The Cool Woman - BIRTHDAY PARTY! GIFTS! FUN!!

One of the neatest blessings I receive from blogging is getting to know authors, and John Aubrey Anderson has been such an encouraging, praying, supportive friend! It is a great honor to feature his latest book, The Cool Woman, and I hope the insight he shares with you about his work is a blessing.

I first met John as I was reading the Black and White Chronicles. I highly encourage you to read these books if you haven't already! They are fantastic! You will also gain background for the characters in The Cool Woman and learn John's heartbeat..."knowing God and making Him known."

Please give a warm welcome to John Aubrey Anderson as he discusses his latest book! And stick around! He brings great gifts to the party!!

Your background as a pilot really shines in this novel. Did your experience make the aerial scenes harder or easier to write? Was is difficult to capture that experience on paper?

Thanks for the good words regarding The Cool Woman. And, yes . . . spending 35 years in military and civilian cockpits made everything about capturing the aerial scenes easier.

Difficult? Yes and no. I’m a slow writer, and capturing the scenes in a way that would make sense to a non-pilot took a little extra time.

Did you ever serve in the military? Viet Nam?

Yes and yes.

I spent six years in the Air Force and did three tours in Southeast Asia. During those times, I was based mostly on Guam and in Thailand.

Thailand was the better duty because the missions were so much shorter . . . a few hours max. Too, being in backcountry Thailand gave us access to a culture where people measured their wealth based on the number of friends they had.

What was your favorite scene in this story? Why?

Excellent question . . . but it’s impossible to share much of anything without giving away elements of the story. Instead, I think it’s fair to say that a high percentage of the scenes are charged by the characters and plot. The book consists of closely coupled scenes where people are resolving conflicts with words . . . or weapons. I describe the book as action/adventur

e, my editor says it’s a suspense novel, and Oliver North pointed out that Romantic Times gave it 4.5 stars. Throw in “historical” because it covers aspects of the war in Viet Nam and you have a romantic historical suspense adventure.

Which character did you find particularly enjoyable to create? Why?

The Cool Woman is “staffed” by men and women I like . . . people for whom I feel admiration.

Bill Mann probably heads the list of favorites because he’s based on one of my best friends from my Air Force days, but several others come to fore as well. Mann’s wife and his best friend’s wife are both special, as are a couple of other women; his squadron commander and two or three other me

n also play out in a way that makes them notable.

This is a good time to make a statement about heroes, so I’ll back up here and share a statement I made several years ago . . . around the time Abiding Darkness was published. I oversimplified my thoughts and encapsulated them in the statement: “My heroes might not always wear a gun, but they’re always gonna be John Wayne.”

If you read Abiding Darkness you know my main character didn’t pick fights with the bad guys . . . but she didn’t walk around them either. My heroes are human, and they may not always be godly, but they’ll always be men or women who exhibit attributes I want to cultivate in my own life.

The main character in your novel is a black man, Lieutenant Bill Mann. Although you’ve written from his perspective in another story, how easy/difficult was it to write about his experiences in the Air Force? The racism he faced?

For you readers: This question was originally positioned as the first

in the interview. I moved the question down here to a less prominent spot because The Cool Woman isn’t about a black man who chooses to be a pilot. It’s about a pilot—a gifted one—who just happens to be a black guy. He’s far from being the kind of man who wears his color on his sleeve, and his being black gets less attention in the story than the fact that he is in a war on several fronts . . . with the North Vietnamese, with his wife, and, more so, with himself. It’s reasonable to expect the man’s race to trigger some trouble for him, but in the two or three encounters Mann has with people who react to his color, I think you’ll like the way he hand

les the situation. I did.

Of the difficulty regarding writing about the experiences of a black man: regardless of the situation . . . I would be presumptuous if I assumed I could fully capture what what a black man has to deal with in a predominantly white Air Force.

Bill Mann and his wife were good dancers – are you?

My wife is a great dancer, and I like dancing with her.

What is the greatest take-away value you want readers to discover as they read this story?

Good question.

On the chance that non-Christian reads the book, I would have him or her hear God’s truth in my fiction.

For the Christian who reads The Cool Woman . . . or anything else I write . . . I have myriads of “wants.”

I want my readers to want more of God.

I want them to close the book and be thankful for a story well-told. People who teach writing courses tell us we need to give our readers an occasional chance to breathe. I don’t know if I’d call it a take-away value, but . . . I want my readers exhausted when they finish the story . . . gasping for breath.

I would have readers finish my books with a feeling of appreciation for a novel that let them escape to a place where they laughed and wept with people they liked while not having to worry about hearing profanity or being exposed to the kind of scenes that taint their hearts.

Do you already have another book in progress? Can you tell us about it?

Truth be known, I have my next book started, but I haven’t gotten very far with it. The marketing demands for The Cool Woman have been taking up most of my time . . . and that’s a good thing.

Of what the book’s about . . . I’m not sure yet. I’m one of those guys who pretty much discovers what he’s writing when the words show up on his computer monitor.

What exciting things is God teaching you in your life right now?

God never fails to teach me that He’s sovereign . . . that’s an ongoing lesson. I cannot open the Bible without being reminded of His love and care. I can’t look back at my life without remembering His constant protection, provision, and guidance. I look at the assurance of my future and know I’m not grateful enough for what He did for me through His Son.

Closing words of encouragement you’d like to share with your readers?

Absolutely.

Most of the time, when I sign a book, I’ll write “Choose Well” above my name. That two-word admonition can guide a thinking person’s life.

On any given day, you and I are offered hundreds of opportunities to choose. The fruit of the Spirit . . . love, joy, peace and on and on . . . grows on a nurtured vine of good choices. To the degree that you and I choose to align ourselves with God’s grid . . . we move away from the clamor of an earthbound herd that would have us live a life of mediocrity.

God gave us His guidelines in written form . . . all we have to do is make sure we refer to them often and . . .

Choose well,

John

John comes bearing great gifts to his party!! There will be two lucky winners chosen! The first will receive an autographed set of the Black and White Chronicles! The second winner chosen will receive an autographed copy of The Cool Woman! So please leave a comment and your contact information to be entered to win these amazing books!!