ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard A. Hackett Jr. - Behind the Words
Richard Hackett holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University in International Business and Marketing, with a minor in History.
Married with two children, he and his family have traveled extensively in the US and sailed the Caribbean and South Pacific. In 2012, they started a non-profit organization called Sea Mercy, providing free health care, disaster response and economic development programs to the thousands of 'at risk' remote islands of the South Pacific.
When not consumed by his real world non-profit and business endeavors, he has focused a great deal of his personal time and energy on military history & strategy and the character traits of military leaders. He also enjoys exploring and researching the spiritual aspects of life and Christianity. He has always been an "outside the box" thinker, yet a realist when it comes to application and implementation of those dreams.
A FEW NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR
On his Children's Stories:
I’m often asked where the ideas for my children’s stories come from. My only answer is practice, practice, and more practice.
For 6+ years I had a part-time job as a storyteller. Although my audience was somewhat limited, they were very devout and demanding. From the ages of 2 until 8, every night my two children would ask or plead with me to tell them a story before bed. I would always pretend that it was too late, or that I could not think of any, but they would press on undaunted until I relented. They somehow knew that I loved telling them a story as much as they liked hearing one.
So every night I would have the joy of creating a new story from scratch, and as a wise parent, each one would have a meaning or lesson weaved subtly within it. After many joyful years of storytelling, and hundreds of stories later, some of the better stories became favorites and were requested to be told over and over again. These stories even took on a strong following from their friends.
Today as young adults, they still talk about their favorite stories growing up. I thought it might be a great gift to write a few of them down and share them with my future grandchildren, and with other children as well. I hope you, your children, and your grandchildren enjoy them as much as my children did, and as much as I enjoyed creating and telling them.
On his Novels:
Each novel started as a distant dream that through time and thought became a reality in words. As any author will tell you, when a great idea is planted in your mind, the story takes on a life of its own. The writer simply gets to water and prune as it grows into the story it was meant to be. I've also learned that I am more of a "story teller" than a writer, and those who help edit and guide my stories are the real heroes. Their hard work is what allows the reader to move through the pages without those awkward grammatical and spelling errors. My many thanks for your support and patience hacking your way through my stories.
On his Inspirational Stories:
We hear so many stories about lessons learned and getting an education from the school of hard knocks. I've always admired those that go through them who do not see it as some cruel or mean act of God, instead look back on them with the fondest of memories. Not a fondness of what happened at the time, but what was learned from them. We often fail to acknowledge that those difficult times and lessons were usually a result of, or the consequence of, our own disobedience or choices, not a punishment from God. Sometimes it can be hard to grasp the reasons for these lessons when we are “in the moment”, but once the clouds of doubt and hurt clear away, we see something amazing hidden within the silver lining of them. That is if we take a moment to set aside the bitterness, or embarrassment, or pride that is blocking our vision and instead try to understand the lesson we hopefully just learned and then try not to repeat them.
So I hope you enjoy the “life lessons” and inspirational stories that I now consider as James put it in James 1:2 “pure joy” now that they are behind me. You will find them filled with a variety of styles that include humor, insight, laughter, sadness, wisdom, warning, and most of them laced with enough embarrassing stupidity that you will wonder why God allowed me to remain alive today to even write about them. Perhaps it is simply so you don’t repeat them.
Thank you for your support, your kind words, and for going on these many adventures with me.
All the best to you.
Richard Hackett