Jamaica, me soon come!

My Jamaican patois might be lousy, but I've got a good excuse: I haven't been to Jamtown in donkey's years. Not since I was 18, as a matter of fact, and believe me, you don't want to know how long ago that was. I've got a whole bunch of hazy but happy recollections of it. I remember walking barefoot up Dunn's River Falls, and finding a Jamaican dollar bill floating there. I remember standing at the side of the road somewhere on the North Coast with my girlfriend Monique, waiting for a minibus, eating a whole, warm, sweet pineapple with a penknife, and then finally catching the minibus and being so crammed in that Monique had to sit on my lap...and she wasn't a tiny girl.
I remember a midnight hike to the top of the Blue Mountain Range, and because of the altitude it was so cold we found peaches and strawberries growing near the summit - on a Caribbean island! I remember trying to see how many boys I could kiss over the course of a 2-week vacation, but that's another story for another time.
Well, I'll be retracing my steps at the end of June. Hooray! I've been invited to conduct a workshop on short story writing at something called the Coconut Festival near Montego Bay. Mo'Bay, one of my favorite places! And a Coconut Festival, of all things. Everything there will be about coconuts: coconut races, coconut craft, coconut cooking, and, yes, all the short stories will be about coconuts. That will be something to experience. I'll also be doing a reading of some of my work, so I'd better get that voice in gear.
I'll definitely be blogging - and Plogging on Amazon - from there, so stay tuned!