In 1988 Steve Rosse took a break from a career in the New York City film and television industry for a three-month holiday on Phuket, an island off the Western coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea.He decided he liked Phuket more than he liked New York, and without any idea of what he'd do for a living, he took up residence on the island. He supported himself, and eventually his wife and children, for most of the next decade as a freelance journalist and columnist.His column, "The Rock", apeared in The Nation, Thailand's Independent Newspaper, every Sunday for five years. The stories in this book first appeared in publications around the Pacific Rim, from Honolulu to Christchurch.In 1997 he quit writing and moved to Iowa for the surfing.