Dr. Douglas Louie has a cure for being sleepless in Salisbury.

“As you get older, you don’t require as much sleep, and your sleeping pattern shortens,” Louie explains. “Right now, I can’t sleep more than four hours — if I force myself to go back to sleep, I have nightmares. So when you wake up about 4 o’clock, you want to be perfectly still so you don’t disturb your wife. You say to yourself, ‘What can I do?’ ”

Louie chose to spend pre-dawn hours “working out the theme, arrangement, writing and editing” of a manuscript titled “The Roll of Thunder.”

“This is the activity you can do with your mind,” he says.

An active mind, Louie says, is what helped him turn childhood memories into an autobiographical account that “describes the life and experiences of a growing boy in Hong Kong.”

But his insomnia-inspired imaginative wasn’t mean for publication.

“Originally, I wanted to write these materials purely for my grandchildren,” he explains. “At that moment, I didn’t care whether or not it was published. But I have shown it to other people, and they have all encouraged me to go in this direction.”

He was not, however, able to find a publisher to take the story.

“I found from my research that manuscripts are accepted not because of merit or demerit, but based on the fiscal commitment to book clubs and other outlets,” he says. “That’s the disadvantage of the traditional (publishing) route.”

Taking that into consideration, he chose to market the manuscript via the Internet.

But the doctor hasn’t completely abandoned the idea of conventional storytelling: He has scheduled the first reading of “Thunder”for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at The Literary Book Post on South Main Street.

The story is set during the Great Depression, just before World War II, and begins with an explanation of the relationship between “Archie,” Louie’s adolescent alter ego, and his maternal grandparents. The boy is left with them after his father goes to Canada “to seek a livelihood … save and scrimp so he has the passage for his wife and three children,” and his mother feels the pressure of being “a married woman with three children, without a male figure, (trying to) arrange for housing.”

“She thought it would be easier if she only had two children instead of three, and I surmise that I got along well with my grandmother, the apple of her eye, the youngest of the grandchildren, ”Louie remembers. “So arrangements were made for me to stay with my grandmother … and it was said that she was young enough that people around her took me to be her own child. But I always called her ‘Grandma.’ ”

Louie admits he has his favorite chapters. He points to the story of the “sundance kid,” which takes place on the balcony of a third-floor tenement apartment in a “ghetto” of Hong Kong. Here, Archie plays a badminton-type game with his auntie’s boyfriend, using a shuttlecock that is made out of common wrapping paper and weighted with a metal washer.

“I don’t know what is the official name for that game, so I made up my own,” Louie says, calling it the “sundance bird” game.

To Louie, some parts of the book are so enjoyable that he even, albeit humbly, credits himself with “a stoke of genius.”

The former educator, who holds a doctorate in psychology, says the manuscript is not only intended for enjoyment but also education.

“It’s meant to be entertaining but also informational, ”Louie explains. “I wrote it with the view of students in the classroom who can use it as supplemental reading in social studies, geography and so on. Hong Kong reverted back to China two years ago, and I thought that would create a lot of interest in the classrooms … .”

He’d also like to see the book used for class discussion in his field of expertise.

“I say it’s good for psychology (classes) because it deals with the main issue of the growing process of a boy in his first nine years, ”he says. “He had dealt with the issue of separation from his mother, the issue of death, the issue of vocation …what is known as family-filio obligations from Confucius teachings.”

Louie believes his story is unique compared to others based in Depression-and-war-era China.

“Take ‘The Joy Luck Club,’ (by Amy Tan). Very famous, but she did not write about her own personal experience growing up; she grew up in San Francisco,” Louie explains. “Her material was the reflection of what her mother told her, so it was not first-hand experience, regardless of how accurate it is. I am writing from first-hand experience … and about a time in the 30s in Hong Kong before the tourist trade development, the jet age, the world travelers and the commercializing of the colony. So anyone going there today would not be able to find what I describe; it’s a different era and a different time, a time when Hong Kong was under British rule. Anyone writing about it now will have experienced the contamination of the Chinese government and control, regardless of how subtle it is.”

He even mentions “The Good Earth,” by Pearl Buck (who was raised by missionary parents in China), which was influenced by her experiences of living in Nanhsuchou, in rural Anhwei.

“She was in China, which is different from Hong Kong, ”he says, “so she would not be privy to some of the experiences that I’m talking about because she was still not a native, and there are still certain things you can experience only when you’re part of a family.”

Though Louie would like to have the manuscript picked up for scholastic use and have a warm reception to the first reading, he won’t not be disappointed if plans don’t work in his favor.

“Nothing is lost, ”he says. “I go back to my first position: I wrote this purely for myself and my grandchildren. If (the public) doesn’t like it,… I will not be offended at all. I’m prepared for any kind of reception.”