Fellow Rebel Author Al Lohn Stops By!

Today I am so excited to introduce readers to a fabulous new author Al Lohn who is here to share his recent release and up-coming release from Rebel Ink Press.

Hello Al and thank you for visiting today.  Tell us a little about yourself. Al Lohn was born in 1934 on the outskirts of Cologne
Germany and educated in the art of apparel manufacturing. He worked until 1956 in his fathers business. 

In November 1956, he immigrated to the USA with his parents and younger brother. Drafted thirteen months later, he served in the US Army for two years and was stationed in Germany where he met his wife. 
 
After his discharge from the Army, he became the manager of Brooks-Van Horn’s manufacturing department in Philadelphia, a Theatrical costume company serving the entertainment industry. During his ten year-tenure, he worked on many challenging projects such as ‘Holiday on Ice’, ‘Hello Dolly’, the
Philadelphia Mummers, historical reproductions for the Marine Corps, the Smithsonian Institute and wax museums. 

During his fifty-year career, he served as Corporate Senior Vice
President for Liz Claiborne Inc., and as Corporate Vice President at the Spiegel Group from which he retired in 1998.

His extensive travel during his 50 year career took him around the world to all five continents. His travels gained him a deep understanding of the world’s cultures as well as their trials and tribulations. This, combined with his experience growing up in a war-torn country during World War II, and his military service, compelled him to turn to writing after his retirement. 

He resides in New Jersey with his wife.

Thanks!  It sounds like you have an interesting life.  Now on to some personal questions. If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself?

Listen to your father; father knows best.

For what are you grateful?

For all the blessing the Lord has bestowed on me and my family. My wife, children and grandchildren, a good life, and health and happiness.

If a zombie virus took over the world, how many days do you think you could last before you were infected? And what would you do to postpone the inevitable?

Nothing.

What television sitcom is most like your family? Why?

I don’t watch them. They are moronic.

What’s your favorite thing to do to relax?

Read

Let’s find out a little bit about you as an author. Did you always want to be an author?

No! I started writing after I retired from a 50 year carrier in the apparel industry.

What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult?

ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Do you have any “must haves”with you while you’re writing?

Coffee

Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books?

No

What have you learned the most from being in the writing business?

To have a vivid imagination, see the scene and write what you see.

Tell us about your latest release:

How can one comprehend the pain of a young mother torn away from her five-year-old boy to defend her country on the battlefield?

A car accident killed Marissa's husband three years prior. Now, as a single mom, she has to leave her little boy behind. The Army has called her to serve in the desert of Iraq during the post war era of Iraqi Freedom.

As a medic, Marissa faces danger and is a witness to brutality and destruction while she aches to be home with her little boy. Worse, her son's pleading for her to come home and hug him is a sword that pierces her heart each and every call.

Only the camaraderie of Marissa's friends and a forbidden romance that develops between her and a young lieutenant keeps Marissa going. When she and Lieutenant O'Rourke initiate a project to help a group of orphaned boys, the war finally regains some meaning.


How did you decide on your story plot?

I wanted to shine a light of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform endure to defend our freedom. Only two laid down their
life for a friend, Jesus Christ and our soldiers.

How did you choose your characters names and location for your story?

The location was obvious. The names that I used, I really don’t know.

Do you have a favorite scene? Why?

Yes, the end of the book. Most war stories revolve around fearless heroes that are indestructible. That is not realistic. I have lived through a war. I think the scenes in my book are realistic. 

Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why?

No, but I can identify with the scenes in the book.

Let our readers know how they can get a hold of you…

Al Lohn
http://www.allohnauthor.wordpress.com
www.allohn.com
allohn@optonline.net
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/al_lohn/8/619/a15
http://www.facebook.com/allohnauthor
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritersCoffeehouseOnline/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rebelinkpress/

Is there anything else that you want to share… feel free!!

---

I have another book coming out in
August.

At the urging of her daughter in law, 84-Year-old Liesel Halston visits her
hometown in the hope to find closure from Nazi persecution, and the pain of
losing loved ones.

Liesel, sitting on a wooden bench, watches the water of the mighty
Rheine-River rushing downstream. The bench dates back to her childhood. It is an old, familiar friend. She traces the outline of the heart carved into the backrest. Her beloved grandfather had carved it a long, long time ago.

The mesmerizing, rushing, water turns the clock back on Liesel. She remembers when tormenting fear replaces her sheltered childhood. 

The Nazi Storm troopers force Liesel’s father to join the Nazi
Party. They threaten to arrest Liesel, her mom, and her grandparents. Her mom’s family are Catholics, but of Jewish descent. Then the SS drafts her father into service to work on a nuclear weapon’s program. They flee Germany and escape from the ruthless persecution of the SS. Barely staying a step ahead of the hangman’s noose, turns Liesel’s life into a flight from hell.

The escape takes them into France and from there to England. Pursued, by the ruthless SS Sturmbannführer Heinrich, terrifying fear is their constant companion. With the help of the underground, they escape to the UK. But the horror of war follows them. They almost loose their lives during the air-raids
on London.

When Liesel falls in love and marries Tom Halston, an American Army Captain, they immigrate to the US. The US Government offers Liesel’s father a job at the Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Facility. After the bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, the terrifying results of his work leave him
devastated.

The high spirit, forged by the nightmares of her childhood, the loss of too many loved ones, and now the uncertainty of her grandson missing in the desert of Iraq, is about to break her will.

---