My name is Ronald Kenneth Downing. I currently live in Beaverton Oregon with my wife Brandi Downing and daughter Jasmine. One house cat named Shadow and a much energized dog named Heisen, who is part Beagle and Dachshund. I might add that he is a rescue dog that we adopted almost two years ago. Heisen has brought our family a lot of joy. We have lived here for about twelve years and liked the area. We attend worship services at the Church of the Nazarene in Hillsboro. Just an hours drive to the west, you have the Beach. To get to the beach, you pass through the Tillamook Forest where you can hike, go off-roading, camping, and fishing. To the east, we have Portland their signature slogan "Is keep Portland weird" and Portlanders do a good job of that and they are proud of the weirdness. Award winning Vineyards and Micro Breweries surround us, anyone who visits the area is sure to find a wine or beer that excites their taste buds.
Most of what I write is fiction. I never have been able to write short stories, because there just never seems to be a good place to quit. I would have to say that my interests for telling stories and creative writing started in second grade at Crestwood Elementary School, Located in North Little Rock Arkansas. Our teacher misses Rice was an older woman very friendly yet stern. She was a grandmotherly type of teacher. One day when I was supposed to be writing my spelling words, she caught me working on a story that I had started during recess the day before. I tried to hide it, but she had already noticed that it was not my spelling words. Misses Rice took my story from me and asked me to work on my spelling. She returned to her desk and read all ten pages before she looked up and smiled at me. Later that morning she escorted me to my special education teacher Beth Parker, who also read it. They decided that it would be best for me to work on it in her class. I had a good friend back then, named John Hopkins with whom I had shared the story. John also liked to write and asked me if he could participate, so the two of us wrote our first short novel together. It was the total length of a legal pad all 40 plus pages. Misses Parker was kind enough to edit it and type the manuscript for us, and this was years before teachers had computers in the classrooms.
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I was born in Landstuhl, Germany, October 12, 1960. Although I was not old enough to remember it, I have also lived in Rantoul, Illinois.
Our Family then moved to Moses Lake Washington. We lived there from 1961-1965.
In 1965, we moved to Jacksonville Arkansas. My father was in the United States Air Force. He retired in 1973, so I grew up in the Little Rock metropolitan area. I attended school from the first grade through the twelfth grade and graduated in 1980 from North Little Rock Northeast High school. I will say that I probably would never have graduated from High-school if it had not been for the love and compassion of an outstanding High-school Principal and a few teachers, and my parents that went above and beyond their duties. As well as some awesome friends. School subjects were never easy for me because I have a learning disability, My mother had recognized that I had trouble learning certain subjects early on. She and my father advocated for me every step of the way as well as other kids and parents. They did this through an organization that they volunteered with often.
I was married to my first wife in November 1982 we have three great kids who all now live in Missouri. I also have two grandsons who live in Missouri.
For two years, I worked as a long haul truck driver where I traveled through all forty-eight states and parts of Canada.
Even though fiction is what I enjoy writing the most, I have several years’ experience working in sales and marketing. I spent the better part of twenty years in the Recreational Vehicle industry. I still manage to keep up with what is going on in this industry through family members who continue working with Recreational Vehicles. In addition to that, I read a lot about it, visit local dealerships and attend local shows. My wife and I own a travel trailer so we camp from time to time this gives me the ability to write about various aspects of the industry. As well as camping and traveling. I enjoy a variety of things, which I will often write about here in my blog. In my blog, you will also find recipes because cooking happens to be another passion of mine. I will assure you that any recipe you find in my blog is something that I have indeed cooked myself, so it is tested before it is published.
I have done a fair amount of research on Human Trafficking; it is an ill in our society that I feel very strongly about, and our society has not done enough to reduce this horrific problem. I am a firm believer that we will never get rid of it entirely it is just like the war on drugs it is lucrative to the criminals who are trafficking people. Until it becomes less profitable and until the consequences are significantly higher than the profit the criminals can make, we will be plagued with this problem. I often write about this issue and others like it to create public awareness.
You will also find that I do not have a lot of patience for political correctness. I do believe in human rights. I believe in God, I also believe in the Constitution as well. What I do not agree with and have little or no tolerance for are issues of national or local customs and traditions. People expect Americans to change our traditions and customs because it offends people of other nationalities. The United States does not mail out gold leaf invitations to residents of foreign countries to invite them to move to the United States. These people are either here illegally; they have pleaded with the United States government to allow them to live here to avoid death or persecution in their country of origin. Alternatively, maybe they are here on a Student Visa or work Visa. Regardless of why they are here if they do not like our customs and traditions it is their problem, I suggest that they pack up their crap and go back to the place where they came. I make no apologies for my views, and I know that may make people mad but for each that despises my views there will five who applaud them.
Along with writing, I am working on building a Non-Profit Organization called the Hillsboro Creative Writing Center. The Writing Center is to be a place where all writers twelve years of age and older will be able to work on their writing projects. To find out more about the Hillsboro Creative Writing Center, please visit us at www.hillsborocwc.org.
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