Seriously, truly and really... I'VE WRITTEN A BOOK!

I know, I know ~ writing in all caps means I'm screaming at you, but truth be told, I totally am!

"18 days" is my book of 50,000 words, give or take. That's somewhere in the vicinity of 275 pages but that number changes pending your device and font size. It chronicles the days that took place as we planned and then executed a rescue mission for Banyan. There's photos to start every chapter. Why, it's an absolute pager turner!!

Don't hoist your sails yet, here's the Introduction:



So why did I write a book about our rescue mission?

When the Cap'n and I sailed to Guatemala two years ago, making Catamaran Marina Banyan's home, we immediately got involved with some of the other cruisers also berthed there. Relying solely on donations, "the Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala" are the hands and feet on the ground working directly with and alongside the Guatemalan people in remote communities: bringing medical supplies, food and clothing, repairing schools and orphanages, building desks so the children have something to sit on and write at.

Then? In October and November of 2020, two back to back hurricanes Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota, wreaked havoc in this area. Did you know that the UN's WMO (World Meteorological Organization) just retired the names Eta and Iota because of their devastating destruction? As of this posting some communities and homes are STILL digging out from all that flooding and mud, washed out roads, and with no access to food, drinking water or even shovels to dig themselves out and dry. Sigh.

On November 27th, when we returned to Canada following Banyan's rescue mission and began our fourth quarantine of 2020, we felt we wanted to do something as we couldn't be in Guatemala ourselves, volunteering our own hands and feet and time. But what could we do from here?

I knew I might write a blog about our latest "adventure" (aka rescue mission) but as I wrote the words evolved into something bigger and bolder and the idea of my first ever E-book was born. Then I had another idea ~ I would sell it as an e-book and send proceeds to "Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala""

What a learning curve all this has been (hmm, maybe that's another book in the making?), but the joy was truly in the journey. When I reached out to a fellow author for some words of wisdom, Mark told me that "writing is the easy part" and boy was he write, oops I mean right! What an S.O.B autocorrect is which could be a whole other book.

It's not as easy as one would think to just "hit" publish via the digital routes of Amazon and Kindle et al. It's somewhat cost prohibitive as well when my goal at the moment is simply to send helping dollars directly to the group we belong to and not have corporate giants swallow my hard written words with royalties and fees. I also didn't want to spend a year trying to release my story as I feel that my words are time sensitive and pertinent to now: COVID-19, daring to travel during a pandemic, crossing borders, rescue mission, diving with alligators... OK, maybe alligators aren't pertinent right now, but they're in the book!

Ebooks are great and a space saver when one travels, but there's nothing like handling a real book, turning real pages, all comfy cozy and drinking a cuppa. Eventually I would really like to have my printed book sitting on my coffee table in my living room. Better yet, I could be signing the inside front cover with my very own personal message for you, how cool would that be?

But for now, I'm sticking with an e-book and going all indie rogue. Y'all with me?

Being Canadians, it soon became apparent that this was going to be even more complex, complicated and a true P.I.T.A. Due to Pay Pal issues (I couldn't withdraw money from our PayPal account unless it's in U.S. dollars from a U.S. account in a U.S. bank. I won't tell you how long that took!), the solution was for me to set the cost of the book to U.S. dollars for everyone everywhere.

I researched Patreon but they've removed the one time purchase button, I turned to GoFundMe but I wanted more than what they offered. I looked at Shopify, but at the moment I have one item and no personal website, so the hefty monthly fees don't compute for my desired charitable effort. So on and so forth, I was totally pulling my hair out and reaching for another cup of coffee!

Then Siri, who was undoubtedly listening in the background, might've heard me mumbling about another coffee for all of a sudden the Universe nudged a new website my way: "Buy me a Coffee" (BMAC) Was it telling me I needed more caffeine to figure all this out? Hell yes!

Made for indie authors and creators, BMAC is a fun platform to use. You can follow me, support my words and work and if you feel so inclined, by 'buying me a coffee.' AND best of all I can offer EXTRAS for you to purchase, extras such as my e-book!

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THE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BUY MY BOOK ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG but wait, keep reading before you skip ahead.

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I want to thank you for buying my book and not just freely passing it around ~ remember the proceeds are for a good cause!

Speaking of thank you's ~ I'd like to seize this moment and this space to send special thanks to my VIP's: to Simona, for the idea of channeling my angst into words, to the Cap'n without whom this would not have been possible, and to Darren and Michelle, both of you provided me with a different type of encouragement. To all of you I promise to never again write a word with a capital letter unless it appears after a period. I'd like to send some extra sweet beignets to fellow adventurer and author of some really adorable Cozy Mysteries series Ellen Jacobson for her perfectly apostrophe'd comments and last but not least, a special thank you to fellow author Mark Piper, for the elephant in the room (just kidding), but your checking up on me and your words of wisdom touched my soul. You have all taken precious time and energy to read, proof and provide invaluable corrections. You've been vital in my journey and I appreciate every second of every minute of your honesty, motivation and encouragement!

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Please share the link to this blog, or the BMAC link on your social media. Facebook the hell out of this, Instagram it, Tweet on! Tell all your friends and family, so they can tell all their friends and family, and so on...

Can this be the newest best-seller? Maybe even a movie in the making? Hmm I wonder who would act the part of the Cap'n and me?

You never know but one thing I do know: ya gotta dream big, 'cause the Universe is listening. Exactement!

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HOW TO BUY MY BOOK

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Click this: "Link to Banyan Travels on the Buy Me a Coffee page"

You'll be directed to my home page and beside my "home" button you'll see the "EXTRAS" tab. Click it and you'll be directed to the EXTRAS page, where you'll see the large photo icon of my book.

Click on the photo. Follow the prompts. Basically with one "GET THIS" click it's available for you to purchase for $6 U.S. dollars.

When the payment is processed, you'll get a confirmation email from me.

Follow the DropBox link and you will find an 18 days folder that contains 2 versions of my book: Epub or MOBI.

If you're already a DropBox user, then great, you know what to do.

If you're not, you DON'T NEED TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT. Just click on the version you want, hit the download button and it'll transfer to your device. Open it and start reading !

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THANK YOU

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Oh and y'all know how much I love comments... Email me, message me, get in touch, I'd love to hear from you. And if you think I did some good, why not head back to my BMAC page, and "buy me a coffee?"


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Tags: Banyan, Sailors, Cruisers, Long term cruising, sailing lifestyle, cruising lifestyle, Travel, Jeanneau, Sailboats, Banyan, banyantravels, Snowbirds, Canadian Navy, Department of National Defence, the Chief, Cap'n, Admiral, Java Heaven, Coffee Snob, COVID-19, #wtf2020, Adventuring, Travel, Living your Dreams, Volunteering, How to retire, Plan your Retirement, Plan your Dreams, Live your Dreams, Reiki, Reiki Master, Chakra cleansing, healing vibes, Canada, Belize, Guatemala, Catamaran Marina, Friends of Rio Dulce Guatemala, Slovenia, Germany, Quebec, Nova Scotia, PEI, Hurricane Nana, Hurricane Eta, Hurricane Iota. Armchair travel. Armchair rescue. Rescue Mission. Travel burnout. Coffee snob. Quarantine. Isolation. We live to adventure and we adventure to live.

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