Back to the Future

As I was preparing to write the May newsletter, I opened up my Mailchimp account and put in my user name and password. A notice came up that said, "It seems that your system clock is set too far into the future."

Huh? What does that mean?

I was scratching my head over it, thinking that if this were the future, "A Million Sticky Kisses" would already be a Nº. 1 Best Seller. Hollywood would have called, and my friend would have sent his tux out to the cleaners so that he could accompany me to all those Oscar parties.

Then I remembered that Chile is in its own time zone which, apparently, doesn't exist. At some point last summer, the government declared that we were not going to move the clocks around any more. We are forever stuck in a Daylight Savings Time warp.

Right now, if we weren't renegades, we'd be at GMT-4, but we are renegades, so we are at GMT-3, which none of my electronic devices recognizes on its own. Therefore, I have to manually set my computer to Buenos Aires time, thrusting myself...too far into the future.

As for the other, a girl can dream, can't she? In the immortal words of Bloody Mary in Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, "You got to have a dream. If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?"

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~~Sally Rose
Author of Penny Possible & A Million Sticky Kisses
iamsallyrose.com

Coming Soon

Ever since my first volunteer visits to Chile, I've been threatening to publish a book about my experiences.

That was back in 2009 and 2010. The story was written then and has sat, forlorn, in a computer file until now.

Last September, I returned to the US to publish this book. Little did I realize how long it would take to actually get it done. I was blissfully ignorant of the endless edits, the delays, the waiting. The revisions. I have read and reread the manuscript until I am cross-eyed.

Now, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I've approved the cover and the final "big" revision is done. "A Million Sticky Kisses" is now being formatted.

It's a good thing, too, because I want to have this book in my suitcase when I board the plane to return to Chile. With less than three weeks to go, I feel like I am playing Beat the Clock.

Coming soon, very soon, "A Million Sticky Kisses," the story of a gringa teacher in Chile.

Checking in

It's been pretty quiet around here lately. I haven't blogged in a long time and I could blame it on laziness, but that's not strictly true. It's more from feeling a bit disillusioned and disappointed.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that the school in Santiago, Chile, where I volunteered last year was sold. Try as I might, I did not find a new school to volunteer in this year. Rather than sit idle and stew about it, I decided to do something that I'd been talking about doing for a long time.

I returned to the US and have been busy compiling the stories of my first visits to Chile to be a volunteer. My book will soon be published under the title, "A Million Sticky Kisses." It will be available as an ebook as well as a print version.

I will also be publishing a children's book based on the adventures of Penny, a Golden Retriever, who recently "graduated" as a service dog. It will be titled, "Penny Possible" and the proceeds from sales of it will be donated to Warrior Canine Connection. Details will be posted here once these books are ready for purchase.

Ironically, just after I'd bought my airline ticket to return to the US, I was introduced to a friend-of-a-friend who is director of a school in Chile. I visited there before I left and I think it might be a volunteer possibility for next year. Time, that pesky enemy of the impatient, will tell.