Welcome, Visitors & Friends!

Life is good, don’t you think?

 

For me right now, life’s a travel adventure. I’m experimenting with creating a mobile, productive, satisfying lifestyle. And I’m determined to make it one that’s also fun at least 90% of the time.

My modus operandi? I house sit for people who live in places that interest me.

I’m also a writer, a retired high-school teacher, an amateur photographer, a global nomad, a former Camino de Santiago pilgrim, and a grandmother.

Since 2012, I’ve loved the freedom, flexibility, and novelty this nomadic lifestyle provides. If there’s wifi available, I can write, photograph, work on projects, and stay in contact with those I love from almost anywhere. And if there’s no wifi (which happens in places like rural Spain), well, I’ve discovered that’s a great excuse to walk, make new friends, catch up on reading, meditate, and still write.

Because I get questions about how this house-sitting lifestyle works—how I find places and people, how it feels to move around a lot, what I take with me, how I handle solitude and loneliness, what I do if I don’t have a house sit scheduled—I’m currently revising and expanding my successful e-book on the topic.

So if you want more adventure and travel in your life, and if you want to check out my “template” for creating that, hang on. My new book on house sitting will be out soon.

In the meantime, in my blog here, I enjoy posting occasional pieces and photo essays about places, people, books, trips, and art I like. Sometimes I write about challenges I have as a writer, or questions I’m mulling over. You’re welcome follow me by entering your email address in the box on the right so you’ll be notified when I make a new post.

Please know I’d love to hear from you, to have a written conversation, but please use the Contact form to reach me. Because of spam, my settings don’t allow comments. You can unsubscribe at any time and FYI, I’m not informed about who subscribes.

Announcing WALK!  Soon to Be Published!

My first novel, WALK: Jamie Bacon’s Secret Mission on the Camino de Santiago is in preparation for publication. I can hardly wait to hold a copy in my hands, flip through the pages, and smell that fresh-paper scent.

WALK is a middle grade (age 8-13) travel tale about the mishaps and adventures of 11-year-old Jamie as he hikes the famous 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in northern Spain.

Huh? Where? What’s that? What’s the book about?

You know how in airports they warn passengers over the PA system not accept packages from people they don’t know? Well, that concept comes into play in WALK.

Jamie is hiking the Camino with sister Lily, 13, and their home-school, or world-schooling teacher, their mother. Things start to get complicated for Jamie the first night they’re on the actual trail, when he secretly promises two young men to deliver a lumpy envelope, unopened, in their destination city, Santiago de Compostela.

Jamie has no clue what he’s carrying, yet he’s determined to keep his promise (and hide it from Mom) until …. Well, every day on the Camino is its own adventure. And miraculous coincidences can happen just around the next corner.

The purpose of literature is to teach and to delight. WALK, I’m pretty sure, does both. Along with the typical trials of pilgrims like blisters and bedbugs, Jamie, Lily, and Mom (and eventually, Dad) survive accidents, charging bulls, getting lost, and way more. They meet the wise and the eccentric. They explore castles, cathedrals, and caves. There’s plenty of sweat and a few tears, but no blood. Plus, plodding along that long, long, long trail, there’s story after story about medieval history and life.  And, as I’m sure you can guess, in the end, Jamie’s a hero.

Writing WALK took me three times to Spain and the Camino with my backpack and boots. It took a heck of a lot of years, too.

A pretty Spanish town that Jamie and Lily pass through in WALK.

The writing and production of a book can be its own pilgrimage. The next stage of  WALK’s trip is its publication. Stay tuned. You can be one of the first to be notified when it’s available for sale by just adding your email address on the next tab on this site. Click WALKBook in the menu bar above.