tmbridgeland
I have lived in Guatemala, Japan and the USA. I am a teacher, a writer, and have worked many jobs from Peace Corps Volunteer to English teacher to lawn guy to fork-lift driver.
I have recently written a novel, Eden's Rat, which I am trying to find a publisher for. I am putting up another full novel chapter by chapter here on HubPages. This is, The Tale Of Jon Handshaker. Check it out.
A reader complained that it was difficult navigating through The Tale Of Jon Handshaker, so I made this index. I will place a link here with each new chapter I post.
The Tale Of Jon Handshaker
INDEX
Chapter Three: Parade Of Fools
Chapter Four: The Coal Cellar, Five Years Later
Chapter Five: Rats In The Tunnels
Chapter Nine: A Knife, Or A Fist
Chapter Eleven: Kon Nok Village
Chapter Thirteen: Blood Of Innocents
Chapter Fourteen: Smoke And Ash
Chapter Sixteen: The West Witch
Chapter Seventeen: The West Witch, Two
Chapter Twenty: Alelu Miami In Hiding
Chapter Twenty One: Three Spikes
Chapter Twenty Two: The Triumvirate
Chapter Twenty Three: Alelu Miami, Leather Pants
Chapter Twenty Four: A Little Salt
Chapter Twenty Five: The WInd Is A Ghoul
Chapter Twenty Seven: The Cottage
Chapter Twenty Eight: Blood Ties
Chapter Twenty Nine: Alelu Miami On The Run
Chapter Thirty Three: Hand Number Seven Dreams
Chapter Thirty Six: The Size Of The Bait
Chapter Thirty Seven: Jorjah's Journey
Chapter Thirty Eight: Old Uncle
Chapter Thirty Nine: To Take Advantage Of A Drunk
Chapter Forty Three: An Element Of Danger
Chapter Forty Four: Memory, Like A Tiny Crystal
Chapter Forty Five: Jorjah: The Arming
Chapter Forty Six: Shan Shen: On The River
Chapter Forty Seven: Alelu Plots
Chapter Forty Eight: Soldier Yama
Other Fiction: Just Gotta Love Them Tiny Feet
How I Write Fiction: The Ax, A Tool Every Fiction Writer Needs
How To Write A Query, Find A Literary Agent And Get Your Book Published, Part One
How To Write A Query, Find A Literary Agent And Get Your Book Published Part 2, The Query Letter
I grew up in small-town Illinois, actually on a typical farm about 6 miles from the nearest village. That meant a 45-minute bus ride to school, both ways. I read a lot of trashy science fiction novels and kid-lit over those years on the bus.
I escaped the small-town life as soon as I could and went to college a few hours away. I studied the sciences, but a lack of aptitude for math (laziness) kept me from pursuing a higher degree in science.
I decided I still wasn't far enough away from my home town, so I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Guatemala, in Central America, though I didn't speak a word of Spanish beyond 'si', and some phrases picked up from Speedy Gonzalez cartoons.
Two years there and I spoke passable Spanish, had learned a fair bit about life, gotten partially over my nerdy shyness, and was ready to try something new. I went to grad school at UF but hated it, so I quit after a year and $10,000 of debt. I needed a job, but didn't feel really qualified to do much of anything.
The ladies at my old home church back in rural Illinois learned of my plight and arranged a job for me. Teaching English in Japan. It turned out that there were about a dozen home town folks teaching there, all at the same school, a Catholic junior college in Nagoya, a big, ugly concrete mass of a city, all of its history bombed flat in the war.
I was finally about far enough from home! I taught there at various schools in different cities for fifteen years, got married and had two daughters. Home was calling.
I now live back in small-town Illinois, near my family. I still see the church ladies who got me my first 'real job'.
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