Writer Jeff Hampton, moved to Garland in 2011 when he and his wife, LeAnn, got married. He had lived in Richardson, Waco and Dallas, but he had never felt the sense of community he felt in Garland. That was especially true in the Embree section of downtown Garland, which is why he and LeAnn decided to build a home there.
“I fell in love with the small-town feel of the downtown area,” he said.“
They are active in the Embree Neighborhood Association and enjoy visiting with all their neighbors.
“I paid dues to a homeowners’ association when I lived in Dallas, but I never got involved,” he said. “I knew my immediate neighbors but that was all.”
A talented writer, Hampton was asked 15 years ago to write a weekly blog post for his church website. He has written at least 48 weeks of posts every year and has quite an essay collection. With lots of help and encouragement from LeAnn, he agreed to put some of them together in a new book.
LeAnn selected her favorite essays, then Hampton then went through her favorites. While reading them, he realized that they shared the common theme of community.
So, the book, which will be available soon, is called Together: Thoughts and Stories About Living in Community.
“I think…a lot of what interests me is community and relationships and how people interact with each other,” Hampton said. “It’s also how they help each other and how they hurt each other and how they get along together.”
He explained that there are all kinds of communities — family, friends, neighbors, people at work and more.
In addition to the theme of community in the essays, as well as in his books, there is a subtle spirituality and a feeling of hope and redemption. Hampton said that he tries to share his faith more by describing actions and ways of living rather than pointing people to a
Bible verse.
“There are lots of devotionals that quote scripture, but as a writer myself, I’m not a Bible scholar,” Hampton said.
Then, referring to a college class in which he made a D, said “I’m about as good with Bible knowledge as I am with pre-med biology.”
The feeling of community in Garland influences how Hampton writes now. This is especially true in Embree where there is so much interaction among neighbors. There is plenty to draw from.
After reading Hampton’s books and stories, it’s hard to believe that he isn’t one of those people who knew he wanted to be a writer from a young age. It seems to come very naturally to him. But it took him a while to choose a major and he didn’t make the decision until the very last moment.
After college, he first worked as a reporter for a Waco newspaper.
“When I was younger, I really enjoyed the daily grind of the newspaper work but that wouldn’t suit me now,” Hampton said. “I’m kind of an introvert. I’m not an in-your-face person, so hunting down stories was never my strong suit.”
His writing now is very different from his time as a newspaper reporter. He enjoys doing features and stories about people and still writes the blog for his church website.
Sometimes, he writes about something that has happened on that day, Other times, he refers to a list of ideas he has put together.
“Sometimes, the subject is timely and newsworthy. Other times it’s not,” Hampton said. “Sometimes a world event or city event or personal event will trigger thoughts.”
Hampton shared that he sometimes wishes he had started out writing the kinds of things he writes now, but he always comes to the same conclusion.
“My answer to that is that I hadn’t lived enough to write about anything,” he said. “With age and experience comes plenty of fodder to work with.”
Several of Hampton’s books are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The new book should be available by the end of March – maybe sooner. It will be available from Good Faith Media at https://goodfaithmedia.org/bookstore/ and from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Hampton hopes to have some copies for distribution at http://www.jeffhamptonwriter.biz/books/.