I signed a contract today with Workplay Publishing. A LUCKY BREATH, a book I have been working on for 20 some years, will be in your hands by the end of the year. 

The book is, of course, a memoir, as I have yet to run out of true stories.  Once upon a time, I took a lucky breath which changed history.  Not world history, but mine and that of everyone near me.  The story both begins and ends there. You’ll see what I mean.

I’ve known for some time that this book has a life of its own and has every intention of getting itself published.  But it’s raw and not easy to talk about which is why I pretty much never do.  Only, now I have to.

I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, by giving too much away.  There is some danger in the book, some suspense, and a significant number of bad decisions and unwise behavior.   Obviously, no matter what happens, in a memoir written by a person with both arms and both legs, you already know that in the end everything is more or less ok.  I’m here to tell the story. 

As the story line follows me leaving an unhealthy marriage and trying to divine what’s next, I tell you the story of my life in the tiny Costa Rican town I call Los Rios.  The book will take you through my early years in Costa Rica—the ones before facebook and Instagram, even before email.  At least before email here.   You don’t know much about those years.  Maybe you’ve seen a photo or two.  Maybe you’ve heard a story.  Those stories are hard to tell not because they are unpleasant, but because they belong to a lost world.  A fantasy world in that it doesn’t exist anywhere on the planet.  But it used to.

This is a book for brave readers.  It made me into a brave writer. 

If you are a member of my family or if you communicate with members of my family, I invite you not to bring this book up to people close to me who might not appreciate it and/or who might appreciate not having to interact with it in any way including know or talk about it.  That would be an immense favor to me.  Thank you in advance.   I hope I am clear without needing to be explicit.

That said, in the coming months it is still my duty as a writer to do everything I can to promote this book.  It’s my least favorite part of writing, even less favorite than choosing a title or saying YES THIS IS FINISHED, and laying off nit-picking at the text.

Thank you for being friends and readers.  This is my best book yet, hands down.  It’s prose blended with a sort of prose poetry, and zoomed in so close you can see the ants in the grass. 

Buckle in baby and sit up straight because this one is quite a ride!