Blazing a New Trail

Retirement means a whole bunch of things. But it usually doesn't mean starting a new career.

At 85, Don Ruch has done just that.

Last year, he published his first novel — Dangerous Solution — which he’s since followed up with two sequels.

Ruch, an Eastonite of 12 years who moved to Norwalk in 1957 and lived in Weston for 20 years after that, spoke with Patch Tuesday about how he began writing and his advice to fellow retirees.

“Until early 2008, I had never written a thing,” he said. “I had no interest in writing. The thought never occurred to me.”

And how quickly things change.

“Once I got started, I realized I enjoy it. I realized I wish I started writing 50 years ago,” Ruch said, adding he’s proof it’s never to late to change careers or try something new. “I had a long career before this, a typical business career.”

Ruch said he had the idea for the first book for about 10 years, but never did anything with it. Then one day, he decided to put pen to paper.

“I thought it’d make a good story,” he said. “That’s how the first book came out. People who had any idea about [writing a novel] should do it.”

The book, Dangerous Solution, is about a United States colonel whose son was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber, Ruch said. The colonel decides to put an end to suicide bombers and comes up with the idea that in order to prevent them, he’d have to gather a team of vigilantes. The team would retaliate by killing a suicide bomber’s family after an attack.

"The thought is a message to would-be suicide bombers: If you have thoughts of becoming a suicide bomber, you'll get away. Of course you'll be dead, but you'll also be killing your family," Ruch said. "It makes them think twice about becoming suicide bombers."

Ruch said the story has interesting characters and and interesting twist at the end.

The characters are interesting enough, Ruch said, that he decided to incorporate them into his next two novels — Laser and Royal Kidnap — as well.

Admittedly not a "Shakespearian writer," Ruch said what he's interested in is "a good story."

"That's what I try to do," he said.

It took quite some time for his first novel, published by Comfort Publishing, to be bound. Ruch said he sent letters to about 70 publishers and agents and only heard back from one. The process proved very time consuming.

"Thankfully, this was right around the time when the eBook phenomenon was beginning," he said, adding he's worked with The Al Kaufman Group to format his second two novels, releasing them in that medium.

Ruch doesn't expect to put down the pen anytime soon.

"I'm halfway through my fourth book," he said. "I'm 85 years old. My health is excellent and I expect to live to be 100 — which means I've got 15 more novels in me."