RONALD K. REDDOUT

Born in Yale, OK on August 20, 1946. Three months later we moved to the area of Wichita, KS. For the next 40+ years I lived in Kansas serving one year in South Vietnam before returning home.

My writing career really started in 1986 when the Moving Wall came to Wichita, KS. Working as a NSO for a Veterans Service Organization, my supervisor knew I'd served in Vietnam. He asked me to write a poem to commemorate this event. Having written one poem and two short stories over 20 years earlier, I was stunned at his suggestion.

However, he persisted as did I and I read my original poem at the opening ceremonies for the Moving Wall event. Standing before a crowd of 1,000 - 1,500 people reading that poem was a totally new experience for me. However, I made it through those opening ceremonies and went on to write more poetry as well.

In addition to poetry, I've been working on over 10 novels as well as numerous (20+) short stories--all in the Fiction genre. Stories from love to fantasy to other dimensions to humor to sci-fi and combinations of the aforementioned subgenres. I've completed several short stories' collections while still continuing to work on completing my novels. In summary, my stories are categorized as Speculative Fiction and focus mostly on human to human/humanoid relationships and how both internal and external forces affect these relationships.

Story ideas can come from anywhere--a word, a phrase, an experience in my past, or any of these coupled together can become the basis for a story. I let my writing take me where it will. I following my gut to see where a particular story will take me. What are the twists, the turns, as I make my way through each story? How will each story end? I leave that up to the way the story moves me as it progresses. I don't outline or box myself in! I Create! However, not all of my stories end as you might like to see them end.