Auburn native Dennis Brooke, a 1978 Auburn High School graduate and a former Air Force officer, releases his first novel, “The Last Apostle,” in February. The book imagines that the Apostle John did not die in Ephesus as history records but that Jesus granted him life until his own return.

At present the Apostle John lives in Seattle, but his friends and others are beginning to suspect who he is. The book is the first installment in a series depicting the life of the beloved Apostle throughout the millennia.

Reporter: So, tell us about your novel.

Brooke: It’s a what-if story. It’s really all about the Gospel of John, where Peter and Jesus are walking along the seashore, and Jesus is telling Peter what a terrible death he (Peter) is going to die, and Peter looks back at the beloved disciple and says: “Well, what about him? What’s going to happen to him?” And Jesus says: “Well, what does it matter to you if he stays alive until I return? We’re talking about you.” The gospel goes on to explain that that’s not what Jesus really meant. I read that and went, what if that was what Jesus really meant? That John would stay alive. From there, it’s what would he have been doing for 2,000 years to hide his identity? Where would he have lived? How many languages would he have known?

Reporter: Go on.

Brooke: About half of the book is about John in modern-day Seattle, the other half is what happens when John is about 100 years old in Ephesus and is restored to the body of a 33-year-old. The Lord tells him, ‘I want you to go forth, share my message, win people for me, but you can’t tell anybody who you are.’ Half of the book deals with that. You could pick any time in the last 2,000 years and ask, what was he doing in the Middle Ages, what was he doing during the Civil War? It hints at all those kinds of things. Hints at him being in a concentration camp. He was in America in the early 1700s. He has to play kind of a behind-the-scenes role; he can’t let anyone know who he is because it will bring on the Apocalypse.

Reporter: Can’t be an easy existence.

Brooke: No. It’s tough because he doesn’t age, he doesn’t die, so every 20 or so years he has to move. He has to change his identity, fake his death, or just vanish so that people don’t know who he is. Before this century, before the mid-1900s in fact, it would have been easy to move and hide. Now it’s a lot more difficult. One of my friends calls this book ‘The Holy Highlander.’ John is the only Apostle said to have died of old age; every other Apostle was supposedly martyred. That’s actually the next book, he goes to follow Thomas to India. It’s called Thomas the Brave. The end of this book talks about that. Supposedly, John died when he was about 100 years old, in Ephesus. In the book he gets up and he’s 100 but looks 33. He has to leave because people recognize him. At one point he’s in Athens and he’s in a house church and this old Rabbi recognizes him.

Reporter: Does John consider his immortality a blessing or a curse?

Brooke: Both. Imagine you were that old. At some point you just want to live a normal life. Your friends die. What if you get married? Your wife ages, you don’t. At some point you have to vanish. I touch on that in the book.

Reporter: How did you get it published?

Brooke: I ran into a woman while I was working at the Rand Corporation in California who told me her husband was a script writer for television. I told her I had this really cool idea for a TV show. So I wrote it up and sent it to him. He thought it was cool. He actually shopped it to a couple of studios. … I was ready to quit my day job because he was so excited about it. But he comes back and says, ‘They want something that’s more edgy now. This is kind of like “Touched by an Angel” crossed with “Quantum Leap.” He said what I ought to do is write it as a book because sometimes studios will pick up a book that’s popular and turn it into a TV show …

Reporter: How long did you need to write your book?

Brooke: It only took me a year to write the first draft. I had joined the Northwest Christian Writer’s Association and sent it off to a couple of editors and agents. I was sure it was ready. Then I started learning more about the craft of writing, and I learned that it wasn’t ready. Other multi-published, award-winning authors said, “Oh, that’s a really great premise.” But I did four or five major rewrites over seven years. Last March I got an offer from a publisher whom I’d met at a conference in St. Louis, a small publisher in Baltimore. I was about to sign a contract with them, and then another local publisher whom I knew made me a better offer. So now it’s coming out.

Reporter: And where can readers get your book?

Brooke: It’s not officially released until February, but Amazon’s got it at a discount right now. I can’t give you the price. That would be on Amazon, but it’s under $15. It’s available at Barnes and Noble for pre-order. There’s a Good Reads give-away right now. You can go to the thelastapostle.com. I’m also doing contests and giveaways and things like that, where people can ask questions about the book, the writing journey, things like that.