The Dream: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya

by Owen Jones

The seven-part Behind The Smile Series is the story of Lek, a bar girl in Pattaya, Thailand. Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family in the northern rice belt of Thailand. A catastrophe occurred out of the blue one day – her father died young with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was just twenty years of age, and the only one who could prevent the foreclosure of the family farm, and allow her younger sister and two brothers to continue their education. However, the only way she knew how was to go to work in her cousin’s bar in Pattaya. Can a Pattaya bar girl ever go back to being a regular girlfriend or wife? Behind The Smile is a look into one part of Thailand, a country known around the world as 'The Land of Smiles'.

The Dream takes up the story of Lek, her family and friends from two years further down the line. In the past, it has always been Lek who issued the ultimata, but this story opens with her having received one and it throws her. She is offered the fulfilment of her oldest dream, but can she take it? The fulfilment of any dream requires sacrifices, but is Lek prepared to make them now that her goal is within her grasp? It is a tough one, which means a hard time for her, although her family and friends are behind her as always. Which way will she go? The instinct to follow her dream and the inertia of a comfortable life in the village, as she gets older vie for supremacy in her mind. As is usual in this series, nothing is hidden from the reader, we are privy to all of Lek's agonizing thoughts.

358 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2015

About the author

Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail, from Barry to Gibraltar, a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of seventeen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.

Facebook: AngunJones
Twitter: @owen_author
Blog: Megan Publishing Services

This book is part of the 'How to...' series of 125 manuals by Owen Jones.
The whole series can be found on Megan Publishing Services at:
http://meganpublishingservices.com