John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter and music producer, and an evolutionary humanist. He has spent his life trying to resolve the intrinsic clash between the metaphysical purity of Buddhism and the overwhelming appeal of narcissism. Author Rachel has written nine novels, and four non-fiction books. He has also had over 40 short stories, 9 poems, and over 200 political articles published in both print and online magazines. He has traveled through and lived in 34 countries since leaving America August of 2006, but is now somewhat settled in a small traditional farming village in Japan near Osaka, where much to the annoyance of his neighbors tries to sing his original songs. His next project, as he slumps in a hammock he purchased in Vietnam and waits for the Good Ship Lollipop to appear on the horizon, is a anthropological novel about the worship and eating of giraffes, set in sub-Saharan 18th Century Africa. It is mostly the product of the voices in his head which have plagued him since puberty, a biological transition that occurred when he was 34 and working on a chain gang in Arkansas. He was at the time serving a 10-year sentence for removing the do-not-remove label from a pillowcase he bought at a yard sale. Author Rachel has two completed but unpublished books. One is a fantasy/travel/cookbook called "What Do Mermaids Eat?" The other is a romantic crime novel about drug trafficking called "Love Connection: Romance in the Land of the Rising Sun". It is based on true stories and set in Japan and Africa. Available soon is his take on Japanese people and culture from his perspective as an American expat, "Live From Japan!" The author’s last permanent residence in America was Portland, Oregon where he had a state-of-the-art ProTools recording studio, music production house, a radio promotion and music publishing company. He recorded and produced several artists in the Pacific Northwest, releasing and promoting their music on radio across America and overseas. John Rachel now lives in a quiet, traditional, rural Japanese community, where he sets his non-existent watch by the thrice-daily ringing of sonorous temple bells, at a local Shinto shrine.