Interview: J.R. Hauptman, Author of The Target: Love, Death and Airline Deregulation

J.R. Hauptman is represented by Pump Up Your Book Promotion, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion.

More than a half-century ago, Ernie Gann authored Fate is the Hunter and The High and The Mighty. There has not been a bona fide blockbuster novel about the airline industry written by a genuine airline professional until now.

The Target: Love, Death and Airline Deregulation by J.R. Hauptman, a retired pilot, is set in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, and tells the tale of the tumultuous first years of airline deregulation and the effects it had on that industry and the people who worked there. There are many people today who believe it was, in large part, the rush to overall deregulation back then that led directly to the economic chaos that threatens to overwhelm our entire economy today.

We interviewed J.R. to find out more about his new book and his life as a published author now that his flying days are behind him.

Thank you for this interview, J.R. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how long you’ve been writing?

J.R.:I am a retired professional pilot. I began as an Army Aviator and served two tours in the Viet Nam War. I left the Army after eight years and hired on with a major airline on the west coast. I flew as a line pilot and left that company during the early years of deregulation when a corporate raider took control and maneuvered the company into a sham bankruptcy and our union declared a strike in protest. In the ensuing years, I worked as a securities and insurance broker, travel agent and tax preparer. I returned to active flying after almost six years, flying jet charters, airfreight and corporate jets. I began writing in the early nineteen-seventies by writing mostly letters of political commentary to be published in the opinion pages of the Denver Post and Boulder Colorado Daily Camera. During periods of labor strife, I also wrote articles for union newsletters.

Do you write full-time?

J.R.: It has certainly evolved that I have become a full-time writer. It took a long time to write my first novel because I was working full time as a pilot and that was the most productive way to support my family. In the intense environment where a professional pilot dwells, it is often difficult to summon the energy to write during ones days off. It took a great deal of determination to make the commitment to finish my novel. In doing so, it became apparent that I could be most productive by concentrating on writing during my winter vacations. Two years ago, I encountered medical problems which were not life-threatening, but precluded me from holding a pilot’s medical certificate. I decided that it was time to “fish or cut bait.” I took this gift of time, finished my novel and set out to have it published and marketed. These latter tasks require me to polish my writing skills in order to sell my ideas to the reading public. Blogging has become my main outlet for the more creative side of my writing because my ultimate goal is to become a political writer and to contribute to that discourse.

Article Author: Dorothy Thompson

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion for authors.

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