Vince Flynn, the best-selling novelist known for his political thrillers, died Wednesday in Minnesota after a two-year battle against prostate cancer. He was 47.
Flynn, who sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the U.S. alone, launched his writing career in 1997 by self-publishing his first book, "Term Limits."
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Flynn went on to publish 14 more books, including the extremely popular Mitch Rapp series, which follows an undercover CIA counter-terrorism agent as he protects the U.S.
The father of three was a frequent guest on Fox News' "The Sean Hannity Show," and conservative commentator Glenn Beck's radio program.
At the time of his death, Flynn was with
35 relatives and friends who were praying the Rosary for him, longtime family friend Kathy Schneeman told CBS Minnesota.
In February 2012,
Flynn discussed his battle with stage three metastatic prostate cancer with WCCO-TV, following the release of his 13th book, "Kill Shot."
"I was in pain writing the last 2 books, but I didn’t know how serious it was," Flynn said. "I couldn’t sit down and focus it was just too painful. I didn’t have the energy and I wasn’t sleeping well."
Flynn said the type of cancer he had was extremely aggressive.
"This is not your garden variety prostate cancer. This is the aggressive kind that takes guys down," Flynn told WCCO-TV. "To a large degree I bought into this idea that if I’m gonna beat cancer I have to keep my life as normal as possible I have to get back to work you can’t go to bed and let the day go by."
In addition to undergoing hormone therapy, Flynn also changed his diet, eliminating all red meat and eating "tons of vegetables, fruit and yogurt."
Not sure whether he would live to see Christmas, Flynn, a Roman Catholic, said his faith played a large role in his therapy.
"If I didn’t have the strong faith that my parents gave to me and the schools that I went to and these coaches that were on us to always be striving to get better and to play with class and to never quit, I think there is a darn good chance I would have just folded," Flynn said.
Flynn is survived by his wife, Lysa, and their three children.
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