Molly and I are staying on a 20-year old coffee farm, filling in for a friend of Molly’s as caretakers. We are high up in the mountains on the Kona side of the island, surrounded by lush foliage from giant banana fronds as big as our bodies to delicate orchids and poinsettia that grow in the wild and not in pots on the windowsill. And, of course, Kona coffee plants are everywhere, on the side of the road and in neat rows on the farms that dot the landscape.

We have been in heaven.

But I have also been working while here in Hawaii. Not a day goes by that I do not check my email and respond to inquiries. I have also compiled Voices of the Valley entries for the Springfield Republican through the end of January.

The major project I am working on here, though, is a novel that I am writing for a client. I began this book about a year ago, and worked on it during a month-long stay in the Marshall Islands last year.

I was hired by my client, who lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts, to tell the story of the span of years he spent working for the airlines, in particular one airline formerly based at Bradley International Airport. My client was what’s called a ramp agent; he cleaned planes, de-iced them in the winter, loaded and unloaded baggage, and in general, made sure things ran smoothly on the tarmac.

The story begins in the late 1980s, back in a time before Anita Hill made sexual harassment a thing and in a place where abuses of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were rampant. The book tells the story of how my client became a defender for innocent airline employees who were being sexually and verbally harassed by three colleagues who also did not have a respect for their roles and responsibilities. My client eventually became a victim, and I’ll say no more than that. I want to entice you to buy the book and not give anything away!

Because I did want to be active on my vacation while also making some good progress on the book, I had a plan for managing my time. I am good at the work-life balance thing—that’s how I manage to work so well from home—and I’m disciplined! So, I wake up early, before the sun rises. I get up even before the roosters start cock-a-doodle-doing, and believe me, they do, beginning about 6 a.m.

It is chilly here in the mornings, and, in the farm shack, the Jalousie windows don’t close, and there is no such thing as heat. So, I grab my laptop from the desk in the living room and climb back in my bed for two or three hours, under layers of blankets, losing myself in my client’s story. When the sun hits the deck, and it’s time to hit the road for another day trip, I wake Molly, and off we go.

I don’t unplug from the book, though. I take my notes and a notepad to the beach with me, and I keep planning how the story will unfold. I have written roughly three chapters here, and I am fully engaged and looking forward to finishing the book in the month of January. That’s a very doable goal. Then, we must begin the editing process and get the book designed. I’ll let you know when it’s available. Hoping for summer 2017!

In the meantime, create your own adventure and work on your work-life balance!

The post From the Hawaiian Office appeared first on Beetle Press.

It just keeps jetting off in varying directions, thinking, planning, imagining, organizing. I add to my to-do lists even in my sleep, and that’s okay with me. I like an active agenda.

But that is why, as I fly off on a month-long journey to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, I can’t stop thinking about what I will do besides just have fun. That is why, on the first official day of my trip, I am working on the plane instead of reading a book or daydreaming.

I never actually intended for this trip to be a vacation.

The departure and arrival dates were set in stone and came with an affordable price tag, so I delighted in the fact that I would spend a month on a tropical island in winter, but I also knew I had to find a way to make my work happen while I was gone.

I very carefully have arranged my schedule so that, until Jan. 23, I am not accepting new projects and will instead focus on two book assignments. One is a novel I am writing for a client in Western Massachusetts, to memorialize a story that haunts him; the other is an editing project for a Canadian man (formerly of Northampton, Massachusetts) who has written a memoir about losing his older brother in his early teen years.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have these deep and moving projects to sink my fingertips in. In the first few hours of the flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Honolulu—the second of three legs of my trek—I read the first half of the memoir and can’t wait to turn my attention back to it.

But I have in mind to accomplish more on the trip as well. I want to do some planning and thinking and working on my business.

So, I also plan to blog about my journey and what I learn about Majuro and its people, (starting with a piece on training for adventures.) I want to blog about tips and ideas I have on marketing, networking and professional development.

I want to think ahead to how I will keep four interns busy this coming spring and outline projects for them. And I want to fully plan a five- or six-week workshop for business and organization leaders who want to do more than touch on the how-tos of sending out a press release. I’m hoping this workshop will be ready for spring, so stay tuned.

Of course, Majuro is a place where electric power and wifi are not always available, so it may be that there are days when I can’t spend my mornings on vocational pursuits, as I imagine.

If that should happen, I have a notebook and pen along as well.

I’ll jot down some trusty notes, and you’ll hear all about it later.

I’ll pass the time running or snorkeling instead.

Not a bad plan, I’d say.

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