Ask the Author: Ron Rayborne
Answered Questions (9)
Ron Rayborne
Why AN occurred? Don't ask.
Ron Rayborne
From my essay, The Sacred Secret:
"And so it was for the mammals, for over sixty million years, living and dying, species coming and going, but always full of the vitality that life in a world that was wild and free had brought them.
And then, quietly rising, there appeared another animal, this one walking upright on two legs – and soon, everything changed…."
"And so it was for the mammals, for over sixty million years, living and dying, species coming and going, but always full of the vitality that life in a world that was wild and free had brought them.
And then, quietly rising, there appeared another animal, this one walking upright on two legs – and soon, everything changed…."
Ron Rayborne
Thanks for asking! The answer may appear self-serving, but perhaps also obvious. The middle Miocene. Course, the middle Miocene was a real time, but Opalescence is my accounting of it. I'd love to see the Earth at it's peak. To see what it is capable of. What would I do there? Explore, adventure and live in peace.
A fantasy perhaps, but you did ask! ;)
A fantasy perhaps, but you did ask! ;)
Ron Rayborne
I've always felt that I had this story to tell. When I was around 25 years old I happened to be in a bookstore and was looking at a book by Björn Kurtén called The Age of Mammals. There I read a comment by him about this special time on our planet when life was at its peak. That stuck with me, and I wondered what it was like. Finally I decided that I had to know and spent many years researching the time. The more I learned the more determined I was that there was something unique there, a story that hadn't been told yet. I am happy to bring this vision to others.
Ron Rayborne
My inspiration began when I was a small child. I grew up in a, well, less than optimal household, yet when I was outside, lying in the tall, waving grasses, looking at the sky through the leaves of a tree, I felt at peace. There is a peace in nature that is delicate. You have to be in the right frame of mind, one that is accepting, open, perceptive and non-hurried.
The other thing that inspired me is my angst at seeing the way calloused, selfish, ungrateful people are treating this beautiful planet: like a big supermarket, without a care for the spirit behind it, or our impact on other species. So I guess anger and sadness at this greed has been a motivator. I don't like reading the news, but often find myself doing so only to find my hackles rising at all the crap that consciousless people among us are perpetrating, not just on each other, but on the rest of the world.
The other thing that inspired me is my angst at seeing the way calloused, selfish, ungrateful people are treating this beautiful planet: like a big supermarket, without a care for the spirit behind it, or our impact on other species. So I guess anger and sadness at this greed has been a motivator. I don't like reading the news, but often find myself doing so only to find my hackles rising at all the crap that consciousless people among us are perpetrating, not just on each other, but on the rest of the world.
Ron Rayborne
Just an experiment - brewing my own plum wine, from an American Plum tree in my backyard. So far I have managed to pop a pressure balloon and spill most of the contents of one bottle.
Ron Rayborne
To write a good book, I think that you have to start with a love of your subject. The next is research, research, research. The details. The planning. I don't think I could ever be a pulp, churn 'em out for bucks writer. I wouldn't love it.
Ron Rayborne
Having gone through a life of being misunderstood, for me, the best thing about writing Opalescence is that I was finally able to express myself, and to (hopefully) make myself understood. The next best thing is that I was able to do something to communicate to people what it is that we are losing. So many people today have no idea. We are penned inside our buildings and behind our computers, televisions etc. Our little, hermetically sealed cocoons of humanity. Yet there is a whole (natural) world out there that is passing us by.
Ron Rayborne
I'm not sure that I'm qualified to answer this question as I've only written one book. But it's the one book that I've wanted to write for so long. At first, I worried about writer's block. I think the power of suggestion makes it worse.You hear so much about it that it begins to take on an impression of the inevitable and insurmountable. There are huge books written about how to overcome writer's block. Just the size of those books makes it seem like an onerous task. So I had this story inside me, and it felt like a dam that was ready to burst, but worry about writer's block was stopping me.
My book is very detail oriented, in that, there is a lot of science in it. That took years to research. During this time, I was also an avid hiker. Thus I built up experiences that helped me know what I wanted to have happen in the book. I made lists of everything. After a while, the book, we'll the skeleton of it, was staring me in the face. All I had to do then was clothe it. When it seemed like a baby about to be born, I retreated to my writing room, put on evocative music and began. It drifted, swirled and cascaded through me. It was the most fun I've ever had. The editing, though, was the opposite of that. In the quick writing of Opalescence I made a lot of annoying typos, which has been as painful to fix as writing the book was enjoyable.
Anyway, I didn't force it. I let it flow on it's own. I think there is a counter-force when you try to force things. Relaxing and loving the story was like removing the dam.
My book is very detail oriented, in that, there is a lot of science in it. That took years to research. During this time, I was also an avid hiker. Thus I built up experiences that helped me know what I wanted to have happen in the book. I made lists of everything. After a while, the book, we'll the skeleton of it, was staring me in the face. All I had to do then was clothe it. When it seemed like a baby about to be born, I retreated to my writing room, put on evocative music and began. It drifted, swirled and cascaded through me. It was the most fun I've ever had. The editing, though, was the opposite of that. In the quick writing of Opalescence I made a lot of annoying typos, which has been as painful to fix as writing the book was enjoyable.
Anyway, I didn't force it. I let it flow on it's own. I think there is a counter-force when you try to force things. Relaxing and loving the story was like removing the dam.
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