Ronald Reddout

My name's Ronald Reddout and I started out life in the little town of Yale, Oklahoma on August 20, 1946. The first 40+ years of my life were spent in and around the Wichita, Kansas area. Graduating from Douglass High School in Douglass, Kansas in 1964, I attended 3 semesters at Wichita State University before being drafted into the US Army. After serving a year in Vietnam, I returned to Wichita, Kansas. From there, I had several jobs - not staying very long at any of them.

Writing seemed to come about in an unexpected way. While working as an NSO (National Service Officer) for the PVA, my supervisor received word that the Moving Wall (a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC) would be coming to the Wichita, Kansas area soon. He knew that I'd served in Vietnam and so he asked me to write a poem concerning that war. At that time, I didn't think of myself as a writer but, with my supervisor's encouragement, I put together a poem that I titled 'Ode To The Vietnam Veteran'. I was encouraged further, by those involved with bringing the Moving Wall to Wichita, to read my poem at the Opening Ceremonies celebrating the arrival of the Moving Wall in Wichita. After that, the poetry seemed to come more easily to me and I tried writing short stories as well.

Later I moved from short stories to novels that I am still working on today. If you ask me what is my inspiration to write, I would most likely say that it is all of my life's experiences. I would also tell you that I write, as I put it, "from the gut". I like to let the story or the poem take me where it will even though I fully know how, mostly, I want my stories to end. For me, getting to the end of a story is like following a winding road. I pretty much know my destination - it's just how I gets there that makes the trip interesting.

Currently, I have written 10+ short stories with more short stories in various stages of completion. I'm also working on what I like to think of as Novellas, or Novels of anywhere from 90-100+ pages. These, of course, are shorter than regular Novel length.

Finally, I would tell you that I like to think of myself as more of a storyteller - or yarn spinner as they used to say years ago. So my story and poetry ideas can come from any place and anywhere. I get a thought, or a phrase comes to mind, and I go from there.

The picture above is of my wife, Olga, and me on a cruise over in the Mediterranean Sea.