Author Interview ~ John Anderson

John Aubrey Anderson grew up in Mississippi cotton country. After graduating from Mississippi State, he received an Air Force commission and has recently retired after flying twenty-eight years for a major airline.




What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?


My first-ever effort, a novel, is arriving in the bookstores as I write this.

Abiding Darkness initially anchors itself in the relationship between two children.
Junior Washington is an eleven-year-old black child. He lives in a small cabin out on Cat Lake; his parents work for the Parker family. He’s loyal, compliant beyond what would normally be expected of an eleven-year-old boy, and he’s a committed Christian.

Missy Parker, who lives on the other side of the lake, is the crown princess of the Parker family. At seven years of age she’s beautiful, wealthy, willful, and tough as a tractor tire. And, in the midst of the most defined segregation in our nation’s recent history, this little white girl and Junior Washington are best friends.

Like so many novels set in the South, Abiding Darkness has warmth, humor, and truth in it . . . but because it’s about an on-going war, it has blood on it.

It’s a thriller.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

Maybe the story behind Abiding Darkness would read better if it were filled with words about the personal cost of the process, but the converse is closer to the truth.

Compared to what most authors have to go through to get their words in print, what has happened to me is nothing short of a miraculous gift. Some of you will understand the last three words in this sentence, some won’t . . . God did this.

The journey of Abiding Darkness, from its inception to its release date, amounts to a twenty-year walk in the park. Initially, it was a two-thousand-word short story I wrote for our children—a thing about the impact of a person’s choices. I filed a copy away, and it lay dormant for ten years. I pulled it out about the time I retired from flying for a major airline—sometime in the mid-nineties—and “piddled” with it for five or seven years.

In the fall of 2002, I found myself surrounded by a few hundred thousand words and felt a need to become more focused. In the spring of ’03, on the advice of a friend, I took three chapters and a synopsis to my first-ever writers’ conference and submitted them to my first-ever editor. As it happens, that editor, Gary Terashita, wasn’t looking for a fiction project, but his critique sheet is framed and hanging in our home . . . his handwritten note at the bottom says, “We need to talk.”

And talk we did. We arranged to meet for coffee, and I told Gary I was at the conference trying to trim the odds against my getting published—hopefully down to 10,000 to 1. I’ll never forget his response: “Well, right now, you’re sitting on about 50-50.”

The Black or White Chronicles were born in that little coffee shop . . . and I thank God everyday for Gary, the man who has become my friend and editor.
My appreciation for what God has done for me is too shallow, but I ask Him often to help me more fully understand what He has chosen to give me . . . the gift of getting published.

Do you experience self-doubts regarding your work?

That may be something that will come in the future. For now, I’m too busy writing to give it much thought.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

The only thing that stands out is . . . I initially bit off more than I could chew. I put together an idea that spanned a time period of about a hundred years. My editor caught what I’d done as soon as he looked at the synopsis, and the one book became a series, The Black or White Chronicles. With that said . . .

I don’t track past mistakes well . . . my memory doesn’t work that way . . . and I wasn’t seeking to be published long enough to foul up much.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

“If you’re serious about being published, you need to go to a writers’ conference.”

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

What are a few of your favorite books?

In the fiction realm . . . C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is probably my favorite. I think John Grisham’s A Time To Kill is a great book, and I’ve read it several times. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is, in my humble opinion, a near perfect book. Watchers, by Dean Koontz, is another favorite.

In the non-fiction department . . . I started out to say great things about the Bible, but my words are inadequate. The Bible is the word of God . . . that says it all.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

This may come off sounding self-righteous, but I hope I never get proud of something I get to do with this writing thing.

Your site does not have sufficient space for me to record the myriad things God has done to bring me to this point in my life. The circumstances that propelled this project are saturated with the miraculous. Anything special that happens in my life because I choose to situate myself in front of a computer screen will be only by God’s grace . . . my job is to bang on the keyboard.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

At the risk of sounding eccentric, I think harboring a pet peeve is not unlike deciding what you dislike the most and then posturing yourself to react poorly when you encounter it. It makes better sense to me that I would take things one-at-a-time. Some will be good, and I’ll enjoy them—other things won’t be all that great, and I’ll get over them.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

I’m coming up on four years of meeting deadlines associated with writing (some self-imposed), so I’ve been more time constrained than at any other time in my life. However, there are some things that take precedence over my writing schedule.

Because I have a totally supportive wife . . . and we do have a life . . .
I start each day with my quiet time—studying my Bible, taking notes, praying, and usually reading something from a devotional book while I have breakfast.

I try to get to the gym three times a week (I ride a bike on alternate days), we do some socializing with close friends, we have children and grandchildren with whom we enjoy spending time, and we do church stuff. Thereafter . . .

I disappear into the room we’ve set aside for my writing space, and—except for brief excursions—I stay there all day and most nights until ten o’clock or later. Some days I only get in eight hours, others sixteen. For now, that schedule takes up seven days a week, and I seem to be thriving on it.

I’ll be finished with Book Three within the next few weeks, and I plan never to sign another three-book contract. If I can, I’ll generate one book at a time and play an occasional round of golf.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

I’m afraid this is one of those questions that calls for more knowledge of the craft than I possess because (a) I don’t know anything about other writers’ strengths and (b) I know precious little about my own. However, if there is one attribute I’d like to cultivate, it would be the ability to write faster (see answer to previous question). Words come slowly to me. If I could get them on paper faster, I’d have time to go play golf, take banjo lessons, or wash my own car.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

Finishing The Black or White Chronicles will be no small task. I see it as a six-book series, and I would like for every book to be better than the one before. Thereafter, I would like to be able to do an effective devotional book for men . . . something along the lines of 365 attributes a real man should cultivate as a part of his makeup.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

Not hardly.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

Having a least favorite thing would be presumptuous on my part. A person does not have to be in the writing industry to know that a million people would cut off one of their fingers to swap places with me. I’ve been given this unbelievably great opportunity to work for long hours in a role that gives me energy . . . why would I voice a whisper of complaint?

My favorite? Having people I don’t know come up to me and say things like, “Oh, my gosh! I stayed up all night reading your book. When is the next one coming out?” Or even better, “Let me tell you what I learned when I read your book.”

How much marketing do you do? Any advice in this area?

My website is nearly up and running. I would like to use it as a tool to reach fans, but so far answering interview questions is the closest I’ve come to doing any marketing per se.
Advice? Not yet.

Parting words?

Absolutely.
I’m honored that you would invite me to give my answers to your questions . . . and I appreciate your letting me show up on your site.
And in the to-the-readers vein . . .

For those who cannot be turned aside from the pursuit of being published: Think less about being a writer . . . and more about writing.