We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rick L. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rick below.
Rick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I wanted to know more about the experiences of my father-in-law, David Stein, in WWII. He was a navigator on a B-17 bomber. His plane was shot down over Germany, and he was held captive in a German stalag in the last nine months of the war. I learned about his experiences from his military records and family interviews. As I dug into his story, I wondered what it was like for him and other American airmen, particularly those who were Jewish. It eventually evolved into a book, Navigator Down! A Jewish POW in Nazi Germany, that covers these experiences from enlistment through training in the States, transport to and life on their Italian bases, their bombing missions, capture and its aftermath, liberation, and the return stateside. I found quite a few oral histories about what Jewish airmen experienced while in captivity, but I had difficulty in finding stories that aggregated these experiences to get an overall sense of what their lives were like while in German captivity. I believe that these are important stories to tell.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
In college, I thought I was a pretty decent writer until a history professor dispelled this belief in my senior year. He got me to concentrate on improving this skill. During my career, I have been blessed to have supervisors, coworkers, and others who have helped me along the way better hone this craft. I have had the opportunity to write for different purposes: legal writing, grant-writing, publication writing and editing, marketing, and more. I’ve come to realize the differences in these various types of writing. It has helped me hone my research and writing skills. Reading a lot has given me perspective on how to write in a way that is engaging and readable. After we have travelled, I have written about our travel. Lately, I have concentrated on the Jewish aspect of the places we have visited. I am most proud of the fact that I have self-published my first book. I am now in the throes, if I can use that word, of marketing the book. That has presented both a challenge and an opportunity to grow another skill set.
Have you ever had to pivot?
From an early age, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. Like many kids growing up, I wanted to become a professional. I didn’t know much about different careers, so I kind of landed on lawyer through a process of exclusion. I took a straight path from undergrad through law school and was a licensed attorney by age 25. I wanted to work in a legal field that made a difference for people in need. I landed a job as a staff attorney for Legal Services, representing folks who were indigent in civil legal matters like housing, public benefits, and family law, among others. I did this for four years. My wife got a promotion, causing us to move to another city. I played Mr. Mom for a number of months. In my job search, I dropped my resume to a state agency HR department. I got a call from a program director in that agency who said he liked the fact that I was a lawyer, as this expertise would be helpful for bill drafting and legislative analysis. He hired me to work in a program that was employment and training for persons on welfare. I had a succession of other jobs in education and social services where I used my legal skills to some extent as an advocate and otherwise, while not practicing as an attorney.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I find it most rewarding when people reading the book tell me they didn’t know about something I’ve written. I want my readers to want to learn more about the experiences they’ve read about in my book. I have to confess that I’m a pacifist. I hope that readers will consider the human cost of war and not just see it as such a glorious thing. I’m not the first one to come up with the notion that history is boring for many people because it often tends to be mostly about details. Like a board game, who were the players, who won and who lost, and the moves along the way. The human element tends to get lost among the multitude of facts. I want people to consider how we can resolve our differences without acts of physical violence, another impulse that motivates my writing.
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