Thursday, December 05, 2024
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024
Veterans Day
In 1967, I was drafted into the US Army. This was interesting since I had been rejected for military service, not long before that, because at 6 feet 4 inches tall, I didn’t weigh enough to join. That never mattered to my local draft board.
Most of my time was spent with an armor battalion in the Mannheim, Germany area. Since I already had a brother in Vietnam, a second family member wouldn’t automatically be sent there. In any case, it was an honor to serve this great country over those two years. I have the deepest respect for anyone who was called upon to serve in combat. So make sure to let those veterans in your family, or circle of friends, know how much you appreciate their service on your behalf and on behalf of this great nation.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Excellent Christmas idea for someone special
Limited Edition African Wildlife Art - Signed and Numbered
Note! Folds across images are from a scan of a printed brochure.
By Artist Philip Lasz
It was my distinct honor to know and work with Philip Lasz for several years. Phil was a missionary in Kenya, with an immense talent for capturing African animals on canvas. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer, but his love for the animals that God created, lives on in his work. Peace Before the Storm (From edition of 1000 - Signed & Numbered in person by the artist.)
(34" × 21")
Elephant Herd on the Move (From edition of 1000 - Signed & Numbered in person by the artist.)
(34" × 21")
His Majesty (From edition of 1000 - Signed & Numbered in person by the artist.)
(34" × 21")
Greater Kudu (From edition of 1000 - Signed & Numbered in person by the artist.)
(34" × 21")Signed & Numbered by the artist.
I still have a small supply of his beautiful, Limited Edition, signed and numbered lithographs are available for $199.95 each. These large (34" × 21") impressive works of art are perfect for the living room, den, or office. We'll pay shipping/handling.
Send your check to:
Max Anderson
P.O. Box 4126
Rockford, IL 61110
Friday, August 30, 2024
A middle grade book some young readers have compared to “Old Yeller”
A middle grade book some young readers have compared to “Old Yeller”
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
The Wrong Vietnam Rice Paddy
It’s not unusual to be asked, “Where do your book ideas come from?” My books are primarily adventures and mysteries for readers 8 and up. That makes answering this question easy. My life has been filled with adventures. Many of these come from real life experiences on film and video productions in America and around the world.
One such experience took place in Vietnam right in the middle of the conflict.
I had been drafted and took my basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division. We often looked up in the sky to see hundreds of paratroopers dropping out of airplanes. Helicopters flew, like dragonflies, everywhere.
Even though preparing for fighting in Vietnam - most of my instructors had served there for one or more tours - my path of service took me to Germany instead where I was assigned to an armor battalion.
That’s right. I rode around in a big tank, firing the main gun and two machine guns. At the end of my time there, I returned to the US and began working again on the productions of dramatic films and documentaries. That’s what I had been doing before getting drafted.
The very first project, after returning to work, was following a Venture For Victory basketball team through Asia. Our schedule took us to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and…can you believe it…Vietnam. That was an extremely traumatic experience for someone like me, just recently released from active duty in the Army.
Looking out of the plane window, as we approached Saigon, the ground looked almost like the surface of the moon from all the shelling and bombs.
One of the filming locations happened to be the second least secure province. I won’t relate some of what I saw and heard, but the war was fully going on there. At night we heard artillery shelling going off, and could smell the smoke.
Next day, two helicopters were dispatched to take the crew and three of the basketball players to another location. And for some unknown reason I wound up, all by myself with a heavy motion picture camera and bulky, wooden tripod, in the second chopper.
The flight was interesting since both doors remained open. A machine gunner kept an eagle eye out for any danger from the ground.
Suddenly our ship descended and touched down in the middle of several rice paddies. Someone yelled over the sound of the jet engine, “This is the place.” So…I scrambled out with the heavy equipment, moved away from the helicopter, covered my eyes, and it quickly disappeared into the distance.
Looking around, I soon noticed the second chopper was nowhere in sight. So there I stood, all six-feet-four inches of me, on the footpath of a rice paddy. But it was the wrong rice paddy. Several Vietnamese farmers, dressed in black and wearing pointed, straw hats, had stopped their work and now stared directly at me.
What to do now?
In the distance I could see traffic on a road, but it was a long way off and I usually didn’t carry that much equipment, over a long distance, by myself. In addition to the camera and tripod, I had two heavy battery belts, light meters, and a few other things. But all I could do was slowly make my way toward that road in the hot sun and humidity. As soon as I reached the road, an army troop truck, in a small convoy, stopped.
“What are you doing way out here,” a gruff voice demanded from the cab.
“They left me off in the wrong place,” I answered.
“Get in the back.”
The truck thundered off down a dusty road until it came to a stop near the next village. When it stopped, that same voice said, “This is it. Get out.”
I was never more relieved to find the rest of my group standing near the road. When I reached them, the director asked, “Where have you been?”
“That’s a long story,” I answered. “They let me out at the wrong rice paddy."
Find my books on Amazon:
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Keep ‘em READING this summer. Adventures and mysteries kids love.
Keep ‘em READING this summer. Adventures and mysteries kids love. “Reading one of these books is like being in an exciting movie!” https://www.amazon.com/s?k=max+elliot+anderson+books&crid=26J1MMVZUUNBE&sprefix=,aps,173&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent
Friday, March 29, 2024
Marijuana - A Warning To Kids
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS - “The suspect in a killing spree that claimed the lives of four people and left at least seven people injured told police that he became paranoid after smoking #marijuana that may have been laced with another drug.”
You might have read about it, or seen it on TV. It happened here in Rockford, Illinois, but not close to where we live.
“The look in his eyes was like he was the devil reincarnated,” one of the injured said.
Let me tell you about another young person from Rockford who began experimenting with alcohol when she was very young. She soon moved on to marijuana and then harder drugs. “Oh, marijuana can’t hurt you,” she once said, “It’s just a harmless little joint.”
Alcohol and drugs ruined Tracy’s life, ultimately leading to a miserable death due to AIDS complications.
Her story, “Tracy’s Choices,” serves as a warning to any young person, or parent, about the dangers of early drug use. Order “Tracy’s Choices” today for someone you know, or who you love in your own family. It might be the key to put them on the right track.
Drugs can kill, and marijuana was the primary cause in the killing of these people - including a postal worker simply out delivering mail in the neighborhood - and the injuring of several others, in Rockford, Illinois, on a sunny, spring afternoon.
Order a DVD for your school or church youth group - http://maxbooks.mysite.com/photo2.html
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Monday, February 19, 2024
Turn your struggling, reluctant reader into an avid reader. Especially boys.
Turn your struggling, reluctant reader into an avid reader. Especially boys.
Amazon Author Page
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Where Do You Get Ideas For Your Middle Grade Adventures And Mysteries?
A reoccurring question I hear often concerns a variation of, “Where do you get the ideas for your mystery and adventure books for kids?” This is an area where I feel particularly blessed because my life has included more than its share of adventure.
Much of it came from how I grew up, in a family of seven children. We lived in an idyllic place called Wolf Lake, Michigan. Our house was located on the grounds of the original Youth Haven where we had no end of woods to explore, lakes to swim in, and several colorful characters who lived nearby.
It was later, through my film production experiences, that more serious adventures occurred. Like going to Vietnam to shoot a film just after getting out of the army. Or the project in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while the bombings were still frequent.
This post is about another one of those projects. In 2005, the story originally appeared in Guideposts and was called, “An Unexpected Song.” At the time, I had no idea that my father had put together a book of photographs from our ordeal. On a recent trip, to visit my mother, I found it. Some of the pictures I remember my dad shooting but not all of them. I had even shot a few of them, but completely forgot about it after all these years.
Here, in pictures, is a true adventure story.
“Living Legends” is the title of a film we were shooting. It documented what happens in a Native American family when the father becomes a Christian and leads his family.
Our final family interview was shot on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. We finished early, allowing us to begin our trip back home sooner than expected. One of the local people gave us directions including a shortcut, right through the reservation, which would cut fifteen to twenty miles off the trip.
We set out on the course we thought would take us to the main highway, but things went very, very wrong.
Oh, the scenery was beautiful, so long as we were sitting in a moving car, on a good road. But things deteriorated quickly after our tires left the pavement and we continued on a gravel surface.
With my military training, I should have known better and turned back the way we had come. We didn’t do that and soon I was stopping the car in order to jump out to remove jagged rocks from our path so our car didn’t bottom out and cause damage.
We reached a place called Seven Mile Wash. It looked like I could just drive across the dry sand, and continue where the road started up again on the other side. Immediately our tires became mired in what I can only describe as a powdery dust that resembled talcum powder. It took hours to jack the car up, dig out the tires, place logs under them, and inch the car forward, only to repeat the process over and over again.
Eventually, as I drove over a rise, with the sun in my eyes, the car started down the next hill and we hit a patch of those jagged rocks, tearing a hole in the transmission pan. As the fluid gushed out, gears began to slip until the car couldn’t travel any further. Our car was disabled and we were hopelessly lost.
As my dad stood next to it, I wrote down the numbers on a marker so we could try and explain to someone where our car was, after we hiked out of that wilderness. Well, that didn’t go as planned either. After several hours of hiking, we found that we’d gone in a full circle, in the dark, and wound up right back at our car. At about 2 AM, we were at 5000 feet of elevation, it was freezing out, so we spent the night sleeping in the car.
At daylight, we decided to try hiking out again. It wasn’t long until we discovered what a hostile environment we were stranded in. We walked for most of that day, lost touch with each other a couple of times, and my father fell and split his head open. Both of us became pretty discouraged. We were hungry, thirsty, and very lost. That’s when I hiked to the top of a rugged hill, to try and find out where we should go. As I sat on the ground, beneath a small tree, a sparrow landed on a branch just above my head. He began singing his lungs out as if to remind me that if God’s eye is on the sparrow surely he knows where I am and what I need. In the distance I could see the reflection of a car on a straight road. It was miles away, but there was no mistake that help was in that direction. So on and on we trudged through gullies, across ice-covered streams, through brush and rocks.
It was almost cruel when we reached the area of the road because, from where we stood, it was a climb nearly straight up and our strength was gone. Somehow, with super-human strength, we made it to the top.
I took a roll of camera tape out of my jacket pocket and quickly made a sign that said, “Help!” The first car that saw it stopped and took us to the nearest town where we arranged to retrieve the car in the morning, and then slept for what felt like days.
Because I had written down the marker number, our tow truck driver knew exactly where our car was located. We piled in with him and drove off.
Our car was hooked up and taken into town where repairs were made. Finally we were on our way home after one of the greatest survival adventures of my life.
But before we left the area, we decided to drivew back to the place where we were rescued and take one last look.
Humm. Maybe I’ll have to write a book about that some day.
Find my books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=max+elliot+anderson&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Monday, January 08, 2024
Middle Grade Basketball Thriller
Review - Sandra K. Stiles - Teacher
This is the fifth book in the Sam Cooper Adventure series. Sam Cooper and his friends are awaiting the beginning of the basketball season. Sam keeps having the same dream. They are on the basketball court. It comes down to him making the winning three point shot. The crowd screams. In reality the star of the team is his best friend Perry. Perry is the tallest person on their team. He plays center and Sam plays point guard. Sam has been working on making three point shots from anywhere on the court. Sam has a bigger concern. Perry knows he is good. He believes he is so good that he shouldn't have to worry about homework. He is sure that with his talent, if he fails a class they will let him play anyway. He sees no use for education. He knows he is going to be a star and make millions. He doesn't need to learn anything else. Unfortunately his father feels the same way. But what happens when a freak accident takes him out of the game?
I could relate to this book so much. I taught at a school where the international students were semi-pro sports players. There were so many of them that were like Perry. This book is important for kids everywhere to read to see what decisions Perry makes. I absolutely love all of Max Anderson's books. They are full of important yet gentle lessons. This book isn't just for boys, girls will enjoy it as well. After all many girls today play sports and are just as passionate.
Amazon https://lnkd.in/gBs7e7Ei
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