New Earth: The Search for Justice

Rickard D. Pittman
Pen Name R.D. Pittman
Rick spent most of his early youth on farms in the Parker County Texas area. It was there that he was exposed to the rich heritage of story-telling, prevalent in the social structure of small town Texas. Weekly trips from the farm to the nearby town square afforded him the opportunity to sit and listen in on old men telling their stories of hunting and fishing. Occasionally, he would be rewarded with a story about a distant relative that was a horse thief, or an Indian fighter, and on one occasion a Texas Ranger. In his youthful excitement listening to these men spin their tales of the old west and their colorful lives, he never questioned the voracity of the story teller nor thought to put much of a test to the credence of their facts. He was fascinated by the art of storytelling, how the storyteller would stop and look away for a moment, then spit tobacco as if it were an exclamation point. Raise an eyebrow to indicate skepticism, drop their head and lower their tone of voice to show sorrow or regret.

Rick learned at an early age that his parents didn't have the discretionary funds other kid's families had. He found it necessary to use his imagination to create a world of fantasy that entertained him. A simple block of wood became an aircraft carrier, or a tank, or a dump truck. The trees that surrounded the farm became his Sherwood Forest and as he raced through them imagining he was being chased by men on horses. His mother would often ask him what he had done that day and he would tell her some fantastical story about chasing down buffaloes, or fighting a whole army of Nazis, or how he imagined he was an airplane and flew over the farm and saw her putting out the wash on the clothesline. She always said he had such an active imagination as a child, she was surprised he could sit still for a moment for fear he would miss something.

As all children must do, with regrets to Peter Pan, he had to grow up. After establishing himself as a top rate football player in high school, which in small town Texas is tantamount to Sainthood; his father took a job with McDonnel Aircraft in St. Louis and moved the entire family to Missouri his freshman year. To Rick this was like a whole new country. It was also a cultural shock to him; he had never seen so many people in one location at the same time. There were more than just Baptists and Methodists...and there were people of color in the same classroom, the same locker room, a new world with different cultures and beliefs. He promised himself after graduation from high school he would not sit still until he had seen this wonderful world with all it had to offer.

After a stint in the Air Force and deciding that he didn't want to starve, he completed his degree in Accounting and Finance at the University of Missouri. Rick fulfilled his promise he had made to himself and traveled extensively around the world. And in the summer of 2008 he did what he had been dreaming about for over thirty years, he wrote his first book and spent the next three years revising it. It wasn't until 2011 that he engaged a professional editor to prepare the books for publication. His first efforts at storytelling produced a trilogy, New Earth: Project O.N.E., New Earth: The Search for Justice, and New Earth: The Sedna/Kern Incident.

He has never been happier than his days as a young boy growing up in Texas, but he feels he is the closest he will ever get now. Enjoy his books...he did.