It takes a good Flak to know one, and it takes a journey to get there.

Not many public relations practitioners can say they have sold donuts door-to-door or worked for Burson-Marsteller or served as press secretary to the majority leader of the U.S. Senate or run a business in Kiev. J. Michael Willard, author of "The Flak: A PR Journey," has done all that and more in his 30-plus years in the PR business.

Willard has a story to tell, and his autobiography gives him an "excuse for a nostalgic journey." He tells his story in a rather loose, meandering style. The reader has to take a few side trips with the author as he relives the past, and each chapter includes his rambling "Random Notes." It can be tedious reading if you are trying to make sense of the chronology of historical events, or if you enjoy tightly written prose. But for readers who are interested in public relations, it's worth going along for the ride just to hear Willard's experiences and what he's learned from them.

The journey begins in the U.S. state of Georgia. His donut-selling experience, at age 12, gave Willard his first taste of marketing to the public. After college, he started work as a reporter for the Tampa Times and later became a bureau chief for United Press International.

In 1976, Willard transitioned from journalism to public relations when he landed the job of press secretary for U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd. Soon thereafter, Byrd was elected to the high-profile position of Senate majority leader. Willard, a proponent of on-the-job training, calls Byrd his "greatest all-time professor" of public relations. He continued working for the senator for eight years before moving on to the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller, eventually settling in Ukraine to manage the company's Kiev office. When the firm was on the brink of closing the office, Willard decided to take over the Kiev business himself, This Ukrainian city is now the international headquarters for The Willard Group.

Willard definitely can spin a tale. Not only has he been on intimate terms with players in Washington politics and Russian economics, but he also writes about hanging out backstage with singer Johnny Cash and dining with Panama's Manuel Noriega. He has sipped tea at 10 Downing Street and caught a steam train in Outer Mongolia. But it's not just the tales that make Willard's book interesting. He's climbed the ladder in his profession, feels his knowledge of public relations is valuable and enjoys dispensing advice.

Some of Willard's PR know-how is distilled into lists. For example, one chapter is devoted to the 10 commandments for press secretaries. The author also imparts five rules for handling a crisis. But much of his advice is woven into the memoir's narrative, with certain recurring themes. Willard believes, for instance, that understanding human nature is the foundation for public relations. Throughout the book, he describes situations in which paying attention to what motivates people resulted in more successful PR strategies.

Willard is also an advocate of what he calls "galaxy thinking," a problem-solving method that involves coming up with situational "what ifs"--especially those that run counter to conventional thinking. Thinking big and taking risks have served Willard well in his career.

Although Webster's Collegiate defines flack (alternate spelling, flak) nonpejoratively as "one who provides publicity, a press agent," Willard confesses it can be a derogatory term "unless used by someone who is one."

He admits to feeling that he betrayed journalism by crossing over to flakdom, at least initially, and devotes an entire chapter to public relations as a dirty word. But during his years in PR, Willard has developed deep respect for public relations done right.

Although he tells the reader that the "ability to make news is a mixture of art, science and P.T. Barnum," Willard obviously believes one can learn to depend more on strategic focus than on bamboozling the public.

By choosing "flak" for his book title, Willard reveals his enduring belief in the meaningful impact that a serious PR professional can have.

Linda Davis is a technical communicator with Computer Sciences Corp. at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., USA.