What is the synopsis of your book, in one sentence?
When a naïve young woman and her enigmatic husband set sail across the Indian Ocean with friends, she learns to her dismay of his clandestine involvement in a war and knows together they must survive the monster monsoon storms.
Is your book part of a series?
Yes. The first book in my JOURNEY series is The Lullaby Illusion: A Journey of Awakening
Are you working on another book?
Yes. I’m writing the screen script first and will then publish the book: Into the Monsoon: A Journey of the Soul
When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
At the moment, I’m learning to walk again after an accident and a broken femur.
I also study screenwriting and love the challenge of using words to create vivid images.
If you were to describe yourself as a particular fruit or vegetable, what would it be?
Globe Artichoke with a beautiful armor exterior and a savory, sweet heart.
Bravo to The United Nations general assembly for overwhelmingly backing a motion condemning Britain’s occupation of the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
I crewed on a yacht in 1975 which hobbled into the atoll, just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, for a few days during the construction of the US top secret base. Only later, after landing in the Seychelles, did I meet Chago natives and learn of their broken hearts and forced departure from their beloved homeland.
A writer friend from Alaska, Lizbeth Meredith, is visiting South America. We’re having fun discussing books, writing, our mutual love for animals, and the signs in life which point us in the desired direction. Elephants have always been a positive sign for me. Corgis speak to her.
Today I received a reprint of the Amazon review by Grady Harp, Hall Of Fame and Top 100 Reviewer, in the San Francisco Book Review.
And with that invitation we are off on a memorable journey that is at once an adventure, a travel memoir, a story of a marriage, and it is all true. Her writing style involves the reader from the first page on and the privilege of reading such an adventure from a woman’s point of view is richly rewarding. Remember the old film ‘Mrs. Mike’? That is the flavor and the pleasure of accompanying Susan on this ‘discovery journey’. Highly Recommended.
Author/Editor Robert Fear runs annual travel writing competitions. One is for Travel Stories (500-1000 words) and the other for Travel Highlights (50-100 words). He publishes the best of these in a book each year.
The Travel Highlights competition (50-100 words) has just finished and is open to a public vote until the end of November 2017. I wrote one about riding a tank through the Israeli desert. Not an easy ride and not an easy task to tell the story in 50-100 words. Hope you enjoy it! Please read through the highlights and vote for your favorites. You can vote for five entries daily. Thanks for your support!
It is a great pleasure to welcome back Susan Joyce with this terrific entry for the 2017 Travel Highlights Competition. Here is her intro to a very special highlight:
As a young American female, I never hitchhiked and never dreamed I might one day need to do just that. While living in the Negev Desert of Israel one scorching hot summer day, I watched the last bus to my village disappear into the distance. I had missed my ride home. Uncertain what to do, I stood at the bus stop on the main highway on the outskirts of Beer-Sheva, Israel and hoped a vehicle, any vehicle, would stop and give me a ride.
When I heard traffic approach, I held up my thumb and begged God to hear my plea.
A Wild Tank Ride Across the Negev Desert!
Beersheba to Arad. Israel, Summer 1971
Missed last bus home.
It’s Sabbath!
No taxis or passing cars.
Scorching heat.
29 miles, 47 kilometers.
Tank barrels toward me, rattles to a stop.
“Arad?”
Driver motions. “Climb aboard!
Car stops, offers ride. “Tanks take forever.”
Confused, I wave them on.
An hour later, I hear a raucous scream overhead
“Bomber,” driver yells.
“God!” I gasp.
“Friend!” Driver waves skyward, pats tank. “Soviet from Six Day War.”
Minutes later, second bomber buzzes tank.
Driver again waves.
Friendly fire? Feel faint.
After three hours, we arrive.
Wilted vegetables, melted ice cream.
Shaken, I thank him.
Wild ride! Shabbat Shalom!
In my lifetime, I’ve been lucky to visit off-the-grid places where I’ve experience nature at its finest; far away from the madness and clutter of everyday life. Spaces where I found solitude and experienced a powerful oneness with nature and slept like a baby.
As a child, I often fell asleep on a flat, hot rock in the middle of the Arizona desert waiting for a spaceship to rescue me. I felt certain they had left me in the wrong place with the wrong family.
As a young woman, I made a childhood dream come true when I followed Heidi’s footsteps on a trek through the Swiss Alps. That night I slept in a picturesque chalet, nestled high in the hills above Hergiswil, Switzerland with a stunning view of mountains and lakes. An eiderdown quilt kept me cozy and warm.
I once napped atop the ancient rock fortress of Masada, Israel, after a rugged dawn hike to the top of the plateau. A most delicious rest.
While crossing the Indian Ocean, in monsoon season, much to my surprise sleeps were deep with lots of telling dreams.
I knew I had experienced the most unusual places to sleep in remote locations until July of 2016 when my husband and I toured Peru’s Sacred Valley with a group of other tourists.
Our bus stopped alongside the Urubamba River, near a railroad track, and our guide suggested we get out and look at a structure across the river. He pointed skyward to a strange shape stuck to the pristine mountain side.
From Google Street View
“What is it?” I asked.
He said it was a “sky lodge” attached to the sheer rock face—one of three transparent sleep capsules suspended above Peru’s Sacred Valley of Cuzco. Each capsule measured 24 feet long, and 8 feet in height and width, equipped with four beds, a dining area, and a private bathroom with a big window view across the Peruvian landscape. Solar panels powered Interior lighting.
I borrowed a pair of strong binoculars and inspected the strange sight. The pods looked like space ships stuck to the cliffs.
“How do guests get there?” I asked.
He explained. Lodgers must first climb 400 feet up the cliff face—a rough climb, with 400 iron rungs and a steel cable fixed to the rock to help climbers navigate the toughest parts to reach the sleeping pods.
“For the intrepid adventurers,” a fellow tourist remarked.
I could imagine the spectacular views over the cliffs of the mystical valley and the Urubamba River flowing below. To watch stars explode across the night sky would also be awesome.
But I couldn’t imagine the nerve-racking climb, much less a good sleep while dangling from the side of a sheer cliff. What about the roaring winds? I wondered when a strong gust of wind blew past. “And just how does one get down?” I asked.
“Zip-lines, seven hair-raising zip-lines,” a fellow tourist (in the know) chimed in.
For foolish thrill seekers. I shuddered, shook my head no, crossed my heart for the thrill seekers, and crossed the sky lodge adventure off my bucket list. No dangling sleep necessary.
Excerpt from Susan Joyce’s book in progress Journeys—Short Travel Stories from around the world.
