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Billy & Akaisha |
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R E T I R E E A R
L Y L I F E S T Y L E |
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THE BIRTHING
First there were scrolls, then came leather bound books, followed by paperbacks and now
OUR CD-BOOK!
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It's a story of wonder and tenacity. For years, we kept hard copy records of our travels and Early Retirement lifestyle. Learning from mistakes, we noted winning combinations, worthy places to visit and the best places to eat. As Perpetual Travelers, we are in constant motion, so soon these bulky spiral bound notes became tattered and much too heavy to carry. We searched for a lighter yet easy-to-retrieve-from-anywhere-in-the-world method of storing this infor-mation, and thus, our website came into being. This was not only wonderful, it was wonder-filled! Learning how to produce and manage our site stretched our brains, taking us to places of knowledge for which we had to learn new words. Soon, strangers in far flung places began to send us emails asking about the challenges of Early Retirement, or the best places to stay or where to shop in foreign lands. From these questions, we grew and solidified our site. |
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Note taking and story telling began to integrate into our daily lives, when a couple of years ago, we started knocking around the notion of writing a book. However, to us, the idea of jumping through hoops set up by others in order to get our book published was an unattractive obstacle. Another issue of conventional publishing with which we grappled was the price to produce. With over 200 photos included in our book, we assessed that it would have been cost prohibitive to us as well as to potential readers. We had to find a different media. Our style has always been to do things in our independent way, not allowing others to take away our dreams. From our restaurant years to the present, we have been on the cutting edge, pushing our personal boundaries. |
Tossing around ideas one morning, we found ourselves considering the concept of creating our book on a CD-Rom, similar to our webpage format. There would be color, photos, and fun, with no one to tell us what we could or could not do. Perfect.
We tested our ideas, both technical and text, on numerous computers. Some worked, others failed. The successes kept us moving forward, yet the challenges seemed to teach us more. There was writing, editing, building the pages, working on designs and the presentation. The cover itself must have changed ten times, with each being the "final" cover. We also discovered that writing a book is not simply about writing. There was the need for committed determination, a defined destination we both understood, and getting through obstacles that came from unexpected places. We lost count of the number of times we said to each other: "This is where people quit."
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WE DID IT! |
Demanding situations have a certain appeal, and we became more focused and determined by that peculiar energy. Chapters were moved and rewritten. Photos edited, added, then deleted, with new ones filling those voids. It was an organic process and changes were happening daily, some-times hourly. The technical learning of new software was expanding our minds. At times, we thought we were at our limit. We faced issues regarding individual styles of tackling a project. Personal emails backed up, and phone calls to family took a back burner. To one of us, the well of support, nurturing and creativity was drying up, to the other, fierce focus was gathering momen-tum. |
This was feeling too much like work, like having a job. Why were we so driven to do this?
Creativity also has indisputable attraction.
The book started taking form, and our enthusiasm was increasing. We test
marketed trial copies on friends and acquaintances, fixing technical errors,
content, and getting a sense of reader response. The book seemed to have a life
of its own, and we kept moving forward.
Shipping it to our editor, we were concerned that she would need a
second case of red pens by the time she finished! Fortunately this wasn't the
case, and her changes
and suggestions made for better grammar and smoother reading.
For us, it was a seeming intermission, but there was no downtime. We redesigned
our website and created an order page. There was the issue of distribution of
the book while we were on the road traveling, and how to receive payment while
not having a continuous physical address. We found ourselves learning about
online payment systems such as “PayPal” and how we could process orders from
anywhere in the world while continuing our Perpetual Travel lifestyle. Every
marker of achievement brought a whole new vista of research and study. We
learned about CD replication, label design, and shipping methods.
Where does this project end? We had to remind ourselves that we were retired, right? We needed to solve these problems essential to marketing our book via our website so that we could continue our gypsy ways.
Finally, on July 7th, 2005, we were proud presenters of our creation;
THE ADVENTURER'S GUIDE TO EARLY RETIREMENT
A Common Sense Approach
The digital world offers prospects of communication and commerce far beyond what our fathers or grandmothers could ever have imagined in their stargazing dreams. Standing at the threshold of unimaginable breakthroughs, we see the future as exciting, hopeful and yet to be written.
Billy and Akaisha continue to journal and photograph their world travels.
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