T.J. Newman unveils her third thriller, ‘Worst Case Scenario’

T.J. Newman released her third thriller entitled “Worst Case Scenario.” In the book, a pilot suffers a deadly widow-maker heart attack at 35,000 feet with a plane full of passengers. The plane crashes into a nuclear power plant in a small Minnesota town. Plant workers, plane personnel and the town come together to stop this catastrophic national crisis with global implications.

The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8, until now.

The former flight attendant of 10 years draws on her own background to create her novels, with the first two being made into major motion pictures.

Newman joined “Arizona Horizon” to provide details on her latest novel.

“We’re trained as pilots and flight attendants to think, ‘What is the worst case scenario? What can go wrong, and what can I do about it?'” Newman said.

Newman explained that when writing her latest novel, she researched extensively and created an outline to keep her on track to meet deadlines.

“It was a lot of research, and I have to tell you, the research for this book terrified me,” Newman admitted. “I went into it not sure what I would find, not sure if there was a story there. The idea for the story actually came from a conversation that I had with a pilot when I was doing research for my first book, “Falling.” I asked lots of pilots I was flying with at the time questions about flying, nuts and bolts, and I also asked them about the emotional, the psychological side about being a pilot.”

She continued to explain that when she asked pilots what their biggest fear was, one looked her in the eyes and said their biggest fear was crashing into a nuclear power plant. That was her inspiration for “Worst Case Scenario.”

Newman’s first two books, “Falling” and “Drowning,” have movie deals attached to them, one with Universal Pictures and the other with Warner Brothers. Newman hopes “Worst Case Scenario“ will also land a movie deal.

“I dreamed of this moment,” Newman said. “I had no assurances that it would come, and boy, was it uphill to get here. But a lifelong reader, a lifelong writer, a lifelong dreamer of being a published author, it was my time when I worked at Changing Hands Bookstore when that dream became a concrete goal.”