Lawrence E. Rothstein, author of Ripped Genes, a Tri-Star Investigations mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to share some of his thoughts and advice on retirement.

Welcome, Lawrence. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Recently, I was asked to think about my retirement activities in response to the following questions:

Did you know what you would be doing in retirement before you retired, or did you retire and then decide what you wanted to do? How have you had to adjust your plan(s)?

Do you like what you are doing and enjoy this time of life .. and/or not? What would help you enjoy it more?

Is it hard to get everything you want done, or is there ample time? Do you have a schedule or just wing it every day? 

What is one important piece of advice you would give to someone preparing to retire?

If you were to do it all over again, what would you change about the game plan you had for retirement? 

Here are my thoughts on retirement:

I am Lawrence Rothstein, Professor Emeritus of Political Science. I retired from teaching in 2015 after a three-year half time phase out. I returned to the University briefly in 2017 to get the Social Science Institute for Research, Education, and Policy off the ground.

Let me start with: Retirement is great, although I now say I’m into my third career. After practicing law and 43 years of teaching, I am  writing mystery novels: My debut novel Venetian Bind has been out since May 2024, the second Tri-Star Investigations mystery Ripped Genes, which is featured in this blog, came out in January, and the third in the series The Tell-Tale Art is in first draft.

I knew I’d be busy during retirement with new things I wanted to do and things I wanted to devote more time to. In some ways, I am busier in retirement than I was while working. I also knew I wanted to take on more family responsibilities such as cooking, shopping, and some cleaning duties so my wife could be freer for her tutoring, keeping fit, and taking care of other family members. I started the activities I have cultivated further in retirement before I fully retired. I began the novel writing during my half-time phase out to retirement beginning in 2012. (By the way, I highly recommend taking advantage of any such phase out if available.) Writing mysteries was something I always wanted to do as I am an avid reader of mysteries and enjoyed writing creative scenarios for my law classes to analyze.

I also started other activities long before retirement. I came back to the clarinet after 50 years to play in the Wakefield Concert Band and in retirement I’ve added three other musical groups. Of course, I should practice more. Athletic activities take up a lot of my time. I play tennis at least twice a week and in good weather love to ride my bike. I have also been active with committees of the RI Department of Health dealing with privacy issues that I researched during my academic career.

With regard to being an author of mysteries, I am a scheduler. I am a member of a great weekly writing group (three out of five of our members have published novels). This requires that I contribute a chapter every week. The difficult part of authorship is marketing and promotion. I love writing fiction. Often when I think I must spend more time promoting my work, I decide to write another chapter. Other activities like meetings, band rehearsals, and tennis are also scheduled

I’ve been very lucky in that I am doing the things I hoped to do and have not changed my expectations greatly although I do wish there was more time during the day, particularly time for that reinvigorating afternoon nap. I would also like to do more volunteer activities in the community. The recent controversies surrounding AI have also made me want to continue some of my related research into privacy and technology.

I’ve been asked what is one important piece of advice I would give to future retirees. I will give two pieces of advice. The first is to cultivate before retirement some non-work activities you would like to spend time on after retirement. It might include hobbies, sports, volunteer activities, or a new career.

For the second piece of advice, I must give credit to my dad who, after his retirement, gave talks to those about to retire from his workplace at the Chicago regional office of the Veterans Administration. He said, “In retirement, you should establish a routine of activities at least some of which get you regularly out of the house. Remember that the marriage vows are ‘For better or for worse’ but not for lunch.”

I hope some of you readers out there will find these remarks helpful. For those who are far from considering retirement, keep them on file for future reference.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Lawrence, and good luck with Ripped Genes, the latest book in the Tri-Star Investigations mystery series. Readers can learn more about Lawrence E. Rothstein by visiting the author’s website and his Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and BlueSky pages.

The book is available online at the following retailers:

Amazon Kindle  – Amazon Paperback   Barnes & Noble – Author Website  

About Lawrence E. Rothstein: Lawrence is a retired lawyer and university professor who has published in constitutional law, privacy law, political theory and labor law. Born and raised in Chicago, he is now residing with his wife and family in beautiful southern Rhode Island.  He has lived and traveled widely in Europe.  As an avid reader of crime fiction, he has always wanted to write detective novels. He considers this his third career. Venetian Bind, published in May 2024, was his first Tri-Star Investigations novel. Ripped Genes is his second and he is well into his third, The Tell-Tale Art. As a lover of food and cooking, he includes many scrumptious meals and some recipes in his novels and on his website.