AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: John McNellis

A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Hastings College of The Law, John practiced law until he co-founded McNellis Partners, a Northern California shopping center development firm, in 1982.

John is a decades’ long member of the Urban Land Institute—a founding member of its Environmental Task Force—and the ICSC. He is a ULI Governor, has chaired two separate ULI Councils and served as both a Trustee and Council Councilor. He has also served on the board of directors for Lambda Alpha International (Golden Gate Chapter).
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A frequent lecturer on real estate topics, John writes a monthly column for the San Francisco Business Times and is the author of the critically acclaimed books, Making it in Real Estate: Starting out as a Developer (First an Second Editions), an industry standard and taught in universities nationwide. His lecture series on YouTube is the most widely viewed of all of the ULI’s video presentations.
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John is actively involved with Outward Bound USA, having served on its national board of directors and now on its advisory board. He is a past president of the board of directors of Rebuilding Together Peninsula and is a board member emeritus. He has also served on the board of directors for the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center and was a seventeen-year volunteer at the Palo Alto Downtown Streets Team’s Food Closet.

Q: In "Scout's Honor," the protagonist, Eddie Kawadsky, undergoes a profound transformation from a desperate young man to a successful real estate developer haunted by his past. What inspired you to explore themes of redemption and morality in the context of Eddie's journey?
Answer: It was this question that has nagged me for decades: Is morality a luxury? Is it only the well-off who can afford to do the right thing? And what happens to a decent young man when his whole world crumbles? And if he does break his moral compass, can he live with himself afterwards? Will his crimes still shadow him on the darkest nights?

Put another way, is virtue like an investment gone bad? Can it be walked away from with merely a sigh and a couple lasting regrets? Or, given a chance, will character prevail? I should point out that friendship and its healing power also figure large in Scout’s. It seems to me that life can be as binary as a computer, a matter of ones and zeros. One good friend equals happiness. With zero friends, you’re lost.

Q: The novel traverses multiple settings and time periods, from the jungles of Vietnam to the gritty streets of 1970s New York City. How did you approach researching and recreating these diverse environments?
Answer: The old-fashioned way: lots of digging into source material and personal interviews. That said, Scout’s has just two principal settings for which I needed outside help: Vietnam and the fearsome Mexican prison. As to Eddie’s experience in Vietnam, I relied heavily on the guidance of a good friend who had served as a lieutenant in a Marine Corps rifle platoon during the Vietnam war. (thank you again, Jay Mancini). Jay not only suggested the best books on the conflict, but shared his personal experience in those far off jungles. As it turns out, I don’t have any friends who’d ever seen the inside of a Mexican prison—I guess I hang out with the wrong crowd—and thus I had to rely solely on research. The novel’s primary setting—New York City—was easy. I love New York, my mother’s family is from Queens and I’ve spent many weeks wandering about Manhattan, both as a tourist and attending real estate trade conferences. And, given my 40-year career in commercial real estate, I needed no outside expertise to craft Eddie’s meteoric rise as a developer.

Q: Eddie's decision to join the Marines and serve in Vietnam becomes a pivotal point in his life, shaping his identity and future actions. Can you discuss the significance of Eddie's military service and its impact on his character development throughout the novel?
Answer: Eddie was always destined to join the military. He looked up to his father, a career naval aviator, as a winged god. Had his life not fallen apart, he would likely have gone to Annapolis and followed his father’s footsteps, perhaps rising even to admiral. (If he had, there would have been no intriguing story to tell.) As it happens, Eddie must run for his life. He shaves his head, dons unneeded glasses and joins the Marines merely to escape his dogged pursuers, but once in combat, he unconsciously begins his penance for his sins, devoting himself to the care and protection of his squad as an unexamined act of contrition.
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Q: As Eddie confronts his past and struggles to reconcile his actions, the novel grapples with questions of guilt and responsibility. How did you approach crafting Eddie's internal conflict and his journey toward self-forgiveness within the larger narrative arc of the story?
Answer: I wanted to set a very good boy with a dazzling future into a petri dish of despair and see where that culture takes him. Eddie’s an eagle scout, a straight “A” student, good to his parents, liked and admired by his friends. Funny and quick-witted, Eddie’s talented, driven and ambitious—his sky is limitless. Then his sky falls. To evade capture and life imprisonment, Eddie has to bury his personality, become a man who speaks as if breaking a vow of silence with his every word. He can never ask questions for fear of being asked himself. He must live in constant fear of being recognized. My fond hope is that readers will agree that Eddie develops slowly—organically— after the terrible night in Mexico, perhaps becoming the man he was meant to be.

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Visit John on his website: 
https://www.johnmcnellis.com
Join John on Faceboook: 
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063690680449
Subscribe to John's YouTube channel: 
www.youtube.com/@johnmcnellis4095
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Connect with John on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/john-mcnellis-b6a1674
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LINK for BOOK:
https://www.amazon.com/Scouts-Honor-John-McNellis/dp/1736352547