Press Release: Rae Ellen Lee’s My Next Husband Will Be Normal

My Next Husband Will Be Normal

Rae Ellen Lee, the owner of what once was the Canvas Factory in Mongoose Junction has followed up her first book, If the Shoe Fits, with her new memoir, My Next Husband Will Be Normal.

Below is the description from the back cover:

“Lee’s first memoir, I Only Cuss When I’m Sailing, (first published as If The Shoe Fits) chronicles her move with husband, Tom, from Montana to the West Coast to live on an old boat, fix it up, learn to sail, and set off for the Caribbean.   “ . . . charming, witty, beautifully observed, and above all, delightfully genuine. –Living Aboard Magazine

“In My Next Husband Will Be Normal, Lee and her husband ditch their sailboat and fly to the U.S. Virgin Islands with a down payment for a mom and pop business on St. John. The plan:  when they aren’t sewing canvas bags at their little shop, The Canvas Factory, they’ll be beach potatoes. But there are risks to living in paradise one cannot anticipate, especially on an island where residents bask in the mantra:  You can do anything you want, as long as the rest of us know about it. For soon after unpacking their flip-flops, the husband—a former Republican state legislator with a silver crew-cut and solid traditional values—realizes he is really a she. Convinced the world needs more humor, Lee rations the angst in favor of the picturesque and absurd. Adding heat to the story is a cast of colorful cats, customers, and Caribbean personalities. Toss in a few sex toys, some steel pan music, a pinch of voodoo—and stir.”

My Next Husband Will Be Normal – Link to Amazon.com

St. John Live Music Schedule for tonight, Saturday, January 28

Castaways – Dance Party – 11:00 – 777-3316
Driftwood Dave’s – Guitarist James Milne – 700 -1 0:00 – 777-4015
Winston Wells Ball Park – Cruz Bay – Morgan Heritage plus Niyorah, Melame Gange &Bambu Station – 6:00 – 422-0289
Morgan’s Mango – Luba – 6:00 – 9:30 – 693-8141
Ocean Grill – Rascio on Steel Pan – 6:00 – 9:30 – 693-3304
Rhumblines – Lauren – 7:00
Shipwreck Landing – Mike Miknut – 6:00 – 9:30

See the weekly schedule

Check it out
Who knows? Maybe we can add technology to our prayers on Hurricane Supplication Day. It seems that Bill Gates is working on a Hurricane prevention system involving huge barges that pump cold water from the bottom of the ocean to the surface….read more

The part one post was about having a publishing business on St. John. I had divided the steps of producing a St. John guidebook into these categories: (1) research, (2)writing, editing and design, (3) printing and shipping and (4) distribution and sales.

On that post I covered the research category, doing what we love to do on St. John, like going to the beach, hiking the trails, snorkeling, boating and kayaking and then recording the experience.

Now the writing, editing, design, printing and shipping aspects of the business, I imagine would be just about the same anywhere, except that, and this is a big exception, you’re doing these things on St. John, where the weather is fine, the skies are clear, the living is easy.

With the resarch done on the many enjoyable days at the beach, hiking, snorkeling and talking to people, we concentrate on written and web based information and then put it all together. Generally we work with a designer to help us lay out the book. Here lies another advantage of publishing on St. John, you’re very often working with friends and neighbors. We try to work with St. John locals as much as possible. For example, the photographer from whom we’ve gotten so many of our incomparable photos is Steve Simonsen – he and his lovely and very helpful wife, Janet, live just a five minute walk from our house.

The last category, distribution and sales, is a different animal altogether when the book that you’re publishing is about St. John. Here you can distribute the book yourself on island and use the internet effectively to market off island.

No dealing with uptight reps, big publishing houses or full of themselves people. No you just go to the various stores on the island and place your books. The owners and managers are generally island people like yourself, be they ex pats or natives. You’re among friends. It’s actually fun to get out, see people and talk to friends while at the same time, delivering books around the island.

There are rarely any problems. Collections are a breeze. We’ve never been stiffed once, even with more than 10 years in the business.

So there you have it. A perfect niche for me. You can get to do the things that brought you to St. John in the first place and make a business out of it to boot. Couldn’t ask for more…

Tales of St. John and the Caribbean

From Tales of St. John and the Caribbean
(Note: The Sea Breeze is no longer in existence. The bar has been completely renovated and is now the  Sweet Plantains restaurant.)
Trinidad Charlie and I arrived at Sea Breeze around 8:30 one Sunday morning and were waiting around for breakfast to be served. The place was filling up with all kinds of salty characters, early morning drinkers, sailors, live-a-boarders, Coral Bay locals and the occasional tourist. This one guy, who seemed to know Charlie, sat with us for a while. In the course of conversation he told us this story:

He had sailed out of St. Thomas on his way to the Azores. He was all alone; single handing a wooden sloop which, although quite old, was still, apparently, in excellent condition. He rode the tradewinds north and west to get to the latitudes of the prevailing westerlies which would then carry him east across the Atlantic.

He was about 100 miles north of the Turks and Caicos, and it was clear sailing with calm seas, steady winds and fine weather. He calculated his position and determined that he was far away from any recognized shipping lanes as well as from any land, shallow reefs or  other navigational hazards.

The sails were well set and he lashed the tiller down watching the boat self-steer north, north west with no problems. He decided it would be safe to go below and take a nap.

He awoke in the night to find the boat filled with water. The seas were coming over the main deck, and it was obvious that the vessel was sinking.

What happened? He doesn’t know. Perhaps a main plank came loose, but whatever it was, there was no time to do anything but abandon ship and avoid being trapped below in the cabin.

No time to radio an SOS, he donned an ocean life vest and jumped overboard. He watched by the light of the moon as the boat sailed on ahead of him, gracefully under full sail, for about 100 yards before going under. The batteries were still functioning, and he could see the running lights and cabin lights shining surreally under the water as the boat slowly sunk.

The life jacket, which would hold most of his body out of the water, was equipped with a flashlight, a whistle and an emergency radio beacon, none of which seemed too helpful so far from any land or commercial activity. Realizing his position, alone in the dark of night in the middle of the ocean, fright and panic set in and took over. He thought about sharks and he said he felt like a piece of bait at the end of a fishing line. He soon fainted or passed out or fell asleep.

He regained consciousness in the light of the next morning. He heard a sound; and then he saw God coming down from the sky… on a rope!

God turned out to be a United States Coast Guard lieutenant. A Coast Guard helicopter just happened to be in the area on an unusual mission. It was unusual because flights were rarely scheduled so far from the helicopter’s base of operations. The crew was just at the point of turning back when they heard the faint signal of the emergency beacon. There was scarcely enough fuel to return to base, and there was only a short amount of time for a search and rescue mission, but luckily, the Coast Guard team managed to find and rescue the sailor and make a safe return to the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He says that he still sails, but only on perfect days, when there is not a cloud in the sky and never very far from the sight of land.