Thank you for visiting Tonga Time!

I’m Jesse and I’m the Time Lord (Time Lady?) of this domain.

I started this site as a way to keep track of experiences my husband Sam and I shared while living in the Kingdom of Tonga, and as a home for the requisite “Author Site” I was told I must have if I wished to be a writer of stories. That combination is admittedly a bit confusing at times, but so is time travel. So there.

About me … (a/k/a J.L. McCreedy)

I am an American lass who grew up in Indonesia and Malaysia until the age of 18, then moved to the states for college. After graduating with an English degree, I eventually went to law school because … well, I couldn’t get a decent job with an English degree.

After obtaining my J.D., I practiced law for a few years but soon realized the traditional route just wasn’t for me. So in 2008, I started my own company where I contract my services to a few nonprofits. This gave me the freedom to devote more time to the things I have a passion for: writing and travel and, to a lesser extent, photography. In short, having my own work-from-home business allowed me to focus. It allowed me to rewrite Liberty Frye and the Witches of Hessen (which I first drafted way back in 2005) another gazillion times before I finally published it in 2012. Then The Orphan of Torundi. I released the second book in the Liberty Frye series, Liberty Frye and the Sails of Fate in 2016 and Liberty Frye and the Emperor’s Tomb was released in April of this year (2019). All of this is because I’ve finally found a life balance that works for me, and I’m very, very fortunate to have a husband who is supportive of my efforts … and who doesn’t mind being the one to take on real jobs so we can pay our student loans and have a place to live!

After living overseas since 2011, Sam and I recently made the move to the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. Will we ever live abroad again? Maybe, but for the foreseeable future, we’re pretty psyched about living and exploring this amazing area. And in the meantime, we’re grateful for the chance to follow our dreams … even when they turn out to be rather unpredictable at times!

In addition to working on my next story, I also write articles for this website (of course!) and occasionally freelance for various lifestyle and travel magazines. Here are a few links to articles written from the places we’ve lived and/or visited:

A Pigeon in the Hand is Worth Two in the Factory (Originally published in JIN Magazine, Tianjin, China)

Taking a Spin in Kal-Tim (Indonesia Expat Magazine, Jakarta, Indonesia)

Why You Should Experience Kyoto by Bicycle (The Wayward Post)

The (Great) Wall Less Traveled…Hiking the Huangya Pass in Tianjin’s Ji County, China (The Huffington Post)

Ramadan, Balikpapan-Style (The Huffington Post)

One Day and 10 Ways to Visit Hong Kong on the Cheap (The Huffington Post)

Cycling the Appian Way (The Huffington Post)

For more about Tonga Time and our take on Livable Travel, please visit those dimensions via the links below.*

Why Tonga Time?

What’s Livable Travel?

*Disclaimer: Explore at your own risk. We will not be held responsible for any disorientation, dizziness, fugue or potential bloating due to time warp.