Sandstorm

Summary: In his prior life, Ted Simmons enjoyed a career as an oil company technology manager. Most of this time was spent in international producing operations, providing him with the opportunity to live and work in some of the world’s most fascinating places. He developed a keen interest in the cultures and beliefs of other people and thinks many Americans would benefit from some of his insights. Ted and his family lived in... the jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia, the suburbs of London, and the desert region known as the Neutral Zone” between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He has trod the ancient Silk Road in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan), stood in the columned halls of the Temple of Karnak in Egypt, jostled with crowds atop the Great Wall of China, crawled through tunnels dug by the North Vietnamese during the war, and hunted butterflies with his teenage son in the mountains of Taiwan. The novel, Sandstorm, was inspired by the need to leave his house, his dog, and his belongings and flee Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion in 1990. Ted Simmons is active in the writing community. He was Chairman of the Houston Writers’ Conference in 2000, is currently Past-President of the Tallahassee Writers’ Association, and chaired the association’s nationwide Seven Hills Contest for Writers. [read more]