I wrote this piece 13 years ago and am posting it again today in honor of Alan Watts’ birthday. (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973)
Remembering Alan Watts…on his 107th Birthday
A Chest Full of Memories
If you ever stop by to visit us at our home in Northern California, you may notice we have a rather unusual style of home décor. One might call it “early hippie meets Jimmy Buffett at an island garage sale of bohemian rustic junk.”
In other words, our home is filled with crap treasures we’ve collected from years of travel. Read more
My Favorite Summer Beach Reads of 2021
I’m writing as fast as I can—really!
Fans of Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road keep telling me they’re anxiously awaiting my next book. That makes me so very happy.
And yes, I’m writing a new book I’m hoping to publish later this year.
It’s a memoir of the time Cheri and I spent running the Luna Blue Hotel and Bar in Playa del Carmen Mexico. Read more
Coffee: the Writer’s Best Muse
“The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer.
The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk
that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.”― Douglas Adams
Rebirth, Death, and Love on the Longest Day of the Year
Today offers a strange convergence of dates and anniversaries and emotions for me.
It’s the day I died—only to be brought back to life by unknown doctors and nurses in an emergency room in Mexico.
It’s also the day in another year when I went to my brother’s home to box up his belongings after he died of the same type of heart attack.
Driftwood Goes South of the Border
I got some great news this week: my book Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road has returned to where it all started–the shores of Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Barack Obama and I Are On The Same Summer Reading List!
What do Barack Obama, John Grisham, Bill O’Reilly, and I all have in common? Our books all landed on the same Summer Reading List!
When the readers of PlanSponsor Magazine (an award-winning investment/news publication) were asked to name their summer reading favorites, they came up with a list of mysteries, true history tales, self-help guides, and memoirs.
And in the middle of that list of books by uber-famous authors was Driftwood: Stories From the Margarita Road by yours truly!
Rare Goodie for the Ardent Hemingway Fan
Watching the Ken Burns’ Hemingway biography on PBS this week reminded me of a wonderful short dramatic piece I saw many years ago called The Hemingway Play.
The Hemingway Play was an original play by screenwriter/journalist/author Fredrick Hunter. It was broadcast only once—on a PBS anthology show in 1976—and never shown again. Read more
Body Paint, Memories, and the Margarita Road
It turned up in my Facebook memories the other day: a photo of me holding a large framed poster of three beautiful women. They were on a beach in Brazil wearing only g-strings and body paint. That poster and those women have been part of my journey on the Margarita Road for over twenty-four years. Read more
For National Margarita Day: Poppa’s Perfect Margarita Recipe
Today is the year’s best holiday…National Margarita Day. Why is it the best? Think about it…
At Christmas you have to fight the crowds to buy presents for people you don’t really like;
Halloween means eating all the candy you supposedly bought to give away to the kids;
Thanksgiving requires mingling with your weird relatives;
But National Margarita Day has just one requirement…to drink and enjoy that glorious fusion of citrus, salt, and tequila known as the Margarita.