To support himself, he took a construction job. During the day he hauled bricks and during the evening he wrote. Two books, My Home Is among the Snowbell Trees and The Moon Sets on the Wilderness--the latter a record of his adventures in the Nicaraguan forests--were written while he was hauling bricks and overseeing construction work.
為了謀生，他到工地打工，白天挑磚頭，晚上寫文章，像《家在九芎林》和記敘尼加拉瓜叢林冒險的《月落蠻荒》兩本書，都是在挑磚頭、當監工期間完成的。