The Freight Train
of Love
by
Jacquie Rogers: Thanks for visiting my blog today, John! You're a fabulous writer and creative in other media as well, so it's an honor to host you here. To start us off, tell us what your book is all about.
John Klawitter:
The Freight Train of Love is an action oriented classic war romance wrapped in a murder mystery tied up as a thriller. The hero of
The Freight Train of Love, Clair Moore (not her real name, she is quick to tell us), is an ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and a successful Southern California financial advisor and real estate investor. She is involved with an older man, the highly successful action-thriller novelist Jack Larch. But, with three or four wives behind Jack, Clair is understandably hesitant to commit, even though she has a growing affection for the cranky old genius. But Jack’s wildly carefree youth is now coming back to haunt him in violent and murderous ways...spelling disaster not for Jack himself, but for anyone showing they might be falling for him.
Let's have a chat with three of the main FTOL characters.
Cast
- Clair Moore, 35, athletic, attractive. Clair lives in the guest house behind Jack’s big house in Holmby Hills – but not as his guest; she owns the Spanish style house, having bought it from Jack to save him from financial ruin.
- Jack Larch – “Closer to seventy than sixty,” short, wiry, quick witted, quick tempered. Jack has written scores of highly successful men’s thriller novels, several of which have become action/thriller movies with big name stars. He writes fast, but nobody accuses his stuff of being literature...except Jack, himself.
- Mia My Nguyen - 60, a French/Vietnamese, tough minded, a tiger lady.
The Interview:
Jacquie Rogers: We’re here today with Clair Moore, Mia My Nguyen and Jack Larch, three of the main characters from John Klawitter’s new novel, The Freight Train of Love. First, tell me how did the three of you meet?
(Mia My looks at the others, who nod that she should go first.)
Mia My: I met wild man Jack here in 1962.
Jacquie Rogers: You were his girlfriend?”
Mia My: No. The girlfriend of his best friend. We had our great adventure in Saigon, during the war. It was an impossible thing, to find true love in that madness of war. But young people in love always move to make the impossible come true.
Jack: It didn’t look like it would happen, there for a while…
Jacquie Rogers: (to Clair) How do you fit into this story?
Clair: I actually start the novel, and much of it is carried with my voice. But chronologically, time-wise I come in a lot later. Jack saw me on television, swinging my sweet butt on the sidelines of a football game. He bet his drinking buddies he could, er, get pretty far with me. Once the money was down, he got his agent to fix us up on a date.
Jacquie Rogers: (to Clair) And the rest was history?
Clair: Well, nothing is easy in Hollywood. Jack and I have our problems. He’s something of a wild boy, convinced he’s still looking for his precious Freight Train of Love and not quite understanding that he has to take responsibility for at least some of his blown personal relationships.
Jack: It’s hard to find true love in tinseltown.
Mia My: What about your old saying?
Jack: What’s that?
Mia My: You know, Jack... "when true love comes along..."
Both Mia My and Clair finish the sentence together: “...you’re just a bug on the tracks!”
Jack: (grumpy admission) Yeah, okay.
Jacquie Rogers: Well, I’m confused. What is this story about?
Jack the writer clears his throat. He will explain all: The Freight Train of Love is two stories, actually.The first takes place in Saigon in the early 1960s. That’s the love story where Mia My here meets my buddy Joe and Joe and I nearly get killed for love or youthful lust or whatever you want to call it. The second takes place in present day Hollywood. It’s Clair’s story and my story, you know, how I am forced by circumstance to take a hard look at how I’ve been handling my life. Mia My has a big hand in that. And she helps Clair, too, as only a su tu hao gam can.
Jacquie Rogers: Su tu hao gam?
Mia My: Tiger Lady. The women of Vietnam are very strong. Stronger than the men, I think.
Jacquie Rogers: Wait a minute. You were in the first story, the Saigon story. How do you end up in Hollywood?
Mia My: Oh, that is easy one. After I marry my Joe, I come to San Francisco. Joe and Jack stay good friend over the years, until Joe...well, he dies...
Jacquie Rogers: Oh, I’m sorry to hear your husband passed away. How did that come about?
Mia My: He died to save me. But to find out exactly how, you have to read The Freight Train of Love.
Jacquie Rogers: (nods approval) Good marketing moment.
Mia My: (smiles) We do what we can.
Jacquie Rogers: I’m still a little puzzled; just what is the story about.
Clair: It’s two stories. The author tells two stories at once, like that Stephen King novella Stand By Me. But unlike Stand By Me, which is a modern day story bookending a back story, The Freight Train of Love is two stories both moving forward. It may sound complicated, but when you are reading the work, they fit seamless together. As a reader, you don’t notice.
Jacquie Rogers: So it is a classic war romance?
Clair: Wrapped in a thriller...
Jack: ...that is, in turn, wrapped in a mystery...
Mia My: ...with terrible murder like cherry on top.
Jacquie Rogers:
The Freight Train of Love. You’ve heard about it straight from three of the main characters. It’s the new novel from John Michael Klawitter, and it’s available as a
trade paperback or a
Kindle book from all the usual suspects.
About John Klawitter:
His first job was that of junior copywriter at a famous advertising agency where a highly paid Creative Director declared John Klawitter to be 'the most undirect-ible person he ever met.' A few months later John won an EMMY award for a documentary he created with world-famous Artist Reporter Franklin McMahon, Sr.
In the decades since, John Klawitter has created successful films and videos for major agencies and for most of the Hollywood studios, including Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount, and Hanna-Barbera, working with such legends as Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Orson Wells, Leslie Nielson, Arthur Pierson, Art Babbett, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, Bugs Bunny and Goofy. (How many directors can say they actually directed Goofy?)
Relying on his tinseltown experiences, John Klawitter has written eight novels and six non-fiction books. In 2009 he was a double winner: his novel
Hollywood Havoc won an Epic Author's award for Best Action Thriller, and his non-fiction book
Tinsel Wilderness won Best Non-Fiction Book.
