HARRY WEGLEY

 

 

H. L. Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. He is a Meteorologist who worked as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics at Pacific Northwest Laboratories. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he worked more than two decades as a Systems Programmer at Boeing before retiring in the Seattle area, where he and his wife of 46 years enjoy small-group ministry, their seven grandchildren, and where he pursues his love of writing.

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

S.S: How long have you been writing?

I have been writing since elementary school, but not fiction. I wrote my first novel in the spring of 2010, rewrote it twice that year, and received a contract for it in 2011.

S.S: Do you write full time? If the answer is no, what else do you do? If you are a full time author, what other jobs did you have in the past?

I'm retired, but I write half to three quarters of the time. I'm also involved in small group ministries. In the past I've worked in a variety of fields, an Air Force intelligence analyst working closely with NSA, a forecaster and weather officer, a research scientist in atmospheric physics, and a systems programmer for Boeing.

S.S: Tell us about the moment you finally felt like a “real author”?

I have published fairly extensively in the scientific world, but never considered myself an author. Several weeks after submitting a book proposal that had a previous rejection, I received an email containing a contract offer. That was when "author" first seemed like a good description of what I'm doing.

S.S.: Who has been your greatest supporter as an author? 

By far the greatest supporter is my wife. She lets me bounce ideas off her, reads my manuscripts numerous times without saying she's bored, and puts up with my crazy writing life.

S.S:  Why suspense? Do you write in any other genres? If so, what?

 I write suspense and thriller's because I love high-stakes and a lot of action. I've written one young boys adventure novel, but haven't pursued publishing it – – just gave it to my grandson.

S.S: How does your faith play into your writing?

For about 12 years, I studied Christian apologetics and planned to write a textbook or study guide on that subject, but then the real experts started publishing far better works than I could have written. Now I find that the answers to questions about God and the human dilemma find their way into dialogues in my stories, especially the redemption stories. So far there has been a redemption story embedded in the plot of each of my novels.

S.S: If you couldn’t write, what else would you want to do?

If I couldn't write let's see… I would go crazy. Oh. You asked what I would want to do. I would probably teach classes on the Christian worldview, and possibly develop much of the material from the large apologetics library I've accumulated.

S.S:  Tell us about your current release.

 Hide and Seek is a high-action romantic suspense about an ingenious plot to neutralize several critical US military weapon systems using cyber warfare. When my two MCs are targeted for elimination, the story morphs from a techno-thriller to a flight into the mountains for survival which, of course, leads to a developing romance.

S.S: Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

Before retiring from the information technology industry, I realized I'd seen several incidents that, spliced together, would make a good thriller. In addition to my job experience, I saved news articles and technical information for about five years in case I ever wanted to write a book. Out of all that came the inspiration for my first story.

S.S: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from your story?

The biggest take away from the book is the point illustrated by my two main characters. It's a point made many times by apologist Ravi Zacharias. He emphasizes that the barriers to faith are most often the heart rending existential questions, not intellectual issues. My story emphasizes that all of these questions are answered by God in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

S.S: Who is your favorite character in this book and why?

It's a tossup between my two main characters, Jennifer and Lee. Jennifer, a beautiful, young Japanese-Hawaiian woman, is an agnostic with an IQ of around 200. She can work magic with mathematical algorithms, including finding terrorists and criminals collaborating on the Internet. Lee is a genius too, but in his own words "from the dregs of the genius barrel." He's a Christian who though strongly attracted to Jennifer, keeps the relationship proper and always considers her underlying needs. He's clever and very resourceful, maybe resourceful enough to keep them alive.

S.S: Who is your least favorite character in this book? Why?

There are three terrorists in the book, but my least favorite character is Lee's supervisor, Barry. He's a selfish manager who only cares about climbing the corporate ladder, not about the people he manages.

S.S: What are you working on now?

Hide and Seek is the first book in a contracted three-book series, the Pure Genius Series. At my editor's suggestion, I'm currently drafting a fourth and final book in that series. Its heroine is a girl who emerges in the second book, then becomes a major player. She's a genius, and the fourth book starts with her working on her PhD. I recently finished two stand-alone MSSs, one during NaNoWriMo, but they'll have to remain on the back burner for several weeks.

S.S: A tough question: Where do you want to be career-wise in five years? Ten years? 

In five years I'd like to be healthy and have written a well-read novel that doesn't compromise God's message and which He uses to change the lives of readers. In 10 years ... at my age, having a clear mind, being alive, and not being too decrepit sound pretty good.

S.S:  Now let’s get a little personal. Name two things on your “bucket list” that you haven’t done yet.  

Through World Vision, my wife and I have supported a girl in Indonesia for many years. She is now 14. I would like for us to be able to visit her. But stopping off in Australia along the way would be wonderful too.

S.S:  What is the silliest thing you have ever done? 

The silliest thing? I wrote and self published my childhood stories. The book, Colby and Me: Growing up in the 50s, is filled with silly things my best friend and I did. Probably the silliest was playing with old, wet, unstable dynamite. We hadn't a clue how dangerous that stuff is until we blew the hood off an old abandoned car, and it flew a quarter-mile away. It took us a week to find it.

S.S: What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

The hardest thing? As Christians many of us tend to over commit at times. While working at a demanding research job, I enrolled as a full-time graduate student and held three positions at my church. I ended up in the hospital, and it took several years to fully recover. The hard part was lesson about over commitment that I learned … the hard way.

S.S.: Where can readers find you on the internet?

 I have an author web site, a facebook page, twitter account and a sometimes neglected blog. Here are the links:

HLWegley.com
https://www.facebook.com/HLWegley
The Weather Scribe

S.S.: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us? 

For anyone reading this -- if you think you would like to write, you're never too old, or too young to start. I started writing novels at 64. My only regret is that I didn't start earlier.

HARRY IS GIVING AWAY A COPY OF HIS BOOK, HIDE AND SEEK! JUST LEAVE A COMMENT, ALONG WITH YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION, AND YOU COULD WIN!