Isolated on a beach at the southern tip of Hong Kong island, a building of unknown origin stands, slightly buried to an unknowable depth. Its girth is massive; twenty feet cubed-same in length, width, and height. Solid stone. A story that would reinforce any old fashioned, long forgotten truism: not everything of value can be seen or touched.
From what little had been uncovered about the Old Cable House (OCH), there was nothing to indicate the influence of other worldly connections. It was of this earth, man-made, construction circa, 1851. For over a century, it was impossible for one generation after another to believe a record of its existence was as invisible as the building itself. Growing questions-some mystical, some alien, some fantastical-never died out, completely. As the plausibility of desperately invented histories rose and fell, others were waiting to take their place.
Decades passed, the building remained, doors and windows were packed with reinforced cement. The unwanted role of a nearby village, to stand guard, slowly diminished under the onslaught of modernization. In modern times, dangerous histories involving greed, lies, and power, grew strongest of all.
It was during these modern times where everything changed dramatically in Hong Kong-with one exception. The year was 2010.
A school was built on the site where the stone building stood, enigmatic, ghost like, in plain sight. No plaque or commemorative reminders were left to explain its existence. When the school was done, after all the construction debris cleared away, the OCH remained invisible, in plain sight. A perfect, timeless conundrum.
For all those who had any connection to the stone building, it would be impossible to believe how the prying eyes of two overly inquisitive boys, fearless in their research for a school assignment, would ignite a series of events that would someday be responsible for the death of a family empire-not to mention the death of the researchers, their families, and anyone unlucky enough to support the boys in their quest.
Jonas, Bob: -
Bob Jonas has been a school librarian for twenty-one years; four in Beaverton, Oregon and seven in China-Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. In South America he worked for three years in Santiago, Chile, and then three years in the in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After completing his final post in Erlangen, Germany, Bob decided to retire to continue doing what he loves to do best-write action packed novels for young adults.
Using experiences from his work with kids overseas, he employs an extensive knowledge of expatriate living to write about these kids and their frontline exposure to political intrigue, revolution, overthrow, and war. ChinAlive, his first action thriller for YA kids involved a student at an international school in Shanghai, swept up in a plot to overthrow the Chinese government. Imposter, his second action thriller-soon to be released in January, 2016-follows an angry, pissed off American student in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia trying to reconcile his western sensibilities with the new life his parents have forced upon him. Equipped with a Teflon coated, can't touch me attitude, he transgress basic rules of living in a foreign country and finds that he has put he and his whole family in great danger.
Bob's travel and writing obsessions began after reading Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki when he was he was ten. His storytelling obsession began with his dad-the greatest tale teller, BS artiste, mesmerizer, and raconteur the younger Jonas would ever lean on for inspiration. His first fifteen years of adulthood found him living the travel adventure in a semi-truck where he logged over a million miles in twelve western states. Unfortunately, the road stint lasted about twelve years too long. After too many speeding tickets, too many run-ins with angry weigh masters, bad, bad, and double bad winter weather, not to mention a real bad back, he knew it was time to find his old college degree and get himself somewhere else. School librarian, perhaps? A very strange tale indeed.
As a storyteller, writer, and librarian he has motivated, inspired, stimulated, stirred, cajoled, provoked, and done what was necessary to instill a love of reading in kids on four continents. Through his writing he hopes to continue the work he has been doing for over two decades.
