When I moved 15 years ago to Nosara, Costa Rica on the Nicoya Peninsula, it was still an undiscovered Pacific coast gem, and I started a blog to record the adventure of a lifetime.
Nosara was then a quiet, year-round surf break and home to one of the early yoga retreat centers in Costa Rica. It was the classic small town where everyone knew each other and everyone is a character, and time was of another dimension. In 2007, we had yet to experience the financial crash that would give us some extra years before a wave of rich investors moved in to change things forever.
I was pursuing a rebirthing fantasy of starting a part-time barbecue business in my new paradise, where wishes become realities without the need to deal with government oversight. It was a world away from my previous life in public relations for a Washington DC trade association.
I was soon keeping God in giggles and my future ex-wife in tears as they observed my plans for a new life. I was diligent with my blog, knowing that I had at least one reader who cared about my journey. As time passed and life pushed on, my blog entries became less frequent. It reached a point when such time had passed that the blog rekindled memories that I was starting to forget, and that’s when I thought to tie it all together into a manuscript. With some additional editing, I published it as an e-book on Kindle. You can find A Life in Costa Rica here.
I wrote a political satire back during my Washington career, which I never tried to get published because I was distracted by Costa Rica and my future ex. Although it takes place in 1994, the year Newt Gingrich and his Contract for America destroyed politics in America, I think it is just as relevant today, and I find it precognizant of today’s political discord. You can find the Kindle version of Congressionally Challenged here.
Today, perhaps in the face of boredom as a fully retired expat, I have combined my interests in music, politics and the cosmos into a novel about a rock star who runs for President to save the planet from environmental collapse … and yes, extraterrestrials. I think it would make a great movie, although perhaps too subtle for Hollywood, and have been releasing it chapter by chapter on Medium.com. You can find Chapter One here and follow along, although at a certain point you may run out of free stories and be asked to subscribe.
Medium has great writers customized to your interests and I recommend it. There is a full version of New Messiah available on Kindle, but it’s a bit of a first draft because I am doing a lot of rewriting as I publish new chapters on Medium, leading up to the 2024 Presidential election.
Because a major plot line of New Messiah involves the contemporaneous process of UFO disclosure, while paralleling the preparation of a Presidential campaign, my plan is to release new chapters concurrent with the headlines of the day.
Although I have had construction noise on all sides for years now, I am still enjoying my life in Nosara and am finding it a creative space. Unlike many I have met who have come and gone, I still plan to live out the rest of my years here. I can still hear the gentle murmur of the surf … or is that God stifling a laugh again?
