We've Got To Fix This Sh*T!

This is a repeat of a post I made on Feb. 23, 2018. It was not too long after the Parkland school shooting and I'd been moved by the eloquence and tenacity of the high school students who chanted, "NOT ONE MORE! NOT ONE MORE!"

Despite the chants, there have been more. A lot more. Far more than this country can stand. Even the world is now saying America is too dangerous to visit. They may not be wrong.

Now, the new chant is "DO SOMETHING! DO SOMETHING!" And that's different, right?

They may not have felt it at the time and they may not feel it now, but those Parkland kids did do something. They may have felt as if their struggle would never end, but one can feel these things. Those kids did turn the tide. Their outrage and eloquence did become a turning point. More people died. A lot more, but this feels different, doesn’t it? El Paso and Dayton, it just feels different. The NRA is being shouted down. The idea of increased and better background checks is sounding like a given, but that's not enough. Not nearly enough at all.

So I'm repeating my post from 2018 that ends with my list of ideas for fixing this sh*t. And we've got to fix this sh*t. Now. Right the hell now.

This is my rifle

February 23, 2018

**Warning** political rant – I know. as an author I’m supposed to keep my trap shut when it comes to this stuff, but feck it. I can’t right now.**

I’m a slick sleeve. I don’t have a combat patch. I don’t know what it’s like to hear a bullet meant to kill me as it zips by my head. I’ve never seen a fellow soldier killed nor have I ever killed anyone. The entire time I was in uniform, if you can imagine it, this country was at peace.  Perhaps my opinion about weapons, for those reasons, count for shit.

Despite the peace through which I served, I still had to fire a weapon at least annually. Every time I aimed my M16 at a human-shaped target, and every time I pulled the trigger, I felt mixed emotions. Part of me loved it. The power, the feeling of success for striking where I aimed –which was rare. I enjoyed the way I imagined I looked—all helmet and ammo pouches and dusty boots and that sleek looking weapon in the hands of a woman in the best shape of her life. I’d smile my wide, white smile, my dark brown skin glistening under a sweat stained helmet band and stroll out to the target, the business end of the weapon pointed down range, and count the holes I’d made. I’d analyze my shot group, which was usually crap, like I knew what I was looking at and knew exactly what to do to improve it. For most of my career in uniform I was a terrible shot.

But that didn’t stop me from looking forward to the times when we checked out weapons and spent a day on the range.

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Too often, authors create one dimensional super-killers in uniform who cold-heartedly carry out his or her duty like a robot. The character perpetuates the myth that the military is filled with people who mindlessly do what they’re told regardless of right or wrong. Orders are orders, in these worlds and service members shouldn’t think for themselves.

I'm convinced authors regurgitate the TV and movie style combatant because the number of people who know and understand real military life is minuscule compared to those who haven't served. People simply make it up, call it creative license and do whatever they think makes for the best plot.

Often times, these are the books I want to throw across the room.

TrackersOn the other hand, there are some who go the extra mile, do some research and present accurate portrayals of military members and veterans. They work at getting at the truth of what goes through the mind and soul of people trained to go to battle, why they do it, what their motivation might be, and how what soldiers do impacts them before, during and after their service.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith, while never having served in uniform, masterfully draws three dimensional characters in uniform in all of his books. Many readers are familiar with the soldiers in his bestselling Extinction Cycle series which features Delta Force teams up against a deadly threat and a world in collapse. Through the multiple books in this series, we watch a team of men who had fought side by side for years in hot spots around the world. They weren’t best friends. They didn’t all hang out together, but they knew each other professionally and, like most people who go into danger with weapons in their hands, their connections are visceral and organic. When they lose half their team in one encounter with a kind of threat they’d never seen before, it rips them apart. They drive on, they continue to function and Smith shows us what it takes to continue your mission even though you’re torn up inside.

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Turning PointTurning Point; noun : a time at which a decisive change in a situation occurs, especially one with beneficial results.

The timing of a series of recent events has led me to believe I’ve reached a turning point which could, if I am able to allow it, result in some much needed change. These events have at least led me to some self-reflection—an activity I usually avoid at all costs—and a realization that I am, in fact, heading in the right direction, no matter that it took me forever to figure this out.

First, there was AWP. I’d been nervous as hell about sitting on a panel at the Association of Writer’s and Writing Programs convention. Who was I to talk about women veteran writers at such an event? How could I possibly afford to go to this massive convention in L.A? And who would want to hear a word I had to say? AWP is one of the largest writing conventions in the world, filled with every literary heavy hitter you can name. It’s like the Olympics of writers and I was making my first showing as a no-name player from the farm team.

I almost didn’t go.

After gathering up the nerve, I finally asked BriGette McCoy and her Women Veteran Social Justice Network for help, WVSJ kicked in to assist in financing my trip and I couldn’t be more grateful to her and her efforts. She’s one tireless woman who isn’t afraid to put her boxing gloves on to go to battle for what women veterans need and deserve. I admire her so much. She came through with some financial support at a time when I almost canceled attending AWP because of the cost. I cannot thank her enough.

And that gratitude is mostly because I’m pretty sure attending AWP has done the one thing that I really needed to do on this writing journey.

I found my people. (more…)

LadyboyOn those rare occasions when it happens, vindication can be truly sweet. Today I’m basking in the honeyed glow of the I-told-you-so and enjoying every second of it.

Sometime ago, a friend of mine asked me to read her book Ladyboy and the Volunteer. From the first page, I knew I was reading something special. Her unique style and playful view of intense topics surprised me at every turn. That this was her first book astonished me.

Susanne Aspley and I served in the Army Reserve together. She’d been an Army journalist then, so I knew she could write. I had no idea she could write in a way that made me throw back my head in laughter one minute, and wipe a tear from my eye the next. She writes boldly, as if completely unaware of how penetratingly personal her words are. I simply could not put the book down. I admit, I’m one of those annoying people who sometimes talk to the screen when watching a movie or TV show. Susanne’s book had me talking to the pages, encouraging her, in shocked disbelief and in plain admiration. She’d written a dazzling tale that I knew would blow readers away.   (more…)

ambitionMan, it just never gets old. The box arrives. Your heart clacks like a freight train with a gazillion cars. You cut the box open, take out the stuffing and there. You get that first glimpse and have to pause for a second...is that really it? Is it really here?

You pick it up, run your hand over the cover, turn it over and read the back. Then you flip through the pages thinking about the hours it took, the characters you created.

Then you smile to yourself.

Every indie author knows typing the six letters that form two words at THE END of your book is never THE END of

Available soon (really in a matter of days) at all online retailers!

Available soon (really in a matter of days) at all online retailers!

the work. Those six letters that form two words are really just the beginning of the long road to finally hitting publish. Multiple rewrites, asking for beta readers, taking in and using feedback, line edits, cover design, marketing decisions, searching for reviewers—the list of tasks required long after you type the words THE END, is a long one, but that’s what makes typing them all the more satisfying.

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