Flight Attendant Turned Author Sees Third Plane Thriller Published

TJ Newman's own meteoric rise as a bestselling author is the stuff of movies. However, before that can/might happen, two of her three novels will see the big screen.

A former flight attendant turned bestselling author, TJ Newman has recently published her third novel, Worst Case Scenario. The novel's plot is the stuff of nightmares. A pilot suffers a heart attack at 35,000 feet and crashes the full commercial airliner into a nuclear power plant in the small community of Waketa, Minnesota. This local disaster has potential for catastrophic global effects, and time is of the essence.

I got to chat with TJ Newman about her new novel and her last two, Falling and Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421, respectively. All three books are thrillers set on planes, fittingly, given her background as a flight attendant.

Newman wasn't on easy street when it came to the publishing process, however. When she shopped Falling to agents, she received 41 rejections in a row. No publishing outfit wanted to take a chance on a first-time author with no platform, she said in our interview. Her 42nd submission was a "yes," and Falling flew up the list of New York Times bestsellers.

I asked Newman what Falling's runaway success out of the gate meant after all that rejection and what it told her about her work as a result:

It meant validation that big dreams could come true. My first dream that I pursued [....] was to be an actress. I got a degree in musical theater, then moved to New York, and, well, since we're not talking about what my next Broadway show is, you can assume how well that went. It was nonstop rejection. Nonstop failure. Finally after a few years, I had to leave. So, when this dream came true, after all the work, after years of writing and bad drafts and trying to get my work where it needed to be [....] when things actually started to go right and doors started to open, it felt, surreal [....] it felt like validation for me and my friends and every other dreamer out there who has a dream and wants to do something big [....] - TJ Newman, per our interview

Take a listen to my interview with author TJ Newman below, and visit her website to learn more about her trifecta of plane thrillers.