The author of Lasting Happiness has also written Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton (Skyhorse Publishing), and The Nature of Religion (Pan Publishing). He was born and raised in Mountain View, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley. He became a gemologist after college, working in the jewelry industry for years. He traveled widely in Europe and Asia (where he lived for a decade).
While living in Northern Thailand, a friend murdered a woman in his house. Fearful of the Thai police, he helped cover it up. When caught, he could not pay the bribe the judge and police demanded, and spent the next 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Lasting Happiness is the product of that experience - a realization of how little we really need to be happy.
The author stays busy applying a fraction of the advice he dishes out to others. ;) He lives in Tucson, AZ, where he fights a (losing) battle against getting fat from all the great Mexican restaurants.