Jason Schoonover

Biography

Jason Schoonover—writer, adventurer, expedition leader, ethnologist, archaeologist, paleontologist, geologist, canoeist, naturalist, photographer and Fellow Emeritus, Stefansson Medalist, Citation of Merit awardee, and on the Honor Roll of The Explorers Club—was brought up on farms, villages and towns in Saskatchewan, Canada, and cities like Saskatoon and Vancouver. This explains why he feels equally at home canoeing in the remote north of his homeland, one of his passions, and living in mega-cities like Bangkok.

Following university (Simon Fraser, English and History, 1970, Vancouver), he launched a multi-media career as a disk jockey, and expanded into writing, directing and producing in radio, TV, stage, newspapers and magazines, including stints as a columnist. His largest stage production was writing, directing and producing Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s 80th birthday party gala in 1975, an extravaganza involving over 300 performers and personnel. He founded Schoonover Properties and invested everything in Saskatoon real estate. Since 1977, he’s been gainfully unemployed and began traveling in earnest.

On his first solo around the world, stringing travel as a photo-journalist to Canadian and U.S. dailies, he discovered a new and fascinating career in Asia—anthropological collecting for museums internationally. He moved to Bangkok in 1982. This exciting lifestyle led to the publication in 1988 of his first adventure novel, The Bangkok Collection, which became the Bantam international paperback bestseller Thai Gold the following year. All his books, fiction and non-fiction, are in the adventure field.

He’s been Team Leader on over 40 expeditions, including several 18-member dinosaur bone hunting forays in Alberta with renowned paleontologist Phil Currie as his Field Leader—which resulted in a major find; explored Asian jungles and the Himalaya piecing together ethnographic collections for museums; excavated caves in Thailand for Paleolithic finds resulting in the building of a museum; fixed the opening episode for Les Survivorman Stroud’s Beyond Survival in Sri Lanka; led numerous canoe expeditions with Capt. Norm Baker, Thor Heyerdahl’s First Mate on the Ra voyages across the Atlantic, as his own First Mate; and explored Thailand’s abandoned WW-II River Kwai Death Railway with Sir Rodney Beattie. He’s also been charged by a bull elephant, dived on shipwrecks and been around the world several times.

He was profiled in Jerry’s Hopkins’ Bangkok Babylon: The Real-Life Exploits of Bangkok’s Legendary Expatriates is often Stranger than Fiction, and featured in Jim McCormick and Maryann Karinch’s Business Lessons from the Edge: Learn How Extreme Athletes Use Intelligent Risk Taking to Succeed in Business.

Jason splits his year between Thailand and Canada. You can guess which seasons he spends where. His consort, the Imperial Dragon Lady Madame Su Hattori, has kindly been enduring the unendurable since 1988.

“A major writer of the Southeast Asian scene.” Bangkok POST

“Jason Schoonover is among a small handful of authors who inspired me to become a writer.” Jack DuBrul, co-author with Clive Cussler of six novels and of his own Philip Mercer series.

Smashwords Interview

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
The pure pleasure I get from it and the excitement of seeing what appears, as I'm just as surprised by the twists and turns of both plot and phrases as the reader. Probably the single greatest pleasure I get from it is when a character quips something totally unexpected that sits me back in my chair laughing out loud.
What do your fans mean to you?
Having appreciative readers makes the work worthwhile, because taking on the massive creative challenge of writing an adventure-thriller requires one to sacrifice almost two years from one's life, because it's a 24/7 undertaking.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Jason Schoonover online

Books

An Adventurer’s Seven Point Guide to Living an Interesting Life
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 89,330. Language: Canadian English. Published: January 18, 2016 . Categories: Nonfiction » Self-improvement » Motivation & inspiration
A Fellow Emeritus, Stefansson Medalist, Citation of Merit awardee and on the Honor Roll of the prestigious Explorers Club, Jason lives a very interesting life. In this inspirational book, he shows you—often with humor—how you can avoid digging a rut or, if you’re already in one, how to climb out of it and live one too.
Opium Dream
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 113,010. Language: English. Published: January 8, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
Adventurer Lee Rivers is onto his hottest find: Kublai Khan’s terracotta warriors. Even before he camels into Afghanistan with the lovely Meow to spirit them out, he escapes being murdered; and mysterious assassins and Guardian Angels dog them. Only after Rivers has sold them does he learn they embody a terrifying secret that threatens civilization’s very existence. She has a secret too...
Thai Gold
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 167,880. Language: English. Published: January 8, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
The most sacred relic of Buddhism - the bejeweled head of Buddha - is stolen. Adventurer Lee Rivers is called in to restore it. After learning it’s been stolen by an opium warlord, he nabs it with help from Tysee, the warlord’s beautiful daughter. The chase is on across Asia, but they find themselves dogged by mysterious forces and even more mysterious Guardian Angels….
The Manila Galleon
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 93,930. Language: English. Published: December 11, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action
The Manila Galleon was the annual treasure ship sailing between Acapulco and Manila for 250 years. It’s two interlocking adventures — one in 1704, the other today. Protagonists in each — one a young privateer from the frontier town of New York, the other an adventurer from modern Manhattan—try to claim the galleon. Past and present collide restoring an historic figure to his place of prominence.

Jason Schoonover's tag cloud

action    adventure    afghanistan    anthropology    antiquities    archaeology    bangkok    beaver    buddha    cairo    camels    catalina    dinosaurs    doubloons    dreams    egype    explorers club    far east    galleons    garlic    himalayas    historic book    humor    ifugao    igorots    interesting life    kandahar    luxor    manila    national geog    new york    opium    pby5    philippines    planes    romance    saigon    sailing    scuba diving    singapore    southeast asia    spanish main    suspense    terracotta    thailand    travel    treasure