Thomas Baker is, by his own account, a globetrotter. He's traveled to Europe, Africa, the Antarctic, and North America. He's visited 40 of the 50 states in the USA. The Luxora, Arkansas native currently lives at the end of the world, in Santiago de Chile, South America. He's been here for the past 11 years, he says.
What made him finally stay in one place? Why didn't he keep moving? The answer, he says, is his wife, Gabriela. When he met her, he was home. In fact, wherever she is, is where he will be. Soon it will be Valentine's day again, but with Thomas and Gaby, maybe every day is Valentine's Day...
What does he do in free time?
When not writing, he enjoys spending time with his lovely wife, Gaby, and of course, indulging in his passion, teaching English as a Foreign Language. Being a teacher gives him so much pleasure that he knows he would do it for nothing because it is so personally rewarding. He considers himself lucky to be able to teach English and get paid for doing something he loves so much.
He fits in time for organizing conferences for teachers, such as the recent Edcamp Santiago 2012. He was also one of the conference organizers for the 2010 IATEFL-TESOL Bicentennial Conference, which was held at Universidad San Sebastian.
In 2010, Thomas was the President of TESOL Chile. TESOL stands for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. It is a professional organization of teachers of English dedicated to raising the standard of English teaching in Chile.
Also, he manages to write a very successful blog, "A Bit of Everything". Often, he confesses, he will be working on multiple projects simultaneously.
Where does he get the time and the energy?
Priorities, perseverancia, and passion, he answers. The P-P-P approach to individual success in reaching your goals. He explains:
"There's always time to do the things we feel are important. Once you begin to do something, you only arrive at your goals by taking a constant series of small steps. When all this becomes repetitive, your enthusiasm, which is transformed into passion for what you are doing, drives you forwards, especially when things aren't going well.
Does he read books?
His mother, Annette, and brother, Charlie, instilled in him a love of reading at an early age. He could read by the time he was four years old.
After pushing his dreams of becoming a published author aside for thirty years, he has finally jumped in with both feet. In the past six years, he has published several major articles in ELT journals before turning his attention to his creative storytelling abilities.
All of his previous story writing was for free, as he wanted his students and fellow teachers to have access to his early work. After seeing thousands of readers reading his stories, it finally dawned on him that he had the talent necessary to be a published author.
He is currently working on his first novel, Celestial Games. The foundation for the novel is put in place with his recent short story, Celestial Games: The First Gold. In that short story, which serves as the backdrop for the upcoming novel, he creates the world in which Celestial Games takes place, the rebirth and repopulation of Earth.
The two main protagonists are a wise old Storyteller and his young son, who is also destined to be a Storyteller. Through their eyes we see the events of Celestial Games take form.
Celestial Games: The First Gold, is available now through Createspace. It comes out on February 16 on Amazon.
You can find out more about Thomas at the links below:
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