Jillian Dodd recently told me about a competition she was running. To cut a long story short she had met the author CJ West.

Some of you may already know him, but how well? Sure, he writes novels, but what else do you know?

For example, did you know that it’s only because of the fear of a legal injunction that I am unable to disclose the full details behind the time he parachuted onto a flying helicopter, disabled a band of terrorists and defused a bomb, saving twenty-nine passengers and all with only an ounce of fuel remaining?

Or perhaps you’ve already heard that a court order sealed the documentary evidence of how he saved an African village from a herd of killer ants, armed with nothing more that two waffles and a glass of water? No? Ah, that court order must be working.

Then there’s the presidential citation for his valor in XXXXX where, down to his last XXXXX, he defended XXXXX for eighty-six hours before being relieved by the Eighth Army (all of them). The island of West XXXXX is named in his honor (though, of course he will deny this, if you ask).

And, unfortunately, a strict non-disclosure agreement forbids me to detail the major medical advances he brought about after his discovery of certain orchids grown only in the wilds of the Himalayas. All I can say is that it is rumored that the CEOs of several major pharmaceutical companies are often seen camped out on his lawn murmuring “with this I could rule the world.”

CJ is a quiet and reserved guy. If you ask him he will probably deny his pivotal roles in the Apollo moon landings, bringing down the Berlin Wall, and the invention of the iPad. In particular, I doubt you will ever get him to talk about the late night he spent in a Liverpool pub where he told John, Paul, George and Ringo that it might be a good idea if they started a band.

So, what can I tell you without the fear of legal action? Well, despite his apparent International Man of Mystery status, he has never appeared shirtless on the internet.

I know, shocking isn’t it?

So, now I can tell you what Jill said about her meeting, and I quote:

I couldn’t help but notice that he was pretty darn cute. So I politely inquired about the possibility of him appearing on one of my MANday blog posts. (Actually, I said, Do you have good abs?)  After a little help from some of my female author friends, we convinced him (okay, we bribed him) into agreeing.

Needless to say, apparent International Men of Mystery do have their conditions. In CJ’s case it was comments on his blog … and not just comments, 5000 of them. Now, I’m not expecting you to make all 5000 yourself, but why not make Jill’s day, just click on the link to leave a comment on CJ’s site … and make something up in the secret life of CJ West for the MANday challenge.

Go on, click on the link. You know you want to.

Cheers

PS My lawyers told me to point out that the claim that CJ had to have a restraining order placed on Chuck Norris, to stop him asking for autographs, cannot currently be proven.