Comments on Life in Author Notes
Welcome to Author Notes from Thailand — a collection of reflections, stories, and observations drawn from my life in a small rice-farming village in the northern part of the country. No, not Isaan, but Uttaradit.
I’ve lived here for more than 21 years with my Thai wife, and over time, I’ve come to see that storytelling doesn’t always begin with imagination. Sometimes, it starts in the morning heat. Or in a conversation that makes no sense — until it suddenly does. Or in a tragedy that reminds us how fragile life can be.
This series isn’t about promoting books — though my novels are often shaped by the lives and voices I hear around me. It’s about giving you, the reader, a sense of the real world behind the words. The people, the weather, the silence, the smiles — and sometimes, the strangeness.
Whether it’s a misunderstanding over language, a superstition at a funeral, or the way summer heat takes lives the way winter does in the West — these author notes from my heart offer more than colour. They offer context.
I hope you’ll dip in now and again. Read one of my author notes. Meet a moment. See what sparks a story.
Thank you for being here — and for caring about the places where fiction begins.
— Owen Jones
📚 Learn more about my books and life here:
- Author, Writer, or Scribbler?
- Authors’ Disappointments
- Cultural Adaptation and Family Life
- Hello
- Khan
- Look, Listen, and Learn
- My Racy Thai Joke
- Passing Over
- Pronouncing Thai Words
- Slipped Disc and Resulting Backache
- Thai Cultural Gestures
- Thai Greetings
- The Monsoon in Uttaradit, Thailand
- The UK in Thai
- Weeteeyoo
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