Meet Richard Cutler: Rochester resident, retired engineer, former town selectman, and the author of a science fiction novel trilogy soon to become a four-book series.
The first book, Course Correction, speculates that in 2085, overpopulation will send a fleet of Earth starships into space to find a new home for humanity, even as a recurrence of the Spanish Flu decimates that Earth population to make the starship occupants the lone hope for humanity’s survival. Meanwhile, aliens in jet packs resembling angel wings are guiding the Earthlings’ decisions, something these extraterrestrials have been doing for generations of world history.
Cutler said it was because people who read it and liked it asked, ‘When’s the next one?’ that he proceeded to write and publish two sequels, Carbon Neutral and Altered Horizon, and the soon-to-be completed fourth book, Guided Destiny.
He explained that he had always been a science fiction fan, especially of classic authors like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. As an engineer, he said, “I was writing reports and requisitions where I was not allowed freedom of thought. So, I wanted to write something where I could write a speculative story.”
He started writing Course Correction in 2000 right after he retired and had more time to write. But that means the Spanish Flu outbreak plotline was not a purposeful prediction of the 2020 COVID pandemic. Instead, he said. “I asked what would happen if the Spanish Flu happened today. What kind of pandemic would that be? I’m also cynical on politics. If the population is going extinct or overpopulated, what would the politicians do?”
According to Course Correction, a politician’s response to a population problem would not be effective: send people out in starships on a half-baked plan to find another habitable planet. “A grand plan for someone else to implement,” he said.
That’s where the importance of the angel-like aliens becomes apparent. “They are here to correct the course of mankind,” he said. “Mankind has a tendency to go off course. Could an outside influence be affecting mankind?”
His sequels have since been tales of the Earth survivors struggling through space exploration adventures without much support from their home planet.
Amazingly, Cutler puts together his stories with no outlines, he said, just a story premise that he lets follow its natural course. “All my stories are ‘What Ifs.’ They are there to make people think.”
Besides writing, Cutler has traveled to local libraries, but not for talks about his books. He speaks about the misconception that science fiction is more speculative than factual.
“Jules Verne has us go to the moon in the 1800s. Fiction can become fact,” he said.
He’s served Rochester for decades as a select board member and on the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Memorial School Building Committee, the Town Master Plan Committee, the Open Space Committee, and the COA Certification Committee (twice). “And probably some other stuff I don’t remember,” he said.
Why does Cutler write this type of science/speculative fiction? “It’s fun to write and take these obscure ideas and just put them together,” he said. “My mind can go off on its own different direction. That’s my primary reason. But it’s also to have fun. Make people think.”
His books, published by Briley & Baxter Publications, may be purchased at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Booksamillion.
By Michael J. DeCicco