A Bird With Two Homes

It is officially done. Thirteen weeks of fast and furious writing effort have culminated in the digital publishing of my 54-page narrative, titled A Bird With Two Homes.  It is available for PDF download at Lulu.com for $5.50. (Click here to access the page). 


I initially intended to publish it here on my blog in volumes, but after realizing the amount of time and effort I have put into the piece, I decided that it is important for me to receive some financial compensation. (In case you are curious, I will make about $3 per download.)

Interestingly, A Bird With Two Homes is the first narrative about Cinque Terre available with the online publishing company. With luck, that will help my story get found! 


I am so happy with the finished product, and hope you will be as well. 


The following is an excerpt from the first pages of the final copy as an enticement to download the full thing, of course.
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I am two hours and 53 minutes into my three-hour journey, sitting on a damp seat for the seven-minute trip from La Spezia to Cinque Terre—Riomaggiore, specifically. Everything is black as the train speeds through the five-minute long tunnel. Fluorescent lighting flickers on and off intermittently. The train car is old, a little musty. My friend Lauren sits across from me, listening to her iPod. Months ago when I made my hostel reservation, I booked it for two, hoping I would find someone to join me. I was thrilled when Lauren—with her can-do attitude, easy smile, and corn silk blond hair—wanted to come along.

Italy has been on my radar since I saw a picture of Michelangelo’s David in middle school, but I had never even heard of Cinque Terre until a few months prior to leaving. Flipping through television channels one day, I stopped when I saw images of a coastal town with stunning cliffs. PBS had the amiable travel guru Rick Steves enjoying lemon gelato and discussing the local charm and beauty of Cinque Terre. I was riveted, hanging on to Steves’ every word. Enchanted by Steves’ description of a Vespa-free world featuring locally made vino bianco and views of the sea rivaled only by the cliff towns of the Amalfi Coast in the south, I went to my local library to check out every Cinque Terre travel item—videos, books, histories, novels, and even music CDs—the city of Lexington, Kentucky offered. In the end, After the PBS special and research, I decided it would be Steves’ Italy 2010 guidebook that would lead me to the best sights and experiences Italy has to offer.

Looking down, Steves’ book is in my hands, poised and ready to direct me to the hostel’s realty company. It already shows wear after two weeks of city life in my temporary home city of Florence. The Cinque Terre section looks like a well-loved textbook: highlights, circles, side-notes, and reservation numbers fill the pages.  Suddenly there is a flash of light. I straighten and gaze intently out of the window. We are almost there.