James R. Olson Transcript

March 29, 2008

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors. My next guest is James R. Olson, author of “An Eagle Unchained,” a political novel. Welcome to the show.

James R. Olson: Thank you, pleased to be here.

Kent: Tell me a little bit about your newest novel.

James: The “Eagle Unchained” is a political novel. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool patriot, but I do believe that our government has gotten out of control, and it’s interfering in every aspects of our lives, that the career politicians have lost touch with the American people and do much of their legislation for the benefit of the special interest groups and lobbyists who donate huge sums of money to their election campaigns. So, I wrote the “Eagle Unchained” as a way of pointing out some of what I believe are common sense solutions that career politicians refuse to address.

Kent: And I know you are giving away your book online.

James: Yes I am. One of the biggest fears of an author of course is obscurity. I believe that the way to get the word around is by word of mouth; and I believe what I’m saying in the “Eagle Unchained” is important enough that we would love to have a lot of people read it, tell other people about. So, if I have to give it away, I’m more than willing to do that.

Kent: You’ve had quite a history of book publishing. Give us a little nutshell of where you’ve come.

James: I published my first back in 1973, “Ulzana,” a historical fiction. It won several awards. That was published through Houghton Mifflin. I became disenchanted with traditional publish and I’ve investigated quite a few avenues since then. I published another historical fiction called “Brother,” two mystery stories, a kind of a series, and one other general fiction. The other general fiction is currently being considered for the Pulitzer. I hope to find out in April how that did.

Kent: You’re newest book “An Eagle Unchained,” it’s a political novel, which is a little bit of a change for you. What was the inspiration for that?

James: Well, again as I said, I’m just kind of disgusted with the way that government has gotten bigger and bigger and become less in touch with the people and it’s interfering with some many aspects of our life - not only the career politicians, but the career bureaucrats. And so, I wanted to just do my part to let people know that there are other options.”An Eagle Unchained” is the story of a man probably most similar to Ross Perot, who ran for president back in the 1970s, a business man rather than a career politician who reaches out to the people instead of going with the support to of the political parties. He starts his own political party.

Kent: The book itself is a novel.

James: Yes.

Kent: Does it talk about an ideal government. What’s the premise?

James: Well, as I said, the premise is the man running for president because he also feels that things need to be changed and that the career politicians aren’t addressing the problems. The president of the United States - although we kind of use him as a figure head - really doesn’t cause a lot of the problems, it’s congress. Congress passes the laws, congress spends our money, congress changes the taxes and so on and so forth. You have people in congress that are in there for a career. Thirty, forty years - we’ve got the average age of the senate, for example, is much older than the average age in the country.The major premise of the book is to do something about congress. Something that they’re trying to get done is to have term limits on congressmen that the hero Ted Hale, who is running for president. His main focus is to cut down on these career politicians who are losing touch with the American people.

Kent: If you’re candidate was running for president, do you think he’d do pretty well against the current candidates?

James: I think, if he could do what my man does in the book - get to the people through the young people. Yes, I think he could. The people that are running now - the three major candidates - are all senators. Two of which have been senators for a long time. They are good people. I am not knocking them individually. They have lost touch with the American people. All they are talking about is more government, more government, more spending, and that isn’t the answer. Government is the problem, not the answer.

Kent: What did you think about the candidate Ron Paul?

James: I was impressed with him. I didn’t follow his campaign real well, but, yeah, I was impressed with some of the things that he had to say. Actually, some of the candidates who are not the big guns had more to say. But, none of them, again, were addressing the problem of doing something about congress.

Kent: Tell me a little bit about the plot of the story. How did it open up?

James: It opens up with Ted Hale, the candidate for president who is quite a wealthy business man, gathering together people from his own organization and going to begin his campaign for the presidency because he’s been selected to address the major media in New York for receiving a reward for man of the year. He uses that as a platform to launch his campaign, although he suspects most of the major media is not going to back him. He has spent several years getting ready for this by purchasing his own television networks, newspapers, and radio stations so that he does have a platform to reach the people.

Kent: How does he get through to the young people? Is he a young man?

James: He’s middle-aged. He’s not a young man. He goes to the colleges for their graduations every opportunity that he has and speaks to the young people trying to get them together - probably a lot like John Kennedy did back in the 60s when he was running for president. He had a lot of young people who got enthusiastic about his campaign and went out and did a lot of the leg work for him. He does that in this book - reaches the young people and then he maintains contact with them through Internet hook ups and through with all of his campaign headquarters and he gets the young people out there to talk and to spread the word. There is no substitute for spreading the word because there are a lot of unhappy people in this country.

Kent: What’s your newest project? Are you writing a new one?

James: Oh yeah. Probably, they’re going to take the pen out of my cold dead hand when I die. Right now, I am writing another general fiction book about abused children. I am hoping that’ll also be a good book. I’ve gotten a lot of good response about “An Eagle Unchained” so far although it has only been out since the beginning of this month.

Kent: Wonderful. Who are your target readers? Who are you looking for? Is this a mainstream book?

James: Oh yes. It’s mainstream. I suspect the people who’d be most interested in it are the people who feel frustrated because they’re unhappy with the government. The way things are going and they feel like their vote doesn’t count. This is an opportunity to tell them, “yes it does count.” There are things that can be done. It isn’t going to be easy, but it can be done.

Kent: And this book is available free online. People can read it from the website which is booksbyolson.com. Give me a sound clip about the book for people that are just tuning in.

James: I’m not sure what you mean by sound clip.

Kent: Tell me what the book is about, where to find it, and all that.

James: OK. As I said, the book is a political novel and it’s trying to offer some solutions that the American people can reach at. It’s available throughout the country at any bookstore. The publisher, Erian Press, is offering autographed copies at a discount with free shipping to United States addresses. Their website is erianpress.com. They can also reach that through booksbyolson.com. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble; your favorite bookstore can order it. It’s available through all the wholesale channels. So, it’s got widespread distribution.

Kent: It’s been a real pleasure speaking with you today about your book “An Eagle Unchained.” This is James. R. Olson and his book is available all across the country in hardcover and trade paperback. Thank you for being on the show.