
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997                TAG: 9704160105

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  130 lines

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR TO ``INTRUDE'' ON LIBRARIES

Stephen Coonts, a former lawyer and combat Naval pilot, finally achieved one of his lifelong dreams a few years ago: he became a writer.

Coonts said he drew on what he knew and loved best and then sat down and banged out on his word processor a novel that spent 28 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

``I fulfilled a lifelong ambition,'' he said. ``I always dreamed about it and by God, I finally did it.''

But before becoming a best-selling author, Coonts, who grew up in the coal-mining town of Buckhannon, W.Va., earned his Navy wings in 1969 and lived the experiences that would later become the gist for his first and still most popular book, ``Flight of the Intruder.''

He served on two combat cruises aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a crew member of Attack Squadron 196, flying the beloved and now recently decommissioned A-6 Intruder.

After the war, Coonts was an A-6 flight instructor and did a tour as an assistant catapult-arresting gear officer aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz.

After active duty, he worked as a taxi driver, police officer and later an attorney before trying his hand at writing.

``I got into it by 1984,'' he said during a phone interview from his Maryland home. ``I had recently gotten divorced, had no money and plenty of time. I always wanted to write. I always loved books and reading. That was my recreation, but I never had time to become a writer.''

Coonts said when he set about writing a novel based on his experiences of flying the Intruder in Vietnam, his only dream was to complete it, to see if he had it in him to create a complete novel.

``A lot of people have secret dreams and most aren't about making money but doing something,'' he said. ``At some point in your life you've got to go out and do it. You owe it to yourself to do this. So when I got my divorce I had the time, plenty of time. Then and there I made up my mind to do it. I didn't even think about getting published. I just wanted to complete a novel.''

Then he set off to sell ``Flight of the Intruder'' to a publisher. It didn't happen overnight, he said.

``It was rejected 34 times,'' he said. ``At that point you just have to keep at it. Keep submitting it. And you have to set out to improve what you wrote. I think I re-wrote the book three times.''

Eventually that book blazed up the best-seller lists and became a film starring Danny Glover and Willem DaFoe in 1991.

``It was a good Hollywood effort, I guess,'' he said. ``Unfortunately it came out just when the Gulf War started and people stayed home and preferred to watch real war on television. It did much better the second and third time around on television.''

In setting out to write that first book, Coonts said he drew on his love of books and storytelling.

``I read a lot when I was a kid,'' he said. ``I read everything I could get my hands on, adventure, books on air battles and pilots, science fiction, mystery books by Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout and adventure stuff by Alistar McLean, for example. I ate that stuff with a spoon.''

Thanks to his reading, he eventually became a pilot.

``I got interested in aviation by reading stories about flying when I was a kid,'' he said. ``That changed my life. I might never have made it in military aviation if I first hadn't built up this love through reading.''

With his love of books and his sense of adventure, Coonts drew on his own combat experiences in Vietnam and his love for the unique Intruder airplane.

``It was quite an airplane and it did quite a job for Uncle Sam,'' said Coonts who owns and flies a Cessna 182, a 1942 Stearman bi-plane and a small homemade plane. ``Those who flew it have a soft spot in their hearts for the plane. It was constantly updated and it carried a huge bomb and weapons load. And what was unique about it was the crew of two, the pilot and navigator, more or less sat side-by-side, making the flights like down-home Maw and Paw Kettle operations.''

With those experiences, Coonts created the character Jake Grafton, who was also featured in his other aviation adventure novels.

His newest book, ``War In the Air,'' the nonfiction anthology of true air combat stories, was another dream Coonts had.

``The idea behind this book was to collect all of the true air combat stories I grew up with and then add to it to update the volume,'' he said. ``There's just so many good stories out there and so many are going out of print. Even though I added forwards to each story, my main job in this project was in the selection process. We tried to pick the stories that would have the most impact on a modern audience. In essence, these stories are just great high adventure. And even with the modern, sophisticated, computer jets we have today, war in the air always gets back to the basics: find the enemy, hunt them down and kill them.''

When Coonts talks to his Chesapeake audience tonight at the Central Library, he said he'll discuss some basics like getting children interested in books, his own writing process and what it takes to get published.

``I think it's important to turn kids onto fun books,'' he said. ``Youngsters need to read books that interest them and are fun to read. Not some boring, depressing story. Once you get kids to read and hooked on books then they'll turn to that other important stuff later.

``. . . Even if the book has a few four letter words, let your child read it. Besides, those words aren't anything they haven't heard at home, in the movies, from friends or television. The important thing is to get kids to read.''

After his talk, Coonts said he'll open the session for questions and answers.

``I'll talk about anything anyone wants to talk about,'' he said. ``Heck, I'll even talk about the tuna sandwich I ate at the Paramount pictures canteen when they were filming `Flight of the Intruder.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by BROOKS HAMMOND

Steven Coonts, who flew the A-6 Intruder in combat in Vietnam, now

owns and flies a Cessna 182, a 1942 Stearman bi-plane and a small

homemade plane.

Graphic

WANT TO GO?

What: A free book-signing session and author-talk program

featuring internationally known best-selling author Stephen Coonts,

sponsored by the Chesapeake Public Libraries and the Friends of the

Chesapeake Public Library. (Note: Barnes & Noble book sellers will

be at both book-signing sessions with copies of Coonts' books for

sale).

When/Where: Tonight at the Central Library, 298 Cedar Road: there