Novelist finds inspiration in 'Sniper'

Ideas for a novel can come at the oddest moments, just ask first-time author and former Staunton resident Ken Armstrong.
It was February, and as CEO of the United Way of the Big Bend in Tallahassee, Fla., Armstrong had just finished wrapping up a benefit concert that his agency put together featuring world-renowned musician Jimmy Buffet.
"I was just a complete vegetable," Armstrong said.
He curled up in front of his television set one afternoon, watching back-to-back Tom Berenger films — "Sniper" and "Sniper 2." The movies got him thinking about a story line involving the president and his protector, a master marksman shrouded in so much secrecy not even the Secret Service is aware of his existence. Three months later, Armstrong finished penning "Saving the President," a book printed by Jaguar Publishers that will be available in November.
"It just bloomed," Armstrong said. "It flowed pretty quickly."
Armstrong, 59, once worked as vice president for institutional advancement at Mary Baldwin College and lived in Staunton for several years in the 1980s. "I just loved the Shenandoah Valley," he said. "If I had a family, I don't know if I would have ever left." Wright's Dairy Rite, Woodrow Wilson's childhood home and Mary Baldwin College all get a mention in the book.
For more information, visit www.kenarmstrongbooks.com
Did you use an outline when writing the book? I did what you would call an annotated flow chart, if you will. There were many times when I realized my conception wasn't fleshed out enough.
Was it a grind writing a novel (388 pages) in such a short time span? There was never despair. It took discipline, but I never found myself resenting the discipline that it took.
Will you ditch your day job to write full time? The work I do in the community is really my mission. I hope to do this for a dozen years yet.
Are there more books to come? I have two more that are in my head.
How long have you had the desire to write a book? I never had a desire to write a book.
What do you like to read? I have always loved the escapist fiction on my own time.
What author influenced your writing the most? (Robert) Ludlum. It feels to me like one of his books.
— Brad Zinn http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071001/NEWS01/710010303/1002