An Interview with Ronald K. Myers

F4All: Hi Ronald, it’s great to talk to you. Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, please?

Ronald: Sure. I’m an American novelist and I guess I write based on my life experiences. Whether it’s remembering the brutalities of being beaten when I could scarcely walk, being outweighed and outclassed in the boxing ring, or dying and coming back to life, I think my writing reveals my unexpected life experiences:

I am an Arm-wrestling champion, wrestling coach, Union rep, 225-ton hot metal crane operator, and was on an isolated island for a year.  I have been a roofing contractor, tour guide, and served in the Army Security Agency.

Before Double Dragon Publishing of Canada began publishing my novels, I had written numerous short stories and eight unpublished novels.  “Getting published was a thirty-year overnight success.”

F4All: What inspired you to write your latest book and what is it called?

Ronald: Inspiration for Almost Free, came from when I was in the Army Security Agency while in Japan and Alaska.

Almost Free, is a continuation of Impossible Gold.  My Army Security Agency tours on the isolated island of Shemya, Alaska and Chitose Japan, enhances this wild tale.  Freddy Crane wants out of the Army, but is forced to reenlist.  He reunites with his childhood friend who is now a Green Beret.  A beautiful French woman delivers a terrifying message.  She teams up with Crane and becomes closest in his heart. 

F4All: Can you describe the book in a single word?

Ronald: ALMOST

F4All: What is your favourite line or quote from Almost Free?

Ronald: Page 11    Where Freddy Crane is returning home and a protester at Oakland Airport defiantly stands in front of Crane and threatens, “You touch me, baby killer, you’ll go to jail.”

Crane whips his own belt from around his waist, wraps it around the protestor’s neck, lifts him in to the air and holds him there, violently shaking him, and saying, “For every day I spend in jail, you’ll spend three days in the hospital.”

F4All: Can you tell our readers how you work through a writing block?

Ronald: I never get writer’s block.  There is always writing to do.  I have also worked on two novels at a time. 

F4All: How did you learn about Fiction4All – if you can remember!

Ronald: Fiction4All took over Double Dragon Publishing, and I came with the move.

F4All: What do you want readers at home to take away from Almost Free?

Ronald: Mostly entertainment.   Knowledge of Shemya, Alask, Chitose, Japan, and the fact that the Army Security Agency Veterans were never given credit for what they have done.  

F4All: What was the best advice you received while writing Almost Free?

Ronald: The best advice came from my years of writers’ meetings, where I learned how to take criticism.  Most helpful was reading a variety of books and discovering how other authors write and use words.

My genres include:

Futuristic/SF novels:

Stay On the Blue Grass shows us how people are controlled with something as simple as blue grass. 

A powerful forewarning, The Orange Turn gives us a glimpse of what happens when pig people do not stay on the blue grass.

In Pygmy Wars, all is not war.  A knee-high pie pygmy’s father is killed, the fluffy-tailed pie pygmy searches for a safe place to live.  He finds his soulmate and starts the good life, but cannibalism creates a disease that causes pygmies to go mad and eat every living thing.

Action/Adventure/Mystery:

In Dillinger’s Deception, Al Capone is supposed to be in prison, but he is in the Green Parrot Tavern arranging a deal with the FBI that includes John Dillinger. 

Impossible Gold is a masterpiece, where young meet old.  Blondie and the trio from Dillinger’s Deception are a little older and a little wiser.  But can they avoid car bombs, cross raging rapids of the Shenango River, or survive surroundings like the machine-gun-turret protected Jungle Inn Casino and win the battle for impossible gold?

Humorous/Historical Fiction/Horror:

Based on my childhood, I’m Gonna Cut Your Ears Off takes us under a pall of pollution.  Here, the lure of steel mills and alcohol have replaced God, and adolescents struggle to free themselves from, child molesters, gang members, crooked cops, and sickos who use puppies for baseballs.

Free Ride, Fast Eddie, an admired icon of the sixties lures his friends into taking a wild ride that promises a better way to live.

F4All: Give us a glimpse into your typical writing routine

Ronald: I read every night.  I write every day, even if it is only a few minutes

F4All: What are you writing next?

Ronald: It’s called Diminutive Man. The book is currently in progress and is written using an omniscient style.  It’s the continuation of Free Ride.  Features a little rope man with a rope body and knotted ropes for arms for legs.  Introducing, Flick-It®, the magical trick rope that flicks knots out of midair.

Freddy sees the Flick-Man, but nobody else does.  He needs to jump of the top of the Clark Street bridge but is afraid.  He and his friends save drowning puppies from the river, built a cabin, and rob the picnic grounds.

I have always wanted to include my invention. the Flick-It and the Flick-It Man, into one of my books.  I believe I will have done it with Diminutive Man.  This book will be much better than anything I have written.

Writing more feelings into the characters makes the story much clearer and more emotional.

F4All: That’s about it. So thank you for your time and your insights.

Ronald: You’re welcome