The Foreign Service Journal, June 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2013 55 AFSA NEWS ACT I VE AFTER ACT I VE- DUTY When I retired from the Foreign Service in September 2012, I think I worried for all of two days about whether or not I’d be able to maintain the schedule of activity I’d become accustomed to over the past 30 years. Then, my two-day vacation was over and I promptly forgot I’d ever had such strange thoughts. I’ve been more or less full-time employed since I was thirteen, the year I started high school. During those four years, I worked nights for a poultry com- pany, studied during the day and was a stringer for my local newspaper. My first published fiction was in 1957, when I won a Sunday school magazine short story contest. After high school, I joined the army, and for the next 20 years, wherever I was stationed, I moonlighted for local newspapers and maga- zines as a writer, photogra- pher or artist. During the late 1970s, when I was assistant public affairs officer for the 18th Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, I did news and photo essays, theatrical reviews, historical and travel articles for local newspapers and regional magazines, and was editorial cartoonist for a weekly in a small town just outside the base. I also con- tributed poetry to a number of anthologies. A Non-Retiring Life BY AMBASSADOR CHARLES RAY In 1982, I retired from the army and joined the Foreign Service. My writing slacked off a bit, especially in the early years as I established my new career. I still did the occasional travel article or poem, and in the early 2000s I began working on my first novel, a mystery set in Wash- ington, D.C. I love mysteries, but those with a D.C. setting were, in my view, populated with too many politicians, lobbyists, spies and high roll- ers. I wanted to see some- thing that showed the amaz- ing diversity of the ‘common’ citizens of the area. It took me nearly ten years to get that first one done. “ Color Me Dead” was pub- lished in 2008, and was the start of a series that is now up to number 16. The story of Al Pennyback, a retired army officer turned private detective—a man who hates guns and injustice, and views politicians and bureaucrats with disdain—seems to reso- nate with a rather loyal cadre of readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Sales are mod- estly steady and most of the reviews have been good. My first published book, though, was a small tome on leadership, “ Things I Learned from My Grandmother About Leadership and Life ,” which grew out of conversations I had with a young econom- ics officer and speechwriter when I was ambassador to Cambodia. I have a rather homespun leadership style (a la Will Rogers and Mark Twain), and he suggested I write a book about it. It seemed an interesting project, so in 2003 I began a draft, and in 2008 it was published. The following year, I did a follow-on, “ Taking Charge: Effective Leadership for the Twenty-first Century .” Both books can be found in the State Department Library—something I’m quite proud of. I’ve always been an eclectic reader, and my writ- ing reflects that. In addition to my mystery series and three books on leadership, I’ve done a photo-journal of my travels through southern Africa, a two-book sword and sorcery fantasy series, a book of short stories, an urban comedy/fantasy about a 40-year-old loser who is bedeviled by the spirit of his grandmother, and a parody of “ Alice in Wonderland ,” which features a young inner city kid who stumbles down a rat hole and discovers a fantastic world beneath the city. “ Wallace in Underland” is probably one of the most fun things I’ve written. Oh, and I also still do ad writing and various articles for the Yahoo news site. I’m a content manager for an online Texas travel destina- tions site and I manage two blogs. My blogs reflect the way my mind works—they’re all over the place with pho- tography, art, advice on writ- ing, my personal philosophy and, at times, strong doses of humor. Am I worried about run- ning out of something to do and being bored? I don’t think so. I have a quota of 1,000 words per day—some- thing I learned from a veteran journalist in North Carolina— and now I’m able to manage more than five times that on a daily basis. At that rate, my list of pending writing projects will be exhausted sometime in the next cen- tury—maybe. n Amb. Ray joined the Foreign Service in 1982. He served in Freetown, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Ho Chi Minh City and as ambassador to Cambodia from 2003 to 2005, and to Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2012. He retired from the Foreign Service in September 2012. To keep up with Amb. Ray, please see charlesaray.blogspot.com and charlieray45.wordpress.