Published: October 16, 2009 11:43 am      

Kentucky native/world traveler writes debut novel

ASHLAND — Eastern Kentucky and the Middle East might seem like worlds apart, but R.J. Huddy sees similarities.

The Pike County native left home after high school, driven by a desire to see the world. He received a master of business arts from Heriott-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has taught at a small college in the United Arab Emirates for 13 years. Now he is a published author, too.

Huddy's book, “The Verse of the Sword,” is about an eastern Kentucky man named Harrison Bacon.

The reader will see that all through Harrison’s personal crises and the religious war he gets caught up in in the Middle East, the strength of his grandparents and the old way of life form one of the few certainties Harrison has to steady him.

Huddy shares that with his character: Despite his travels, he has fond memories of the little town in Pike County.

“I loved growing up there. It was a place of real character, with a connection to the past that’s missing in many other places. It never leaves you,” he said. “If you’re lucky enough to have a loving family, good friends and caring teachers, it give you a strong base to build a life on — or anybody, not just a writer. I am absolutely a lifelong hillbilly.”

How did you end up in U.A.E.? How many years have you lived outside the U.S.?

I was teaching at an American college in Japan, and suddenly one day we were informed that the college was bankrupt, and we had six weeks to leave the country! So I did what any unemployed person does--sent out about a hundred resumes, and got back very few responses. Then this college in Dubai gave me an interview, and 13 years later, I’m still here.

What drove you to travel and live in so many different places all your life?

I just had a strong desire to see the world, to see how other people and cultures dealt with this thing we call life. Even in grade school I devoured novels set in exotic places. Even travel books. By age ten I could tell you names of hotels in Paris, Stockholm, Madrid — places that seemed about as remote as Mars. It was nuts! So I knew myself well enough to know that if I didn’t broaden my experience while I was still young and healthy, I would regret it later. After college I joined the Peace Corps, which sent me to Morocco. Then I heard I could teach English in Saudi Arabia and actually get paid for it! And so it went.

What has been the greatest lesson you’ve learned by traveling so much, or how has your lifestyle made your life what you had hoped? What regrets, if any, do you have about living out of the country so long?

No matter which country you’re in, I think that a very natural thought is: What would my life have been like if I’d been born here? How would I be different, and how would I be the same? And what accounts for this?

You always end up facing the odd fact that no matter how different people are in language, religion, dress, food, you name it — whether you’re in Thailand, Japan, Morocco or Kentucky, there always seems to be a stable ratio between the number of wonderful people you’ll call friends for life, and others you just want to hide from.

Just taking note of the similarities and differences keeps life fascinating. Still, there’s something lost as well as gained when you live away from home. I’ve missed so many Chrismasses with my family, so many births and weddings, those big turnings in the lives of loved ones. I miss watching those hills starting to turn to blazing red and gold about right now.

Luckily, with easy communication these days I feel closer to people than used to be possible. And with satellite TV I won’t miss any more World Series!

How did you develop an interest in writing books/short stories?

Mountain people are storytellers by nature, right? I spent a lot of my childhood listening to my grandfather tell “bear tales", as he called his made-up stories. Then at UK I studied English Lit and tried my hand at writing stories. But something told me I just hadn’t experienced enough of life to have much of value to say, so I put it aside for years. I took it up once again when I started wondering what I would do with my retirement years. Then it occurred to me that there was really no need to wait until then. So I sat down and wrote “The Verse of the Sword.”

How many books have you written?

I have a follow-up almost ready for publication. It’s called, oddly, “Learn Thai With Me,” and is about a Kentucky man who gets entangled with the CIA in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan before the fall of Communism. My editor has read it and has indicated that they’d like to publish it. And I’m working on a third right now, “No Senator’s Son,” about a Kentucky congressman who gets himself in a real mess by running for president with a pro-Palestinian agenda. Both of these are actually funnier than they sound in thumbnail. Oh, I’m trying my hand at a screenplay, too. A thriller. The plot is so secret I can’t even give you the thumbnail. I just wish Alfred Hitchcock would pop back up for one more go.

In “The Verse of the Sword,” the influence of your roots is prominent, as is the influence of the culture you are currently in. Do you juxtapose these cultures in most of your writing? Are the differences and similarities of the cultures a huge influence on your writing in general and on your life in general?

Yes, the way in which cultures are similar and different, and how that plays out in the lives of individuals, is the most fascinating thing about living abroad. It affects everything from the big, metaphysical questions, right down to what to have for supper. Almost all the characters in “The Verse of the Sword” are attempting to escape the life they were born into, yet they find it follows them everywhere. It’s about the need to reinvent oneself, and the limitations on that process.

How have your friends and family reacted to all your years of living so far away from your hometown and your roots?

In general, everybody sort of realized early on that I was more likely to live halfway around the world than to live next door. And, as I mentioned, nowadays with email and quick photo exchanges and all that, we still stay in close touch.

Do you consider “The Verse of the Sword” controversial in any way? If so, how?

Oh, yes! It will press up against a lot of people’s sensitivities. The main reason is that the story shows how similar religious fundamentalists are, whether Christian or Muslim. The two share so many things in common, primarily because the written religious texts are to be taken literally. They allow no room for metaphor in the Bible or the Quran, yet a great many people on either side of the religious divide see the other side as the enemy. What I’ve learned is that, except for the terminology, they’re just alike.

“The Verse of the Sword” is available on Amazon.com. A Web site is expected to be available Friday. The book was published by XPat Fiction, which publishes fiction dealing with cross-cultural experiences.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.