I struggled with this post for Memorial Day. Today, we should be remembering our fallen servicemen and women, those young and old men and women who sacrificed their lives in service of freedom and protection. I smile with pride as I hear the national anthem played during sporting events and as I see tributes to servicepersons on television. There are parades and fireworks and I see active duty personnel being welcomed everywhere.

I am proud of these images and moments. But I am sad, too. Most of today’s youth, even the middle age population do not really understand the military or what it means to serve. Yes, there is a much more open and accepting view of the military (unlike how we treated our servicemen and women after Korea or Vietnam), but when you ask a teen about war, most only have a video game reference. I shudder and cringe when I think how war is seen as “shoot-em, kill-’em, get up and shoot again.”  Few understand that when you get shot while servicing your country, most never get up. Those that do, are never the same and many will never be whole again.

Too few of our youth are visiting military museums, going to memorials or even places in this country where battles were fought. There is something sobering and heart stopping to stand in a field where your own countrymen fought and died against other of your countrymen over a need for all men and women to be free. Now imagine that feeling on a foreign beach as you watch your brother and sister service members shooting at an unseen enemry only to fall into the mud or the sand and never to move again. 

There is nothing video game-ish for me about war or the heroes who serve and do so in order to prevent it. So what can we do to help enlighten our children, our peers, our populace?

As an author, I understand not being able to actually go where wars were fought and won. Or lost. I understand not being able to have the money to experience a live truth. But as an author there are other ways to shed this video-game-parade-happy view of those who have fought and died. There are road trips and History movies. There are walking trails and there are books.

There are so many memorials that are free. I would encourage everyone to try a memorial cemetery and read the names of those who have served and died. There are free military museums everywhere, in every state. And there are some who charge only a nominal fee to view real history from still living people.

I’ve been overseas and have walked in the shadows of terrible battles. I’ve been where Jews were indiscriminately cremated or where service members were slaughtered just because they were Americans. I have walked Arlington and Gettysburg and watched a dogfight between warring nations. So I have that experience.

And I’ve also read. There is a huge amount of military literature available that can give a variety of viewpoints about those who served. Not the salacious stuff you see out there with half naked, helmet wearing guys (ala Fabio) on Indie covers about romance (sorry fellow Indie authors). Those books are great for escape but not what I’m talking about here.

In fact, you’ve probably read military fiction and didn’t realize it. Much of it is historical, speculative and even military science fiction. Some of it was satire and even black comedy. But much of it was based on fact or knowledge and worth your time to understand the depth of service. You can’t write what you know unless you gleam some knowledge. You don’t have to have lived it to understand or know about it.

There’s fun stuff like H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds (1898), or Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869). How about Slaughterhouse Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut? Don’t forget the famous 1961 novel Catch 22 by Joseph Heller or a personal favorite, King Rat by James Clavell (1962). There is a terrific historical military fiction in The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1952) by Pierre Boulle, and even something very special in The Hunt for Red October (1984) by Tom Clancy. A personal favorite is Starship Troopers (1952) by Robert A. Heinlein (and no, it has nothing to do with giant bugs on alien planets).

If you want something a little more “today” try Dauntless by Jack Campbell, Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, or Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden (the book is a definite must read over the movie). Or try Flyboys by James Bradley, or a most moving account by Jake Tapper in The Outpost.

Memorial Day is a good day to hold your families close and cherish your ability to have that cookout, go to that parade or watch those fireworks. It is a good day to kick back with a game of golf or a quiet lounge by the pool. It’s also a good day to read a truly important book.

Whatever you do on this Memorial Day I urge you to shed your make believe views of war and of those who died in them. I hope you will have your bbq and remember you do it freely because somewhere some man or woman in uniform, voluntarily served and died for us, so we could have the ease and choice to choose chicken or hamburger, a movie or a boat ride.

And take your familities to see the real remnants of war and battle. Help them to see the reality that was and is war and what sacrifice actually means. And when you hear the National Anthem again, let it fill your heart with words that mean so much to me, “land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

Because of those who died.

Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry
Proud to be a retired, US Air Force non-combat veteran.

Hi Everyone! I’m feeling wild and crazy and I wanted to do something a little different and off book, as the saying goes.

So I asked my PAA to let me tattle on, oops, I mean tell more about her by asking her questions that I probably wouldn’t ask in an interview. She’s cool enough to play along, even if she did take a few of the questions much too seriously.

So without further ado (yes, that’s correct and not “adieu”), please meet the REAL Terri Wilson:

Interview Questions You’ll Probably NOT Want To Ask:

At a recent Writers’ Group meeting, we went around the table and introduced our work-in-progress, genre, and what we hoped to achieve in the group. There we were chatting about our “stuff” and I overheard one writer make a comment, “I realized my character went through the entire book and never changed clothes.” We all had a good belly laugh at this but then – you know me – I turned that into a discussion about what characters have to have or do to be relatable, for the story to actually live and breathe.

And yes, your character needs to change clothes. More, your characters should do what you do, eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, shower, drive, be ill, burn food, shovel snow, etc. There should be food and dining — sleeping, relaxing, sex (do not have to have scenes but couples do mention it), accidents, arguments — well, the list goes on forever.

The reason for these “life events” is twofold. First, these real events give truth to your characters (even ones on odd, new worlds). Second, they can be the catalysts for moving your story forward.

I am particularly aware of my “scenes” when I write. How do you show and not tell when your character is listening to others? Maybe it is in the food. Does it remind your character of something unpleasant? Maybe the smell of Lysol from the kitchen brings back a hospital stay, so your character cannot eat because the smell drives him/her from the room. Remember you don’t have to outline every nuance for your readers; hopefully the subtle meaning will be enough.

Everyone is good at sights and sounds. What about the way a person speaks? Are characters’ voices clearly understood? Maybe a drawl gives a false perception to your character that causes them to jump to conclusions or say something untoward to the other person. Let those things happen and suddenly you have a much richer moment and your character has character (good or bad). Church bells, car alarms, screaming, laughter — all are important aspects to character but can also move action forward with purpose, too.

Do you use touch in your moments? Perhaps the silk of a flower against a cheek or the rough skein or a woolen scarf in winter reminds a little boy of being wet and cold and scolded by his mother. Or a single finger tracing over a woman’s knuckle by a reticent lover enlarges her pupils. Often these activities tell more than any dialogue could. Use them to advantage and let the action explain the character (he was a romantic man is better understood through the touch of a rose to her lips).

Back to that character who never changed clothes during the entire book. Of course, the writer is going back to fix this, but when the fixing is happening, so much more will result because of the change! Nakedness can have an important voice (mind out of gutter now) for babies, surely, but for adults the bare necessity holds a myriad of possibilities. A dress chosen instead of a pantsuit by a pants-wearing character. A pair of jeans and a Henley instead of Mr. Wall Street’s usual Armani suit. Hmm, casual Friday, weekend getaway or…something more nefarious afoot? Maybe an allergy to silk can lead to murder or laughter. How you need to develop the tale can depend on how your clothes feel to your character. Maybe she changed her hose because it wasn’t her skin color or there was a hole in the sock.

Sometimes, the senses can let your character down, and you should allow it to happen. What about the guard dog that failed to pick up a critical scent, the speeding driver who didn’t hear the fire truck for the loud music in the car with the screaming pregnant woman in the back seat, the little child who holds a first dandelion (stares at it and promptly eats it), the plastic surgery gone awry and the moment a patient gets that first look? The failures can be critical too. Use them but use the sensory part of it to tell your tale. Don’t simply tell us about it. That’s so boring and not nearly as fun.

So, you ask, why didn’t the character change clothes? Did the writer lack the talent to do this? No, the writer spent more time on the surroundings instead of the intimacies of the character. The writer made a lush, active sci-fi world but forgot to let the character live fully within it.

That’s why you need to let your character use all the senses and become a real person. Change the clothes; maybe do the laundry. Notice the stinky socks. Your story will thank you for it and we, the readers, will be begging you for more stories that we can’t forget or stop reading.

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Coming in April, I’m going to do a series on understanding poetry. So be sure to tune in for a perspective that I promise you have not seen!

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I’M RUNNING A BAR/CLUB NAMING CONTEST!  Are you clever? I’m running a contest to find a very cool, not cliché, name of a vampire bar/club in New Orleans. This establishment belongs to my redheaded vampire Drahomira from my urban fantasy novella, Midnight Assassin – A Tale of Lust and Revenge.  There will be permanent name recognition to the winner and signed books too. Contest ends on March 19.  So ENTER HERE!  And Good Luck!  Winners will be announced on March 21.

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LOOK FOR A LIVE CHAT ON FACEBOOK COMING AT THE END OF THE MONTH!

As always, thanks for dropping by. Leave a comment and say hello.

Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry