STORYTIME TAPESTRY

Special Treat  - Nicole Stevenson??™s Weekly Interview  

April 18, 2005

AGAINST All ODDS ??“ Interview with Roger Dean Kiser

Nicole M. Stevenson

                 Intro: By the age of four, Roger Dean Kiser author of ???Orphan A True Story of Abandonment, Abuse and Redemption,??? had been abandoned, first by his parents and then his grandparents and placed in a Florida orphanage. His web site (American Orphan) has a yearly readership of 2.6 million. He is a man that has truly risen against all odds.

NS: Asner is credited as a factor in the publishing of your first book Orphan how did you two meet?

RK: I received an e-mail from Mr. Asner in January of 2000. He told me that he had read many of my stories and wanted to know if I would like to have a few of my stories published. I agreed, and two weeks later, I was under contract for two books. Two years later Ed made a short movie based on my short story ???The Bully.???

We are presently discussing a thirteen-week television series based on my book ???Orphan, A True Story.???

NS: How many stories have you authored?

RK: I have written about 500 stories in the last five years.

NS: What is the title of your latest work?

RK: I am working on a book titled ???RUNAWAY.??? A collection of sixty short stories telling about my life and experiences while living on the streets of Jacksonville, Florida.  Some stories tell of the many dangers while others tell of the kindness shown to me as well as the lessons that I learned.

NS: Can you share with us some of your past?

RK: I spent my entire childhood living in an orphanage in Jacksonville, Florida. My memory cannot recall one split-second of what it is like to experience the love, kisses or embarrass of a mother, or a father.

At age fourteen, the juvenile court committed me to eighteen months at the Florida School for Boys (Reform School) at Marianna, Florida. After my early release, I refused to return to the orphanage and returned to the reform school. From there I made my way to jail and then onto prison. I walked out of prison on February 6, 1969. That was the first day in my life I had ever been free. A time I had prayed for many times. All I ever wanted out of life was to be able to go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water without asking permission. I have never been in trouble again.

I have been married six times; have four children and eleven grandchildren.

I have always been a responsible, hardworking adult. However, not being able to show love or express affection has become my downfall.

Presently, much of my time I spend writing short stories, giving speeches and talking with schoolchildren about abuse. I love to fish, boat and camp. The joy of my life is my grandchildren, for they are the ones who taught their ???Papa??? how to love, without being afraid.

NS: When you considered coming out with the story of your abuse did you have support?

RK: I had no support at all, not from my family or my friends. The very people who I thought would support me (My former orphan brothers and sisters) turned their backs on me. They did not want to hear about, read or think about the horrors that took place in that orphanage. They did not want their wives, husbands or children to know that they had suffered such abuses.

NS: Through your pain, do you feel that you have some form of solace?

RK: No, before I realized that I was not the ???bad guy??? it is too late to find any comfort. I find comfort in trying to save those children whose hearts, love and trust is not yet destroyed, by adults.

NS: Can you use one word to describe your works?

RK: ???Heartbreaking???

NS: Do you have any children now?

RK: Four children and eleven grandchildren.

NS: What do you wish would happen in terms of the care provided to Orphans?

RK: The children in these orphanages need to have some of the freedoms allotted to children who do have parents. These orphan children need to spend as much time as possible with their friends who live in a normal family setting. When the children leave the orphanage they have become accustom to living in an ???institutionalized??? environment. How can they go out into a ???normal world??™, start a family, and build a ???normal life??™ for themselves based a lifestyle they have never seen or experienced before?

NS:  Do you feel that all great talents have experienced some sort of pain?

RK: I feel that most great talents have experienced pain. It is that pain that drives someone to do great things.

NS: What is your motto?

RK: ???If you see the wonder in a fairy tale. You can take the future even if you fail???.

contact Carol Roach if you wish to comment or contact Roger Dean and or Nicole Stevenson for a possible author review.