Interview with Dr. Adelia Ritchie, PhD
A retired scientist, entrepreneur, painter, book author, and writer
Dear Friends of Medium, one of my leadership goals as a writer, editor, publisher, and curator is to introduce influential writers and leaders in their fields to my audience via interviews starting in 2019. When I became a Friend of Medium last year, I asked the early adopters of the program what they expected from this subscription. I found that these avid readers expect curated content and visibility to the work of influential writers.
I enjoy publishing and curating impactful, insightful, relatable, memorable, and eloquent stories in my publications, introducing their writers to my audience, and amplifying them in my stories and multiple platforms.
In this post, I will share an interview I had the pleasure of conducting with Adelia Ritchie, PhD who is a long-term contributor to the Medium community. Her stories in my publications stand out and are chosen for further distribution due to their profound impact, rich information, life lessons, engaging content, and practical insights.
Dr Ritchie’s remarkable writing style captivates our readers, conveying her vast experience and tacit knowledge in a conversational tone, usually with some humor. As I am a reader and curator of multiple publications, her content stands out to me because she skillfully distills extensive information, making it exceptionally accessible to readers while entertaining them.
This brief interview offers a peek into Dr Ritchie’s background, helping you connect with her on a personal level. I hope you enjoy reading this interview script as much as I did when conducting it to learn about the background of this inspiring and empowering writer.
Hi Dr Ritchie, tell us a bit about your background,
Where should I start? Okay, I was an Air Force brat, born in Guam, then two years in Japan, where I learned Japanese from my nannies, finally settling on a large farm in northern Virginia, USA, when my dad was stationed at the Pentagon.
I loved science from day one, always tutored and encouraged by my father. I remember his struggle to stifle a roaring belly laugh that day when, as a six-year-old, I asked him to please bring me some atoms from the Pentagon so I could build an atomic-powered rocket.
Later, in high school, I was the only girl in physics class, and it slowly dawned on me that my life was going to be different from all the other girls. I eventually went to grad school at Northwestern University, majoring in organic chemistry and physical chemistry.
My doctoral research centered on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of carbon-13 heterocycles. I went on to teach organic chemistry, working summers under contract to a Navy research lab, and eventually was hired on as a civil servant in the Department of Defense.
I worked for several defense contractors over the years, moving around the country from gig to gig, with a two-year stint at the Defense Acquisition University as Dean of Research before returning to contract work with the Bechtel Corporation for the Ground-Based Missile Defense System.
My favorite gig before I semi-retired to become an entrepreneur was a joint project between the State Department and the Defense Department, based out of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, as part of the International Defense Acquisition Resource Management team, spending ten years traveling worldwide teaching the military departments of developing nations how to acquire and manage major weapon systems according to methods established by NATO countries.
When I “retired” from government service, I started a pet product manufacturing firm that created and marketed a line of skin care products for pets. I sold the business after ten years and retired to focus on my first love, writing. I now live in Costa Rica and work as a technical writer, struggling to find enough time to spend painting, gardening, and writing thoughtful essays for ILLUMINATION.
What are your hobbies?
I love to paint in watercolors and sometimes with pastels. I have kept travel sketchbooks for more than 20 years full of colorful sketches of places I’ve been, things I’ve seen, and adventures I’ve had. I have found that when drawing or sketching a scene, it’s burned into my memory forever, more perfectly than any photograph.
My other principal pastime, besides writing essays and poetry, is gardening. I was a Master Gardener in Washington state, growing nearly all the food for my late partner and myself. Berries, herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuces, amaranth, squashes, beets and turnips, even saffron! Always organic and fresh-picked.
Now, here in Costa Rica, I have oranges, starfruits, heirloom tomatoes, squashes, and more. The challenges are different in a tropical climate, including berry-loving iguanas, but that deep connection to the earth keeps my blood pressure low and my heart happy.
What are the top three books that affected your life?
One of the most profound and impactful was “Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawken. With the global economy based on growth, including that of population, the sustainability of business and manufacturing processes is a crucial concern. I have used the principles set forth in this book dozens of times in business, in politics, and in life.
“Sapiens,” by Yuval Noah Harari, left me gobsmacked and slack-jawed with its god’s-eye-view of the history of the world, including the evolution of mankind, condensed into one un-put-downable tome that defines what it means to be “human.”
Another, entitled “1491,” by Charles C. Mann, portrays the deep history of the pre-Colombian Americas, a story that has little to do with what I was taught in history classes as a youth. Now, as a resident of a tiny Central American country, I have a completely altered perspective on colonialism and the devastation it brought to the indigenous peoples and their civilizations.
Why do you write on Medium?
First, why I write at all is because I cannot not write. I’ve been writing all forms for decades: scientific research papers, textbooks, blogs, poetry, and essays. I was Editor-in-Chief of the Military Operations Research Society journal for several years. I love to write.
Now semi-retired, I needed a new venue for my essays and poems. A good friend of mine, a retired journalist, got me started on Medium several years ago. We had been playing with words on Facebook, especially enjoying writing 75-word novels there, when he suggested I try Medium.com.
I had been keeping a blog for several years, but writing on Medium seemed more communal, with other writers interacting, clapping, commenting, and having fun with each other. It was a good experience overall, and it earned a bit of money right from the start, enough to keep me coming back. Now, my audience has grown considerably, and I want to keep writing for them, as well as for me. I have so much to write about, and having folks show interest in what I have to say is most fulfilling.
What are your values as a writer?
Honesty, passion, vulnerability, entertainment, education, connection. I believe readers possess finely tuned BS detectors, which I never want to set off! And I believe readers more deeply engage with writers who are passionate about what they are saying. Readers also want to connect with someone whose defenses are down, who is fearlessly exposing their inner selves to the world. I also love to entertain, and many of my pieces are humorous, sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes not.
There is so much happening in our world these days that is difficult to understand and easy to ignore because of a lack of knowledge. For these reasons, many of my essays deal with science that the reader can directly relate to and that affects them on a daily basis.
As an educator, I feel compelled to teach what seems to be missing from the general understanding of the populace. And finally, to make a lasting connection with a stranger based on something I’ve written, to have that kind of impact, is extraordinary. To make those connections, all the values mentioned above must be solidly in place.
Why did you join ILLUMINATION, and how did you find it so far?
I’ve been on Medium since 2017, and I’ve been with ILLUMINATION for more than two years. If I remember correctly, it was my friend Dan Lee — aka “Shadowgnosis” — who suggested I start submitting here because the quality and reach of the publication seemed to be significantly greater than some of the other pubs I was writing for.
There are many excellent publications on Medium, but I feel ILLUMINATION’s broader audience and multiple publications under the ILLUMINATION umbrella expand my reach as well.
I also enjoy the “street creds” of having the “Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated” tagline at the top of my articles.
What are your top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?
There are so many! I’ve published 235 stories on this platform since I first dipped my toe in these waters back in 2017. I suppose my favorite pieces concern subjects that I’m passionate about and that I believe more people need to have a basic awareness of.
Over my entire youth I had been ignored, my complaints discounted, told I didn’t have an understanding husband, and diagnosed “patient reassured,” when in fact I suffered a debilitating disease that approximately 10% of all women suffer in their child-bearing years. Discussions around women’s reproductive systems have been taboo for too long, not discussed in polite company, and we have been labeled “hysterical” or “dramatic” when our complaints are quite serious. It’s well past time to open this discussion to all women, the men around them, and their physicians. The lack of attention to women’s unique medical issues has been an ongoing abomination, and it’s time we protest loudly and insist more research funding be directed accordingly.
2. Blue Carbon: What Is It and Why Do We Want More of It?
It seems to me that humans have become deadened to the existential threats of global warming and climate change. It’s similar to that metaphorical frog in a pot of boiling water, where the frog doesn’t notice the gradual temperature change until he eventually croaks instead of leaping out of danger. We humans are block-headed when it comes to a slow-moving threat, believing somebody will fix the problem with technology, and life will continue as before. It’s NOT true and I will continue to write about various aspects of climate change, what’s causing it, and what we could/should be doing about it NOW.
I host a biweekly writing group on Zoom where we read and gently critique each other’s works. One of the frequent “complaints” we hear — or utter ourselves — is that we’re “blocked” or our muse didn’t show up or that the little man in our head didn’t give us a report this morning. Judging from the huge number of articles written about this issue, it appears to be a common affliction! With it comes guilt, stress, and the uttering of excuses. I believe there’s no such thing as “writer’s block” and that, when we don’t have something to say, it’s simply because we are refilling our empty wells. There shouldn’t be guilt or stress associated with taking time off from writing. It’s the same as driving your car across the country. You drive and drive, and then you stop and take a break to refill the gas tank. Writers should relax and enjoy these periods of rest and regeneration!
4. On Space/Time, Black Holes, and Consciousness
This is one of my favorites because it shows that scientists and deep thinkers can also have a sense of humor. My friend Dan Lee, a fellow contributor to ILLUMINATION publications, and I often sink into late-night text conversations about the meaning of life, what is “consciousness,” is science just another branch of philosophy, and the like. It is truly a rare and wonderful thing to find a fellow thinker with whom to have these “down-the-rabbit-hole” chats. With all the recent news coverage of black holes and the mysteries they hide from us all, articles like this one can shed some light and humor on very complex science, making it less scary and intimidating, and a little bit of fun perhaps, to non-scientists.
5. What Is an Ecosystem and Why Does It Matter that We Understand it?
When most people hear the word “ecosystem,” they believe they understand what that word means. But most do not. To grasp this concept, one must stand well back and take a god’s-eye view of the planet, including all the other planets, suns and stars, radiations, etc. And one must understand the concept of balance, of a system in equilibrium, where when something is out of whack, something else changes to push the system back to balance. Generally speaking, the education system has failed us by not teaching “systems thinking,” and this article shows how a lack of this training is keeping us from appropriately dealing with factors causing climate change. It’s almost a foreign concept to most people that everything is connected to everything else, and that disturbing one thing sets a ripple of disturbances through every other thing. Our educational systems need to be improved to elevate how we view and understand our world.
What are the success factors for you as a writer on Medium?
For me, when someone likes one of my essays enough to subscribe to have my stories sent by email, that’s a huge win. Writing is a kind of performance art, much like acting or playing a musical instrument, in that we do it because we love doing it, we can’t stop doing it, and we want an appreciative audience to connect with. That’s number one.
When one of my essays is chosen for a boost, that’s another big win because then the audience becomes huge, and that results in a monetary payoff. As a working writer, a.k .a. “digital nomad,” every revenue stream helps keep the light bill paid.
But the most satisfying success factor is when fellow writers engage with me. I have made several friends on this platform, exchanging comments, encouragement, claps, and sometimes even an invitation to submit to another publication.
All of these factors are gold for this writer, keeping me inspired, encouraged, and, most of all, writing.
What do you recommend to the new writers on ILLUMINATION?
I recommend that all new writers here be patient and persistent.
It takes time to establish a rhythm, to become familiar with the submission guidelines and philosophy, and to build up a base of faithful readers.
Most important, though, is never to sacrifice quality for expedience. As in LaMott’s “Shitty First Drafts” essay, write it, let it soak, rewrite it, and edit it again and again before submitting your piece. There’s no such thing as too much editing!
What are your plans as a writer?
My plans as a writer have evolved over several decades, from writing a textbook on organic chemistry to contributing to technical tomes, authoring research papers, drafting legislation for the US Senate, publishing a monthly newsletter for a dog fanciers’ association, board member, and contributing editor at Salish Magazine, and currently working as a remote editor and technical writer for a firm in Texas.
I’ve been writing for 50 years. If I were to have a plan now, in retirement, it would be to continue writing about what I think is important, even urgent, for readers to understand and care about. And in my spare time, I will continue to write about my adventures in and love for this incredible country of Costa Rica.
My first book about living in this country, “The Accidental Expat: Adventures in Costa Rica,” is currently in press, and the sequel will be ready for final edit in a couple of months. I’m also continuing to research and write a memoir about my amazing father, who lived in a tiny village in central France for most of my adult life. He made me what I am today.
Can you please show us some of your paintings?
Yes, I will be happy to share a few.
Ghost Lovers
Lipstick Palm
La Foret Mystere
Blue_Red Water
Glass Gem Corn
Thank you for these beautiful paintings and for introducing yourself so eloquently, Dr Ritchie.
I read many of your stories, but this short one really touched my heart, and I am glad that Medium curators boosted it.
Thank you for reading this interview script. I hope you explore the profile of Adelia Ritchie, PhD and enjoy her stories as much as I do. You may contact Dr Ritchie on ILLUMINATION’s Slack workspace for collaboration.
I also introduced several other influential writers. Here are some recent samples that you may start exploring.
Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni (PhD)
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