May 19, 2026 • 45 mins
Ron Roman has written extensive travel, academic, and political articles for regional, national, and international publications. He studied both fiction and creative writing for his third graduate degree in Humanities from Wesleyan University.
Ron has acted in numerous Korean TV dramas and motion pictures like Operation Chromite, portraying Admiral Forrest Sherman opposite Liam Neeson’s General Douglas MacArthur.
In 2025 Ron published his alternate-history apocalyptic doomsday thriller novel, Of Ashes and Dust, which was a Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Award in the Global Thrillers category.
I’ve read Of Ashes and Dust and can tell you it’s a highly entertaining story that explores the anarchy of an apocalyptic future that includes revelations about UFOs and governmental conspiracies all set against a crumbling society. If you enjoy reading about the potential societal challenges a deteriorating world may face, I highly recommend Ron’s insight-filled book to you.
Ron is also the recipient of The POET Magazine’s “Poet of the Month” award for his contributions. Also, check out for his book A Poetic Rhapsody of the Soul, which is published by Windtree Press.
As an Associate Professor of English, English as a Second Language, and Humanities, Ron taught at the University of Maryland Global Campus-Asia. Ron resides in South Korea with his wife where he works on US military installations assisting US military retirees and dependents.
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Steve Cu (00:00):
On today's Story Beat,
(00:01):
I'll tell you one of the things I used to do inmy, uh, English, uh, literature classes when I was
teaching for the University of Maryland. I takethem out and, um, for 10 minutes, all I just said,
all I want you to do when I go outside is look upin the sky and look around. I want you to make
mental notes of what you see, you hear, you smell,if anything. And then we come back into the room
(00:24):
and then we talk about, well, what did we observe?
You know, what do we sense? What did we feel? Notjust maybe with our own five senses, but inside
our being, inside our soul, and then write itdown. That was a good, uh, takeoff to, uh, further
writing exercises.
This is Story Beat with Steve Cuden, a podcast forthe creative mind. Story Beat explores how masters
(00:48):
of creativity develop and produce brilliant worksthat people everywhere love and admire. So join us
m as we discover how talented creators findsuccess in the worlds of imagination and
entertainment. Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.
(01:10):
Thanks for joining us on Story Beat. We're comingto you from the Steel City, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. My guest today, Ron Roman haswritten extensive travel, academic and political
articles for regional, national and internationalpublications. He studied both fiction and creative
writing for his third graduate degree inhumanities from Wesleyan University. Ron has acted
(01:34):
in numerous Korean TV dramas and motion pictureslike Operation Chromite, portraying Admiral
Forrest Sherman opposite Liam Neeson's GeneralDouglas MacArthur. In 2025, Ron published his
alternate history apocalyptic doomsday thrillernovel Of Ashes and Dust, which was a finalist for
the Chanticleer International Book Award in theglobal Thrillers category. I've read Of Ashes and
(01:59):
Dust and can tell you it's a highly entertainingstory that explores the anarch of an apocalyptic
future that includes revelations about UFOs andgovernmental conspiracies, all set against a
crumbling society. If you enjoy reading about thepotential societal challenges a ah, deteriorating
world may face, I highly recommend Ron's insightfilled book to you. Ron is also the recipient of
(02:25):
the Poet Magazine's Poet of the Month award forhis contributions. Also check out his book A
Poetic Rhapsody of the Soul, which is published byWintry Press and it's uh, being released. Released
in 2026. As an Associate professor of English,English as a Second Language and Humanities, Ron
taught at the University of Maryland Global CampusAsia. Ron resides in South Korea with his wife
(02:49):
where he works on US Military installationsassisting US Military retirees and dependents. So
for all those reasons and many more, it's a greatprivilege for me to have the Author Ron Roman as
my guest on story be today. Ron, welcome to theshow.
Thank you Steve. Great to be here. It's um. Mtalking live right outside the Osan Air Base um
(03:11):
where I work uh part time. It's really part time.
Part time as assistant um, retirees director forum. For veterans, um, you know uh, retirees and
dependents and um.
How do you help them? What do you do?
What I do is I help them, uh, you know I help thembring them to hospitals and whatnot and stuff like
that as a resistant as I said um, assistantretiree, uh officer u. Uh as director of the um.
(03:38):
The division here and uh, that uh, other than thatI'm really busy writing as much as I can as well.
I just want to thank you for your service. That'svery kind of you.
Oh yeah, yeah sure yeah. I was uh, in fact I wasstationed here in Korea way back in the uh, in the
70s getting on in years a bit, you know. And uh, Iwas uh. I'm a member of the. The local uh. And an
(03:58):
officer in a local VFW post 8180 and uh, uh.
Colonel Millet's uh uh post and uh, um. A lifetimemember to VFW as well and I, I write a lot about
uh, combat veterans and their inability to uh. Tofit into civilian society. My short story is
available for anybody who wants to read it. I'mgoing to copyright to register a register to
copyright rather, uh, later this week with the U.
(04:20):
S. Um Office of um of Copyright and it's calledthe Journey. You can get on my website it's 8200
words. It's 26 and a half pages so it's not thatshort. It's the call the Journey. It's about a uh,
veteran who. Combat uh veteran who wakes up andhe's in the middle of the forest and he doesn't
know where the hell he is. I mean he's. He's gottemporary or maybe even permanent amnesia. He
(04:45):
doesn't know if he's alive, he's dead, he'sreincarnated and he struggles to get. Find his way
back into normaly. Uh, it's called the Journey andit's on my website which is uh, www dot writer Ron
Roman that's www dot writerronroman.com so let'suh, let's talk about
(05:05):
your uh, creative process. What were your earliestinspirations and influences? What writers uh. Did
you begin to read when you were what, a young boy?
Yeah, yeah, you know, I wasn't A good student bythe way, in high school, uh, my parents always uh,
reminded me of that. Unlike my brother who lateron became a surgeon. He was older, retired. You
know, National Merit Society scholars. They usedto call this is way to hell back in the 60s. And
(05:31):
uh, you know, I, I thought I. At times I hatedhigh school. You know, I barely made it through.
And uh. But I remember in my senior year I startedum, getting interested. I had a natural talent, if
you would, for English. More so certainly thanchemistry, which I hated. Mrs. Thomas's class over
half a century now. And uh, like um, Somerset Momsof Human Bondage, 1915. Wow, that's 111 years now
(05:57):
was the first novel I think I ever read. I reallyuh, captured me, you know, and got me interested.
And I went on to college, uh, initially as a uh.
As what as a uh, general major. Not majoring inanything in other words. And then I finally uh,
became an English major and then started uh, backin the uh, the 70s as an English teacher back in
(06:20):
Connecticut where I have my home. I still own ahome out there by the way, in Connecticut. And uh,
what did you teach? I taught, uh, English. Andthen, uh, not for very long. I lasted uh, three
days. It started Monday morning and Wednesdayafternoon. It was pouring like the uh, dickens.
And this was in Bridgeport, uh, Central High
School. An (06:38):
30 in the afternoon.
School was out. And what happened was I wasstaring out the window. I says hey, I can't do
this. I can't do this for the next 20, 30, 40years. I got to go out and get me some more
education, go back to graduate school and uh, andbecome a professor, you know, at least teach
adults, which I did. Got three graduate degreesand my latest one was at Wesleyan University,
(07:01):
Middletown, Connecticut. And that's a, uh. Inhumanities with a specialization in
interdisciplinary writing. And then, uh, you know,when I started uh, teaching u. Uh s. Military
overseas, actually I taught in Connecticut aswell. But uh, I started teaching, uh. My niche was
teaching U. S. Military overseas and what iscalled the Indo Pacific Command. And I taught all
(07:23):
over the uh, uh, uh, Indo Pacific Command. Itaught in Japan, North Central South Okinawa,
which is actually part of Japan. I taught DiegoGarcia, which is in the Indian Ocean. You know,
that's in the news now because that was justattacked by the um. By the Iranians with the 2M
missiles. That's a U. S, uh, British joint, uh,site on an atol out there. And I taught in uh,
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Korea, I taught in the Philippines. You name ithere and there. And, uh, retired in 2020 at the,
the, uh, beginning, um, and the intensification ofthe, uh, COVID 19 virus, because everything went
online, you know, and it was time for me toretire. And my college teaching career in English
spanned over four decades. So I've been around theblock a few times.
(08:09):
What kinds of stories do you most gravitatetoward?
Doomsday thrillers? My book of ashes and dust isan apocalyptic doomsday thriller. Like Stephen
King, you know, I think his stand right came outin 1973. What was like 1200, 1200 pages. My book
is like about, uh, 260, 65 instead 88 and a halfthousand words. And I would say if I had a single
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one writer, you know, was the biggest influencefor me. F. Scott Fitzgerald, I'll tell you right
now. The book of get Great gatsby, which came out,by the way, in April 1925. So it's been just over
the centennial. It's been coming up 101 years now,uh, was instrumental in me, as in terms of
emulating his style, which is poetically lyrical.
(08:52):
Or is that lyrically poetical? You know, I mean,it reads like poetry at times, and it's, it's uh,
bring tears to the eyes of a dead man.
So let's talk about your book of ashes and dust.
Uh, tell the listeners what of Ashes and dust isabout.
At the time of the millennium, three peoplestruggle for survival in a small New Hampshire
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town as the world spins into chaos, not realizingthat each harbors secrets that will eventually pit
them against one another. The story evolves fromthe u. S. Government's earlier two classified
secret projects during the Vietnam war, the UnitedStates air force's revelation about UFOs and
Project 67. And by the way, this is actually true.
(09:35):
1973, u. S. Air Force Chief of staff, uh, broughtgeneral Brown admitted that there were some
strange, uh, um, flying saucer sightings, youknow, and uh, originally they were thought to be,
uh, the, uh, uh, uh, helicopters of the Viet Congin North Vietnamese. But they didn't have any
helicopters. And uh, that's uh. So the story overhere is actually embedded partially and in a lot
(09:59):
of, a lot of truth. To continue striving tosurvive a global armageddon with his Japanese
teaching assistant, paramore professor WillWatson, tortured Vietnam war hero and New
Hampshire liberty militias activist, hounded bythe state police and the FBI, struggles to
(10:20):
surmount haunting Vietnam war ghosts and theimpending collapse of a nation, a world caving in
on them, Watson must face the truth about hisfriendship with classic homosexual and militia
comrade, Mark Mercati, who while in the militaryhimself, surreptitiously had Watson placed in a
(10:41):
top secret Vietnam war project, Project 67. BothWatson and Mercati struggle to adjust to civilian
life. When Watson finally thinks he is settlingdown, he discovers something beyond his wildest
fantasies. While Watson was in the army, Mercatihad the US government secretly inject an implant
(11:03):
inside his head to monitor him. When he finds, uh,out how and why, it forces him to question his own
sanity. But Mercati is not the friend he pretendsto be. Not all his conspiracies are theories, some
are fact. The US government appears to becollapsing, yet extraterrestrial forces are also
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monitoring events. Watson isn't a mild manneredprofessor. He's a secret vigilante killer. His
paramour, Kimiko Tanimoto, is pregnant with hischild, but knows little of his true nature. Of
Ashes and Dust is a no punches pulled apocalyptictale of mesmerizing intrigue and gut wrenching
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survival, told as an alternate history thrillerduring the last days of a global Armageddon,
culminating in an unexpected and explosive amen.
So what inspired you in the first place? To writethis?
Yeah, I guess, you know, I've always. And by theway, the idea of UFOs next, it's really tangential
(12:08):
to the, to the plot. It's, it's. That's more of ateaser if anything. But I've always, uh, been, uh,
interested in that. Well, ever since I was a kidin high school. My best friend in high school got
me interested in, uh, you know, UFOs. This is wayback when I graduated late 60s, and I used to
listen at night to the, uh, what is it, uh, NewYork City, Long John Neville Show. You know, it
(12:29):
was the, the dean of talk radio way back then, youknow, and practically, uh, when I was a college
kid, you know. And, uh.
So what got you to want to write a book about theApocalypse Now?
Well, hell, you know, Steve, we live in dangeroustimes, you know, and every, every time you turn on
the computer these days, lately, all we see arethese stories were one step closer to World War
(12:49):
iii, you know, and, uh, it just intrigued my, mybeing, if you will. And I wanted to, you know, I
just, the more I dug into, the more interested Igot. And I kind of like, I gotta get this off my
chest.
Are you, are you a big UFO buff? Do you followufo?
Yeah, yeah, I think, uh, you know, yeah, I thinkthis stuff is real. And like the David Garage
right. Three years ago was it, uh, it's 2026,2023. He appeared in Congress and he was in the,
(13:14):
you know, in the secret, uh, intelligence. The USGovernment saying this is all real. It's a, it's a
government because uh, cover up. Because it's allbeing looked at from the government. The, the
crash, flying saucers and uh, and the debris. It'sall being looked at the government and above top
secret, uh, uh, investigations because it's beinglooked at as a weapons research, development point
(13:36):
of view.
Mm. Are you concerned about our world devolvinginto an Armageddon like world of chaos like you
described?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, it's, it'scrazy but uh, you know what's going on. Yeah, the
short answer is yes.
So you're, you live in South Korea. Um, I visitedSouth Korea several years ago. Um, how much do you
(13:58):
think that the fact that you live not too far fromthe DMZ and you're. That the. Your both countries,
north and South Korea are threatening each othersort of on a regular, regular basis. How much do
you think that that influenced what you wrote?
Yeah, I, uh, don't. Not all that much, you know,actually because um. Because my, My interest in
this long predates my even coming here to Korea.
(14:20):
But um. Yeah, by the way, I own a home with mywife in Connecticut as well. I go back once a year
for a full month. Uh, but uh. Um. Yeah, I can seeI. Maybe because I'm overseas and I live most of
my uh, my life as an adult overseas in differentcountries. I got a different perspective from
other Americans who just live in the sameneighborhood, uh, year in and year out, decade in
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and decade out. You know, got a more like aninternational viewpoint about this and.
All right, so you're, you're, you're obviouslyspend a lot of time overseas as you just said, and
you have a home in Connecticut. Why did you setthe book in New Hampshire?
Uh, again, you know, just because that's. I'm mostfamiliar with the New England setting, uh, New
England milieu. And um, the book starts off in um,in Fairfield county, which I got my second uh, uh,
(15:07):
graduate degree at Fairfield University and animagina town and very similar to actually
Fairfield Connecticut that I grew up in. But um,uh, the uh, protagonist, the main uh, character,
the Professor Will Watson, he's, He's a part timeprofessor there and then he uh, gets divorced in
the um. In 1998, 1999 at the Millennium Eve.
(15:29):
Because remember the story takes place inMillennium Eve 1999. And then he uh, gets divorced
and he. All he gets is part time teaching jobscore, which I went through myself a long time as
well. And so it's semi autobiographical to somedegree in that respect, Every respect. You know.
And then he uh. Finally gets a tenure trackposition up in South Central, um. Or Central New
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Hampshire up there, this imaginary town calledSpringvale. And at um. At this college over ritzy
college and he gets a tenure track position and hejoins this malevolent uh, this militia, uh because
he likes the uh. The camaraderie of men, you know.
And it reminds him of his military days and hedoesn't really quite fit in civilian life, you
(16:12):
know. And then he meets this guy, as I said this.
So this computer salesman by the name of MarkMercati. And uh. Mark is attracted to him
sexually. And uh. Will Watson is a little uh. Uh.
On the ditzy side. He doesn't quite realize thisuntil the very end. You know, that's how many
people come buddies and. But they have a reallygood friendship or so he thinks. And uh. When they
(16:34):
member uh. When they uh. When actually when Markuh. Not Mark Will Watson uh Joins the uh. The
Liberty Militia and then uh. The world is startlyis. Is beginning to fall into chaos at the time in
1999 and then all hell broke uh. Breaks out whenuh. Uh. World War III actually uh. Uh breaks out.
And I don't go into much detail into that in thebook because uh. Uh. He's. He's hidden in a
(16:58):
shelter uh, with his uh. With his girlfriend, uh.
Kimi Tanimoto. You see, that's his uh. Teachingassistant at the college and they have a romantic
relationship which is obviously against the.
Against the regulation of the college. But uh. Uh.
The dean of the college, uh Looks the other waybecause uh. Uh. He. The dean of the college knows
(17:19):
that uh. He wants to use uh. Um. Professor um WillWatson to milk Mrs. Tani, Ms. Tanimoto's um,
father's money to make a big endowment pledge tothe. To the cops.
So. So are any of these characters based onanyone? You know, I know you said, you said
there's some semi autobiographical stuff in there,but are the characters based on people you know?
(17:42):
Only the names. Only the names. Like I think Inever said this publicly. Tanimoto was. It was the
name of a Japanese American soldier I wasstationed at in Fort Hood, Texas. The last name.
That's also that. That' you know, uh. And the uh.
M. Mercati was the name of this Football, uh,player at Central Connecticut State University. I,
(18:03):
uh, used to work out at the playing YMCA together,you know, with it. Last name? That's just the last
name.
All right, so then how did you develop thesecharacters if they're not based on anyone, you
know, other than the names? What did you do todevelop the characters?
They just came. It just came to me because, Imean, it took a long time for me to write this
book. It just came to me in terms of, uh, likeepiphany, you know, that's the best word I can use
(18:24):
to describe.
Have you had an experience in your life where afriend that you had um, suddenly turned into
something else that you weren't expecting, the waythat Mark Mercati does?
Ron Roman (18:34):
Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Yeah. So you've had that kind of experience?
I used to work out at the Bridgeport Y. Ah. When Iwas a graduate student. My first graduate degree,
University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Uh, I wasa member of the Bridgeport Y for years. And one,
uh, of the guys I used to work out with was uh,about the sweetest guy you ever met, Steve. I tell
you, he was a monster of a man. He was a realestate, uh, broker by day, and he was a
(18:57):
professional hired assassin, um, and mafia. One ofthe five New York City mafia families. He led a
secret life. And when he was executed himself wayback in the late 80s, uh, by a tit for tat mafia
assassination, we heard about it all in theConnecticut, uh, newspapers, front stories. And
(19:18):
um, one of the other guys in the gym was a memberof the Connecticut State Police Intelligence Unit.
And uh, for the three years that I worked out of,it was actually probably a little bit more uh.
They never used to talk to each other. And thenafter uh, this guy was um, was. Was executed,
actually assassinated, uh, he called. I wasoverseas at the time, teaching in the Philippines
(19:40):
at the time. But my, uh, my best buddy told meabout. He sent me all, all the uh, the uh,
newspaper clippings. We didn't have the Internetat the time, quite wasn't sophisticated, you know.
So he sent me to the newspaper, uh, clippings whenback in the days when people actually used to read
newspapers. And I found out that he called ameeting at the uh, at the gym to tell the uh, the
(20:02):
guys that, you know, you always, through theyears, you wondered why I never talked to so and
so. Well now you know, because what you read inthe newspapers is all true. I know it hurts you to
believe this about him. He was that kind of guy.
He was, uh. We know that he was attributed with,uh, 19, uh, uh, killings. Killed 19 people. We
(20:23):
believe that actually was 26 when we had him underinvestigation for three years. And that's why, uh,
you. You realize that I never talked to him inpublic here, in. In the gym, because he knew. He
knew who? I know that he was under investigationby me.
So were elements of this person you knew, did hewind up a little bit in Mercati?
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Come to think of it,yeah. Y. That's it, you know, I mean, it's been,
(20:48):
you know, a while now since, uh, I fleshed out thecharacters, um, in the story arc, but, uh, that's
a good way of putting it.
So Watson seems a little bit cut, um, offemotionally. A little bit. He seems a little
indifferent about Kimiko's pregnancy. She getspregnant, and he seems a little bit indifferent
about it. Do you think his wartime experiencesmade him feel shut off or cut off from his
(21:13):
emotions?
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. He can't fitin the civilian society anymore, and neither can.
Is his buddy Mark, uh, Mercati. Uh, you know, canyou tell us
just a little bit without giving too much awayabout Project 67?
Yeah, that's. It's to make a, um, Myrmidon or. Or,um, you know, some super soldier, you know, one,
uh, who doesn't, uh. That's an ancient Greek, Ithink, concept one doesn't question authority.
(21:37):
And, um, he, uh. He was, uh, going to berecommended for the Medal of Honor. Moh. But it
had to be quashed by Secretary of, uh, Defense,uh, Melvin Laird, who's actually Secretary of
Defense at the time in. In war. And it had to. Hehad to be quash because we couldn't let. Let, uh,
this story out, uh, be made public about whathappened to Mark Mercati. You know, having the US
(22:02):
Government, having said, the CIA secretlyimplanting this. It. This implant inside his head
to monitor.
And what does that have to do with the aliens?
A little.
This has something to do with the aliens, right?
Yeah. Yeah, because it was taken out. The. Theimplant was, uh, based. It was modeled after the,
uh. The implants were found in, uh, uh, Americancivilian abductees or abducted by
(22:26):
extraterrestrial, uh, aliens and flying saucers.
So you have Mercati beg Watson to get into asealed shelter that he's built by saying that
we're human is an illusion. You. That's a quote.
That we're human is an illusion. What do you meanby that?
That we're human is an illusion. Professor WillWatson asked Mercati says well in that case, what
(22:48):
are we? And he says well we are of ashes and dust.
You know, we're not who we think we are.
St (22:55):
Well who do you think we are
as the author maybe of Ashes and Dust? I mean uh,we're spiritual beings and maybe we don't even
know it.
What do you mean by we're spiritual beings?
Good question. We're spiritual beings and, andwe're made in the image of God. But God might not
be who, what we, we think he, uh, she or it is,you know. And uh.
(23:19):
Are you implying that it might be aliens?
Uh, I'm implying in the, the book or actuallysaying in the book that we're like, we're actually
half alien, half and half terrestrial ape. And wewere as a genetic hybridization uh, program and we
were uh, formed about just over 200,000 years agoand planted and put on this uh, put
(23:42):
on this Earth obviously. Do you have some sort ofactual evidence of this or is it just
fictionalized in your head?
Yeah, in between. Uh, uh, Steve, because this isall. As I said, this has been covered up by the US
Government dating back to probably that so calledRoswell crash, which actually didn't happen in
Roswell. It happened in Corona, about 60 milesnorth of Roswell back in uh, Independence Day,
(24:06):
1947. And this has been covered up because UncleSam is looking at it from a um, from a weapons
research, development point of view. These crashflying saucers are trying to be reversed
engineered to see if we can learn anything likethat to improve our own military capabilities,
unfortunately to use against other human beings,other, other you know, other countries and you
(24:28):
know that we are so called adversaries like Iran,uh, Russia, China, North Korea, etc. Etc. Etc.
Right. What do you think humanity would do if welearned that they're really are aliens? How do you
think we would react to it?
You know I've been thinking about that a hell of alot in a. Because evidently this is going to be
um, supposedly reveal uh, you know, PresidentTrump is going to come on supposedly. There's
(24:53):
some. You've heard about that I think saying
that it's been in various news sources.
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Whether it comes outto that remains to be seen. But you know what? I
think originally it was uh, said that uh, in theMJ12 documents that President Truman uh, learned
about this and he set up uh, a committee of 12men, uh, and uh, which the chief of the committee
(25:20):
was to report to him directly in case of um, moreinformation about The UFO became, uh, became
public that the United States government could notcover up. So far they've been able to do this, uh,
fairly successfully, you know, But I mean, ifevery combat came to the point where, uh, aliens
were actually, um, came, um, down to Earth and youknow, to. To like, make themselves present, you
(25:43):
know, rather than hide, uh, then there would be a,uh, supposedly, uh, a draft, uh, notice that he
was supposed to use a national television to. Tosay this. But it never came down to that. That
point, you know. So, uh, that's where we aretoday. So what would happen to. At that time, back
in 19, in the late 40s, 1947 to be exact, um,people, America was still a Christian nation. And
(26:05):
that would be too upsetting for, uh, particularlyfor conservative Christians, you know, to know
that we're not alone in the universe and maybeeverything we've been told in the Bible isn't
exactly the way it really happened, etcetera, etc,etcetera. You know. But now I think, you know, for
better or for worse, I don't know what thereligious, um, uh, preferences are, and it doesn't
(26:25):
really matter to me. But, you know, we're notthere anymore like that. America is largely a, uh.
If it's a Christian nation, it's more or less on aperiphery like that. And I think that if this were
made, uh, known to people, um, it would not be thebig, big epiphany or revelation that it would have
been back, you know, back in the late 40s.
(26:46):
Do you think that. Do you think that the manyentertainment products, whether they're movies, TV
shows, books, et cetera, that have come out overthe last 40 or 50 years about aliens, do you think
that that has helped to prepare humans to dealwith it?
Right, right, exactly. You said it better than Icould, you know.
So as you were writing this book of ashes anddust, what came first for you? The plot or the
(27:11):
characters?
The plot, I think pretty much they were like,contemporaneous, you know, going on at the same
time, but I think more or less the plot. And thenthe, uh. The plot to a certain degree, gave birth
to the, uh. Birth. The, The. The main characters,the three main characters there.
Stev (27:27):
Did you outline the story?
No, I didn't. You know, that's a good point. Uh,I'm not that kind. I'm not that, uh, methodical a
writer. This. I outlined it, but not the wayyou're thinking right now.
You're. You're doing it by the seat of your pants.
I'm outlining the book for example, when I'mjogging on the beaches of Diego Garcia, you. I'm
jogging on the basis of, you know, when I was. Ihad a. A, uh, military assignment out there. Now
(27:51):
I'm teaching the U. S. Military at Dave Garcia wayback when, you know, and I'll be, uh, jogging the
beaches. And uh, while I'm jogging the beaches ofDiego Garcia in a beautiful Indian ocean, um, the,
the book is being written out inside my head.
And. And did you then go back to somewhere andmark a journal down?
Yeah, yeah. Then I went back to my room and Iwrote it back down longhand. You know, your, your
(28:14):
listeners might find this interesting. In me, Icouldn't write anything in pen because. Why? Yeah,
why? Because when I wrote stuff in pen, I feelthat was irreversible. I couldn't, you know,
change, uh, anything. But on. I did more erasingand worn, um, down more erasers. I'm on top and
tip of my pen, my pencil than I did, uh, anythingelse.
(28:35):
Did, did you then type up the book yourself orgive it to a typist?
No, no, I typed it up. In fact, I typed it uporiginally. The manuscript, originally the old
fashioned way on a, um, on a manual typewriter,you know.
Steve Cu (28:47):
How long ago was this?
Quite a few years ago. But then, uh, you know, aword, Word, uh, processing came out and those days
are gone now, thank God.
Which. The manual typewriters.
Ron Ro (28:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
If I, I started on a manual typewriter, if I hadto go back to one, I'd stop writing.
Ron (29:02):
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
Did you do a lot of research for this book?
Some research. Some research, yeah, I did inlibraries. But for the most part, this stuff that
happened, you know, the research was done insidemy head. Being exposed to these stories and
reading about it down through the years, snippetshere, snippets there.
And, and how long did it take you to write thebook overall?
(29:23):
Oh, man, it took me many years. And I just cobbledthe piece together, by the way. I did have a, uh.
Ordinarily I don't get a writer's block block. Ifanything, I. Not writer's block in a sense of
writer's constipation. If anything. I got writer'sdiarrhea, you know, Uh, I couldn't, I couldn't
figure. I had the ending written out inside myhead and, you know, and jotted down on paper. And
(29:45):
then also the, the. It was like 90 book of themanuscript was done.
Are you a big rewriter? Did you do a lot ofrewriting
not much except for the end, because I couldn't. Icouldn't get the, uh. You know, the final. I
couldn't get to the final bridge, you know, thevery end. And for a long time, I struggled at
that. And I don't know if I'd call myself aspiritual person. I mean, and it didn't actually
(30:07):
ask God to help me out, to. To give me, uh, youknow, the. The. The impetus, the, uh, afflatus, if
you will, you know, the spiritual inspiration to.
To come up at the end. But then, uh, I struggledfor, I think, maybe a few weeks. And then all of a
sudden it came to me. And then I was able to, um,jot a few things down on paper and then put the
dots together and the story was written and done.
(30:30):
And it took me many years.
Yeah, many years. And then once it came together,it all came together.
Yeah, exactly. Once it came together, it cametogether at the, uh. I'll tell you was I was at
the Camp Humphreys, which is the United Statesmilitary's largest overseas, uh, base. And half
just happens to be here down the road from whereI'm speaking right now. Took, uh, came, uh, to me
in the computer lab there one day. I was insidethe computer lab, and I just popped inside my
(30:54):
head, and boom, I was done.
That must have felt like a big epiphany, huh?
Huh? Yeah. Yeah, right. I was really, uh,relieved.
What are the things that you think that a writerneeds to do in order to secure a publisher?
Uh, just have a thick skin, man. It's. It's tough.
I mean, it's easier for me to say. I mean, it'sjust like saying you get one rejection after
another. I read Sweater. Stephen King was rejected38 times in a row in North American publishers,
(31:18):
United States and Canada under a pseudonym, youknow. And then finally the word got out. What he
was trying to do. See if he, uh. I think it was,um, Hearts in Atlantis was his name of the book.
He wanted to see if he was not, uh, an unknown.
Right. If he was again, an unknown writer, if hecould get published, you know, years after he got
his initial success with Kerry back in, I think,1976.
(31:39):
Well, his. His pseudonym that he. That he gotpublished under was Richard Bachman.
Bachman. Right. Right. And then he got rejected 38times in a row. And then finally the 30 he found
Stev (31:51):
out somebo figured it out.
Publishing world figured out what he was trying todo, and he got picked up. Yeah, that was one of
his, um, more critically acclaimed books too. Fromwhat I'm told I never read it, but that's what I'm
told.
So talk to us about your poetry. How long have youbeen writing poetry?
Oh, yeah. Okay. Poetry. I've been, uh, right here,right here in this, uh, this laptop. I had the
(32:11):
poems, uh, for 12 and a half years hibernating inthere. And, uh, you know, some of them published
and most of them had not been. A lot of it ishaiku, which is Japanese, uh. Uh, condensed
poetry. Usually, uh, traditionally, um, not, um,rhyming poetry, but zeros in on a, uh. On a
singular image. And it's in, uh, five, seven,five, uh, uh. Uh, three lines of five syllables,
(32:37):
seven syllables and five syllables.
It's 17 syllables overall. Yeah.
And it was just hibernating. I says, by God, youknow, I gotta get this stuff out. I mean, it's
just. I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, I'm notgetting any younger. I'm just gonna get it out
and, uh, I'm gonna get it published.
So is poetry a kind of calling for you? Does itjust happen for you?
Yeah, you know, because as an English professor.
Don't forget I was an English professor. Uh, I,uh. I'm teaching this stuff for decades. And I
(33:00):
decided, well, you know, it's my time to do, uh.
To, uh, you know, show what I got, you know, tothe world. And. And there we are, you know, and I,
uh. I. I got this stuff out and out. It's going tocome out in the, uh. Let me subtitle. Is an
eclectic blend of poetry from the ethereal realm.
St (33:19):
That's a lot of words there.
Yeah, yeah, right on. On the front cover. Right.
Did you, did you go in your schooling? Did youtrain as a poet at all?
Yeah, no, I actually did when I was anundergraduate, as an English major. But I'll tell
you what, now I take a dim, uh. And the listenersare going to be, uh. Hello, Any listeners still
out there. Uh, you're going to take a dim view ofwhat I'm. What I'm telling you, I don't think much
(33:41):
of modern poetry. I really don't. You know, I. Isay in my, uh. My forehead over there. Most of it
published today is gibberish.
Well, so who do you admire? Who do you read?
Well, I read kind of like, uh, Robert Frost, youknow, and that's very structured. You don't find
that today in modern poetry. And it doesn't rhyme.
Doesn't have to rhyme. That went out with theAmerican Civil War. But there's no rhythm, rhyme
(34:02):
or harmony. Harmony. And, um, most poetry todaydoesn't make sense. You know, I remember as a
national member of the, uh, uh, the NationalAuthors Guild, I once wrote a thread about this
about a year ago, and one of the other woman, uh,poets who was far more, uh, uh, accomplished than
I am, I don't know how many awards and, you know,she's won in poetry and. And, uh, and books that
(34:25):
she has in poetry. She, uh, made a reply on herthread saying, yeah, she agrees. She locks on, you
know, to most, uh, of the poetry that's publishedtoday out in these online journals. Mostly
electronics online journals, you know. She says, Ican't understand the stuff myself. I can't
understand it, you know.
So is it possible for you to define, at least fromyour perspective, what makes poetry poetry?
(34:49):
Yeah, first of all, the rhythm, rhyme and harmony.
Oversimplified somewhat. And something that'scomprehensible, must it rhyme? No. No, it doesn't.
In fact, some of my. That's. In fact, that's a no,no in today's modern poetry world. Um, some of my
poetry does, but most of it does not. But I wantsomething. I think the singular word to answer
(35:09):
your question here, Steve, is comprehensibility.
Can the average person say of a high school grade.
Well, maybe not so much today. High school kidsare graduating high school today, you know, can't
even read and write. Maybe even sometimes incollege. But the. Can the average college graduate
read the poem and understand it on the, uh, sayafter two takes? Right.
(35:29):
Well, it can be a little dense and sort ofdifficult to divine when you're reading a lot of
poetry and you have to kind of back up and do ananalysis of it to understand it. Uh, do you think
that poetry must, by its nature, be truthful andhonest?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you got to be honest.
Yeah. Uh, which I think a lot of poets, I hate tosay, but a lot of poets are not, you know, they're
(35:52):
not honest about this. And the more obscure theirpoetry is, they think the better chance they got
of being published in.
Well, what. One of the most important things thatpoets and writers do is to observe and listen and
take in the world. How important do you think it'sbeen in your life to be an observer of the world?
Yeah, yeah. Very, very, very important. You know,I'll tell you one of the things I used to do in
(36:16):
my, uh, English, uh, literature classes when I wasteaching for the University of Maryland. I take
them out and, uh, for ten minutes, all. I justsaid, all I want you to do, going to go outside is
look up in the sky and look around. I want you tomake mental notes of what you see, you hear, you
smell, if anything, touch and taste. You know,five senses. I want you to really look around and
(36:39):
see what do you see. And I want you to be quietand you don't talk to each other for 10 minutes.
And then we come back into the room and then wetalk about well what did we observe, you know,
what do we sense, what did we feel? Not just maybewith our own five senses but inside our being.
Pain inside our soul. And then write it down. Andthen uh. We uh. That was a good uh, you know
(36:59):
takeoff to uh, further writing exercises.
And how did you get into acting? Let's talk aboutthat for a moment.
Oh yeah, acting. Yeah. I was uh, I always uh. WellI was always big you know and uh, you know a good
moviegoer when I was a kid in high school and Iuh, was. I got started in high school actually and
I was the uh, one of the other two kids and I uh,um. In the high school uh class. The uh, the uh.
(37:22):
The high school uh. The senior uh m. In our senioryear, one of the two class uh actors and uh, I got
uh, started in that I had a natural proclivity orpenchant for that if you would. Uh, unlike as I
said I wasn't a good student. But uh, uh you knowI was in for. In dramatic arts. You know I got
started in that and then, and then I went on touh, uh junior college because I couldn't get
(37:45):
accepted into four star. I mean in a four yearcollege you know my grades uh, just weren't good
enough. And don't forget in the late 60s that uhcollege was still selective. Unlike today where
any nincompoop who's got the money can get intocollege. You know it was just still selective.
It's a whole different world today. And I got ajunior college and I got started in the local. The
uh junior college, uh drama, uh uh club and thenalso the uh, the local uh community theater
(38:11):
summers. And they got started in summer stock inum. This is up in Northwestern uh Connecticut. And
uh, if you're familiar with the Berkshire's upthere you got a lot of uh, summer, it was called
summer stock theater plays that are made in thesummertime for turf coming into Berkshire's and I
got started in that as well and of course I didn'tget paid for that but um, you know we had hell of
(38:33):
um. After the um, after rehearsal parties, we hada hell of a good time in these, uh, um, um,
actors. Actor, uh, rehearsal parties. That was alot of fun.
Do you think that your having been an actor hashelped you as a writer?
No, not really. Oh, by the way, I neglected tomention, and it's not in my biography, I've done a
(38:53):
hell of a lot of Korean television over here inmotion pictures. Not, uh, anymore because I'm
getting too old for that, you know. But I uh, wasin the most popular national television series way
back when I was a one star United States forces,Korea general and I was in the first seven
episodes on national television around for 60episodes. Usually it's only 40. And uh, you know,
(39:14):
I'd be, I'd be walking down the street of Seoul,which is a bigger city than New York City. 10
million compared to 8 and a half million comparedto New York, and walking uh, down the city of uh,
Seoul. And I'd be recognized on nationaltelevision, you know, as a national television
actor. And uh, but that didn't last too longbecause you know what, you would
also stand out a little bit.
(39:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you look a little bit
culturally different than the average Korean.
Sure. And people would, you know, come. You know,I remember I never. First time a Korean girl was
asking me for my autograph and all. And by theway, that, that, that uh, that wears off fast. You
know, I can understand why real movie stars notlike me. By the way, when I said I was, uh, you
know, in the movies I had these small roles,cameo, they're all speaking roles and cameo. But I
(39:59):
was never, you know, big time movie star, paidwell for what I did, but I was never any, uh, you
know, Liam Neeson, whom I uh, acted opposite of.
And when he was portraying uh, General DouglasMacArthur in Operation Chromite.
What was that experience like?
Oh, that telling. Working with him, locked up allday with him from 8 o' clock in the morning to
30 in the afternoon was just, just inspirationalgeneration. He's a hell of a decent guy. You know,
(40:24):
uh, maybe I shouldn't make a judgment based onjust the short time that I was with him, but I
mean, he's well educated, never went to college.
My understanding was well educated, well informedand he's very articulate.
But. But he treated you, he treated you well?
Oh no, and really, he says, uh, yeah, I says, hey,uh, you know, um, Liam, you know, I'll tell you,
you know, makeup artists did a hell of a job onyou. You look like uh, um, uh, General Douglas
(40:48):
McCarthy says, yeah. He walks over to me, grabs myhand, and he puts it on his belly, you know, I
mean, he's got his pillow underneath his belly toshow that MacArthur actually had a punch, you
know, and he had some physical ailments at thetime. And I'll have a sense of humor. Liam Neeson.
So I had a great time working with him. I startedthis back on, back in the, uh, in the mid-90s. So
(41:09):
it's been like 30 years ago, and when I was herebefore in Korea and. But now, uh, you got so many.
Got like 1500 cables, television channels, maybe adozen of them are pornography and stuff like that.
And you got these gangster rappers are now justplaying rappers. And you got the Korean, uh, you
know, K Pop artists and all. You got all theseshows on television and radio inundated. Two
(41:33):
months, I mean, two weeks after your. Your faceappears on the, uh, on the big silver screen, you
know, like a downtown movie theater in Seoul, twoweeks later, you're all forgotten.
Well, that's true of pretty much everybody.
Just inundated. Well, everybody's a celebrity.
Everybody's gonna get to 15 minutes of Andy Warholthing.
So some of the most famous movie actors of alltime, going back to the, you know, the beginning
(41:56):
of movies, nobody remembers them anymore. Justvery, very few that stand out over long periods of
time, you know, uh, that's just the way it worksthat's been that way from the beginning of time.
Well, I've been having the most fascinatingconversation with Ron Roman, the author. Ron Roman
of, uh, Ashes and Dust is the novel that we'vebeen talking about, among other things that Ron
(42:18):
has done. And we're going to wind the show down alittle bit. Ron, in all of your experiences,
you've told us all these incredible stories. Doyou have a story you can share with us beyond the
ones you've already told us, uh, that's happenedto you in the business of writing or in acting or
whatever it is, that's either weird, quirky,offbeat, strange, or just plain fun.
Funny. Yeah, just plain funny. Uh, this is a fewyears back, you know, a couple decades now. I
(42:41):
remember when I was, I guess I was doing mygraduate, uh, degree. Third graduate degree at
Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and I wasfinishing up on my thesis, and I would, um, be
using a floppy disk at the time because that's allwe had, you know. And, uh, I'll never forget, uh.
Uh, I didn't make a backup file and I was workingon my thesis and I, you Know I had a deadline and
all stuff and, and like an idiot, and my wifewould always remind me that hey, you know, you
(43:05):
need a backup file, get another. A floppy disk.
And I never paid attention and I paid the price. Ilost the damn thing. And when I think I found it
was too damaged to be retrieval the informationand I had to start the um, pretty much part of the
thesis all over again. And boy was that. Was thatever uh, debilitating. What a debilitating
experience that was. So I learned a lesson. Alwayscome prepared. And, and uh, and a good piece of
(43:28):
advice I got for would be writers is um, alwaysuh, come prepared. Hire a professional copy
editor, at least a proofreader because nobody butnobod that good. They don't make mistakes. I don't
care if you're a Harvard University professor ofEnglish. Everybody makes mistakes because you see
everybody else's mistakes, but you can't see thatspeck of, you know, of uh, of dust in your own
(43:50):
eye, as the Bible said.
Well that is true. That is absolutely true.
Hire somebody and always uh, be open to have athick skin. And one more thing. Uh, we don't have
time to get on this, but um, I'm just going to putthis as a teaser out there. I don't know know to
what degree AI now artificial intelligence, is itgoing to impact us? Because we might only have
three, four year, uh, years left as writer. Iremember I saw a interview, um, what is it, 20
(44:16):
minutes with uh, with David Baldacci, one of themost commercially successful writers in the world,
you know, and he said that, you know, he's got abig lawsuit against these AI, uh, manufacturers
now. You know, they're stealing his books andthey're putting out there, you know, uh, by
essentially uh, the uh. What AI technology. Uh,and he says we might have only three, four years
(44:38):
left as writers.
It's scary. It's more. More apocalyptic stuff.
More apocalyptic stuff. Yeah, right. I mean, youknow, I think, uh. And I, as a. Speaking as a
history, I mean an English professor, I rememberreading somewhere that my research when I was a
student said that this novel by the name of Pamelawas the first English language novel to be, uh. Uh
(45:00):
is generally considered history's first Englishnovel. 1608 and I might all be coming to an end
now, Steve, in the next three, four years.
It might be. Sadly it is true. But I think that Ihope that humans will continue to create in their
own way. I hope so.
Ron Roman (45:17):
I hope so too.
So Ron Roman, this has been a very fascinating andfun hour on Story Beat. And I thank you very much
for your talk, your energy, and your wisdom today.
I really enjoyed being on here, Steve, andappreciate it. And to the listeners, go out there,
buy the book.
Thanks very much, Ron. You take care.
Ron R (45:35):
Thank you. Appreciate it.
And so we've come to the end of today's StoryBeat. If you like this episode, won't you please
take a moment to give us a comment, rating, orreview on whatever app or platform you're
listening to? Your support helps us bring moregreat story Story Beat episodes to you. Story Beat
is available on all major podcast apps andplatforms, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube,
(45:59):
Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and many others.
Until next time, I'm Steve Cuden and may all yourstories be unforgettable.
On today's Story Beat,
(00:01):
I'll tell you one of the things I used to do inmy, uh, English, uh, literature classes when I was
teaching for the University of Maryland. I takethem out and, um, for 10 minutes, all I just said,
all I want you to do when I go outside is look upin the sky and look around. I want you to make
mental notes of what you see, you hear, you smell,if anything. And then we come back into the room
(00:24):
and then we talk about, well, what did we observe?
You know, what do we sense? What did we feel? Notjust maybe with our own five senses, but inside
our being, inside our soul, and then write itdown. That was a good, uh, takeoff to, uh, further
writing exercises.
This is Story Beat with Steve Cuden, a podcast forthe creative mind. Story Beat explores how masters
(00:48):
of creativity develop and produce brilliant worksthat people everywhere love and admire. So join us
m as we discover how talented creators findsuccess in the worlds of imagination and
entertainment. Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.
(01:10):
Thanks for joining us on Story Beat. We're comingto you from the Steel City, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. My guest today, Ron Roman haswritten extensive travel, academic and political
articles for regional, national and internationalpublications. He studied both fiction and creative
writing for his third graduate degree inhumanities from Wesleyan University. Ron has acted
(01:34):
in numerous Korean TV dramas and motion pictureslike Operation Chromite, portraying Admiral
Forrest Sherman opposite Liam Neeson's GeneralDouglas MacArthur. In 2025, Ron published his
alternate history apocalyptic doomsday thrillernovel Of Ashes and Dust, which was a finalist for
the Chanticleer International Book Award in theglobal Thrillers category. I've read Of Ashes and
(01:59):
Dust and can tell you it's a highly entertainingstory that explores the anarch of an apocalyptic
future that includes revelations about UFOs andgovernmental conspiracies, all set against a
crumbling society. If you enjoy reading about thepotential societal challenges a ah, deteriorating
world may face, I highly recommend Ron's insightfilled book to you. Ron is also the recipient of
(02:25):
the Poet Magazine's Poet of the Month award forhis contributions. Also check out his book A
Poetic Rhapsody of the Soul, which is published byWintry Press and it's uh, being released. Released
in 2026. As an Associate professor of English,English as a Second Language and Humanities, Ron
taught at the University of Maryland Global CampusAsia. Ron resides in South Korea with his wife
(02:49):
where he works on US Military installationsassisting US Military retirees and dependents. So
for all those reasons and many more, it's a greatprivilege for me to have the Author Ron Roman as
my guest on story be today. Ron, welcome to theshow.
Thank you Steve. Great to be here. It's um. Mtalking live right outside the Osan Air Base um
(03:11):
where I work uh part time. It's really part time.
Part time as assistant um, retirees director forum. For veterans, um, you know uh, retirees and
dependents and um.
How do you help them? What do you do?
What I do is I help them, uh, you know I help thembring them to hospitals and whatnot and stuff like
that as a resistant as I said um, assistantretiree, uh officer u. Uh as director of the um.
(03:38):
The division here and uh, that uh, other than thatI'm really busy writing as much as I can as well.
I just want to thank you for your service. That'svery kind of you.
Oh yeah, yeah sure yeah. I was uh, in fact I wasstationed here in Korea way back in the uh, in the
70s getting on in years a bit, you know. And uh, Iwas uh. I'm a member of the. The local uh. And an
(03:58):
officer in a local VFW post 8180 and uh, uh.
Colonel Millet's uh uh post and uh, um. A lifetimemember to VFW as well and I, I write a lot about
uh, combat veterans and their inability to uh. Tofit into civilian society. My short story is
available for anybody who wants to read it. I'mgoing to copyright to register a register to
copyright rather, uh, later this week with the U.
(04:20):
S. Um Office of um of Copyright and it's calledthe Journey. You can get on my website it's 8200
words. It's 26 and a half pages so it's not thatshort. It's the call the Journey. It's about a uh,
veteran who. Combat uh veteran who wakes up andhe's in the middle of the forest and he doesn't
know where the hell he is. I mean he's. He's gottemporary or maybe even permanent amnesia. He
(04:45):
doesn't know if he's alive, he's dead, he'sreincarnated and he struggles to get. Find his way
back into normaly. Uh, it's called the Journey andit's on my website which is uh, www dot writer Ron
Roman that's www dot writerronroman.com so let'suh, let's talk about
(05:05):
your uh, creative process. What were your earliestinspirations and influences? What writers uh. Did
you begin to read when you were what, a young boy?
Yeah, yeah, you know, I wasn't A good student bythe way, in high school, uh, my parents always uh,
reminded me of that. Unlike my brother who lateron became a surgeon. He was older, retired. You
know, National Merit Society scholars. They usedto call this is way to hell back in the 60s. And
(05:31):
uh, you know, I, I thought I. At times I hatedhigh school. You know, I barely made it through.
And uh. But I remember in my senior year I startedum, getting interested. I had a natural talent, if
you would, for English. More so certainly thanchemistry, which I hated. Mrs. Thomas's class over
half a century now. And uh, like um, Somerset Momsof Human Bondage, 1915. Wow, that's 111 years now
(05:57):
was the first novel I think I ever read. I reallyuh, captured me, you know, and got me interested.
And I went on to college, uh, initially as a uh.
As what as a uh, general major. Not majoring inanything in other words. And then I finally uh,
became an English major and then started uh, backin the uh, the 70s as an English teacher back in
(06:20):
Connecticut where I have my home. I still own ahome out there by the way, in Connecticut. And uh,
what did you teach? I taught, uh, English. Andthen, uh, not for very long. I lasted uh, three
days. It started Monday morning and Wednesdayafternoon. It was pouring like the uh, dickens.
And this was in Bridgeport, uh, Central High
School. An (06:38):
30 in the afternoon.
School was out. And what happened was I wasstaring out the window. I says hey, I can't do
this. I can't do this for the next 20, 30, 40years. I got to go out and get me some more
education, go back to graduate school and uh, andbecome a professor, you know, at least teach
adults, which I did. Got three graduate degreesand my latest one was at Wesleyan University,
(07:01):
Middletown, Connecticut. And that's a, uh. Inhumanities with a specialization in
interdisciplinary writing. And then, uh, you know,when I started uh, teaching u. Uh s. Military
overseas, actually I taught in Connecticut aswell. But uh, I started teaching, uh. My niche was
teaching U. S. Military overseas and what iscalled the Indo Pacific Command. And I taught all
(07:23):
over the uh, uh, uh, Indo Pacific Command. Itaught in Japan, North Central South Okinawa,
which is actually part of Japan. I taught DiegoGarcia, which is in the Indian Ocean. You know,
that's in the news now because that was justattacked by the um. By the Iranians with the 2M
missiles. That's a U. S, uh, British joint, uh,site on an atol out there. And I taught in uh,
(07:46):
Korea, I taught in the Philippines. You name ithere and there. And, uh, retired in 2020 at the,
the, uh, beginning, um, and the intensification ofthe, uh, COVID 19 virus, because everything went
online, you know, and it was time for me toretire. And my college teaching career in English
spanned over four decades. So I've been around theblock a few times.
(08:09):
What kinds of stories do you most gravitatetoward?
Doomsday thrillers? My book of ashes and dust isan apocalyptic doomsday thriller. Like Stephen
King, you know, I think his stand right came outin 1973. What was like 1200, 1200 pages. My book
is like about, uh, 260, 65 instead 88 and a halfthousand words. And I would say if I had a single
(08:31):
one writer, you know, was the biggest influencefor me. F. Scott Fitzgerald, I'll tell you right
now. The book of get Great gatsby, which came out,by the way, in April 1925. So it's been just over
the centennial. It's been coming up 101 years now,uh, was instrumental in me, as in terms of
emulating his style, which is poetically lyrical.
(08:52):
Or is that lyrically poetical? You know, I mean,it reads like poetry at times, and it's, it's uh,
bring tears to the eyes of a dead man.
So let's talk about your book of ashes and dust.
Uh, tell the listeners what of Ashes and dust isabout.
At the time of the millennium, three peoplestruggle for survival in a small New Hampshire
(09:12):
town as the world spins into chaos, not realizingthat each harbors secrets that will eventually pit
them against one another. The story evolves fromthe u. S. Government's earlier two classified
secret projects during the Vietnam war, the UnitedStates air force's revelation about UFOs and
Project 67. And by the way, this is actually true.
(09:35):
1973, u. S. Air Force Chief of staff, uh, broughtgeneral Brown admitted that there were some
strange, uh, um, flying saucer sightings, youknow, and uh, originally they were thought to be,
uh, the, uh, uh, uh, helicopters of the Viet Congin North Vietnamese. But they didn't have any
helicopters. And uh, that's uh. So the story overhere is actually embedded partially and in a lot
(09:59):
of, a lot of truth. To continue striving tosurvive a global armageddon with his Japanese
teaching assistant, paramore professor WillWatson, tortured Vietnam war hero and New
Hampshire liberty militias activist, hounded bythe state police and the FBI, struggles to
(10:20):
surmount haunting Vietnam war ghosts and theimpending collapse of a nation, a world caving in
on them, Watson must face the truth about hisfriendship with classic homosexual and militia
comrade, Mark Mercati, who while in the militaryhimself, surreptitiously had Watson placed in a
(10:41):
top secret Vietnam war project, Project 67. BothWatson and Mercati struggle to adjust to civilian
life. When Watson finally thinks he is settlingdown, he discovers something beyond his wildest
fantasies. While Watson was in the army, Mercatihad the US government secretly inject an implant
(11:03):
inside his head to monitor him. When he finds, uh,out how and why, it forces him to question his own
sanity. But Mercati is not the friend he pretendsto be. Not all his conspiracies are theories, some
are fact. The US government appears to becollapsing, yet extraterrestrial forces are also
(11:24):
monitoring events. Watson isn't a mild manneredprofessor. He's a secret vigilante killer. His
paramour, Kimiko Tanimoto, is pregnant with hischild, but knows little of his true nature. Of
Ashes and Dust is a no punches pulled apocalyptictale of mesmerizing intrigue and gut wrenching
(11:45):
survival, told as an alternate history thrillerduring the last days of a global Armageddon,
culminating in an unexpected and explosive amen.
So what inspired you in the first place? To writethis?
Yeah, I guess, you know, I've always. And by theway, the idea of UFOs next, it's really tangential
(12:08):
to the, to the plot. It's, it's. That's more of ateaser if anything. But I've always, uh, been, uh,
interested in that. Well, ever since I was a kidin high school. My best friend in high school got
me interested in, uh, you know, UFOs. This is wayback when I graduated late 60s, and I used to
listen at night to the, uh, what is it, uh, NewYork City, Long John Neville Show. You know, it
(12:29):
was the, the dean of talk radio way back then, youknow, and practically, uh, when I was a college
kid, you know. And, uh.
So what got you to want to write a book about theApocalypse Now?
Well, hell, you know, Steve, we live in dangeroustimes, you know, and every, every time you turn on
the computer these days, lately, all we see arethese stories were one step closer to World War
(12:49):
iii, you know, and, uh, it just intrigued my, mybeing, if you will. And I wanted to, you know, I
just, the more I dug into, the more interested Igot. And I kind of like, I gotta get this off my
chest.
Are you, are you a big UFO buff? Do you followufo?
Yeah, yeah, I think, uh, you know, yeah, I thinkthis stuff is real. And like the David Garage
right. Three years ago was it, uh, it's 2026,2023. He appeared in Congress and he was in the,
(13:14):
you know, in the secret, uh, intelligence. The USGovernment saying this is all real. It's a, it's a
government because uh, cover up. Because it's allbeing looked at from the government. The, the
crash, flying saucers and uh, and the debris. It'sall being looked at the government and above top
secret, uh, uh, investigations because it's beinglooked at as a weapons research, development point
(13:36):
of view.
Mm. Are you concerned about our world devolvinginto an Armageddon like world of chaos like you
described?
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, it's, it'scrazy but uh, you know what's going on. Yeah, the
short answer is yes.
So you're, you live in South Korea. Um, I visitedSouth Korea several years ago. Um, how much do you
(13:58):
think that the fact that you live not too far fromthe DMZ and you're. That the. Your both countries,
north and South Korea are threatening each othersort of on a regular, regular basis. How much do
you think that that influenced what you wrote?
Yeah, I, uh, don't. Not all that much, you know,actually because um. Because my, My interest in
this long predates my even coming here to Korea.
(14:20):
But um. Yeah, by the way, I own a home with mywife in Connecticut as well. I go back once a year
for a full month. Uh, but uh. Um. Yeah, I can seeI. Maybe because I'm overseas and I live most of
my uh, my life as an adult overseas in differentcountries. I got a different perspective from
other Americans who just live in the sameneighborhood, uh, year in and year out, decade in
(14:42):
and decade out. You know, got a more like aninternational viewpoint about this and.
All right, so you're, you're, you're obviouslyspend a lot of time overseas as you just said, and
you have a home in Connecticut. Why did you setthe book in New Hampshire?
Uh, again, you know, just because that's. I'm mostfamiliar with the New England setting, uh, New
England milieu. And um, the book starts off in um,in Fairfield county, which I got my second uh, uh,
(15:07):
graduate degree at Fairfield University and animagina town and very similar to actually
Fairfield Connecticut that I grew up in. But um,uh, the uh, protagonist, the main uh, character,
the Professor Will Watson, he's, He's a part timeprofessor there and then he uh, gets divorced in
the um. In 1998, 1999 at the Millennium Eve.
(15:29):
Because remember the story takes place inMillennium Eve 1999. And then he uh, gets divorced
and he. All he gets is part time teaching jobscore, which I went through myself a long time as
well. And so it's semi autobiographical to somedegree in that respect, Every respect. You know.
And then he uh. Finally gets a tenure trackposition up in South Central, um. Or Central New
(15:52):
Hampshire up there, this imaginary town calledSpringvale. And at um. At this college over ritzy
college and he gets a tenure track position and hejoins this malevolent uh, this militia, uh because
he likes the uh. The camaraderie of men, you know.
And it reminds him of his military days and hedoesn't really quite fit in civilian life, you
(16:12):
know. And then he meets this guy, as I said this.
So this computer salesman by the name of MarkMercati. And uh. Mark is attracted to him
sexually. And uh. Will Watson is a little uh. Uh.
On the ditzy side. He doesn't quite realize thisuntil the very end. You know, that's how many
people come buddies and. But they have a reallygood friendship or so he thinks. And uh. When they
(16:34):
member uh. When they uh. When actually when Markuh. Not Mark Will Watson uh Joins the uh. The
Liberty Militia and then uh. The world is startlyis. Is beginning to fall into chaos at the time in
1999 and then all hell broke uh. Breaks out whenuh. Uh. World War III actually uh. Uh breaks out.
And I don't go into much detail into that in thebook because uh. Uh. He's. He's hidden in a
(16:58):
shelter uh, with his uh. With his girlfriend, uh.
Kimi Tanimoto. You see, that's his uh. Teachingassistant at the college and they have a romantic
relationship which is obviously against the.
Against the regulation of the college. But uh. Uh.
The dean of the college, uh Looks the other waybecause uh. Uh. He. The dean of the college knows
(17:19):
that uh. He wants to use uh. Um. Professor um WillWatson to milk Mrs. Tani, Ms. Tanimoto's um,
father's money to make a big endowment pledge tothe. To the cops.
So. So are any of these characters based onanyone? You know, I know you said, you said
there's some semi autobiographical stuff in there,but are the characters based on people you know?
(17:42):
Only the names. Only the names. Like I think Inever said this publicly. Tanimoto was. It was the
name of a Japanese American soldier I wasstationed at in Fort Hood, Texas. The last name.
That's also that. That' you know, uh. And the uh.
M. Mercati was the name of this Football, uh,player at Central Connecticut State University. I,
(18:03):
uh, used to work out at the playing YMCA together,you know, with it. Last name? That's just the last
name.
All right, so then how did you develop thesecharacters if they're not based on anyone, you
know, other than the names? What did you do todevelop the characters?
They just came. It just came to me because, Imean, it took a long time for me to write this
book. It just came to me in terms of, uh, likeepiphany, you know, that's the best word I can use
(18:24):
to describe.
Have you had an experience in your life where afriend that you had um, suddenly turned into
something else that you weren't expecting, the waythat Mark Mercati does?
Ron Roman (18:34):
Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Yeah. So you've had that kind of experience?
I used to work out at the Bridgeport Y. Ah. When Iwas a graduate student. My first graduate degree,
University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Uh, I wasa member of the Bridgeport Y for years. And one,
uh, of the guys I used to work out with was uh,about the sweetest guy you ever met, Steve. I tell
you, he was a monster of a man. He was a realestate, uh, broker by day, and he was a
(18:57):
professional hired assassin, um, and mafia. One ofthe five New York City mafia families. He led a
secret life. And when he was executed himself wayback in the late 80s, uh, by a tit for tat mafia
assassination, we heard about it all in theConnecticut, uh, newspapers, front stories. And
(19:18):
um, one of the other guys in the gym was a memberof the Connecticut State Police Intelligence Unit.
And uh, for the three years that I worked out of,it was actually probably a little bit more uh.
They never used to talk to each other. And thenafter uh, this guy was um, was. Was executed,
actually assassinated, uh, he called. I wasoverseas at the time, teaching in the Philippines
(19:40):
at the time. But my, uh, my best buddy told meabout. He sent me all, all the uh, the uh,
newspaper clippings. We didn't have the Internetat the time, quite wasn't sophisticated, you know.
So he sent me to the newspaper, uh, clippings whenback in the days when people actually used to read
newspapers. And I found out that he called ameeting at the uh, at the gym to tell the uh, the
(20:02):
guys that, you know, you always, through theyears, you wondered why I never talked to so and
so. Well now you know, because what you read inthe newspapers is all true. I know it hurts you to
believe this about him. He was that kind of guy.
He was, uh. We know that he was attributed with,uh, 19, uh, uh, killings. Killed 19 people. We
(20:23):
believe that actually was 26 when we had him underinvestigation for three years. And that's why, uh,
you. You realize that I never talked to him inpublic here, in. In the gym, because he knew. He
knew who? I know that he was under investigationby me.
So were elements of this person you knew, did hewind up a little bit in Mercati?
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Come to think of it,yeah. Y. That's it, you know, I mean, it's been,
(20:48):
you know, a while now since, uh, I fleshed out thecharacters, um, in the story arc, but, uh, that's
a good way of putting it.
So Watson seems a little bit cut, um, offemotionally. A little bit. He seems a little
indifferent about Kimiko's pregnancy. She getspregnant, and he seems a little bit indifferent
about it. Do you think his wartime experiencesmade him feel shut off or cut off from his
(21:13):
emotions?
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. He can't fitin the civilian society anymore, and neither can.
Is his buddy Mark, uh, Mercati. Uh, you know, canyou tell us
just a little bit without giving too much awayabout Project 67?
Yeah, that's. It's to make a, um, Myrmidon or. Or,um, you know, some super soldier, you know, one,
uh, who doesn't, uh. That's an ancient Greek, Ithink, concept one doesn't question authority.
(21:37):
And, um, he, uh. He was, uh, going to berecommended for the Medal of Honor. Moh. But it
had to be quashed by Secretary of, uh, Defense,uh, Melvin Laird, who's actually Secretary of
Defense at the time in. In war. And it had to. Hehad to be quash because we couldn't let. Let, uh,
this story out, uh, be made public about whathappened to Mark Mercati. You know, having the US
(22:02):
Government, having said, the CIA secretlyimplanting this. It. This implant inside his head
to monitor.
And what does that have to do with the aliens?
A little.
This has something to do with the aliens, right?
Yeah. Yeah, because it was taken out. The. Theimplant was, uh, based. It was modeled after the,
uh. The implants were found in, uh, uh, Americancivilian abductees or abducted by
(22:26):
extraterrestrial, uh, aliens and flying saucers.
So you have Mercati beg Watson to get into asealed shelter that he's built by saying that
we're human is an illusion. You. That's a quote.
That we're human is an illusion. What do you meanby that?
That we're human is an illusion. Professor WillWatson asked Mercati says well in that case, what
(22:48):
are we? And he says well we are of ashes and dust.
You know, we're not who we think we are.
St (22:55):
Well who do you think we are
as the author maybe of Ashes and Dust? I mean uh,we're spiritual beings and maybe we don't even
know it.
What do you mean by we're spiritual beings?
Good question. We're spiritual beings and, andwe're made in the image of God. But God might not
be who, what we, we think he, uh, she or it is,you know. And uh.
(23:19):
Are you implying that it might be aliens?
Uh, I'm implying in the, the book or actuallysaying in the book that we're like, we're actually
half alien, half and half terrestrial ape. And wewere as a genetic hybridization uh, program and we
were uh, formed about just over 200,000 years agoand planted and put on this uh, put
(23:42):
on this Earth obviously. Do you have some sort ofactual evidence of this or is it just
fictionalized in your head?
Yeah, in between. Uh, uh, Steve, because this isall. As I said, this has been covered up by the US
Government dating back to probably that so calledRoswell crash, which actually didn't happen in
Roswell. It happened in Corona, about 60 milesnorth of Roswell back in uh, Independence Day,
(24:06):
1947. And this has been covered up because UncleSam is looking at it from a um, from a weapons
research, development point of view. These crashflying saucers are trying to be reversed
engineered to see if we can learn anything likethat to improve our own military capabilities,
unfortunately to use against other human beings,other, other you know, other countries and you
(24:28):
know that we are so called adversaries like Iran,uh, Russia, China, North Korea, etc. Etc. Etc.
Right. What do you think humanity would do if welearned that they're really are aliens? How do you
think we would react to it?
You know I've been thinking about that a hell of alot in a. Because evidently this is going to be
um, supposedly reveal uh, you know, PresidentTrump is going to come on supposedly. There's
(24:53):
some. You've heard about that I think saying
that it's been in various news sources.
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Whether it comes outto that remains to be seen. But you know what? I
think originally it was uh, said that uh, in theMJ12 documents that President Truman uh, learned
about this and he set up uh, a committee of 12men, uh, and uh, which the chief of the committee
(25:20):
was to report to him directly in case of um, moreinformation about The UFO became, uh, became
public that the United States government could notcover up. So far they've been able to do this, uh,
fairly successfully, you know, But I mean, ifevery combat came to the point where, uh, aliens
were actually, um, came, um, down to Earth and youknow, to. To like, make themselves present, you
(25:43):
know, rather than hide, uh, then there would be a,uh, supposedly, uh, a draft, uh, notice that he
was supposed to use a national television to. Tosay this. But it never came down to that. That
point, you know. So, uh, that's where we aretoday. So what would happen to. At that time, back
in 19, in the late 40s, 1947 to be exact, um,people, America was still a Christian nation. And
(26:05):
that would be too upsetting for, uh, particularlyfor conservative Christians, you know, to know
that we're not alone in the universe and maybeeverything we've been told in the Bible isn't
exactly the way it really happened, etcetera, etc,etcetera. You know. But now I think, you know, for
better or for worse, I don't know what thereligious, um, uh, preferences are, and it doesn't
(26:25):
really matter to me. But, you know, we're notthere anymore like that. America is largely a, uh.
If it's a Christian nation, it's more or less on aperiphery like that. And I think that if this were
made, uh, known to people, um, it would not be thebig, big epiphany or revelation that it would have
been back, you know, back in the late 40s.
(26:46):
Do you think that. Do you think that the manyentertainment products, whether they're movies, TV
shows, books, et cetera, that have come out overthe last 40 or 50 years about aliens, do you think
that that has helped to prepare humans to dealwith it?
Right, right, exactly. You said it better than Icould, you know.
So as you were writing this book of ashes anddust, what came first for you? The plot or the
(27:11):
characters?
The plot, I think pretty much they were like,contemporaneous, you know, going on at the same
time, but I think more or less the plot. And thenthe, uh. The plot to a certain degree, gave birth
to the, uh. Birth. The, The. The main characters,the three main characters there.
Stev (27:27):
Did you outline the story?
No, I didn't. You know, that's a good point. Uh,I'm not that kind. I'm not that, uh, methodical a
writer. This. I outlined it, but not the wayyou're thinking right now.
You're. You're doing it by the seat of your pants.
I'm outlining the book for example, when I'mjogging on the beaches of Diego Garcia, you. I'm
jogging on the basis of, you know, when I was. Ihad a. A, uh, military assignment out there. Now
(27:51):
I'm teaching the U. S. Military at Dave Garcia wayback when, you know, and I'll be, uh, jogging the
beaches. And uh, while I'm jogging the beaches ofDiego Garcia in a beautiful Indian ocean, um, the,
the book is being written out inside my head.
And. And did you then go back to somewhere andmark a journal down?
Yeah, yeah. Then I went back to my room and Iwrote it back down longhand. You know, your, your
(28:14):
listeners might find this interesting. In me, Icouldn't write anything in pen because. Why? Yeah,
why? Because when I wrote stuff in pen, I feelthat was irreversible. I couldn't, you know,
change, uh, anything. But on. I did more erasingand worn, um, down more erasers. I'm on top and
tip of my pen, my pencil than I did, uh, anythingelse.
(28:35):
Did, did you then type up the book yourself orgive it to a typist?
No, no, I typed it up. In fact, I typed it uporiginally. The manuscript, originally the old
fashioned way on a, um, on a manual typewriter,you know.
Steve Cu (28:47):
How long ago was this?
Quite a few years ago. But then, uh, you know, aword, Word, uh, processing came out and those days
are gone now, thank God.
Which. The manual typewriters.
Ron Ro (28:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
If I, I started on a manual typewriter, if I hadto go back to one, I'd stop writing.
Ron (29:02):
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
Did you do a lot of research for this book?
Some research. Some research, yeah, I did inlibraries. But for the most part, this stuff that
happened, you know, the research was done insidemy head. Being exposed to these stories and
reading about it down through the years, snippetshere, snippets there.
And, and how long did it take you to write thebook overall?
(29:23):
Oh, man, it took me many years. And I just cobbledthe piece together, by the way. I did have a, uh.
Ordinarily I don't get a writer's block block. Ifanything, I. Not writer's block in a sense of
writer's constipation. If anything. I got writer'sdiarrhea, you know, Uh, I couldn't, I couldn't
figure. I had the ending written out inside myhead and, you know, and jotted down on paper. And
(29:45):
then also the, the. It was like 90 book of themanuscript was done.
Are you a big rewriter? Did you do a lot ofrewriting
not much except for the end, because I couldn't. Icouldn't get the, uh. You know, the final. I
couldn't get to the final bridge, you know, thevery end. And for a long time, I struggled at
that. And I don't know if I'd call myself aspiritual person. I mean, and it didn't actually
(30:07):
ask God to help me out, to. To give me, uh, youknow, the. The. The impetus, the, uh, afflatus, if
you will, you know, the spiritual inspiration to.
To come up at the end. But then, uh, I struggledfor, I think, maybe a few weeks. And then all of a
sudden it came to me. And then I was able to, um,jot a few things down on paper and then put the
dots together and the story was written and done.
(30:30):
And it took me many years.
Yeah, many years. And then once it came together,it all came together.
Yeah, exactly. Once it came together, it cametogether at the, uh. I'll tell you was I was at
the Camp Humphreys, which is the United Statesmilitary's largest overseas, uh, base. And half
just happens to be here down the road from whereI'm speaking right now. Took, uh, came, uh, to me
in the computer lab there one day. I was insidethe computer lab, and I just popped inside my
(30:54):
head, and boom, I was done.
That must have felt like a big epiphany, huh?
Huh? Yeah. Yeah, right. I was really, uh,relieved.
What are the things that you think that a writerneeds to do in order to secure a publisher?
Uh, just have a thick skin, man. It's. It's tough.
I mean, it's easier for me to say. I mean, it'sjust like saying you get one rejection after
another. I read Sweater. Stephen King was rejected38 times in a row in North American publishers,
(31:18):
United States and Canada under a pseudonym, youknow. And then finally the word got out. What he
was trying to do. See if he, uh. I think it was,um, Hearts in Atlantis was his name of the book.
He wanted to see if he was not, uh, an unknown.
Right. If he was again, an unknown writer, if hecould get published, you know, years after he got
his initial success with Kerry back in, I think,1976.
(31:39):
Well, his. His pseudonym that he. That he gotpublished under was Richard Bachman.
Bachman. Right. Right. And then he got rejected 38times in a row. And then finally the 30 he found
Stev (31:51):
out somebo figured it out.
Publishing world figured out what he was trying todo, and he got picked up. Yeah, that was one of
his, um, more critically acclaimed books too. Fromwhat I'm told I never read it, but that's what I'm
told.
So talk to us about your poetry. How long have youbeen writing poetry?
Oh, yeah. Okay. Poetry. I've been, uh, right here,right here in this, uh, this laptop. I had the
(32:11):
poems, uh, for 12 and a half years hibernating inthere. And, uh, you know, some of them published
and most of them had not been. A lot of it ishaiku, which is Japanese, uh. Uh, condensed
poetry. Usually, uh, traditionally, um, not, um,rhyming poetry, but zeros in on a, uh. On a
singular image. And it's in, uh, five, seven,five, uh, uh. Uh, three lines of five syllables,
(32:37):
seven syllables and five syllables.
It's 17 syllables overall. Yeah.
And it was just hibernating. I says, by God, youknow, I gotta get this stuff out. I mean, it's
just. I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, I'm notgetting any younger. I'm just gonna get it out
and, uh, I'm gonna get it published.
So is poetry a kind of calling for you? Does itjust happen for you?
Yeah, you know, because as an English professor.
Don't forget I was an English professor. Uh, I,uh. I'm teaching this stuff for decades. And I
(33:00):
decided, well, you know, it's my time to do, uh.
To, uh, you know, show what I got, you know, tothe world. And. And there we are, you know, and I,
uh. I. I got this stuff out and out. It's going tocome out in the, uh. Let me subtitle. Is an
eclectic blend of poetry from the ethereal realm.
St (33:19):
That's a lot of words there.
Yeah, yeah, right on. On the front cover. Right.
Did you, did you go in your schooling? Did youtrain as a poet at all?
Yeah, no, I actually did when I was anundergraduate, as an English major. But I'll tell
you what, now I take a dim, uh. And the listenersare going to be, uh. Hello, Any listeners still
out there. Uh, you're going to take a dim view ofwhat I'm. What I'm telling you, I don't think much
(33:41):
of modern poetry. I really don't. You know, I. Isay in my, uh. My forehead over there. Most of it
published today is gibberish.
Well, so who do you admire? Who do you read?
Well, I read kind of like, uh, Robert Frost, youknow, and that's very structured. You don't find
that today in modern poetry. And it doesn't rhyme.
Doesn't have to rhyme. That went out with theAmerican Civil War. But there's no rhythm, rhyme
(34:02):
or harmony. Harmony. And, um, most poetry todaydoesn't make sense. You know, I remember as a
national member of the, uh, uh, the NationalAuthors Guild, I once wrote a thread about this
about a year ago, and one of the other woman, uh,poets who was far more, uh, uh, accomplished than
I am, I don't know how many awards and, you know,she's won in poetry and. And, uh, and books that
(34:25):
she has in poetry. She, uh, made a reply on herthread saying, yeah, she agrees. She locks on, you
know, to most, uh, of the poetry that's publishedtoday out in these online journals. Mostly
electronics online journals, you know. She says, Ican't understand the stuff myself. I can't
understand it, you know.
So is it possible for you to define, at least fromyour perspective, what makes poetry poetry?
(34:49):
Yeah, first of all, the rhythm, rhyme and harmony.
Oversimplified somewhat. And something that'scomprehensible, must it rhyme? No. No, it doesn't.
In fact, some of my. That's. In fact, that's a no,no in today's modern poetry world. Um, some of my
poetry does, but most of it does not. But I wantsomething. I think the singular word to answer
(35:09):
your question here, Steve, is comprehensibility.
Can the average person say of a high school grade.
Well, maybe not so much today. High school kidsare graduating high school today, you know, can't
even read and write. Maybe even sometimes incollege. But the. Can the average college graduate
read the poem and understand it on the, uh, sayafter two takes? Right.
(35:29):
Well, it can be a little dense and sort ofdifficult to divine when you're reading a lot of
poetry and you have to kind of back up and do ananalysis of it to understand it. Uh, do you think
that poetry must, by its nature, be truthful andhonest?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you got to be honest.
Yeah. Uh, which I think a lot of poets, I hate tosay, but a lot of poets are not, you know, they're
(35:52):
not honest about this. And the more obscure theirpoetry is, they think the better chance they got
of being published in.
Well, what. One of the most important things thatpoets and writers do is to observe and listen and
take in the world. How important do you think it'sbeen in your life to be an observer of the world?
Yeah, yeah. Very, very, very important. You know,I'll tell you one of the things I used to do in
(36:16):
my, uh, English, uh, literature classes when I wasteaching for the University of Maryland. I take
them out and, uh, for ten minutes, all. I justsaid, all I want you to do, going to go outside is
look up in the sky and look around. I want you tomake mental notes of what you see, you hear, you
smell, if anything, touch and taste. You know,five senses. I want you to really look around and
(36:39):
see what do you see. And I want you to be quietand you don't talk to each other for 10 minutes.
And then we come back into the room and then wetalk about well what did we observe, you know,
what do we sense, what did we feel? Not just maybewith our own five senses but inside our being.
Pain inside our soul. And then write it down. Andthen uh. We uh. That was a good uh, you know
(36:59):
takeoff to uh, further writing exercises.
And how did you get into acting? Let's talk aboutthat for a moment.
Oh yeah, acting. Yeah. I was uh, I always uh. WellI was always big you know and uh, you know a good
moviegoer when I was a kid in high school and Iuh, was. I got started in high school actually and
I was the uh, one of the other two kids and I uh,um. In the high school uh class. The uh, the uh.
(37:22):
The high school uh. The senior uh m. In our senioryear, one of the two class uh actors and uh, I got
uh, started in that I had a natural proclivity orpenchant for that if you would. Uh, unlike as I
said I wasn't a good student. But uh, uh you knowI was in for. In dramatic arts. You know I got
started in that and then, and then I went on touh, uh junior college because I couldn't get
(37:45):
accepted into four star. I mean in a four yearcollege you know my grades uh, just weren't good
enough. And don't forget in the late 60s that uhcollege was still selective. Unlike today where
any nincompoop who's got the money can get intocollege. You know it was just still selective.
It's a whole different world today. And I got ajunior college and I got started in the local. The
uh junior college, uh drama, uh uh club and thenalso the uh, the local uh community theater
(38:11):
summers. And they got started in summer stock inum. This is up in Northwestern uh Connecticut. And
uh, if you're familiar with the Berkshire's upthere you got a lot of uh, summer, it was called
summer stock theater plays that are made in thesummertime for turf coming into Berkshire's and I
got started in that as well and of course I didn'tget paid for that but um, you know we had hell of
(38:33):
um. After the um, after rehearsal parties, we hada hell of a good time in these, uh, um, um,
actors. Actor, uh, rehearsal parties. That was alot of fun.
Do you think that your having been an actor hashelped you as a writer?
No, not really. Oh, by the way, I neglected tomention, and it's not in my biography, I've done a
(38:53):
hell of a lot of Korean television over here inmotion pictures. Not, uh, anymore because I'm
getting too old for that, you know. But I uh, wasin the most popular national television series way
back when I was a one star United States forces,Korea general and I was in the first seven
episodes on national television around for 60episodes. Usually it's only 40. And uh, you know,
(39:14):
I'd be, I'd be walking down the street of Seoul,which is a bigger city than New York City. 10
million compared to 8 and a half million comparedto New York, and walking uh, down the city of uh,
Seoul. And I'd be recognized on nationaltelevision, you know, as a national television
actor. And uh, but that didn't last too longbecause you know what, you would
also stand out a little bit.
(39:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you look a little bit
culturally different than the average Korean.
Sure. And people would, you know, come. You know,I remember I never. First time a Korean girl was
asking me for my autograph and all. And by theway, that, that, that uh, that wears off fast. You
know, I can understand why real movie stars notlike me. By the way, when I said I was, uh, you
know, in the movies I had these small roles,cameo, they're all speaking roles and cameo. But I
(39:59):
was never, you know, big time movie star, paidwell for what I did, but I was never any, uh, you
know, Liam Neeson, whom I uh, acted opposite of.
And when he was portraying uh, General DouglasMacArthur in Operation Chromite.
What was that experience like?
Oh, that telling. Working with him, locked up allday with him from 8 o' clock in the morning to
30 in the afternoon was just, just inspirationalgeneration. He's a hell of a decent guy. You know,
(40:24):
uh, maybe I shouldn't make a judgment based onjust the short time that I was with him, but I
mean, he's well educated, never went to college.
My understanding was well educated, well informedand he's very articulate.
But. But he treated you, he treated you well?
Oh no, and really, he says, uh, yeah, I says, hey,uh, you know, um, Liam, you know, I'll tell you,
you know, makeup artists did a hell of a job onyou. You look like uh, um, uh, General Douglas
(40:48):
McCarthy says, yeah. He walks over to me, grabs myhand, and he puts it on his belly, you know, I
mean, he's got his pillow underneath his belly toshow that MacArthur actually had a punch, you
know, and he had some physical ailments at thetime. And I'll have a sense of humor. Liam Neeson.
So I had a great time working with him. I startedthis back on, back in the, uh, in the mid-90s. So
(41:09):
it's been like 30 years ago, and when I was herebefore in Korea and. But now, uh, you got so many.
Got like 1500 cables, television channels, maybe adozen of them are pornography and stuff like that.
And you got these gangster rappers are now justplaying rappers. And you got the Korean, uh, you
know, K Pop artists and all. You got all theseshows on television and radio inundated. Two
(41:33):
months, I mean, two weeks after your. Your faceappears on the, uh, on the big silver screen, you
know, like a downtown movie theater in Seoul, twoweeks later, you're all forgotten.
Well, that's true of pretty much everybody.
Just inundated. Well, everybody's a celebrity.
Everybody's gonna get to 15 minutes of Andy Warholthing.
So some of the most famous movie actors of alltime, going back to the, you know, the beginning
(41:56):
of movies, nobody remembers them anymore. Justvery, very few that stand out over long periods of
time, you know, uh, that's just the way it worksthat's been that way from the beginning of time.
Well, I've been having the most fascinatingconversation with Ron Roman, the author. Ron Roman
of, uh, Ashes and Dust is the novel that we'vebeen talking about, among other things that Ron
(42:18):
has done. And we're going to wind the show down alittle bit. Ron, in all of your experiences,
you've told us all these incredible stories. Doyou have a story you can share with us beyond the
ones you've already told us, uh, that's happenedto you in the business of writing or in acting or
whatever it is, that's either weird, quirky,offbeat, strange, or just plain fun.
Funny. Yeah, just plain funny. Uh, this is a fewyears back, you know, a couple decades now. I
(42:41):
remember when I was, I guess I was doing mygraduate, uh, degree. Third graduate degree at
Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and I wasfinishing up on my thesis, and I would, um, be
using a floppy disk at the time because that's allwe had, you know. And, uh, I'll never forget, uh.
Uh, I didn't make a backup file and I was workingon my thesis and I, you Know I had a deadline and
all stuff and, and like an idiot, and my wifewould always remind me that hey, you know, you
(43:05):
need a backup file, get another. A floppy disk.
And I never paid attention and I paid the price. Ilost the damn thing. And when I think I found it
was too damaged to be retrieval the informationand I had to start the um, pretty much part of the
thesis all over again. And boy was that. Was thatever uh, debilitating. What a debilitating
experience that was. So I learned a lesson. Alwayscome prepared. And, and uh, and a good piece of
(43:28):
advice I got for would be writers is um, alwaysuh, come prepared. Hire a professional copy
editor, at least a proofreader because nobody butnobod that good. They don't make mistakes. I don't
care if you're a Harvard University professor ofEnglish. Everybody makes mistakes because you see
everybody else's mistakes, but you can't see thatspeck of, you know, of uh, of dust in your own
(43:50):
eye, as the Bible said.
Well that is true. That is absolutely true.
Hire somebody and always uh, be open to have athick skin. And one more thing. Uh, we don't have
time to get on this, but um, I'm just going to putthis as a teaser out there. I don't know know to
what degree AI now artificial intelligence, is itgoing to impact us? Because we might only have
three, four year, uh, years left as writer. Iremember I saw a interview, um, what is it, 20
(44:16):
minutes with uh, with David Baldacci, one of themost commercially successful writers in the world,
you know, and he said that, you know, he's got abig lawsuit against these AI, uh, manufacturers
now. You know, they're stealing his books andthey're putting out there, you know, uh, by
essentially uh, the uh. What AI technology. Uh,and he says we might have only three, four years
(44:38):
left as writers.
It's scary. It's more. More apocalyptic stuff.
More apocalyptic stuff. Yeah, right. I mean, youknow, I think, uh. And I, as a. Speaking as a
history, I mean an English professor, I rememberreading somewhere that my research when I was a
student said that this novel by the name of Pamelawas the first English language novel to be, uh. Uh
(45:00):
is generally considered history's first Englishnovel. 1608 and I might all be coming to an end
now, Steve, in the next three, four years.
It might be. Sadly it is true. But I think that Ihope that humans will continue to create in their
own way. I hope so.
Ron Roman (45:17):
I hope so too.
So Ron Roman, this has been a very fascinating andfun hour on Story Beat. And I thank you very much
for your talk, your energy, and your wisdom today.
I really enjoyed being on here, Steve, andappreciate it. And to the listeners, go out there,
buy the book.
Thanks very much, Ron. You take care.
Ron R (45:35):
Thank you. Appreciate it.
And so we've come to the end of today's StoryBeat. If you like this episode, won't you please
take a moment to give us a comment, rating, orreview on whatever app or platform you're
listening to? Your support helps us bring moregreat story Story Beat episodes to you. Story Beat
is available on all major podcast apps andplatforms, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube,
(45:59):
Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and many others.
Until next time, I'm Steve Cuden and may all yourstories be unforgettable.
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