Lewiston resident Ronald Fowler’s military experience conducting security sweeps to evaluate risks and vulnerabilities has led to a lucrative civilian life teaching criminal justice and providing security for local businesses.

Ronald Fowler Submitted photo

It also paved the way for Fowler’s first novel, “The Last Plan.” The first book in the four-part series, called “Phase One: Origins,” was released earlier this year. The United States is hit with a nuclear weapon and the president, David Moore, is strangely absent.

Raised in New Jersey, Fowler served with the Maritime Security Response Team for the United States Coast Guard and as an executive officer for the Air National Guard with both the 243rd Engineering Squadron and the 101st Security Squadron, both based in Maine. Fowler has taught criminal justice at both Central Maine Community College and Oxford Hills Technical School. He holds a doctorate in education and learning from Aspen University.

Fowler, who formerly owned his own security firm, currently works as safety director and facilities manager at Industrial Roofing Companies.

What is the premise of your book, “The Last Plan”? “The Last Plan” is dystopian fiction that will have four parts. The overall premise of the story will be breaking the increasingly insane gridlock that nuclear weapons reinforce worldwide. They allow radical and archaic ideologies to exist without challenge and force increased tolerance of atrocities; for fear of nuclear reciprocity. This book, “Phase One: Origins,” is the origins story of a man who had the unique path, trauma, insights, perspectives and opportunities to derive a plan that would set a progressive chain of actions into play. In the final pages of the book, the main character, David Moore, is not tied to one political party, nation, ideology or set of universals. His primary goal is to unite the globe under one ideology and set of universals that remove the regressive, religious and anti-Darwinian drag of nuclear and national competition.

Where did the idea for the book come from? I spend a lot of my personal time studying the condition of the current geopolitical situation, nuclear proliferation and the history that tend to become repetitive futures. We are coming out of a presidential administration that unwittingly aggravated the nuclear posture of the world and opened it back up for a Cold War-era nuclear arms race and proliferation. The proliferation effort is ramping up with nations that no longer enjoy the full confidence of American protection. This book is a fictional story, a cautionary tale over the path we are on and its only logical end, short of massive and forceful intervention.

You have served in the military and worked in the fields of criminal justice and security. What was it about that background inspired you to write a book? Those fields have developed a forecasting and critically thinking infrastructure inside my brain that helps evaluate the critical past and relevant current trends, and forecasts the possible risk(s) and mitigation(s) that may arise. This is true, also, from my time in two different branches of the military. Risk is calculus and the more variables that are quantified and understood, the better the forecasting and mitigation become.

Have you always been drawn to dystopian fiction stories? I have, yes. This is primarily due to my overthinking of everything. I can get so focused on a single topic that I will learn everything possible about its past and try to forecast its future. This is helpful when conducting security consults in dangerous areas and when teaching a topic in a critical fashion. The other side of that is the nihilism that tends to come with forecasting a future based on the frequency of past-repeating behaviors. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior with a twist. Dystopian fiction is the best way to use that twist as a cautionary tale.

This is your first novel. Was writing this book easier or harder than you expected. In what way? Writing the book was not easy, but far easier than the editing, formatting, and publishing process, that I did without a publishing company. I outsourced the artwork and editing to two different agencies, and formatting, as well. To publish, I had to learn about copyrighting, IBSN numbers and identifier pages that include a Library of Congress number. The education to get this book from my computer in someone’s hands, was extensive and exhaustive. There are a lot of gimmicks and publishing agencies that pretend to be traditional publishers and try to trick you into big-dollar contracts. That was some very difficult water to navigate; I am thankful for my self-confidence and belief in the story’s appeal, to go it alone.

How long did it take you to write the book?  What was a typical writing day like for you? I wrote this book over an 18-month period. I began before the COVID pandemic, chipping away at it when I had free time. I would write 4 to 5 pages and edit them on evenings and weekends when I was not constructing lesson plans for class the next day or finishing my own homework for my Ph.D. classes. Once the pandemic hit, I continued teaching online and taking classes, but found much more free time to kick it in high gear and get it finished.

What’s the last book that you read? The last book I read is titled “The Black Banners Declassified: How Torture Derailed the War on Terror After 9/11.” By the brilliant former FBI agent Ali Soufan. If you have Audible, this book needs to make your library. What an incredible, well-written and well-read piece of history that will break your heart. Ali Soufan is a true patriot and I am thankful for his courage in sharing this story, his story.

What do you do to relax in your free time? I love to paint. I wish I had more free time to do so. The pandemic was my time to dig into my craft and really get to the projects I have been stalling. Also, I enjoy writing, reading and hiking with my beautiful wife.

Where can people find the book? The book is sold in both paperback and eBook on Amazon under: “The Last Plan Phase One: Origins.” Or they can contact me on any of my social media accounts or through my email fowlerronald50@yahoo.com for signed hard covers.