Featured Interview With James David Rich
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
David Rich grew up on a ranch in Colorado. His dad introduced him to tractors and cattle, and his mother to music and travel. He toured the country with an amazing group of fellow misfits in the fighting 529th Air Force Band, attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of Chicago Law School, and by some fluke began practicing law in Phoenix with Lewis and Roca, the firm that handled the Miranda case (which he had nothing to do with). David tried private practice but found the cushy job of assistant attorney general more to his liking. (His appointment as judge pro tem by the Maricopa County Superior Court was a resounding success because attorneys immediately settled any case to which he was assigned.)
He and his third wife decided they’d rather travel than work, so they saved every penny on a ten-year plan that took eleven years. Since retiring in his forties to become a full-time traveler, David has lived in almost every country on the planet. He has written dozens of travel stories for publications ranging from International Living to GoNOMAD.com, and his website, David and Mary Around the World, at MyTripJournal.com has been featured on LonelyPlanet.com. In his first book, Myths of the Tribe (1993), he examined the influence of organized religion on ethics, government, and economics, second edition August 2019. RV the World, now in its second edition, combines his seventeen-year tour of 170 countries with lots of practical advice. David also wrote The ISIS Affair, putting the fun back in fundamentalism, a satire on religion and nationalism in Syria. In 2019 he published Myths of the Tribe, when religion and ethics diverge, 2nd ed, and Scribes of the Tribe, our greatest thinkers on religion and ethics. All books are available on Amazon and wherever books are sold online. Antelopes, a modern-day Gulliver’s Travels, was published in Nov. 2020, and his latest book, Sail the World?, an absurdly true story and prequel to RV the World, was published in October 2021.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Read set of Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedias at age 6 and never stopped reading. Started writing about age 13.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors are all physicists, such as Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking. For fun I read mysteries and detective stories, and what I’d call absurdist entrées in these genres, such as Stephanie Plum and M.C. Beaton.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is Sail the World?. Have you wondered how it’d be like to dump the rat race to sail around the world?
Here’s how that worked out for the author, a gripping, constantly on-the-edge-of-disaster sailing adventure punctuated by the unique and wacky characters from the worldwide cruising community, all with the same wild and crazy dream.
“My 35-foot Erickson sloop Grendel was sinking in the Pacific Ocean. I’d bragged about sailing around the world, but two hours after I began, it was a disaster. I was slip-sliding around Grendel, searching for leaks, enveloped in an eerie blanket of fog with zero visibility, surrounded by invisible hazards. Glub, glub.”
So, it didn’t go exactly as planned, a reality like nothing you could envision, a comedy of errors on land and at sea. An absurdly true story and prequel to RV the World.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
James David Rich Facebook Page