An interview with Chuck Gleason author of Collision Course

RM: First of all, we at Readers’ Muse thank you for consenting to answer our questions, sir!

I really liked reading your book, and found certain characters relatable and the story enjoyable. The story was really gentle and refreshing.

CG: I am so glad you liked it.  Something fun to read is exactly what I was aiming for.

If you can be so kind to answer a few of these questions:

RM: Could you tell us a little about yourself? We want to get to know the man who penned the words better. What prompts you to write?

CG: I was born and raised in Chicago.  My dad died (cancer) when I was eight.  My lonesomeness created a huge emptiness in my life.  When I began dating Janet, (she was 15, I was just 16) I found the person who filled up my lonesomeness.  We became very close in high school.  Joy of joy, she talked her parents into allowing her to attend Denison University where I was one year ahead of her.  Our three years at Denison were filled with love and togetherness.  We married the fall after I graduated 9/30/50 which means we have been married 63 years!  We’re still very much in love.

For my first 18 years I was employed by The Borden Company.  They transferred us to several cities including East Lansing, Michigan and Detroit.  We have two children a girl, Leslie, then a boy, Tom.

When I turned 39 I realized the low salary I was being paid would not allow me to send my children to college.  So, I quit my job and went into the life insurance business.  This was a very spooky thing to do because it was straight commission selling.  If I sold nothing, there was no pay check.  Leslie was only 3 years away from college.  Fortunately, I was very successful selling life insurance.

I became a member of the Million Dollar Round Table which is the top 5% of life insurance salespeople from all over the world.  I was asked to speak before this prestigious group on 9 different occasions.  The audiences were as large as 5,000.   This led to other speeches in 29 different states plus 7 foreign countries.

When the kids left for college, Janet joined me, assuming much of my office work.  We developed a two market business plan and made it work for us.  We lived on a lake in Michigan in the summer and on Sanibel Island in Florida in the winter.  We made office space in each of our homes so we had a two second commute to work.  We lived that incredible life style for 25 years.

In 2003 we realized we needed to move closer to one of our children.  As you age, this becomes important.  We sold our Florida and Michigan homes and moved to a mountain location in north Georgia.  This is a wonderful place to live. 

We have three grandchildren and one great grandchild.  Our entire life has been very blessed.

When a person retires they have to do something.  I like to play golf, but some foot problems forced me to give up the game.  When that happened, I decided to write.

I hope I haven’t given you too much information.  When your 85 years old, your life history is, by necessity, rather long.

RM: We do know that all books reflect the lives of their authors on some level. But since this book is too relatable and life like, how much of it is based on your real life?

CG: Collision Course is set at Denison University which is where we went to college. Consequently, the college portion of the book background is based on our life.  However, Janet and I had smooth sailing.  I put in all the ‘collisions’ to make the book more interesting. 

Keli’s frustration with literary agents reflects my own struggles.  I would love to give the speech Keli made in the book to a writers convention.  I think the main idea for the book came out of my frustration with the problems of becoming published.   You have to realize I wrote 6 books and each book was rejected over 200 times.  Which means I had 1200 rejections.  Is that some kind of a record?

RM: You have beautifully brought out the struggles of a new writer. Why was Keli made a writer, that too such a dedicated one?

CG: I think I just answered that question in the above paragraph.   Except I want to add that we ruled out self-publishing.  It seemed to us self-publishing is nothing but an ego trip.  If someone didn’t believe in our book enough to publish it, we would not be published.

RM: From a layman reader’s point of view, the character of Keli seems so driven and sometimes a tad selfish. How is this justified?

CG: If you ever sold life insurance you would understand the need to be driven and immune to rejection.

RM: The Dragon Lady is described as a formidable character. But she is described as loving and caring before getting onto business. Does this imply that work changed her nature?

CG: Yes.  Many of my friends in the Million Dollar Round Table became overly obsessed with their work to the detriment of their families.  My speeches always touched on the need to keep your family life in proper prospective.

RM: The story emphasises on the need to find one’s true love and stick with it. What is your personal view of its practicality in today’s busy world?

CG: I don’t think anyone can be a success alone.  You need a loving companion to help you over the rough spots.   Take a minute to look back on your life?  Do you wish you’d spent more time at the office?  Family is what’s important, not business.  Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.  A person needs to work hard, to be dedicated and to constantly have balance in your life between business goals and family life.

RM: According to you, what are main hassles faced while writing a book? (Please share your personal experiences with us!)

CG: For me, the writing was easy.  The words just seem to flow.  Editing is arduous and difficult.  Getting published is almost impossible.

RM: What do you think is the most important thing in writing a book, the writing, editing or publishing?

CG: The writing has to be most important, but getting published is the difficult part.

RM: What is your ideal writing position? (Calm and alone or in the midst of hustle and bustle?)

CG: Early in the day in my office with the door closed.

RM: Could you give a few tips to budding writers?

CG: Don’t give up.  My grandson asked me, “Are you having fun writing?”  When I replied “Yes,” he wisely said, “Isn’t that what life is all about?”

RM: Thank you very much for taking time to answer our questions, sir! And thank you for writing such a great book and such a beautiful dedication page! Your answers are as interesting as your book!