From Village Boy to Global Citizen (Volume 2): The Travels of a Journalist is the last of my autobiographical trilogy. The 74 chapters in this volume attempt to describe and dramatize the most memorable places I visited, often accompanied by my family, since I left the country of my birth in 1966.

After my retirement in 2007, I found the time to compile this travelogue using the notes in my diaries and updating the material through online research, with particular help from the constantly revised Wikipedia entries. In this process, I learned to make each travel essay an evergreen that would not perish soon after its publication as in the case of newspaper travel pieces.

Travel has shaped my personality. Global travel to get to know culturally diverse people was one of my childhood ambitions. Moreover, travel is an essential aspect of a journalists life. Therefore, my travels constitute a very important part of my autobiography. I included detail in the hope that the reader would keep this volume for long-term reference. My explorations of U.S. national parks and my camping expeditions should be of particular interest to family- oriented travelers.

Each of the essays in this volume appeared in the Lankaweb starting December 6, 2009. It carried the latest (but not the last) story (chapter 109) on December 4, 2011.

Reacting to the essay (chapter 106) on our mule ride in Mexican territory during the Big Bend adventure, a reader commented, As always it was very well written and visually engaging, which made us feel we were there too. [We] particularly liked the reference to Yankee Doodles [that] made us smile! Thank you for posting it and await the next in the series (May 15, 2011). Another reader reacted to the essay (chapter 92) on our visit to the botanic gardens in Portland, Ore., Please do continue with your articles, Shelton. They are getting better all the time, as you reveal to your readers more of your own thoughts, emotions, and reactions (February 9, 2011).

From Village Boy to Global Citizen (Volume 1): The Journey of a Journalist is the second of my autobiographical trilogy. It traces my life as a journalist and a journalism educator in three countries.

Village Life in the Forties: Memories of a Lankan Expatriate (published by iUniverse) is the first of the trilogy. This is a collection of 28 sketches of folks in the village of my birth. Each sketch depicts the drama of life relating to the famous and infamous characters who defined the ethos of Pathegama in the 1940s. They range from the amusing and comical to the grave and somber.

The trilogy is inextricably interconnected, interdependent and interactive. You are unlikely to grasp what systems theorists call the emergence of the whole if you read only parts of this trilogy.