The ranks of over 50 writers will balloon as the baby boomers and
former rock 'n' rollers trundle off to the mystical land of AARP. With the
current economy as it is, many will confront the dubious pleasures of
retirement before they had planned. Some will eventually turn their attention
to things they never had time to do in their former workday world, such as
travel. The world will be filled by graying heads wearing white Nike gym shoes,
traveling in groups to far-off places they previously had only read about,
while eating food they would have meticulously avoided at home.
Others will fill their days with various forms of volunteer work,
devoting their much needed and considerable talents to worthwhile endeavors.
Doing good has traditionally provided an appealing approach to an active life
style for many retirees.
Still others will turn their talents to writing. Many will be
poorly prepared for such a venture. Only a few will have the advantage of
a classical education that produces journalists and educators who are adept at
working magic through words. The others will eventually discover that many of
the technical problems associated with writing can be solved through
participation in widely available writing and grammar courses that welcome the
over 50 set. What these seniors may lack in technique can be compensated
for by the wealth of experience they bring to the game. Let me site the
best example I know. Me.
I had the good fortune to spend the last 20 years of my working
career as head of international marketing for a consumer electronics firm. This
provided ample opportunity for travel--to over 100 countries before I was
through--forming the foundation for my first book "Selling to Newly
Emerging Markets." After retiring, I served as an advisor for The
World Bank, and the United Nations on developing the private sector
in the newly independent states of Eastern Europe and Central
Asia. This was the basis for my second nonfiction book "Doing
Business in Newly Privatized Markets."
I also volunteered my services to the IESC (more commonly referred
to as the senior citizens's Peace Corps) and was assigned to a city in Ukraine
previously isolated by the Russians because of their concealed ICBMs in the
surrounding Carpathian Mountains. I was the first person from the outside any of them had ever met. The nonfiction
narrative derived from this experience was "Journey to a Closed
City."
My first attempt at fiction, "The Spy with a Clean Face"
was set in Ukraine during the recent political turmoil colorfully referred to
as the "Orange Revolution." The spy novel won the Silver
Quill Award from the American Authors Association.
A few months ago my second spy novel "Death on the Silk
Road" was released by Beach House Books shortly after I turned 83. Somewhat
coincidentally, the central character is a retired international guy on a
consulting assignment for a European NGO at a mining project in the remote Tien
Shan Mountain area of Kazakhstan. Oddly enough, that is what I did for the
Vienna-based UNIDO and where I did it. Funny how things tend to work that way.
Admittedly, I am fortunate to have acquired a number of
convertible experiences in my life but so might have a doctor, lawyer, or a
Indian chief. If those backgrounds don't work for you how about aTinker,Tailor, Soldier,
Spy ?
Russell R. Miller
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