Mike Angley Interview

Tell us what branch of the military you served in, what years, and your assignments.

I began active duty in the U.S. Air Force in January 1982 and retired in September 2007.  I was a career Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), much like the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).  When I retired, I held the rank of Colonel (O-6), and was one of OSI’s senior most criminal investigators and counterintelligence and counterterrorism operators. 

I held 13 permanent assignments throughout the United States and in the Far East.  I also deployed to the Middle East numerous times between 1996 and 1998 when I commanded all OSI activities there, with responsibility for 23 countries.  A list of my assignments in chronological order follows (includes my initial training assignment):

• January 1982 – April 1982: Student, U.S. Air Force Special Investigations Academy, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.
• April 1982 – May 1984: Operations Officer, and Chief of Criminal Division, AFOSI Detachment 1940, Travis Air Force Base, CA
• May 1984 – June 1986: Graduate Student, Naval Postgraduate School, and Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA (Air Force Institute of Technology)
• June 1986 – June 1987: Chief, Counterintelligence Special Projects Branch, AFOSI Detachment 4506, Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea
• June 1987 – July 1990: Terrorism Analyst and Counterintelligence Area Supervisor, Headquarters AFOSI, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, DC
• July 1990 – May 1993: Commander, AFOSI Detachment 623, Misawa Air Base, Japan
• May 1993 – May 1995: Criminal Investigations & Counterintelligence Policy Action Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Inspector General, HQs USAF, Pentagon, VA
• May 1995 – June 1996: Student, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL
• June 1996 – July 1998: Commander, AFOSI Region 2, OL-A, Shaw Air Force Base, SC
• July 1998 – August 2001: Chief, Counterintelligence Staff Office, United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), Offutt Air Force Base, NE
• August 2001 – June 2002: National Defense Fellow (Senior Developmental Education), Florida International University, Miami, FL
• July 2002 – February 2004: Commander, AFOSI Detachment 624, Kadena AB, Japan
• February 2004 – May 2005: Commander, AFOSI 61st Field Investigations Sq, Osan AB, Korea
• May 2005 – September 2007: Commander, AFOSI Region 8, Peterson AFB, CO

 Your work is often praised for its accuracy in depicting the U.S. intelligence community.  What are other example of how your time serving our country affects your writing?

In my debut novel, "Child Finder," I sprinkle some elements of the counterterrorism world in the backstory.  My protagonist, Air Force Special Agent Patrick S. O’Donnell, harkens back to some experiences he had running counterterrorism operations in the Middle East.  There are aspects to what he recalls that are comparable to experiences I had there running similar operations.  In my story, O’Donnell uses these “flashbacks” as a way of measuring his trust for certain people he works with.

 In my third novel (a WIP, currently in editing), "Child Finder: Revelation," O’Donnell is sent to Korea to find the U.S. Ambassador’s daughters who have been kidnapped.  I spent a fair amount of time in the Far East (eight years total, three of which were in Korea), so I use my personal experience there to sketch the scenes and the plots in the most realistic way possible.

There's a lot of press given to the military's effectiveness in instilling habits of discipline and organization.  Did training in these areas help you in your writing?

Sort of.  The discipline and organizational elements, for sure.  But I had to re-wire my brain a bit following retirement to break the dry style of writing I had become accustomed to.  I spent 25+ years writing not-so-creative intelligence reports and reports of investigation.  The military had a way of beating any creativity out of me to keep my writing fact-based and unemotional, as we would say.  That was all for good reasons, so I have no real complaints.  It took a bit of time for me to get my neurons re-configured so that there was some measure of style to my writing.  The first draft of my debut novel was dull and stale, much like an official report.  I practically re-wrote the entire story to give it some color and depth.

You’ve experienced great success with your writing, principally in the area of mystery/suspense fiction with a fascinating twist of the paranormal.   Tell us how you decided to use a protagonist in your Child Finder Trilogy who has a paranormal gift.

This is such a great question because the whole process for me has been evolutionary.  I spent many years working investigations involving crimes against children.  Every one of them broke my heart and stayed with me.  There were many times I would fantasize about how much easier my work would be, and how far fewer children would suffer, if we had the ability to find a lost or kidnapped child instantly.  I’ve been a huge skeptic all my life about so-called mediums and those who claim to have paranormal abilities.  In my daydreaming, I would imagine a genuine clairvoyant would emerge, one with no-kidding psychic abilities to find missing kids.  Then I began to wonder how the government would react to such a person…would it brush this person off?  Or, would it absorb this person into the fabric of the “community?”  In my stories, I thought that latter, so I set about creating a secret “black world” program modeled in many respects after real secret programs I worked within during my time in the Air Force.  I called it CRYSTAL ROUNDUP (all capital letters, by the way, a standard in the community).

Agent O’Donnell (the reluctant psychic protagonist) gets pulled into the dark edges of this community.  In the first novel, the threats he encounters are within the CRYSTAL ROUNDUP program itself…from “trusted agents” who exploit the secrecy for their own purposes.  In the second story, "Child Finder: Resurrection," the threats are external to the program.  This time, the program is made whole, but the forces he must battle on the outside of the community are very powerful and quite unexpected.  In "Child Finder: Revelation," the antagonist(s) are external and internal, and all throughout the story O’Donnell is confronted with riddles and mysteries that cause him to demand answers.  When he gets the answers – the “Revelation,” he almost wishes he had not.  He learns things about life, the universe, and himself that he never saw coming.  Think "Da Vinci Code" (lots of Vatican intrigue) meets Clancy’s "Sum of All Fears."

I see that your first book, “Child Finder” won the Silver Medal for Fiction in the 2009 Military Writers Society of American’s Annual Awards Program.  Congratulations!  Tell us what this has meant to your writing career.

Thanks very much.  It was a great honor for me, and it came on the heels of the Library Journal placing it on its 2009 Summer Reads List, calling it a “compelling debut novel,” and a “real find.”  It was hard for me to get my head around the accolades, especially since I’m my worst critic!  The award and the LJ recognition pushed sales significantly, and resulted in a huge surge on my website and some great press placements.  It gave me the encouragement and validation I needed to press forward with my writing. 

How did you hook up with your publisher, TotalRecall Inc.?  Are your first two books only available in hardcover?

Good old-fashioned networking.  I spent a good 18 months pounding the agent/publisher pavement with a stack of rejection letters to prove it!  A fellow writer, John Wills (author of the Chicago Warrior series) whom I befriended on a social networking site called PoliceLink (John is a retired FBI agent and former Chicago police officer) called me to say he had a contract with TotalRecall Publications (TRP).  He suggested I call the publisher directly since TRP was in the process of opening a fiction line after years of publishing only non-fiction books.  The publisher liked my ms., and offered me a three-book contract.  The first two books are currently available in hardcover and in Kindle format.  The publisher plans a softcover release within the next year. 

I see that best-selling author Mario Acevedo, an ex-Army combat artist and combat helicopter pilot, is listed on your webpage.  Since you both live in Colorado, have you had a chance to meet him?  Have you read his beautifully crafted story in HIT LIST: THE BEST OF LATINO MYSTERY which I edited and which came out about a year ago?

 I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Mario, but he and I have traded a few emails, and he appeared as a guest-blogger on my website when his most recent book released in March.  He’s been a great steward of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.  I have not read the story you mentioned, but will have to find a copy and catch up!

When will your next book be out?  And what is the easiest way to contact you for a reading or book signing?

The publisher originally planned to release "Child Finder: Revelation" late this year, but now is looking at March 2011.  That’s probably a good thing because my progress has been slower on it than the previous two books due to other commitments I have.  The best way to stay up on current news about the release and signings is to check my website: www.childfinder.us for updates and press releases.

 I am very excited about this third story because of the “revelation” it holds – I get goosebumps when I write and edit it.  I mentioned it’s a bit like the "Da Vinci Code" and "Sum of All Fears," but also throw in a little X-Files, too.  I’ve already been warned by a good friend in government to be careful with the story because the impact will be significant…but I’ve never shied away from a good fight before, so why start now?  How’s that for a teaser?