Welcome to the Dunes was released earlier this month, and Hasling is celebrating the occasion by doing what he loves best—reading aloud from his works. On Jan. 22, he gave a book talk hosted by Main Street Cafe and Books in Los Altos, and he's speaking to the Cupertino Book Club on Feb. 6.

At 75, Hasling has had time to gather notes and perfect his technique. He wrote for his high school paper, and found himself pursuing his interest in journalism in an unlikely location: Sendai, Japan, where he served as a paratrooper with the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division after World War II.

There, he edited his post's newspaper, and after returning to the Bay Area two years later, enrolled at UC-Berkeley. "I tried writing a book," he says, "but I spent more time partying than studying." After two years, Hasling dropped out and became a disc jockey in Ukiah. He eventually graduated from California State University, Sacramento, with a master's degree in oral communications. "I decided that I wanted to teach," he says, "and in 1966, they were hiring a lot for community colleges. It was my window of opportunity."

Hasling's family moved to Cupertino so he could teach speech communication at Foothill College, where he remained until retirement 25 years later. While there, he got what he calls his big break: A textbook on public speaking picked up by McGraw-Hill. "I'm now working on the seventh edition," he says. "I told them that I haven't taught in seven years, but they still wanted me to update the book. I'm encouraged by that."

He didn't try fiction again until his daughter served as his cheerleader. When she was eight years old, he would tell tall tales as they took walks in the Sierra Nevada, but he was never able to remember their endings. She could, so Hasling spun those stories into a volume of children's poetry called The Little Rock and Other Stories. He still visits third- and fourth-grade classes to read from the book. "I'm a strong proponent of reading to kids," he says. "My own children have told me how helpful it was to them."

Several years later, Hasling finally put together his long-sought novel in the form of Hillview, which drew upon his experiences with the anti-Vietnam War culture at Foothill. He also incorporated historical fact into his new book. "It's easy reading, but I want my books to have some significance," he says.

Hasling enjoys speaking about his fiction in bookstores, but finds it difficult to schedule book talks because of the small size of his publisher, Iceni Books of Tucson. Main Street Cafe and Books in Los Altos did agree to a reading, but the whole experience has made Hasling long for the days that Cupertino had its own bookstore. "There's just something about small bookstores—you can sit and sip coffee, there's artwork on the walls and it's just a place where people who like books assemble," he says.

He continues to write, meeting with the South Bay branch of the California Writers Club and contemplating things like agents and book tours. Maybe someday, but for now, he's content to visit area schools and bookstores, reading to an ever-growing group of fans. "I don't measure success in terms of sales; I measure it in terms of feedback," he says.

Jack Hasling will speak at the Cupertino Senior Center on Feb. 6 at 1:15 p.m.