When my “Johnny” comes marching home, he’ll have me to come home to, for better or worse. Each deployment has been greater than six months and this is our fifth. As if that weren’t enough, there have been separations for annual training, schools, TDY, and ill-fated PCS timing. How many days, exactly: I know I’m not alone when I say, “I can’t count that high” or “I’ve stopped counting.” But each time we rolled out the red carpet upon his return.

We’ll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer, the boys will shout
The ladies they will all turn out
That joyful day when Johnny comes marching home
Twill be so good to have ‘em home
They’ve been so far and gone so long
What a joyful day when Johnny comes marching home

“So far and gone so long”: Yes, the other side of the country and for days, into months, and years. Our HEA (happy ever after) is stuff dreams are made of, books and songs and poems are written about. It’s been a true military romance that adds a chapter with each passionate good-bye and returning embrace. But it’s one story, one military couple, and one tough, gritty lifestyle that has been paid for with tears, sweat, and bended knee again and again, and sooner or later, again. Furthermore, it’s only one way to write the story.

I’ve been around enough to know that’s only half the stories. In fact, more personally, that only accounts for half my husband’s romancing or his story as it were. Rumor has it that he was a recipient of a “Dear John” letter that broke his heart during his very first time away from home. An Army girlfriend turned and did a “Savannah” on him. In years since, we’ve witnessed girlfriends and wives fall by the wayside for other soldiers. DH has signed leave paperwork knowing full well the turmoil a soldier was going to have to endure on his R&R. Some fellows of his have gotten more than “Dear John” letters on deployment; they’ve gotten divorce papers. That’s the cold, hard, ugly truth. It happens.

Knowing this, it was with intent (on seeing the motivation behind the letter writers) that I picked up Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John in paperback a few months ago. For me, I viewed it as a case study. I’m not a natural fiction reader. (And I’ve only recently learned of military romance as a category). I prefer non-fiction, but the military scenario hooked me and with the reality of “Dear John”s being on my heart, I cracked the cover. The story of John and Savannah did not disappoint me. (I had no basis or expectation for HEA.) I was swept away, enthralled, heart-broken, and floored.

It read like Real Life. In this case: Ugly and Cold but Untrue. (I double checked: 1. Soldiers—Fiction. 2. Long-distance relationships—Fiction.) I won’t go into specifics. I fear I’ve spoiled it already for those who haven’t read it, but not any more than the given title I hope. My experiences lent themselves to seeing how Savannah and John couldn’t make it work and even understanding it. It did not anger me as it did one Amazon reviewer who felt they wasted their time. It saddened me to know that this fiction book played out a non-fictitious theme still being played out centuries after the first “Dear John” letter.

Not all the ladies turn out. A salute isn’t always rendered for a job well done. Some take themselves out of the mix for a myriad of reasons. The sacrifice of time and youth is too much. It doesn’t make them all wrong. Some “Savannah”s go on to other good causes and grow up and “show up” for different relationships, ones that are in a whole other romance category. That is the lesson that I came away with.

A friend that I lent the book to had her own take. She, being the lover and wife of an airman, was angry. She’s also a hopeless (sorry) romantic who’s betting Hollywood will save the day and John and Savannah will make this a true military romance and not just another bad news story, a casualty of 9/11. I pray not. Life is messy. Military life is messier. And I’d be lying if I didn’t end by saying that once or twice I’ve contemplated a more simple life, one of a teacher or a grocer’s wife. As a couple, we’ve even fantasized about a “Dear Army, We’re moving to Canada” life.
So, while I didn’t expect it to be a controversial book when I shared it with my friend and others, upon further thought, it makes sense. Dear John is a controversial fiction book whose story hits real close to the non-fiction dealings of a controversial life. I have no want, basis or expectation for the movie to be any different.

Star Henderson is a National Guard Army wife. Her journey with the military began writing daily letters to a friend at Basic Training in 1990. She joined the Army in 1993, and later married that “friend” in 1995. Her husband is David, and they have two children: Thomas and Tara. Their family is part of the 48th Infantry Brigade of the Georgia National Guard. Star is co-founder of ArmyWifeNetwork.com, which is now parent to their ever popular weekly call-in live radio show Army Wife Talk Radio and their q&a column for the military, Field Problems™. Committed to sharing their stories, knowledge, and providing real answers, co-founders Tara and Star work hard to identify and solve the issues of today’s military families. Real-life stories can be found on their Loving A Soldier blog that is home to more than 20 military spouses, girlfriends and family members.

I know what it says at the beginning of the book. All the characters and events are purely fiction, blah, blah, blah.

As I was tweeting with an ex Navy friend the other day, we realized we both had the same problem:

Nobody believes the true stories and we have no choice but to fictionalize them!

Let me let you in on a little secret: I’ve met so many characters in my nineteen years (eight active duty and eleven as a military wife) that I just have to put some of them into books.

How can I not?

There was that corporal in the Royal Air Force, that Buck Sergeant from South Carolina, the good old boy from Virginia, the trust fund baby from Texas, the Fratalian from Maine, the farm boy from Kansas, the cowboy from South Dakota…and that’s just the first four years!

The fact is, we’ve met more characters than we can count – and likely had just as many adventures with those characters.

When we put the characters and adventures on the page with a plot, a few hooks and some tension, they make for great fiction but we can never share the truth.

My story “The Path to Freedom” was reviewed once by a reviewer who found only one aspect of the story completely unbelievable – the idea of a good looking woman getting a free drink from a Las Vegas bartender just to sit at the bar. The premise of the overweight cop being sent to a top secret CIA training camp in the Nevada desert wasn’t questionable at all. It was that free margarita that made the reviewer call “bulls***”.

They also had a bit of a problem with so many good looking guys in the story but I chalk that up to their never being posted on a fire team with three Air Force cops with good haircuts who run with forty plus pounds of gear and guns all day.

This is why I have to write fiction – nobody believes the truth.

Besides, who wouldn’t want to romance the characters I’ve met?

Hey, guys! I’m honored to be here and thank Jessica for inviting me.  I’ve posted once before (about the National Guard), but that was as a guest. Jessica’s now given me an actual login (Bwahahahahahahaaa!), so here I am!

My connection to the military is that I served for 7 1/2 years in the Army National Guard. My connection to romance is that I’m a college professor at Fayetteville State University (right outside Ft. Bragg), and I study romance novels for a living. I’m the President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) and I’ve recently published an analytical article on Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEAL/security contractor romance hero, Sam Starrett. I also review for Dear Author and post at Teach Me Tonight.

In my once a month posts, though, I’ll probably be posting about something a little more controversial than the National Guard or Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy SEAL heroes. Because not only was I an officer in the National Guard (and very proud of my service), but I am myself bisexual, something I can say now only because I’m out of the military. If I’d said it before my separation and someone in my command had noticed it, they would have separated me under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

I recently said on a podcast, “There’s gays in the military already. […] I once had somebody—a soldier—tell me, ‘Well, everybody knows that the military is antipathetic towards gay people so, if you’re gay, why would you want to join an organization that doesn’t want you?’ And I just looked at him and I said, ‘Gay people have the same patriotic feelings and the same nationalistic feelings, and the same desire to serve as anybody else.’ […] They’re not just gay, they’re Americans, and they feel just as strongly about that as you, with your straight privilege over there, and they want to act on that.”

I very much feel this topic is pertinent to the romance world because…well, because it’s about love. GLBT people cannot help who they are or who they love and, in most cases, wouldn’t want to. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to serve, nor should it stop them from serving. If 5-10% of the general population is gay, then about 5% of the military is probably gay as well and should be allowed to serve, just as their straight brothers- and sisters-in-arms do. Because it doesn’t matter who they go home to at night. All that matters is that they get their job done.

While trying to decide on a topic for the blog, I scrolled through some of the previous posts to get a feel for what’s already been said so I wouldn’t repeat or rehash old news. What I discovered when reading posts written by former and current military personnel, is that while I’m very much a supporter of the amazing men and women of the US Military, and while I’ve read extensively about what they do, how they do it and why they do it, there is nothing in my background or experience that could ever truly make me understand the military way of life.

It’s a unique and highly honored club and it’s right that those of us on the outside looking in couldn’t possibly ‘get it’. Couldn’t possibly know what you’ve been through – both good and bad. Couldn’t know what you’ve learned, what you’ve cherished, what you’ve feared and what you’ve loved about your commitment to country above self.

I’m awed and I’m humbled by what you all give up. You leave your homes and everything you hold dear for long deployments into hostile and foreign environments. You leave knowing that when you come home, nothing will truly ever be the same again. You’ve lost months, sometimes years with your children, your spouses, you’re extended family and friends. You risk much. And you do it willingly.

And for just this short post, I want to say thank you. Not a generic, ‘I’m so grateful for the sacrifices you make for us,’ but a heartfelt, deeply sincere thank you for doing something I don’t think I could ever do, for giving up things I’m glad I’ve never had to give up, for being strong and stalwart and providing inspiration to a nation of Americans, who need something good to aspire to.

Anna!

Please email me at jessica AT jessicascott DOT net and send me your snail mail address. I’ll get Stephanie’s Hard to Hold Trilogy in the mail to you, STAT!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and passed the word about Steph and Romance Roll Call!

Not everyone has heard yet the story of the three Navy SEALs being court marshaled for allegedly “hitting” a terrorist in Iraq. Here is their story:
“It makes me happy when hearing about a terrorist detainee getting a split lip, courtesy of a Navy SEAL who captured him. Especially when the detainee is the accused brains behind the grisly ambush of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah in 2004, their bodies burned inside their vehicle, dragged through the streets by a chanting mob, then hanged from a Euphrates River bridge. The cruel episode was photographed and posted online as a warning to the Big Bad West: Thus to our enemies. If, as the government claims, Ahmed Hashim Abed is the guy behind the horror, he should thank Allah he has survived long enough to be able to accuse one of his captors of punching him in the stomach. Or the face.” (courtesy of reader Rhonda Ringstad)
Petty Officer 1st class Julio Huertas, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of dereliction, impeding an investigation and lying to investigators. Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, 25, is charged with dereliction and lying. These two SEALs will face the man they “hit” in a trial now set in Camp Victory, Iraq on April 5th.
A third SEAL, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, 24, deferred a plea on charges of hitting a detainee, dereliction of duty and lying to investigators.
The SEALs are attracting much support in the form of 350,000 members on a Facebook pages and protestors at the court house. The mother of one of the slain contractors drove from Ohio to offer the men “everything I can give them.”
I personally feel that this situation is ridiculous. From now on, every captured terrorist will cry that he has been “mistreated.” Do terrorists have that kind of consideration for their victims? Hell, no. Let’s stop wasting government money taking our warriors to court for doing their job and rounding up the scum of the earth. Please show your support for these three Navy SEALs by signing a petition online and/or writing your congressman and senator.
My thanks,
Marliss Melton
Navy SEALs Series Team Twelve

As veterans there is one thing in common we carry with us throughout our lives and that is our time in service. Whether it was just a few years or an entire career, it gives us a common language and a common bond. We were and always shall be brothers and sisters in arms.

Although our service rarely comes up in cocktail conversation I find it really is something I enjoy knowing about people.
I recently watched the much anticipated premiere of Human Target on Fox, starring Mark Valley. Being a major action/adventure fan (as well as an action/adventure writer) I was anxious to find out more about the series after thoroughly enjoying the pilot.

As it happens I saw an interview with Mark Valley and McG, the executive producer, that was quite enlightening. They were old Army buddies from Desert Storm. I liked that. I researched a little further and discovered that Mark Valley is a West Point graduate with a degree in mathematics.

I didn’t intend this to be a commercial for Fox or the show, Human Target. My point is, Mark Valley is one of us. I would like him even if he weren’t – his writers are writing great script, he’s easy on the eyes and he plays a great alpha hero. I hope that someday actors who are veterans will play the action heroes that I write but, until then, I hope we can help a brother out and keep Mark Valley working on a great show.

Check it out: http://fox.com/humantarget

Lisa Pietsch is a freelance writer and novelist. Her interests include terrorists and terrorism, the small arms trade, human trafficking and drug trafficking. All of these topics are represented in the Task Force 125 books which are stories of espionage and paramilitary operations centered around the character of Sarah Stevens who is recruited into the CIA’s Special Activities Division. You can find more information on Lisa’s service and her books at www.LisaPietsch.com.

Contest: Win Stephanie Tyler’s Hard to Hold Trilogy

Stephanie Tyler is one of the founding members of Romance Roll Call. I emailed her out of the blue in Iraq and said hey, I’ve got this idea and she jumped on board. Look for her to start blogging with us later this month and regularly after that.

So it’s with great pleasure that I’m announcing Romance Roll Call’s first giveaway. We’re spotlighting Stephanie’s new back to back Hard to Hold Trilogy, featuring her sexy Navy SEALS Jake, Nick and Chris.

Lt. Jake Hansen has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But now the wounded Navy SEAL faces his toughest job yet: Smuggling Dr. Isabelle Markham out of Africa without triggering an international incident. Not easy to do when the gorgeous hostage happens to be a senator’s daughter —and about as easy to resist as an oasis in the desert…
If it weren’t for Jake, Isabelle would still be halfway across the world, where rebel forces left her for dead. The Special Ops warrior may have saved her life, but she doesn’t need him to protect her now. Tell that to the ruggedly handsome hunk in full battle fatigues who’s just been assigned Isabelle’s personal bodyguard. Close quarters aside, Isabelle won’t let Jake anywhere near her heart — until danger throws them together again…and nothing in the jungles of wildest Africa could prepare them for a passion this wild. This crazy. This hot….

He’s an elite Navy SEAL living a risky double life. She’s the gorgeous reporter hot on his trail.

Nick Devane’s life is one big, classified secret. Until Kaylee Smith busts his covert world wide open, threatening to blow his cover. Digging around where she doesn’t belong could get them both killed…especially when the beautiful journalist uncovers top-secret information that could set off a global disaster if it falls into the wrong hands. Nick can’t let that happen, even if he has to battle deadly mercenaries and an irresistible attraction that is all consuming…
Kaylee didn’t expect her search for her missing ex-husband to lead to this sexy and dangerous SEAL. Now she’s teamed up with Nick on a mission that takes them into deepest Africa–and into the middle of a massive government cover-up. With rogue agents hot on their trail, Kaylee’s going to unearth all Nick’s secrets. Before they both vanish without a trace. Before the passion burning between them sets off an explosion no one may survive…

Chris Waldron, an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, is used to getting out of tight spots. But all his years of training can’t prepare him for the crisis he now faces. When a mission to rescue a kidnapped ambassador and his wife goes tragically awry, an FBI hostage negotiator is killed and Chris finds himself at the center of the ensuing investigation. Leading the charge is the blistering hot special agent and onetime lover who has re-ignited their mutual attraction.
Jamie Michaels is determined to keep things professional with Chris Waldron this time. But seeing him bruised and battered in that hospital bed has rekindled all those feelings she thought she’d left behind during their brief, passionate encounter in Africa. Now Jamie must keep her craving for danger at bay as she spearheads a search for the truth that just may blow Chris’s career to bits—and put them both in the crosshairs of an unseen enemy.

So stop by RRC all this week and tell us what your favorite thing about Navy SEAL books is. Tell us why you want to read Ms Tyler’s series, what you love about them if you’ve read them and why you can’t wait to get your hands on Hold on Tight BEFORE IT’S RELEASED.

Winner to be announced Monday, January 25th!

Thank you so much for inviting me to blog today about Summer of Two Wishes. This book, (released last summer), is about a soldier who was believed to have died in Afghanistan, but who turns up alive and comes home to find that life has moved on without him: His wife has remarried, his horse ranch is gone, and there really isn’t a place for him. The real story is about his wife and the choice she has to make. She loved him, she grieved for him, but she thought he was dead and fell in love again. Whose wife was she? The wife of her first true love, whom she thought she lost to the war? Or to the man who pulled her out of the ashes of despair and taught her how to love again?

I backed into this idea by accident; I didn’t start out to write a book about a military hero. Other than having a nephew who has served two tours in Iraq, what do I know about coming home from war? What I set out to do was write a book that was simple in its construct, but packed an emotional wallop. The idea came to me one day when I was reading the Austin American Statesman.

I don’t know about where you live, but about once a year in Austin, the paper has a special edition in which they print the faces, names, and death information of all the soldiers from Central Texas who have made the ultimate sacrifice for us. It is gut-wrenching to look at those pictures. I cannot imagine how the family of those faces must feel. They must all wish for one more day, one more moment, or just to hear a voice. They must all wish for their loved one to walk through a door. It is a sobering reminder of the sacrifice so many noble people make in the name of our country and freedom.

I wondered what would happen if one of those faces literally returned from the dead. What would her or she find? Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that life continues to march forward and nothing can stop it. The wheels keep turning and the past keeps evolving into the present and on into the future. The construct was simple: who was she going to choose? Someone was going to be hurt no matter what she did.

I think that having to come back to a life that has moved on without him would have been enough for this hero. Layer onto that the burden of very difficult, soul-searching choice and I had my basic conflict that thrummed with emotion. It was a hard book to write. I thought a lot about loss. I didn’t know which man the heroine would end up with until I was three-quarters through the book. And I have not written yet about the husband she didn’t choose because that is another really emotional book, and I needed to let it simmer. I learned a lot about the military (thanks, Jess!) and a lot about my personal goals and strengths as a writer. I hope you enjoy Summer of Two Wishes. I am always interested to know which way the reader goes: Team Finn? Or Team Wyatt?

Thanks so much for having me here today. Happy Reading!

Non Fiction Spotlight: Martha Raddatz The Long Road Home

One of the reasons I started Romance Roll Call was to also provide a place for writers and readers to find resources. I’ve been asked multiple times where are good places to start and I’ve got my own backlist of great books out there. But for authors who have no personal military experience but who want to write about soldiers, research is required and the sheer amount of books out there in your local book store can be daunting, to say the least.

So today marks the first Non Fiction Spotlight. It will run every third Monday and will feature non fiction books, either on the military itself or on writing. The spotlight will tell a little about the book and let you decide where to start.

One of the most powerful books I’ve read about the Iraq War to date is Martha Raddatz’s The Long Road Home. Not simply because it’s about 1st Cavalry Division troopers and the 1st Cav is where I earned my combat spurs, but because I’m friends with some of the men in that story. My brigade commander was the battalion commander there and I had no idea what he’d gone through when I was tasked to be his aide one week in 2008. But after a bad training run in a MOUT (military operations in urban terrain) site, he asked me if I knew what happened in Sadr City. He told me I needed to talk to CPT Aguero and listen to him.

I found this book within a day of coming back from the field and read it. I didn’t know any of the men at the time of reading it. Aguero is somewhat of a legend but when you get to know him, at the heart of him is a warrior. A man who simply wants to be at war, doing what the army trained him to do.

See CPT Aguero was the platoon leader who was pinned down inside an alley with his platoon in Sadr City. They’d been out on a mission when the Mahdi Militia decided they were ready to fight. They picked the fight on the day of TOA (transfer of authority) before the battalion commander officially owned the battlespace.

There is some focus in this book about Casey Sheehan and his mother, anti war activist Cindy Sheehan’s reaction to his death but this book is not completely about her or her son. Ms Raddatz takes you onto the FOB. You can feel the devastation of the men as they fight to bring their trapped platoon home. And you can feel the horror of the soldiers who have to make some of the hardest decisions in war in order to survive.

If you want to feel the urgency of needing to get into the fight to save your men, if you want to feel the pain of the wives back home, waiting for notification, read this book. Ms Raddatz’s storytelling is profound and this book marks a significant contribution to our war’s history.

You can order The Long Road Home through AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, BORDERS or wherever you find books.