Local writer John Raymond Takacs is preparing for a cross-country tour to promote his first novel, "The Take-Us," which will be released locally Sept. 6. Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson

John Raymond Takacs is many things - a war veteran, an imaginative inventor, a physical and emotional survivor.

But as a first-time novelist, he's something just as unique - a storyteller who tackles what he calls the "U.S. enslavement to oil" by throwing the country's biggest crisis into a high-speed, fictional fast lane.

Takacs grew up the little Hoosier backwater of Mishawaka, Indiana. Within days of graduating high school he was on his way to Vietnam. Takacs became part of the U.S. Army's highly elite paratrooper core, the 101st Airborne, better known as "The Screaming Eagles."

For five months he put his life on the line in a series of jungle drops - until a helicopter he was riding in was shot down by mortar fire. As the chopper attempted to land it flipped completely into the earth, leaving Takacs's body riddled with shrapnel and broken bones.

Today he views this experience as a defining moment in his life. "When I got back to the states after I'd recovered from the crash, everything changed because the war was so unpopular in 1971," Takacs said. "You didn't dare tell people you'd been wounded in Nam, because no one would hire you. In fact, I literally couldn't find a job until I stopped putting down that I was a war veteran."

The lack of opportunities in Indiana brought Takacs out west to California and eventually Pioneer. In 1994, he began writing. While he believes he had a number of good stories back then germinating in his mind to create various novels, a sudden series of tragedies put his aspirations on hold. Takacs lost his wife to a fatal car accident. Then his father, his only brother and both his brothers-in-law all passed away from illness that very same year. Takacs had to leave writing behind to focus his energy on being a single father and holding his family together.

While grief and personal calamity had appeared to end Takacs' career as an author, it was ironically another trying time that set it back on track. In 2006, Takacs became gravely ill with an internal condition. He remembers overhearing two surgeons discuss whether he was going to live or not. "It may sound strange," Takacs said, "but I just laid there thinking, 'I don't want to die with all of these stories trapped inside of me.'" Takacs lived through two major operations. Once he was fully recovered he set to writing his first novel, "The Take-Us." In a few weeks it will finally hit bookshelves.

"The Take-Us" is the story of John Christenson, a man who invents a prototype car that could finally ace the world's oil cartel out of its strangle-hold on the United States. To prove that his new machine can actually do what everyone's been waiting for - namely run without gas or plug-in technology - Christenson decides to trek across the country in it on live television. What ensues is an adventurous race against the dark corporate forces that would keep his technology from the public.

"This novel was brought about by the fact that I've been researching the global oil crisis and the struggle to make alternative vehicles for some time," said Takacs. "The kind of drive technology that's in my book is something I'd hoped to actually invent for the car market. I later came to believe I didn't have the knowledge and talent to create the real hard, and sometimes it's tedious, but when a homeowner comes up to you and tells you that you've really made an impact on their life, then everything becomes more than worth it."