- Put our house on the market. I know we could just rent it out in case things do not work for us...I hate the thought of someone living in our house. If we sell it, it is no longer our house. So far I have a for sale sign in our yard, but I have not actually listed it.
My dream has been to live in Costa Rica, but I have been open to other places, Puerto Rico has not been one of them, although Pablo was very interested in PR. Then, a few other people also suggested PR so I gave in and started investigating. And...that is where we are going! We actually gave ourselves a timeline and set our plan in motion. I do not know if we are going about this correctly or not, but here is our plan:
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I love adventure, especially travel adventure. It is exciting to explore new places, live off of only the provisions that fit in my luggage, and go into the unknown. My first big travel adventure was when I was only 19 years old and I studied abroad in Costa Rica (you have to read my memoir to hear the whole story). While on the trip I fell in love with Pablo (who would later become my husband). On our first Valentine's day together he wrote me a letter and drew a picture to go with it. It was a picture of our future life on a remote tropical island. The gist of the letter was that "love is all we need." I know it sounds so cliche, but I really bought into it and I never let it go. Pablo and I ended up settling near my family. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, I have a good job, we have a nice home...there is nothing wrong with my life. Except I still want the tropical island.
I do not have cable or satellite, so I sometimes am not very up-to-date on new TV shows, but I recently found a new favorite. My cousin Melissa was telling me about "The 90 Day Fiance" and I was instantly intrigued. The basic premiss of the show is that people who meet online or physically in another country apply for visas to bring their fiances to the US. Once the significant other arrives in this country they have 90 days to get married or they must return to their home country. Pablo and I originally thought that we would go this route to bring Pedro to the US, but our lawyer advised us to get married in Costa Rica and apply for a spousal visa through the US embassy. We followed the advise of our lawyer, but I thought it would be fun to watch the show and see what the process was like. I convinced Pablo to watch the show with me (via YouTube).
So, Pablo and I sat on the couch for hours over Christmas break watching grainy, poorly streamed episodes of "The 90 Day Fiance." We were instantly transported to memories of our own love story and would have to pause the show to reminisce. Whenever we have moments like this I feel like I am falling in love with him all over again. The show was a great reminder for me of all that Pablo gave up in his prior life so that we could make a life together. I sometimes forget about all the sacrifices he has made and how much we have both learned and grown. I was telling some girlfriends about all this reminiscing and we laughed about some of the stories and others brought tears to my eyes. I am feeling a drive to start my next book, which will be a combination of my voice and Pablo's telling the story of his journey after arriving here. I will, however be disciplined and finish another work in progress first. In an earlier post I said that I would finish my Jr. novel in Spanish by the new year...well guess what? The new year has come and gone and the book is not done! Truthfully it has been a tougher year than usual at school plus this pregnancy is sucking the energy out of me and I have not had much motivation to write. Now that that so many memories are resurfacing and I know I need to write them before they dull again I WILL get back on track and finish my work in progress and then start on my second memoir. So, thank you "90 Day Fiance," you revived my writing. Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything! We have been busy with back to school stuff and the SURPRISING news that we will have another baby in March! We thought our family was complete, and did not plan on having more children...I guess God had another plan. The kids were shocked when we told them and were a bit upset about it, until it really sank in, now they are excited. We have been working on a room, making lists of names and buying baby stuff. We decided we will not find out the gender this time around. Although this was a big surprise, it was a good one. Hey, we started our family with a surprise, we may as well finish it that way too! (You can read all about the first surprise in my memoir.)
Aside from baby stuff and school stuff I have not had much free time to dedicate to writing. I did get a little more done on my Spanish Jr. Novel. It has been so long since I started it, that I would really like to finish it before the new year. Camryn really wants to be a book editor when she grows up, so I may let her practice on this book. I recently entered two writing contests. I did not enter to earn money; it cost to enter, and the prizes are not that big anyway. I entered hoping someone would fall in love with my writing. I entered so my story could be heard. Yesterday I got an email from the first contest...I did not move on to the next round. At least it was a nice letter encouraging me to keep writing. Still, it hurt. Other people have better stories than me (according to some judges). I disagree. I think my story is the best love story ever. At least it is for me, and I am confident that their are people out their who would agree, the right people have not read it yet. So, yes, rejection hurts, but I will keep getting my book in more and more hands, hoping that the right person will one day discover it and it will be a success.
My last post was about the benefits of travel; I have since spent the last three weeks traveling in Colombia and would like to add one more benefit: Traveling reminds us to appreciate what we have! I write this post knowing that I run the risk of sounding like it was not a good trip or like I am complaining. I intend to do neither. We had a wonderful trip seeing new places and visiting family. I would not change a thing about the past three weeks, however that being said, as the saying goes, "There's no place like home." Over the past three weeks I learned to appreciate:
As much as I LOVE to travel, and will continue to travel, THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME! Check out my personal Memoir: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/443897?ref=famchucho I have always said, "traveling is so good for you." I have said this in multiple contexts -to college students, to parents considering travel with their children, and to parents considering travel as a couple sans kids. I really believe this to be true, however I never really had proof. This past weekend we went to my uncles "trottage" (trailer/cottage) for a quick get away, and I found myself thinking, travel is so good for us, I wish we could do more of it. I thought about this statement over the past two days and decided I would find out if it is a fact that travel is good for you, or if it is only my opinion. I am pleased to announce that it really is true! According to Travel Effects' website, travel promotes an active sex life in most couples, increases the likelihood of degree completion and increases wage potential, decreases work related stress, raises national revenue, and provides jobs. UStravel.org sites even more benefits such as: increased performance on vigilance assessments, decreased chances of heart attack and overall increased happiness. A study done at Indiana University found that travelers are more creative and better at solving puzzles than non-travelers. It was also found that while traveling, people have more epiphanies about their regular life. Living abroad has even more benefits than mere travel. People who live abroad are generally more open minded and employ more flexible thinking. Of course there are logical reasons why all of this happens. I don't really care about the reasons, I just care that there are benefits and I am handing them on to my children. From a parent perspective I believe there are benefits specific to children, which I highlight below. 1. Kids learn patience from travel. We all know that travel involves lines. We wait in lines multiple times at the airport before we start the trip. Many countries have much longer lines than in the United States for every day things. Banking is a perfect example; in the US we stop at a bank to make a quick withdrawal or deposit and then get onto our planned activity. In many countries the lines at the banks are so long that going to make a deposit is the day's activity. There is nothing to do but wait -and maybe some reading or people watching. 2. Kids learn to try new things. On trips kids try new food, new transportation and new adventures. My kids LOVE cereal and cold milk for breakfast. My husbands family eats a hot sit-down breakfast together...a HEAVY full meal breakfast. They learn to eat it or go hungry because there is no cereal in the house, and even if there were, the milk does not taste the same. They may balk at first, but by day three there grumbling tummies win out and they eat the fried steak and hot broth at seven am. 3. Kids learn to think about others' perspectives. We do things a certain way and we get used to doing things that way. Then we bring our kids into a new culture and people do things differently. Kids notice the differences, and they ask questions. These questions are great. We can examine why we do things the way we do and why others do things differently and it can be a great time to teach acceptance of multiple perspectives. 4. Kids learn life skills and lessons that cannot be taught at school. Money conversion, public transportation, history museums, bartering, geography, language, time zones...Enough said? 5. Kids disconnect and live in the real world. Batteries are expensive overseas and their devices run out. Internet is not always available. They finish their books. Cable is not always available or in a language they understand. Again, enough said? I know there are actually more than 5 benefits and more than the benefits I found sited in some studies that come from traveling. I think the more extensive the travel the greater the benefit. Is travel fun? Most of the time, not always, but sometimes the trickiest times teach us the most. So my advice to all families...go travel! Where will you go? This is a question I have struggled with, and I still struggle with it. Actually, the problem isn't even really the names, because changing them does not change giving away who it is if the reader knows you and the character you are trying to disguise. I thought about leaving out all details about other people's lives, but sometimes the details of other people affected my life and my choices. Everyone I talk about in my memoir was included because they played a role in my story. I really hope I painted everyone in a good light, but the truth is, no one is perfect. I do not want to make enemies with my book, I just want to tell my story. We are shaped my many factors such as homelife, religion, level of education etc. I truly believe that to an extent we are shaped by the people we choose to spend time with also. Everyone in this memoir played a very positive role in my current life, because they helped lead me to Pablo and the creation of my family. I am grateful to every single person I mentioned in the book...even the ones that may seem the "villian" in the story. There are no villians in this story, life is to short for villians, it is full of people we react to and people we learn from. How we react and the lessons we focus in on are up to us. Now that being said, I do realize that just as people have affected my life, my book has the potential to affect the lives of those who are in it. I hope that I did not reveal anything too private or anything that will negatively affect any of my "characters." What do you think about talking about other people in a memoir?
The short answer is no, I do not recommend using the pre-purchase order. The reason to use it is to build hype and offer discounts for early purchase. I was able to do this, but the discounts were confusing, and Smashwords does not actually allow you people to purchase the book during the pre-purchase phase (the book can only be purchased through 3rd party retailers such as iBooks or Nook). The other idea behind pre-purchase is that it will increase your first day sales...Today is my official release date, and I am showing that I have pre-purchase sales, and they are still not showing up as actual sales. Also, many people have been very confused by the pre-purchase, and have said, "I guess I will just wait." Now I have to re-introduce the book, because two weeks have passed and the hype has come and gone without a lot of actual pre-purchase sales. So, maybe I am not doing something right because I am just a rookie, but I do not recommend using the pre-purchase option on Smashwords.com.
So now that I am a published author (I love saying that!) I can look back on the experience so far and hopefully help other new authors on their journey to publishing. I know I am still very new at this, and I am sure I still have a LOT to learn, but I would like to put my two cents in for those looking for tips. (I relied heavily on author blogs to get started, so I guess I am paying it forward).
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