This week's giveaway, FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS,
is a Cold War Mystery about an Air Force Captain shot down over
Vietnam in 1970 and the untold story of why he never returned home. Forty years
later, a journalist investigates what may be the sudden reappearance of the
pilot and follows the trail to encounter conspiracy, secrecy, and a secretive
and seasoned operative who may have answers to the question about “What
Happened to Jacob Walden.”
To
enter: comment on this post or any of The Writers’ Lens posts
between now and midnight, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Please include your email address so we can reach you if you win.
Autographed
Paperback can be purchased from Warren's website and also through links on his blog
I had the pleasure of meeting Warren Martin recently at 6 North Cafe. His debut novel is
“Forgotten Soldiers: What Happened to Jacob Walden,” a Cold War era POW
story. Warren served 21 years in the United States
Army, retiring in 1996. He met his wife Debbie shortly after joining the Army in
1975 and they’ve been together ever since. They had three children and while in
the Army traveled extensively as a military family to military bases in Kansas, North Carolina, Washington, Okinawa Japan,
California,
and back again to some of them. After
transitioning out of the Army, Warren worked the next ten plus years for
Domino’s Pizza as a Regional Manager in Seattle
and Philadelphia and later was a franchisee in Ohio. He often tells people “I don’t know what I
want to do when I grow up and am always looking ahead to the next chapter in
life.” Warren completed an MBA from the University of Michigan in 2010 and is currently
working on a PhD. in business and leadership. He also pursues writing, research, and participation and support of
fraternal, charitable, professional and other organizations.
The
Writers’ Lens is about "Bringing fiction into focus." What
brings your writing into focus-- the characters, the stories, the love of
words? I
started writing about five years ago and the initial focus was to tell an
entertaining story while also telling a story about what I felt was a forgotten
issue. Through writing a fictional account of a characters trek as a prisoner
of war, I wanted to bring attention to what I considered a forgotten era and
the forgotten POW/MIA’s of Vietnam and the Cold War. The building of characters
is important and my current book and future books will focus on the character,
but will also have a message that concerns bringing attention to issues of
social importance, be it keeping alive the memory of forgotten POW/MIA’s, or
other issues.
What do you think readers will like
about your book?While
the book is a work of fiction spanning almost a forty-year period, the thing
that readers will like, and are liking, is that it reads as true story. I think readers from every generation and
those unfamiliar with the Cold War and Vietnam will find interest in the
historical aspects in the book while also learning things they didn’t know. The
positive feedback from readers also tells me that readers like being drawn into
reading the book and enjoy the fact that they find it difficult to put it down.
Lastly I think that readers will like learning about the POW/MIA issue, and my
hidden agenda and effort to remind people to Never Forget our POW/MIA’s.
How much fact is in
your fiction? This is a debatable question. The main character is fictional, but
the timeline spanning almost forty years does include actual events like the
Son Tay Raid, Hanoi Hilton, the Soviet Union, and other historical and factual
events. Readers have already stated they felt it was a true story, and while
the main character is fictitious, what happened to Cold War era POW’s and MIA’s
was not fiction, and what happened to those who never returned home has been
the subject of debate, controversy and conspiracy theories.
Would you share a bit about your next project? The
current project I am working I have tentatively titled “Operations Green
Light,” a Cold War action story which
takes place in 1989 about a Green Beret A-Team and a C-130 Air Crew that finds
themselves behind the Iron Curtain and must figure out a way to get back home,
while avoiding starting World War III.
I’m hoping to have it completed and out by next summer.
What's the highest
compliment someone could make about your writing? While there are many compliments that can be given, I think I’ve
already been given two of the best compliments that someone could receive for
writing a fictional book. One is “I couldn’t put it down” and the other is “I
thought this was a true story” as well as those who’ve asked if it’s a true
story. A film maker and author friend and mentor, Ken Farmer, told me once that
the ability to Suspend Disbelief is part of entertaining the reader of books
or watcher of films, and feedback has told me I’ve accomplished that.
______________________
This is T.W. Fendley. Thanks for reading and commenting on The Writers' Lens.
You can find out more about me at www.twfendley.com.
