Long-time Cuenca residents Edd and Cynthia Staton discuss their upcoming trilogy on retiring overseas

Jan 30, 2018 | 0 comments

Editor’s note: Cuenca expats Edd and Cynthia Staton launch their new book Leap of Faith, Thursday, February 1. The book, the first of a trilogy, Mission: Rescue Your Retirement, tells of their decision to move to Ecuador and the frantic rush leading to their departure from the U.S. The book is being offered free through Saturday, February 3 on Amazon. To download it, see details at the end of the article.

Cynthia Staton: Tomorrow, the “Big Day,” is finally here.

Edd Staton: “Finally” is right. We haven’t done anything this hard since we moved to Ecuador! Anyone who says, “What’s so difficult? You write it and you publish it,” has never gone through the process.

CS: As soon as our trilogy was announced I’m sure some people were thinking, “Oh, boy, here we go. Yet another Cuenca expat how-to book.Ho-hum—.”

ES: There’s certainly a place for those but this is not that book. I guess we could consider ourselves experts on creating a successful expat life after being here almost eight years. The mundane stuff like visas, health insurance, or shipping furniture and pets seems like ancient history now.

CS: Not to minimize the importance of those details, but other people have done a good job covering that aspect of moving abroad. This has been a labor of love, but we know we’re not Hemingway or Faulkner, and our books aren’t destined for the classics like Gone with the Wind.

ES: Breaking Wind is more like it.

CS: Edd, please!

ES: You know, if that guy hadn’t written to me last year none of this would have happened. A new reader who says he likes our blog so much he went all the way back to the beginning! So his message makes me think, “Huh. Maybe I should do that.” And when I did I discovered something interesting. Read collectively, those hundreds of posts are much more than a collection of interesting experiences and funny stories — although there are a lot of both!

CS: You’re right. Before we moved to Cuenca in 2010, our whole financial world had imploded. Now we enjoy a wonderful lifestyle and realize our story is really about reinvention and self-discovery. So beyond attempting to be entertaining, we wrote these books to serve as an inspiration to readers who face an uncertain retirement. We want them to know it’s not too late, and you can, as we did, find a way.

ES: But mainly we want to make readers smile. Maybe even laugh out loud sometimes. One thing I learned reviewing all those posts is — surprise!! — my writing has actually gotten better with almost a decade of practice. So once we decided to do this, simply copying and pasting wasn’t an option.

CS: Nope. We went back and revised 100,000 plus words to make the copy consistent. I like that you sprinkled all those eddsaid comments throughout the books. They often expand the backstory or reflect on previous posts from a current perspective.

ES: What I had the most fun with was writing never-before-told stories that we call “An Untold Tale.” Readers are going to discover there’s a reason they’ve never been shared until now, and I predict that some of them are going to overheat the hometown gossip mill!

CS: Probably. I’m certain I was the one to put the brakes on those posts. Our relationships were new then, but glad you finally documented the experiences.

ES: Ha! If anyone reading this is wondering, “Oh, no, did they write about me??” Relax, we never use names. But you know who you are!

CS: You’re so bad. I don’t know if anyone has written a book in this format — blog entries in chronological order, comments, new material — it’s really unique.

ES: Book? How about three books? Who releases three books in three months? Uh — we do.

CS: It only made sense to approach the project this way. The first book, Leap of Faith, is a quick read that describes the madness leading up to our departure for Ecuador. Next up in March, “Letting Go,” recounts our insane first two years in Cuenca. Goodness, we made so many hilarious mistakes.

ES: And we partied our brains out. It’s a wonder we survived. Then in April we’ll release Volume 3, Living the Dream, where we at last come to our senses and start to settle down a bit.

CS: We truly hope readers enjoy these books as much as we have in preparing them for publication. On so many occasions we’ve been in stitches saying, “Hey, remember that time when —.” Thank goodness we chronicled so much of this adventure!

ES: How many people start a blog and then quit a few months later?

CS: Almost everybody.

ES: Eddsaid would have never continued for almost ten years without the encouragement and support of our readers. So as a thank you to them, we’re giving away Leap of Faith from tomorrow through Saturday, February 3 on Amazon.

CS: I’m so happy we’re doing that, and everyone who downloads the book will also get the chance to receive three never-before-published stories.

ES: And they’re some of the funniest of all!

CS: Well, cheers, Hubby. We did it. I hope everybody gets the free book tomorrow and enjoys reading it. ES: Cheers to you, my love. And to that guy who was crazy enough to read every blog post. This is all because of you, dude!

Save this link and come back on February 1, 2, or 3,  To download the free copy of Edd and Cynthia’s Leap of Faith,  

Link: (click here) 

*Free copies available on February 1,2 and 3.

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