I have been writing my whole life. I first wrote little stories for my family and kept a few tucked away in a file somewhere, fading into obscurity (we wrote in pencil back in the day!) They were silly but I made people laugh—a middle child thing. I wrote papers for college which weren’t always good, but it got me through the classes. Most of them were for English or Psychology classes, not always perfect, or scientifically accurate, but they sufficed to get me As for the classes.

I journalled during my travels, to my adventurous move beyond the 100^th meridian. My career in law enforcement allowed me to publish a few papers through the various government agencies, which may or may not lie in a dusty bin or archived on microfiche (remember those?) in the Justice Department. All were in the non-fiction realm about how we were going to save all of the juvenile delinquents! In another paper I published, I talked about how we shouldn’t stomp into all the various Pagan and Wiccan, or indigenous people’s ceremonies and take their stuff, back in the day. Some of the guys even appreciated my advice. Ahhhh, the 80’s….

When I went back to college out west, I finally graduated with a bachelor’s degree and, while still working, began a non-fiction self-help book. It was published on Amazon back 2012. I consider it my thesis and my legacy for my child since I never finished my master’s degree. Most of the advice I provided still holds true to this day, and I still quote sections of the book to others who want to listen. (I know, I know….If you have filled out my 14 Essential Questions and been interviewed by me you understand what I am talking about.)

Then, my life and world got busy. I moved to another city, so I took some time to try on a new set of career clothing—the writer’s cloak for real. It was and still is a tough market to embrace and you have to love the art. It is not about making money (although that would be great!) but a labor of love and having something to say out loud. It took a discipline that I haven’t always adhered to in my early years. My very active brain is sometimes hard to settle down and complete the pages that need to be written every day. (Thus, the emergence of my Blog to write down all of the stray thoughts, to keep true to a story line, Ha Ha Ha….) https://drutieben.com/

In 2012, I started writing fiction, and I am now in the process of finishing up my first fiction series, a three-book series of fictional and mysteries (or mysterious), tales from my life and others I have met and enjoyed knowing over the years. It has been a long time coming (the first book was published in 2013), and it started out as a mystery series based on the various cases I hope that I helped solve, generally those cases that were a bit strange and caught my attention in that real world genre. The third book changes directions slightly, with more of a science fiction twist. It has meaning to the state of the world at this point in my life and how I wish it will turn out in the end times—in hoping for a positive and good ending to those who are different.

I am now ready for my next adventure. As I re-read parts of the first two books, I am happy with my growth. Beginnings are always rough and as you grow into your writing style. If you are like me and have had a change in careers, you hope you have embraced growth in your writing as well as in your life. It is inevitable that we change as we age. Life experiences become life lessons and we see the world differently from when we were young. Sometimes we see too much and focus on the wrong things, forgetting about the good things that happened to us because the bad things are so overwhelming that they take up more space in our brains. I like to think that my experiences gave me a head and vision full of wonder, exploring feelings and magical worlds that are on the fringe of the real world, worlds that we wish could take place in real life.

I still have thoughts of positive endings in both my writing as well as for humankind, dissimilar to those who wrote science fiction in the 50s and 60s. We have messed up a lot of things in this world, but hope is still out there somewhere. Those of us who continued to read science fiction in the 70s and 80s might believe that the dystopian worlds like Orwell’s 1984 exist back then (and right now), but in my world, the 90s brought back a hope of scientific and space exploration, revisiting the greats such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, Michael Flynn, and so many others, too many to name in this blog. That’s where I want to focus my efforts.

The 2000s have brought about genres that didn’t exist before, with crossovers into science fiction/fantasy, science fiction/mystery, and many others I’ve yet to explore. It allowed us to drift away into new realms. Even though today we feel like the people who believe in the Ayn Rand bull*#!t have taken over the world (you know who never read it, trust me!) we writers need to band together and send messages of hope and support based on a general caring and science to keep civilization intact, and to keep democracy alive.

Sure, the assassinations in the 60s brought a jerk into office (Hello! Nixon years) and became a blow to our idealistic selves. But as Robert Reich stated in his book: “Hope needs leaders to provide a moral compass. Those leaders don’t need to be vested with official authority…Millions of Americans wanted to believe that these men [Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy] would lead us to a moral high ground, a common good that would transcend the crass, selfish brutality of America…And now that both had been gunned down, there didn’t seem to be anywhere else for that momentum to go. We were thrown into a moral abyss…Humphrey’s loss to Nixon represented the end of the Democrats’ New Deal coalition, and it seemed to be the end of idealism. [Reich, Robert B. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America (p. 107-110). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
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And sure, the last year has been a wakeup call and a shock to us about not listening to the other half, so it drove us apart as a people and allowed people become more me-centric. Writers, bloggers, youtubers, and realistically, any citizen of this country must heed our moral and ethical responsibility, to push new generations into thinking about ways to increase the greater good, to bring back respect for the laws of the land and decency and kindness to all human beings. (And law enforcement should take heed: stop the violence on people, and get a spine to become better humans and enforcers of the law of the land, not the law of those rich and powerful!) We should not selfishly support the “It’s all about me, and I don’t want to help anyone else” society. We have to care for each other if we want to continue a peaceful and caring world. Otherwise, chaos will continue to rule our lives.

So I hope these writings have been good for everyone I have reached out to and that we take a moment each day to show concern for what is right in the world, respect each other and center our thoughts on all others, not just ourselves. Every day I live, I try to do my very best to uphold the law and what is right and just in the world. I hope you can say that you do the same.

Keep reading, keep listening, and take a break from your own brain every day. Just be kind to everyone and they will reciprocate. Learn a person’s name and say it back to them when you greet them. Respect those that are different. I love you all and hope you are inside away from the smoke and the heat.