel of life turns, moving up the ladder notch by notch. It takes an exceptionally long time, but no worry, I’m immortal.

(Though my travel journal ends here, I will try to re-create the rest of our Hippie Days from the continuing entries in the Children’s Diary.)

Free to Bloom Free on Kindle latest Statistics

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It’s my first day that Free to Bloom is FREE on Amazon Kindle. I’m monitoring the statistics and my progress. I really had no expectations on the low end, but I also had read Cheryl Tardif’s book How I made $42K in 1 mo. on Kindle Select about all the money she made and had twinges of possible sales. That remains to be seen, but I’m thrilled so far.

Here are the first statistics:

  1. 150 books ordered free.
  2. #1607 Free in Kindle Store.
  3. #1 in Kindle Store Travel Adventure

Wow. Better than I ever expected. Now I’m monitoring more closely. Two hours later I can’t stay away from the computer. Second statistics:

  1. 200 books ordered free.
  2. #900 Free in Kindle Store
  3. Still #1 Kindle Store Travel Adventure

Moving right along. I’m smiling. At 7:30 this evening, still the first day and I have 2 more days to go:

  1. 255 books ordered free.
  2. #755 Free on Kindle
  3. #1 Kindle Store Personal Growth and Inspiration

This is fun. One of my goals as per Cheryl Tardif is getting on the top 100 Free on Kindle. Maybe there’s a chance. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Wish me luck.

 

Free To Bloom FREE on Amazon

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First a little back story. My computer guru son Ray gave me the tip to join Amazon Prime and KDP Select, an author’s subsidiary of Amazon. He told me of the perks, I joined and read ‘some’ of the fine print. I found out I had to sell my book exclusively on Amazon. Free To Bloom was listed on Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. I’d only had a couple of sales. I was doing much better on Amazon. Even taking my book off of a site is difficult for me and I hate reading directions, but I finally did it. I took advantage of some other KDP Select/Prime offers and uploaded Cheryl Tardif‘s How I Made $42K in 1 Month Selling My Kindle ebooks. Thank you so much Cheryl for getting me off my butt. I followed her directions and figured out how to offer my ebook free on Amazon.

So here it is. From June 28-30 Free To Bloom by Jill Green is FREE. Please check it out, order it, tell your friends, and if you feel up to it write me a review. A description of my book follows:

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.

 

 

Coconut on My Mind

Update from last blog: George Zimmerman is finally arrested on long-overdue murder charge in the Trayvon Martin killing. And enough of death.

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Today I celebrate life; one with a healthier mind and body. I’m on one of my kicks. This time it’s coconut oil. It all started with an article I read in The Tampa Bay Times about Dr. Mary Newport who says coconut oil has significantly lessened the effects of Alzheimer’s on her husband, Steve. I read her book from Amazon, Alzheimer’s Disease, What if There Was a Cure?, and found it amazing. Not only does coconut oil help reduce the ravages of memory loss, but also it helps in weight loss and a host of other neurodegenerative diseases. I immediately hacked down a coconut from my Costa Rican farm and started experimenting.

Some notes about fresh coconut:

  • The water is tasty, refreshing, a natural electrolyte and a benefit to bladder health. This part does not contain oil.
  • Once the coconut has been stripped of its husk, pound a nail through the softest of the 3 holes in the top and one of the others, to easily extract the water.
  • Place coconut on its side, the ends parallel to you, and hit a sharp blow in the middle with a hammer or the non-sharp side of a machete until it cracks in half – perfectly. Don’t believe it? Try it.
  • Let it dry out a bit. With a knife or hammer remove flesh from shell.

Now you’re ready to prepare and eat this wonderful nut:

  • Just eat the flesh as is.
  • Break flesh into small pieces and grate in blender, food processor or by hand.
  • You can extract the oil from the flesh by placing in hot boiled water, then straining through a cloth or fine sieve. Reserve the liquid coconut milk for use in smoothies, Thai food or other recipes.
  • The remaining flesh can be eaten, used in baking, or placed on a flat cookie sheet and toasted in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
  • The toasted coconut (yum) can be sprinkled on ice cream, salad, or as a coating for fish, vegetables, meat, or fruit. No sugar added.
  • The oil can be used in baking, sautéing, frying, salad dressings, smoothies and for skin and hair care.

Now for those of you without a good source of coconuts you can buy organic, non-processed, virgin oil from health food and some grocery stores (Publix). If you buy coconut milk make sure it has no sugar added. There are many websites with more information about the benefits and recipes. Just google it and enjoy.

Just got an email from my friend Jolly with a wonderful video of Dr. Mary Newport and her husband Steve’s progress. See here  on http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/mp4/LJO190v1_WS

50% SALE – FREE TO BLOOM – SOFTCOVER NOW $7.49 ON freetobloombook.com

Check out my new story here, under new pages Old Times, Good Times, High Times


 

 

 

Whirled Wide Web of my Life

Ballena Tales

I have a rare quiet moment at home, sit down with my coffee and return to the book world. I have not written, marketed, nor blogged in over a month. I’ve received unexpected offers this month to read and discuss my book at the Costa Ballena Women’s Network on Feb. 18th and be interviewed by the Dagmar Reinhard, editor of Ballena Tales for the spring edition, one of the local magazines still in print. That gives me a boost, but what really gets me off my ass, (or rather on my ass in front of the computer) is awakening in the night to an item on my “to do” list. Shit, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. What’s the deadline? I’ll check in the morning.

  • Task 1 – Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

My mind’s awhirl and my heart’s beating. Whew! The deadline’s today. I read the rules. The novel must be at least 50,000 words. Shit again. Mine’s only about 32, 000. Maybe I could add on a couple more chapters of the continuing saga of my fictionalized life that I’ve already written. I count up the extra words, still not enough. I take a deep breath and move on.

  • Task 2 – Offer Free to Bloom free for 1-5 days

Go to Kindle Direct Publ Select to find out how to set it up. Read the rules. I must give Kindle exclusive rights and my book is already listed with Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Though I’ve sold only a few books with the others I’m not prepared to drop them. I’m getting discouraged.

  • Task 3 – Check on promotional program I paid for through my soft cover publisher Create Space.

They’ve discontinued it after my first month and it’s all very confusing. I’m ready to quit and shut the computer.

  • Task 4 – Find and Hire a good Marketer

This item wasn’t originally on the list. It’s a new and brilliant idea.  I just can’t keep up with writing and dealing with the internet life. I need someone to handle my marketing, public relations and internet. Since I’m not making any money except to barely break even on the publishing, and I’m not destitute, why not hire someone to handle the business for me and give me a simplified list of what I must do and probably make money in the process.

  • Task 5 – Back to my son for help.

 

 


Great Review of Free to Bloom by Dorothy MacKinnon of the Tico Times

Adventures of an independent woman in Costa Rica

Posted: Friday, November 18, 2011 – By Dorothy MacKinnon
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.”
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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.

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

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Books Inc. – The Food Lovers Cafe

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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.