Name: GANJALAND
Author: James J. Gerardi
ISBN: 978-0-578-52993-6

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Miami International Airport. July 5, 1996.

The book opens on the morning Jimmy left the country. Here’s the first page. The rest of the chapter, including the first air drop on the Bimini flats in January 1980, lands in your inbox when you sign up.

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Chapter one · Miami, 1996

I stopped at the U.S. mailbox inside the terminal. The first letter I dropped in was to my wife and daughter. The next letter was to my parents, not forty miles away. The last letter was to my girlfriend. I hesitated, and then decided not to mail it. She had no idea what I was doing today.

I went to the check-in counter and handed over my ticket and driver’s license. The license photo was mine; the name and birth date were not. The girl behind the counter gave me my boarding pass with a smile.

I had checked one large suitcase. The sport jacket I had on was stuffed with cash. That suitcase and cash would soon be all I had in the world. I did not know when again I would talk to, let alone see, all the people in the world that I cared about. I tried not to think about them. I tried to concentrate on what my lawyer had told me…

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The story

A Long Island kid who ran the Caribbean

Every chapter of GANJALAND happened. Some names were changed. Nothing else was.

1965

Island Park, Long Island

His father tells him never to take the boat into the ocean. He takes it into the ocean every chance he gets.

1980

The Bimini flats

Anchored beside a concrete shipwreck called the Cement Ship, waiting for a plane to come in low. The first air drop of many.

1996

Grand Cayman

His yacht and crew are stopped. The crew testifies. Facing ten years minimum, he posts bail and boards a flight to Montego Bay.

1996–2016

Mr. Jay

Twenty years in Jamaica under a new name, while America slowly changes its mind about what he’d been doing all along.

2016

Coming home

He flies back with his lawyer and surrenders. A line of federal agents waits on the jet bridge. Every one of them shakes his hand.

What you get

The first chapter today. The rest of the story over two weeks.

The opening chapter, free

Miami airport, July 5, 1996, with a jacket full of cash. Then back to the Bimini flats in 1980 for the first air drop. A PDF in your inbox the minute you confirm.

Three stories from the book

The day he left. Life as Mr. Jay. The handshake on the jet bridge. Written by James himself, one every few days. No filler, no spam.

The early bird, before anyone else

Subscribers hear first when the campaign opens on January 26 and get the signed paperback at the $25 early-bird price for the first 48 hours.

The campaign · Indiegogo · January 26, 2027

From book to screen

Readers keep saying the same thing: this should be a movie. The campaign funds the materials that get GANJALAND in front of producers, and backers get the book, their name in it, and a front-row seat.

What the money does

Signed paperbacks for backers$1,000
Film treatment & pitch deck$500
New edition with the backer “Crew” page$250
Fees & contingency$750
Funding goal$2,500
The audiobook, read by James$5,000
A proof-of-concept short film$10,000
Screenwriter rewrite, rights package, Spanish ebook$15,000
Live-action teaser in Jamaica & the Keys$25,000

All or nothing. If the goal isn’t reached, nobody is charged a cent. Backers get the book, the credits and the access whatever happens next; nobody is sold a share of anything.

A few of the rewards

$25

Early Bird PaperbackFirst 48 hrs

A signed copy at the launch-day price. Subscribers get the link first.

$75

The Crew

Signed paperback, ebook, and your name on the “Crew” page of the new edition.

$150

Ask the Smuggler

The Crew, plus James answers backers’ questions in a recorded video Q&A.

$750

Navigator

Everything above, a 30-minute call with James, and a signed print of the route-map sketch.

Get the early-bird link

Photo of James coming soon

The author

James J. Gerardi

Born in New York City, raised on a canal in Island Park, Long Island, in a close Italian-American family. Boat captain, marine surveyor, owner of Metallic Marine, and for forty years a smuggler. He wrote GANJALAND by hand in a federal prison library, an hour a day, starting in April 2017. He was released on October 17, 2018, and he is telling this story himself.

“If you should see me coming in an inlet in South Florida, please just wave. You never know what I might have onboard.”The last line of GANJALAND

Questions

Good to know

Is this a real story?

Yes. GANJALAND is a memoir. James pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of importing marijuana, served his sentence, and finished supervised release. Some names in the book were changed to protect people with families who may not know about their past.

What am I signing up for?

You confirm your email with one click, then the free first chapter arrives as a PDF. Over the next two weeks you get three short stories from the book, then first word, and the early-bird price, when the Indiegogo campaign opens on January 26, 2027. One-click unsubscribe at any time.

What does the campaign fund?

Signed paperbacks for backers, a new edition with a “Crew” page naming everyone who helped, and a film treatment and pitch deck to put GANJALAND in front of producers. Stretch goals add an audiobook read by James, a proof-of-concept short film, a professional screenwriter’s pass and a live-action teaser. If the goal isn’t reached, nobody is charged.

Will there be a movie?

Nobody can promise that, and we won’t. The campaign gives the story its best shot. Backers get the book, the credits and the access whatever happens next.

Are the videos real footage?

The narration is James’s own voice, AI-cloned from a recording he made, with his consent. Re-created scenes from the 1960s to the 2010s are dramatizations made with AI tools, and they’re labeled as such.

Who is behind the campaign?

GANJALAND is a Metallic Marine project. James owns the campaign; David Zimmerman runs the campaign page, videos and emails. Questions: hello@ganjalandmovie.com.

Forty years at sea.
Twenty on the run.
One flight home.