Special excerpt from Good Morning Diego Garcia by Susan Joyce

Today’s post is just one of several blog stops for Susan Joyce as she tours her new travel-adventure memoir, Good Morning Diego Garcia

During her virtual tour, Susan will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little bit about Good Morning Diego Garcia:

When Susan and Charles receive a letter from Cyprus friends, now in Taiwan, they get a chance to help crew a sailboat from Sri Lanka across the Indian Ocean. They have no clue what to expect. Susan reminds Charles she isn't a good swimmer. He tells her a life jacket will do the trick, and convinces her it's the opportunity of a lifetime. A must-do travel adventure. They say goodbye to friends and family in sunny California, fly to New York and on to India, arriving the day the Indian government has issued a state of emergency. And then onto the boat, and into the ocean. In monsoon season. With no charts.

In this true-life travel adventure, Susan keeps a journal and record her bizarre thoughts and telling dreams. A real life thriller, Susan's monsoon-season journey is about discovery and spiritual realization—one dream at a time.

Excerpt from Good Morning Diego Garcia:

Ch 12

A powerful surge of energy flooded my body and relaxed me. It was a breakthrough as I became aware of a reality outside my perceived normal existence. The sea heard, answered me, and calmed. I experienced a moment of pure joy when I discovered the interconnections of nature and the universe around me. My epiphany.

This was not the first time I had felt supernatural powers surround me. I had experienced this also as a child when I sat out on a hot rock in the Arizona desert with my dog Brownie. We watched magic happen while we waited on a spaceship to collect us. My senses became so keen I could see rocks change as the wind brushed them.

I thought back to Cyprus and the long months I had spent in bed thinking and dreaming, bedridden in an attempt to have a healthy baby. Information seemed to flow then from a higher spiritual reality, and events that were beyond what could be explained by nature happened. Again and again.

As the sea stirred my senses, I became the curious, wide open-eyed child again, welcoming the power of magic

Examining these connections, I realized I had touched on a greater truth; the reality of how I fit into the bigger picture of life. The quieter I became, the more I could see and hear. Was it my imagination? Or was I experiencing a heightened awareness as a result of being in tune with nature. Floating in this immense ocean at eye level, gave me a new appreciation for how massive the universe is, and how small and insignificant a human is by comparison. A small speck in the full spectrum of life on earth.

I had traveled far and wide to find myself; to discover my core. My soul.

A little bit about the author:

Born in Los Angeles California, Susan Joyce spent most of her childhood in Tucson, Arizona and returned to LA as a young working woman. Inspired as a child by postcards from her globe-trotting great aunt, Susan left the United States at age 20 to see the world.

She planned on being gone for a year, but ended up living her 20s and 30s in Europe and the Middle East. As a Jill of all trades, she worked as a secretary, freelance writer, taught computer classes, wrote songs, and became an accomplished artist while writing her first children's book, Peel, the Extraordinary Elephant.

An award-winning author and editor of children's books, Susan's first adult book in her memoir series, The Lullaby Illusion--A Journey of Awakening is a travelogue of the politics of Europe, the United States, and Israel during a twelve year 'roller-coaster' period of her life and an adventure of survival through friends and sheer determination.

The Lullaby Illusion was awarded

* Readers' Favorite 5-Stars and the 2014 GOLD Medal Winner, Non-Fiction--Travel in the 2014 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards.

* Honorable Mention Prize Winner--2014 Stargazer Literary Prizes

Good Morning Diego Garcia, her second travel memoir, is about her adventure from India and across the Indian Ocean in monsoon season in 1975. Available for pre-order.

Read more about Susan's life adventures.

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