Writing

I’ve been writing since my university days, doing much less of it these days. Below is a list of titles from my career as an editor, columnist, and novelist.

Published Magazine Articles:

  1. Telecom in Japan, Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan
    2. Headhunters, The Art of Recruiting, TGA EYE
    3. Taxes, The Five-Year Rule, TGA EYE
    4. Foreign Lawyers in Japan, TGA EYE
    5. American School in Japan, TGA EYE
    6. Portable Telephony, TGA EYE
    7. Crystals and New Age Healing, TGA EYE
    8. Office Computing 101, Computing Japan
    9. River Rafting in Gunma, The Japan Times
    10. Digital Publishing in Japan, Masthead
    11. Whitewater Rafting in Northern Japan, TGA EYE
    12. Beginner’s Guide to Internet, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
    13. More Digital Publishing, Computing Japan
    14. Portable Presentations, Computing Japan
    15. Disney Creativity in Japan, <em>TGA EYE
    16. Setting up the Digital Office, Computing Japan
    17. Japan Market Entry, British Chamber of Commerce
    18. A Cutting Edge Business Machine, Computing Japan
    19. Downtime is No Time for Chatter, Computing Japan
    20. The Pull of the Powermac, Computing Japan
    21. Software Support in Japan, Computing Japan
    22. A Dearth of Developers, Computing Japan
    23. Font Foibles, Computing Japan
    24. Video Editing the Digital Way, Computing Japan
    25. QXTools, software review, Computing Japan
    26. Small Office Server Solution, Computing Japan
    27. Send in the Clones, Computing Japan
    28. Serving the Web, Computing Japan
    29. The Devil in the Box, Computing Japan

Personal Travelogue

Failing To Trek

A series of vignettes from Nepal. From safaris to ptomaine to bats the size of eagles.

  • Off to a Good Start
  • Something in the Air
  • Perambulations and Pick-me-ups
  • Double Chubby Chuck and a Side of Fries, Please
  • Walk on the Wild Side
  • And Then There’s The Himal
  • All Day, Doing Nothing

Italy Apologia

Rome, Naples and Pompeii. Fields of summerfallow and doves, litter, elegance, ancient brothel doodlings.

  • Apologia
  • The Secret of Service
  • Trading Places
  • Opening Doors
  • A Tale of Two Cities

Desert-ed

Parisian Tunis, Roman Carthage, Saharan Tatouin, the island of Djerba.

  • Necessary Evil
  • The Spice of Life
  • Attacking Carthage
  • Cafe Life

Novels

1. Puddle Jumper

An editor/friend stated early on he hated the title, so I suggested “Delusions of a Shared Existence?” Sorry, too cerebral. Puddle Jumper is Cam’s hitch-hiking trip from a fictional town in Canada to Texas (during which it rains often, hence the jumping of puddles), and the characters he meets along the way. In Texas, he hopes to meet an ex-girlfriend, and pour sugar in her gastank as retribution for cheating on him then dumping him. I know: puerile, but it was fun, and had a pretty tidy ending that didn’t include sugar or gastanks. I’m saving this story for my family to laugh at when I’m old and infirm and dodderingly unlaughable.

2. The Repatriation

Heavily-plotted and largely influenced by John Grisham’s story lines, less the murders and lawerly wit, The Repatriation is about Lewis Hobbes, a fund manager, and his transfer to the company’s Tokyo office. He meets stubborn and resentful employees, criminal intent (remember Nick Leeson and Barings?), and illicit investment activities that go beyond the provincial borders of Tokyo to span the corporation’s worldwide presence.

3. Lying with Chiyo (published 2006)

Cole Thompson thought he knew Japan. After six years living within Tokyo’s Yamanote loop, he spoke the language, he understood the culture, he even visited the Shinto shrine once a year to welcome the New Year. He had grown… accustomed. But a night of haggis and scotch at The American Club in Tokyo would shatter his complacency. There, amongst drunken foreigners and Japanese alike, he would meet Chiyo Toa — enchanting, articulate, professional, and married — who would change his life forever.

Lying with Chiyo opens the kimono of modern relationships in Japan. Chiyo Toa is an icon of the non-traditional Japanese woman — passionate, determined, funny, fragile. But she is duplicitous in her desire, and her search for satisfaction sends Cole Thompson spinning, halfway around the world..

4. Desert Rats

“Who was it that wrote ‘the tourist must always get screwed!’?”

Thus begins the tentatively-titled Desert Rats, a story of two journalists antagonized by a malicious local then stranded in Tunisia’s desert, the Grande Erg Oriental. Jan Wood and Young Soon don’t understand the forces that have brought and left them in the middle of Hell with a single ratty goatskin of rancid water to survive on, but realize they only have each other to rely on if they want to get out alive.