Author: Tom henry

Tom Henry is a non-fiction author who specializes in easy to read, light, non-fiction work. Since 1990 he has ghost written 32 major books, guides, and manuals, as well as 250+ magazine and web articles across a diverse range of topics, but concentrated mainly on aspects of expat life.

In late 2010 Tom decided to develop and release a series of 'expat survival' books based on his 20+ years experience as an expatriate in the Middle-East, Asia, and Papua New Guinea. The first book in the series, and his first book attributed to his pen name, 'The Philippines Expat Survival Guide' (ISBN 978-971-94601-3-8 ), was released in March 2011, with the second book in the series, 'Papua New Guinea and Port Moresby Expat Survival Guide' (ISBN 978-971-94601-7-6), released in late June 2011. His next book release is set to be ‘Driving Philippines: Local driving tips and exploring the provinces of North Luzon’ due for release in late October 2011.

Other work currently in progress are the, 'Expat Survival Guide to Living and Working Overseas,' and the 'Saudi Arabia Expat Survival Guide,’ due for release in December 2011 and March 2012 respectively.

Outside of writing his Expat Survival Guides, Tom is joint author and editor of a book series based on his wife's popular Filipino Food recipes. The first book of the series, 'Lina's Kitchen, Filipino Cooking at its Best', this is due for release at the end of November 2011.

Each month Tom also writes a articles for the 'Angeles Xtra' magazine and, as part of his tasks as an internationally accredited training and HRD consultant, he also develops articles for clients of his offshore publishing and media company, Able Ads Ltd.

1. Where do you get your book ideas from?

"That’s simple, from life. I’ve often found myself looking for information on a topic or place, or needed to find out how to do something – only to find little or no information of any use available. As this means I have to research the details myself, I jot things down and, if I feel it worthwhile, I may write a guide or 'how to' book so others can avoid the problems I faced. Even most of the training manuals I’ve written were to meet specific problems and shortfalls that were causing problems at work sites."

2. How old were you when you first wrote professionally?

"Apart from simple ‘how to’ booklets and articles in local papers and magazines, I really only started writing professionally after I left the military at 28. I started developing more complex ‘How To’ booklets, newsletters, company reports, and training handbooks and manuals and things just mushroomed from there."

3. When did you start writing your Expat Survival Guides?

"Believe it or not, I first started gathering information and jotting down data way back in the mid 1990s. At that time I had just moved and had set up our first house so was living in the Philippines but still working as a expat in Saudi Arabia. I suffered horrendous problems learning how to get along with and understand the locals and how to get things done without too much hassle, and I found myself often wishing there was more real-world information, rather than just tourist hype available. As there wasn’t, I just started learning from my experiences, talking to others about their experiences - and how they had overcome their problems - and recorded the data. With many things going on in my life, I put everything on hold in 2002 and it wasn’t till after I had lived in the Philippines for some years full-time and traveled extensively writing a series of guide books for a well known Philippine publisher that I decided I must put everything together and finish the Philippines Expat Survival Guide, which I finally achieved after six or seven months of rechecking information validity and ensuring all topics were fully up to date and current during 2010 and early 2011."   

4. What are your qualifications for writing expat survival guides?

"I suppose you could say that over the past twenty odd years as an expat I’ve learned enough to earn a doctorate from ‘the school of hard knocks’ when it comes to living and working as an expatriate in places as varied as Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. I don’t write survival guides about places I have not lived or worked in, which is why I feel the guides are so useful; they are written by an experienced local expatriate, with input from literally hundreds of other experienced in-country expats, directly for people who want to be expatriates. I use feedback from earlier expat newsletters and various company country orientations I’ve written as I’ve learned that it is much better for people to know what to really expect - and so be prepared for the bad as well as the good - so they realize some of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them, before they burn their bridges and go and live or work overseas as an expatriate. "     

5. Do you write other things?

"Apart from the expat survival guides, I write a set of monthly articles for The Angeles Xtra Magazine, I also write material for websites, brochures, training manuals (HSE and various trade/apprentices) for oil and drilling companies around the globe, and articles for various newsletters and magazines, as well as some ‘how to’ books and travel guides. I'm currently finalizing work on my wife's Filipino Cook Book which is a compilation of her recipes and articles she has published in magazines each month - plus a lot of articles and cooking tips and glossaries she used on her popular website in the early 2000s." 

6. Why are you a writer?

"I’m lucky, writing is something I enjoy. I love talking to people and learning from their experiences so this, and the fact that I’ve worked, traveled and lived as an expatriate for so long means I gather large amounts of information on real-world problems and solutions that other guides and how to book writers often overlook in their research. My training background also helps me to write about the things I’ve learned clearly and simply, and I like to add a bit of humor and funny graphics so people can not only easily understand what I write, but enjoy reading it. This is probably why I love hearing from people and really like their feedback; it makes writing things like the expat survival guides much less of a chore and more like writing to friends."

7. Why are you only now placing your name on book covers?

"Over the last twenty years, all of my work has been commissioned by companies who wished to have their books and manuals ghost written and not list the author. This was also the case on the published guide books; the company I wrote those for sell the guides and maps under their well known trading name and do not credit commissioned authors, only their own permanent staff. As I’m now writing expat survival guides and other material off my own back, I decided that it was time I listed an authors name, if for nothing else I hope it will encourage feedback from people as their feedback helps me enormously in developing new ideas and updating information in current guides."

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