Where Did the Drifter Go? An American Expat in Portugal Update

I'll bet you're wondering where this American expat in Portugal has been for the last few months. Well, I’m still here in Coimbra, Portugal. I have been completely consumed with starting a publishing company, revising my website for 2026, writing a diet book, publishing and promoting a children’s picture book, and developing eight How-to-Guides on how to self-publish a book on Amazon KDP. I didn’t really know back then what I was getting myself into as you can tell by the fact that it’s been nearly six months since I last posted anything.

The list and picture above is living proof that I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing, well actually I was just sitting around, but with my paws handcuffed to the keyboard and my nose glued to my laptop screen. At times I felt as if rigor mortis was setting in. My back was stiff, my butt hurt, and my eyes were getting blurry and red from the blue light constantly projecting at me for ten hours straight.

Good news is that most of the items on the list are now complete and out there in the world for everyone to see.

Paper Compass Press

My publishing company is now up and running, Paper Compass Press now supports all the picture books I am working on and The Creator’s Studio where you’ll find out how to write, illustrate, assemble, and publish a children’s picture book that’s professional and meaningful. Paper Compass Press has been shadowed a bit by all the other activity that came after I started it, but with Bandit and two more furry characters that have stories to tell, it’s still a major focus of my time. With five books having completed drafts and two that have the illustrations finished, it’s going to be a busy summer for sure. Keep your eyes open for the next picture book being released soon by The Press.

Where’s the Drifter Been Lately?

The Chronicles of a Wayward Drifter website has been updated with a new section of Fantastic Finds highlighting five of my favorite cities here in Portugal. All of which are on the schedule to be visited by The Drifter this summer. I have already made it south to Lisbon for a short two-day visit to secure my residency card, yes, I am now a legal resident of this beautiful country. Lisbon was an eye-opener to what's on the horizon. The area where I stayed was amazing, but I only had one day to explore, so I recommend at least three to five days to get a full picture of what this city has to offer.

Funny thing is, securing that residency card wasn't nearly as simple as it sounds in one sentence. If you're staring down the same D7 process and wondering where to even start, I put together a Free D7 Visa Starter Kit with the official application form, the Embassy checklist, the VFS checklist, and my own checklist that actually pulls it all together onto one list. Download Your Free Portugal D7 Starter Kit.

What’s for Dinner?

My diet book “How Moving to Portugal Changed My Diet... and Me” is now available on my website. This mini-book has 26 pages in a PDF format so you can easily download it to your mobile device and have it to read on the go. It gives you an inside look at how my moving to a new country quietly reshaped what I eat, how I think, and how I feel, without diets, rules, or supplements. Portugal has transformed me personally, mentally, and physically in so many ways, and the food here has had a lot to do with it. I will say that it's not just Portugal. Many countries in Europe can provide these kinds of changes. So, for anyone living in the U.S. right now, if you're thinking about making the move, my advice is simple: "Go for it!"

My book talks about where I live, the food, the culture, and what I learned about myself. I think I’ve mentioned in a previous blog how I’m walking three blocks to the store to purchase my groceries every day, most of which are fresh fruit and vegetables. It just makes it so easy to have high quality fresh food in the fridge and get a little exercise too.

I’ve been out to eat a few times, and the times I have, the food has been so delicious and healthy and is usually cooked by a family with a mom and dad in the kitchen with the kids waiting on tables. That’s real food cooked by real people. Did I mention that I rarely see fast-food restaurants around where I live? I haven’t seen a Taco Bell, McDonald’s, or Burger King since I got here, which is a pleasant surprise. That’s fair warning for all you Big Mac lovers, sorry.

I Need a Good Book

I mentioned above that I started a publishing company, but before I did that I self-published a picture book as an Easter present that I gave to my two nephews. Bandit and the Golden Egg was released in mid-March and was a total hit at Easter, breaking into two Amazon Top 100 categories and reaching #17 as an Easter holiday publication. My nephews loved it too.

The joy and fulfillment I got writing this little book set me back as I realized that it not only brought me so much satisfaction but I did that for others as well. That’s how Paper Compass Press was born. I wanted to share all my crazy stories with more children, not just my nephews. I believe the world needs a good story now more than ever.

I wrote this book for my nephews because after Christmas, I felt bad that I wasn’t able to be home to hand out Christmas gifts or enjoy the holidays with my family, so I thought the best gift would be something they could hold on to forever. It started out as a simple story that I was going to mail to them in a letter, but it quickly grew and I realized that the story was good enough to be a picture book. I researched and found that AI could do the illustrations so I experimented with that for a few days and was amazed at what some of the AI models generated. I only dreamed that I could illustrate like that back in the day.

I knew this would make a great Easter gift because the family always gets together for a big Easter egg hunt, so I went to work, I wrote the story, revised numerous drafts, began the illustration process and developed a 32-page book ready for KDP all in thirty days from start to finish. I was completely blown away by how well it was accepted and realized that I now had proof of concept. I could write more books and actually be successful at it. That was just the beginning, there are five more with numerous characters getting ready for publishing as you read this.

Sharing the Secrets

Thinking about how I could touch so many others with a good book and a meaningful lesson, I realized that there must be other people out there that could benefit from what I had learned in producing my book. It wasn’t easy and I had gained so much knowledge that I didn’t want all that to go to waste. I decided to share it and help others do what I did, but without all the struggles that I had to go through.

While I was producing my book I looked around to see if there were any courses or some kind of training I could get to help me, and found that there wasn’t much offered in resources or educational products that I felt comfortable pursuing. That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head: what about producing some how-to-guides covering all the aspects of writing, creating illustrations, laying out a book, and how to navigate through Amazon’s ecosystem. Well, roughly two months later my guides were completely written, some are illustrated, all are laid out with covers. I just have a few rough edges to polish off to have those ready for publication as well.

My eight How-to-Guides quickly followed after Bandit’s launch and are in the final phases of publication right now. Each guide goes into detail about writing, editing, illustrating, assembling, and finally publishing a children’s picture book. I keep detailed notes that I use to fall back on when my memory fails me, too often, I must say. So it was easy to pull all those notes together and package them into guides that tell it all in the same way I write, one person talking to another over a cup of coffee or tea.

So it’s now the first week in June, almost six months since my last post, and I have a lot to be proud of. What’s funny is that every project seems to spark two or three more ideas, which leads me to believe I’ll be busy writing and producing for a very long time.

The problem I’m faced with now is that the days are getting sunnier and I’m getting itchy feet to start my summer travels around Portugal, so the big challenge now is to figure out how to pull off all this writing while traveling in this beautiful country that I now call home?