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“It was the best worst week of my life,” Rambo
recalled. “I came home with the burning desire to write it all down, but I
just could not formulate the words.”
Instead he turned his passion for writing to another
topic both familiar and important to him; the national crises over illegal
immigration. The result: Crossing the Line his first published
novel. “I used the writing as therapy and it allowed me to enter into an
alternate reality.”
The issues surrounding illegal immigrants have always
been on his mind. “The majority of these people are caught up in a broken
system. They come here often simply as a last resort to provide much
needed income to their families back home.”
Rambo also said that the Mexican government makes
more profit off the taxes charged to common laborers from the money they
send home than it does off oil exports. “They are taken advantage of both
here and at home.”
While illegals have long been the target of prejudice
and suspicion, they are now facing an even more perilous prospect. As they
illegally enter the US, these vulnerable workers are increasingly becoming
recruiting targets for street gangs.
The issue of gang intrusion to this area has been one
of fierce interest over recent years, as gangs such as the Crypts and the
Bloods are suspected of taking the convenient path down 295 to infect our
local communities. The common methodology of these gangs is to prey upon
the young and vulnerable, and pressure them to join, or become the target
of violence themselves.
But Lieutenant Rambo’s story is one that takes him
out of his home turf and allows him to use his imagination. The setting is
the US/Mexican border of Yuma, Arizona. The action thriller follows a team
of border volunteers “as they fight for their lives and their country as
illegal immigrants come looking for little more than just freedom.”
Crossing the Line goes on sale this month at
major stores nationwide including Barnes and Noble, Walden Books and B
Dalton.
And you may ask how did Rambo’s book not end up on
the proverbial “cutting room floor?” After finishing the first 200 pages
in about six months, Rambo submitted the manuscript to Tate Publishing
located in Mustang, Oklahoma. A week later he called Tate and was put
through to Richard Tate, founder of Tate Publishing, who had recently
finished reading Rambo’s submission, a copy still on his desk.
The subject matter of Crossing the Line had
already piqued Tate’s interest and when Rambo spoke with Tate they quickly
developed a sense of personal connection born out of similar life
experience.
Tate, a Vietnam veteran who served as a Marine Corps
Gunner, learned that Rambo was a former Marine reservist. They spoke of
their life experiences and both could identify with the sense of service
and duty in times of tragedy.
Based on their personal connection, and his strong
initial interest in Glenn Rambo’s book Tate decided his company would
publish Crossing the Line. Rambo remembers being ignited by the
acceptance and that it helped him finish the concluding 100 pages of the
novel.
Rambo said that his favorite part of the writing
process is character development. He said that no one was more surprised
than he when his characters took drastic changes in direction, and ended
up in far different roles at the end of the story than where he had
initially foreseen them.
This experience is similar to that described by many
authors, and Rambo was pleased saying that the end result left the
characters in better places than he had originally imagined.
Rambo is now hard at work on the sequel to
Crossing the Line, which focuses on the US effort to recover after the
full-spectrum of broken immigration policies. He related, “We (the US)
helped create the problem” in a search for cheap labor, and “we must be
part of the solution.”
Rambo admits that his early success as an author is
not the normal experience, particularly early acceptance by a publisher.
Tate only accepts four percent or 400 of the 10,000 manuscripts they
receive each year.
Rambo took something he originally disliked and
avoided, and learned to love it. Through discipline and skill development
he has pulled off a writer’s dream. He encourages other struggling writers
to do the same. “If you have the dream to write, do it, and don’t quit.”
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The
new building will include space for the police, courts, code enforcement
and township administration. The $8.9 million project is designed to be
environmentally friendly and cut utility costs with a geothermal system
for heating and air conditioning. The building will also include a solar
panel system that can easily be expanded. 