Skotak Neoregelia hybrids
An intriguing novel inspired by true events.
This bizarre adventure laced with offbeat humor,
odd characters, and vivid descriptions chronicles
an obsession with collecting a rare plant.
Chester Skotak's
Searching for Miss Fortuna
The Hunt for a Bromeliad
BUY BOOKS Reader's Comments Synopsis Covers
Chester welcomes your comments
on his debut novel.
chester@ChesterSkotak.com Literary Rights Inquiries
General Questions info@ChesterSkotak.com
CHESTER WILL BE GUEST SPEAKER IN NEW ORLEANS:
Greater New Orleans Bromeliad Society SHOW & SALE
May 3-4, 2008 Lakeside Shopping Center
Sat. 10 am - 9 pm - Sun. Noon - 6 pm
3301 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, Louisiana
Presentation & Book Signing - Saturday, May 3, afternoon
Chester will be at the mall May 3-4 to sign books & answer questions
CHESTER WILL BE GUEST SPEAKER IN AUSTRALIA:
18th World Bromeliad Conference - June 26-29, 2008
Cairns, Australia - Presentation & Book Signing
What readers are saying about SEARCHING FOR MISS FORTUNA Book Review
“I very much enjoyed reading your book! The story is quite interesting, with the unexpected twists and turns necessary to keep people reading. In addition, I happily learned a great deal about Central America and bromeliads.... The factual sections of your book are very well organized and extremely interesting. You also possess an outstanding ability to pull a reader into your book through the use of description—I could taste, see, hear...the countryside, the river.... I appreciate having had the opportunity to travel through and learn from this book!!” D. S. from Florida
“A friend of mine who was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune...once told me the single most important thing to do to write well is to ‘find your own voice,’ clearly you have done this. It is an adventure story with drama, humor and wonderful descriptions.... The characters are incredibly vivid and...you are so good with the dialogue. Anyway, it is truly a lunatic tale...amazing...it really should be a movie!” A. O. from Costa Rica
“SEARCHING FOR MISS FORTUNA uproots the narrator from Texas and moves through moneyed South Florida into the steamy, wild forests of Panama and Costa Rica. This is an amazing adventure story of obsession and greed with characters that jump out of the pages and pull you into all kinds of weirdness. Anyone interested in strange rainforest tales should not miss this one!” J. B. from Texas
"A wonderfully written fable, laced with great humor and I suspect some fact. A very different writing style. I would recommend reading this book even if you don't collect things." H.D.D. Back
After shelling out thousands of
dollars in a cutthroat auction for one small but captivating plant, an unbridled
frenzy drives The Man from Florida
into a blind rush to gather more of those beauties from their hidden rainforest
habitat. He hires a happy-go-lucky free spirit from Costa Rica as guide and
translator, and races off to the Panamanian wilderness to hunt down the
"goddesses from Fortuna." Two polar opposites don't mix well cooped
up in a jeep searching the back roads of paradise for a rare botanical
treasure. Juju magic comes along for the ride and crazy things begin to happen.
The mischievous guide is the irreverent narrator of this weird story-touching
on obsession, vanity, and bruised egos-unfolding mostly in Central America,
where the unexpected flourishes and multiplies.
As you delve into this quirky world, offbeat characters will bombard you with
surprises. A singing cow tick, a zombie-like woman in a tropical ski chair, a
flying toupee, and a tongue-tied fruit lover are merely hints of the maze of
"bizarro" you'll encounter. So go ahead, turn the pages and learn a
slew of lessons on why you should be choosy about traveling companions when
journeying into the unknown. Between the laughs and the gasps, feel free to
wonder if all of this really happened. Maybe it did or maybe it didn't, but the
perplexing enigma remains: Nothing can become truth until it's in writing. Back
Could
this be the mysterious lion-headed bathtub in San Juan del Norte?
SOFT COVER 383
pages 8.5 x 5.5 ISBN: 978-0-9776534-5-4
$19.95 plus shipping
& handling
Call toll free in the USA 1-877-311-5100
Reliance Media - Apopka, Florida
orders@RelianceMedia.comORDER ONLINE
Search for "bromeliad novel"
eBay seller ID: fortuna5555
Bromeliad Society Int'l-California
Rainbow Gardens Bookshop-Arizona
Books are in stock but may not be listed onlineorders@rainbowgardensbookshop.com
RETAIL OUTLETS Back
ARIZONA
Tucson
FLORIDA
Miami
Sarasota
Venice
Apopka (Orlando)
Sarasota
INTERNATIONAL OUTLETS
AUSTRALIA
Glebe, New South Wales 2037
COSTA RICA
Contact Author for current availability
chester@ChesterSkotak.com
NEW ZEALAND
Hastings 4156
HARDCOVER EDITION - SOLD OUT!
Collector’s Limited Edition Hardcover
Signed & Numbered by the Author
Only 50 were published ... $40 each...SOLD OUT
SPECIAL DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE
FOR SOFT COVER EDITION
We welcome your inquiries
discounts@ChesterSkotak.com
Chester Skotak Tico Times Article Miami Herald Article
CHESTER WILL BE GUEST SPEAKER IN AUSTRALIA:
18th World Bromeliad Conference - June 26-29, 2008
Cairns, Australia - Presentation & Book Signing
Chester
Skotak is a world-renowned bromeliad hybridizer with a sharp sense of
humor. Born and raised in Texas, he lived in Naples, Florida,
for a few years before escaping to Costa Rica in 1978. He developed a
fascination with rare plants at an early age. The Skotak name is
synonymous
with innovation. His creative talents have made him a leading expert in
the
field of bromeliad hybridization. He was the first to produce
variegated Neoregelia hybrids from seed. This prolific hybridizer holds many bromeliad patents. He has led plant-collecting expeditions throughout
Central and South America and has introduced countless unusual bromeliad
hybrids into horticulture. Two bromeliads have been named in his honor: Guzmania skotakii (Costa Rica) and Aechmea skotakii (Ecuador). A Costa
Rican tree species even bears his name, Palicourea
skotakii.
His creativity extends beyond
plants. He invented and patented a board game, CHORIZO—Monopoly’s evil twin.
This take-off with a Latin American twist is a testament to all that is
corrupt, foul, and tainted. Chester is a talented writer and has numerous articles published in the Journal of the Bromeliad Society International. SEARCHING FOR MISS FORTUNA is his debut novel. Full Bio Back
Chester Skotak & rare Alcantareas
Bromeliad Hybridizer Writes Rain Forest Saga
By Gaby Kyriss
Published in The Tico Times, December 7, 2007
www.ticotimes.net San Jose, Costa Rica
People collect antique coins,
wristwatches, porcelain eggcups and shellac disks. Internationally acclaimed
bromeliad hybridizer Chester Skotak collects plants, as well as eccentric
characters. His debut novel, entitled “Searching for Miss Fortuna: The Hunt for
a Bromeliad,” is a fantastic fable, as extraordinary as the plant in question, Guzmania
“Fortuna.” The Panama native with its white-tipped, brilliant red florescence
is the eye-catcher on the tastefully designed jacket of the 383-page,
self-published work released this fall.
Despite its lovely presentation,
the comic novel is not only about bromeliads, but also about humans. To be more
precise, it’s about the rare species of hunting and collecting plant
enthusiasts.
An insider himself, Skotak, based in Costa Rica since 1978, knows his business, having risen among the ranks of plant enthusiasts. He arouses the reader’s curiosity with the rich allusion that his work of fiction is inspired by true events.
“This book is part of my legacy,” says the 55-year-old Texas native. “I always wanted to write a story about my experiences, so they will not be forgotten. As weirdly beautiful as my life has been, I would not change my experiences for anything, because they made it more interesting.”
Populated with offbeat characters and full of unexpected events, “Searching for Miss Fortuna” is a cross between spooky thriller, weird travel story, furious satire and interesting documentary. Enriched with factual information on the botany, geography and history of Central America, the book is a treat not only for plant lovers but also for those interested in Latin American idiosyncrasies.
The free-spirited narrator - Skotak’s alter ego - and his mysterious opponent, The Man from Florida, are taking the reader along an unforgettable expedition across Panama, beginning and ending in Costa Rica. Filled with obsessed naturalists, zealous locals and helpful indigenous people, the novel is as colorful and bizarre as the tropical plants the author hybridizes professionally.
The gripping plot culminates as two ill-matched plant hunters visit remote botanical gardens in southwestern Costa Rica. Falling under the influence of the garden’s demented director is tantamount to a hellish trip right into the heart of darkness.
Known for his wicked sense of humor, Skotak wields a sharp pen, drawing the reader into dramatic events in a quicksand of words. His comparisons and metaphors are unique, and his language teems with exaggeration and provocation: a toupee becomes a vanity rug, and coiled phone cords look like Rastafarian dreadlocks.
“Maybe it has to do with my non-authoritarian upbringing, but I think political correctness does not work,” the outspoken author explains. “It is very insulting to human intelligence.”
“Searching for Miss Fortuna” is a story within a story. The novel is an homage to famed tropical plant expert and illustrator John M. Hall III, a Florida expatriate who lived in Costa Rica for 32 years. Hall, who died in San José in 2003, was considered one of the leading authorities on the flora and fauna of Central America and the Amazon. The skilled garden designer and the renowned bromeliad hybridizer were good friends, undertaking adventurous trips across the isthmus.
“The rescue of that cast-iron bathtub from the Nicaraguan jungle was originally John’s idea,” Skotak remembers, referring to an episode in the book.
Skotak, who claims he does not read books and has no favorite authors, says the writing process was a challenging but rewarding experience that took him four years. Surprised by his own creativity, and sometimes sleepless, he would get up in the middle of the night to type on the computer.
“My right index finger, with which I typed the entire manuscript, is still numb,” Skotak explains, lifting the corpus delicti in the air. “But all in all, I’m very satisfied to have written this book, because I found a way to incorporate my ideas about life.”
The innovative hybridizer has been an enthusiastic plant lover since childhood. He studied floriculture at Texas A&M University and was drawn to Costa Rica for the diversity of the country’s bromeliad species – hardy members of the pineapple family. Costa Rica is second only to Brazil in numbers of bromeliad genera worldwide.
Skotak has led numerous plant-collecting expeditions throughout Central and South America and has introduced countless unusual bromeliad hybrids into horticulture. Three plant species have been named in his honor. The prolific plant expert is a member of the U.S.-based International Bromeliad Society and a contributor to the society’s magazine since 1976.
The author’s home and business are in the town of Palmares, an hour northwest of San José. He dedicated “Searching for Miss Fortuna” to his wife Lorena and their eight children, ages 12 to 23, of which six are currently attending university.
In his novel’s acknowledgments, Skotak expresses his gratitude to longtime friend and bromeliad judge Eloise Beach of Apopka, Florida, because “without her help, I could never have accomplished this.”
An avid collector, the author also honors “all of the obsessed fools who run loose on the streets, mindlessly collecting things but never understanding why… without you guys, the earth would quit wobbling.” Back
FULL BIO
Chester Skotak
by Eloise Beach
Chester
Skotak is a world-renowned bromeliad hybridizer with a sharp sense of humor. His
fascination with bromeliads goes back over 33 years. Variegated plants are his
favorites; he has an extensive collection of rare and one-of-a-kind specimens
in his private collection.
The
Skotak name is synonymous with innovation. His creative talents have made him a
leading expert in the field of bromeliad hybridization. He was the first to
produce variegated hybrids from seed. This groundbreaking achievement with
neoregelias gained him worldwide respect.
For
the past thirteen years,
Currently
around 250 Skotak hybrids are officially registered with the Bromeliad
Society
International, but thousands of his stunning specimens are in
cultivation
without fancy names. Hobbyists will recognize these show-stoppers: Neo.
‘Milagro,’ ‘Picasso,’ ‘Crayola,’
‘Pemiento,’ ‘Dorothy,’ ‘Yin,’
‘Yang,’ and the
beautifully banded ‘Hannibal Lector’ plus the splashy and
highly coveted
variegated forms of this hybrid. More surprises are coming along in
seed flats!
His
creativity extends beyond plants. He’s the inventor of a patented board game, CHORIZO,
Monopoly’s evil twin. This take-off with a Latin American twist is a testament
to all that is corrupt, foul, and tainted.
Born
and raised in
© 2008 CHESTER SKOTAK All Rights Reserved