From
Ohio USA, Fred Rutter “has lived in central Ohio his whole life, and resides in
a small rural town in a very old and funky house along with his wife and a
number of cats. This has served as a convenient location to travel the country
extensively. Writing and photography have both been hobbies since adolescence.”
Welcome,
Fred!
GM:
What's the premise for your book?
FR:
Hitting the Road Without a Map covers a lot of ground, both
literally and emotionally (pun intended). A sudden and unplanned trip from Ohio
to Oregon serves as the catalyst to face one's personal fears and to actually
practice living in the moment. The heart of the book, however, recounts a
memorable road trip across the country through the eyes of two Midwesterners
from the edge of Appalachia. That alone provides a unique perspective - different
from other travel books by writers from either coast. With little preparation,
two acquaintances agree to drive a mutual friend's huge RV to her new home in
the Pacific Northwest. That sounds easy and straightforward, yet it proved to
be anything but that. Instead of getting bogged down by the challenges, the two
make a conscious decision to view the whole experience as an opportunity for
growth.
GM:
What is the main idea you would like readers to take away from your book?
FR:
Not to let yourself become paralyzed into indecision by personal fears. They
must be analyzed and faced head-on, or else a person does not grow. Also, to
embrace life and live in the moment. Good planning has its place, but nature
and life prove to be very hard to micro-manage. When one persists in trying to
control everything, frustration and disappointment are the likely results - not
only for the person doing the controlling, but for everyone else in close
proximity. We have to wear life like a loose garment.
GM:
How do you maintain thoughts and ideas?
FR:
The core of this book was an actual event, and fortunately I decided to keep a
journal! I had a feeling this trip would be unique, and I wanted to remember
it, so I wrote and collected stuff along the way. That, by itself, does not
create a book. I had to find a story arc to make the tale engaging - otherwise
the result would have been a travelogue diary, which I find get rather
tedious. That meant I had to dig deep to examine my feelings, and those of
others, because emotions are part of all experiences whether we acknowledge
them or not. I thought about all these aspects of my life, and jotted them down
in an outline.
The
tough part for a writer is discovery, during the first draft, that some
thoughts and ideas are not working, or the way they are expressed on the page
do not work. Editing and rewriting can be discouraging, in that regard! But the
premise of the book was one of opportunity, so I had to apply that same
perspective to my writing process. The process of rewriting and editing is an
opportunity to more clearly lay out what one wants to say. Sometimes the
outline has to be deviated from, and other times it has to be scrapped
altogether and started anew. It would be the height of hubris to think my first
pass is the ultimate expression of what I am trying to portray.
GM:
Describe your writing workspace and writing process...
FR:
Over the years my workspace has moved from a tablet - a real paper one, not
electronic, on the kitchen table, to my personal computer in an office space in
my little house. I thought I could never leave the handwritten word, for I
believed that process slowed my mind down sufficiently to gather my thoughts
and set them down properly. Work communications in my paying job cured me of
that, since things had to be set down quickly and sent out. I still frequently
create an outline on paper for various projects, but the actual writing process
now takes place on my computer. As to how the story is written, my non-fiction
narratives are linear in time, and tend to be written the same way - as opposed
to jumping around on a timeline. I do the best job I can, but am comfortable in
knowing a first draft is just that - a draft, not the finished work.
In
addition to my computer, I have a library of reference books near at hand, as
well as pen and paper. Some flashes of insight are best scribbled down quickly,
and saved for later. My office has a window. I can write anywhere, but my old
library table purchased from a thrift store, and my nearby window, make for a
comfortable place to write on a consistent basis. My brain can fabricate enough
distractions by itself, so I like a quiet space where I can think and reflect. Sometimes
I just need to stare out the window while ideas coalesce.
GM:
How do current events and your environment play a role in storyline scenarios
and final drafts?
FR:
Primarily I write non-fiction narrative and historical pieces. Therefore,
current events frequently creep into whatever I am working on because they
impact the story, or become the story itself. I live in southeast central Ohio,
in a small town on the edge of Appalachia, so that environment plays a big role
in what I write. As a non-fiction writer, that environment impacts my perspective,
and is one that I like to celebrate whenever I can, or when it seems
appropriate.
GM:
Where in the world is your favorite place to be?
FR:
I like to travel, and have been to many corners of our country, but there is
more to see. As a child I spent every summer in New England, so I have had
prolonged exposure to other regions, but I find comfort and peace in Ohio -
especially the hills of Southeast Ohio. I can be comfortable most anywhere, as
my book attests, but rural Appalachia is my favorite, because it is home. My
roots are here. Traveling to other places, either near or far, is enjoyable,
but I like returning home. My cats like the fact I always come home, too!
GM:
Please share a passage from your book that will give readers an insight to your
book...
FR:
An excerpt from Chapter 7, titled "Wind". It is a Midwesterner's
observation of a section of Wyoming that we were driving through.
Hay
appeared to be the major agricultural commodity. Farms were crude affairs, not
the major building complexes we were used to seeing in Ohio, with neat, fenced
fields and several crops. Actually, most of the scattered houses were
similar to what we had observed
in South Dakota, meaning ragged looking modular houses with homemade additions,
abandoned cars, trucks, trailers, appliances, and snow mobiles strewn about the
property, plus one
or two small low barns, and a huge stack of jumbo-size hay bales to feed unseen
livestock through the long winter months. In a way, it looked like Appalachia
in eastern and southeastern Ohio, with the exception of the giant hay bales and
snowmobile carcasses, exception of the giant hay bales and snowmobile carcasses, and replacing our dense
vegetation, steep
hills and hollows with flatness, scrub grass and sage brush. There would also
be a cluster of low trees around these visions of human chaos. How any of this
provided an income, let alone a living wage, was a total mystery. The always
present scattering of vehicles made it hard to tell which one was the primary
mode of transportation, and which ones died where they sat. Rarely were any
people visible, but if they were, they were men near an open barn door, or near
a pickup truck or trailer, and what activity was being conducted remained
obscure. It was the familiar look of a mean life and poverty - where you do not get rid of anything because it might
prove useful later, or cost too much to haul away. Any cost is too much when
living hand to mouth, day to day. Having lived that way during my drinking
years, I understood the mindset, for to some extent it is still with me today.
GM:
Do you have advice for novice writers?
FR:
Write, write, write! Rewrite and edit what you have written, then read it aloud.
If I stumble while reading aloud, then the pacing or the wording is off, and
needs to be corrected. Write about what interests you for it will make the
process easier at first, then take on more challenging writing projects in
order to become more flexible and skilled in the process.
GM:
List 10 things that your fans may not know about you...
FR:
I am a collector. That covers a lot of ground - from old, marked paving bricks
to old postcards, ashtrays, advertising paperweights, and more. I am an
alcoholic, and actively participate in a program of recovery, and have decades
of sobriety, but do not get complacent about that fact, so work daily to
improve my life and those around me.
Connect with Fred…
which contains book
excerpts, sample photographs, author blog, and links to purchase through
bookstores and Amazon
author blog: https://blog.hittingtheroadwithoutamap.com
the blog has no
consistent theme, other than what pops up in my brain from time to time, which
means it is mostly experiential in nature. One piece of fiction is on the
blog, but people believed it was true, even though in the story my car slid off
a snowy road into the Rock Mill gorge of the Hocking River, where I died. Friends
asked how I was doing, and if my car got totaled. Obviously they really had not
read the story, so I probably will not do that again.
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