Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
Understandably, people want to know how I connected with the 23 mermaids I met. Of course, running into Corinne was a fluke.
It was late — 2 or 3 am — and I was returning home from a bar/restaurant on Anjuna Beach in Goa. I had been dancing and making new friends, but finally exhausted and ready for some serious sleep, was heading back to my guest house. I was of course alone.
I saw something writhing on the beach ahead of me. A beached porpoise? It was dark and hard to make out what it could be.
As I approached it stopped moving. I pulled out a small flashlight and pointed it.
There was Corinne.
She asked me to keep her “secret”. I did. I didn’t take her photo, looking vulnerable and afraid there on the beach, then post it on Twitter. A couple days later, I showed up at her vacation condo and that was the beginning of this unbelievable adventure.
Now what I’m going to tell you sounds like something a crazy, third-rate author would make up. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. It’s so cliché, yet so zany … could I even make up something like this?
From that day forward, whenever I planned to visit some seaside resort someplace in the world, all I had to do was put a note in a bottle, just like the one at the top of this page, and throw it in the ocean.
Then wherever I ended up, a note would either show up at the reception desk of my hotel, or be slipped under my door, telling me the whereabouts and time to drop by. I would go and voilà! There would be a new mermaid, either making me an incredible meal, or opening a can of SpaghettiOs. I have no idea how they found out where I was staying, or how the note to me got delivered. It just happened.
Like I said, all of this sounds like a fairy tale — or a big fat joke — but this is how it went.
It only failed on two occasions, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I don’t know what happened — maybe the bottle got swallowed by a blue whale or sucked into an intake tube of a luxury liner — but I never heard anything.
So that’s my story.
Curious to learn more about these beautiful creatures from the deep?
As I mentioned before, the ultimate deluxe full-color paperback is available for a limited time (until December 2nd) for 25% off the regular price . . . order it directly from the printer or from Amazon.
If you act immediately, it’ll be there in time for Thanksgiving. Then you have a choice: Watch football on TV for 12 hours or . . . dive into the fantasy world of exotic mermaids!
I’m thinking about how many times in my life someone has asked me this question . . .
“What Do Mermaids Eat?”
Ah hah! I remember. ONE TIME!
That was when my unpredictable, truly fascinating Japanese wife was sitting across from me in a café on Taketomi Island, Okinawa.
We had just come from swimming at a lovely beach. Unfortunately, the water was very shallow and the entire seabed was covered with sea cucumbers. We had to walk very carefully, scoping out the sandy bottom every step we took.
Sea cucumbers in a word are disgusting! They are ugly tubes of squishy flesh that seem to have no purpose on the planet. They don’t move. They just lay there. If you’re unlucky enough to step on one, it’s an unpleasant sensation, like stepping on an intestine.
We survived the attack of the sea cucumbers — now there’s a great movie title if I ever heard one — dried off, then stopped at the café on the way back to our guest house. While we ate a snack lunch, we were engaged in light conversation, generally in very high spirits, being in the luxurious warmth of the sun and pleasant blowing breeze of this Japanese paradise. I made a few more wise cracks about how repulsive the sea cucumbers were, how drab and pointless their lives are, and asked jokingly, “What the hell do those things eat?”
Masumi smiled and said, “And what about mermaids? What do mermaids eat?”
That was the one time. And it became the inspiration for my latest book!
After several years in development, this fantasy/travel/cookbook will be available next month. And yes, you’ll find out first hand the answer to this salient, very thought-provoking question.
I promise you: It’ll be fun. It’s a book to treasure over the years, guaranteed to bring smiles to anyone who reads the stories.
