Views From The Homefront

Short blogs from two mystery writers caught my eye this week. Marcia Preston, past president of the Oklahoma Writers Federation, wrote about her son who’s off on his third tour of Afghanistan. Mary O’Gara, current president of Sisters in Crime-Internet Chapter, remembered family members who came home safely from two World Wars, offering a meditation that could easily be used as a cure for writer’s block. Together, these thoughtful blogs seem just right for the Fourth of July observance.


MARCIA PRESTON

I met Marcia Preston in Fresno, California, where she was on the 2001 faculty of the now-defunct William Saroyan Conference. I still have my cassette tape of her workshop on writing a short story. She laid it out so logically and made it sound so easy that I still think “one of these days” I’m going to write a short story.


At the time Marcia was editor-publisher of ByLine magazine and had just written her first mystery, PERHAPS SHE’LL DIE, which was nominated for the 2002 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and for Macavity and Barry awards in the Best First Mystery division.


She has since sold the magazine and (writing as M.K. Preston) published an Oklahoma mystery series featuring Chantalene Morrell, daughter of a Gypsy mother and a redneck father. SONG OF THE BONES won the 2004 Mary Higgins Clark Award for suspense fiction, and also the 2004 Oklahoma Book Award in fiction.

Her most recent novels are general fiction. The latest is THE WIND COMES SWEEPING, set on a wind farm and cattle ranch in Oklahoma.


Marcia earned degrees from University of Central Oklahoma, taught in public high schools for more than a decade, and worked for a time as PR and publications director for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. There’s more about her and her books on her web site at www.MarciaPreston.com.

Here’s Marcia’s blog.
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THIRD TOUR by Marcia Preston


Do you know how hard it is to watch your child deploy to war in the Mid-East – for the third time in six years?

Some of you do know. Many sons and daughters have served even more tours. By the third deployment, you start to wonder how many times the little buzz-haired boy you raised can walk into harm’s way and return safe and whole. I won’t say unscathed, because nobody returns without cost.

Everyone says it’s much safer in Iraq now, but every day we read of deaths from IEDs and suicide bombings. Our son wears body armor under a standard uniform that’s not cool to start with, in summer temperatures that reach 110 to 120 degrees. And I better not find out he ever goes out without that body armor, even though this is a kid who loved to goose hunt in freezing weather and used to suffer in Oklahoma heat.

I can’t know what it’s really like for our military people, how they face their fears or mark the days missing their families, how they cope. I admire them more than I can speak. But I do know what it’s like for the ones left behind.

Think of the thousands of spouses and children, the mothers and fathers, who deal with this every day. They go about their daily lives doing their best to function normally, but a big chunk of their minds and hearts is overseas, sweating out the days with someone they love more than life itself.
They also serve who only stand and wait.
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MARY O’GARA

Albuquerque writer Mary O'Gara is the new president of the Sisters in Crime Internet chapter, an online chapter of Sisters in Crime, the international organization for readers and writers of mysteries and crime fiction. She’s also one of the busiest and most generous people I know.


Mary is a creativity and spiritual life coach with an eclectic approach to coaching. She has a lifelong passionate interest in creativity and especially enjoys coaching writers, artists, small business owners, and women over 50 who are creating new ways of living in the second half of life.


She’s also an internationally known psychic and astrologer who has been a professional astrologer since 1976, and it was an astrologer that I met her in 2003. I had an appointment with Mary while I was in Albuquerque visiting a friend and attending a workshop sponsored by South West Writers.


Mary’s bio is longer than my arm, but briefly:
She’s a journalism graduate from the University of Nebraska with both the Ph.D. and the D.D. from the Academy of Universal Truth, Seattle. She writers the Starfire astrology column for Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine and the Riding by the Stars column for Motorcycle Rider News. She has been offering online workshops on psychic topics for writers for more than a decade.


Mary is the author of short fiction published in Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine and in two anthologies, Just in Time from eWings Press and The Trouble with Romance from Trebleheart.

The Trouble with Romance was a New Mexico Book Awards finalist. Read more from Mary at her web site: www.maryogara.com.

Mary’s blog was written for Memorial Day but it’s appropriate for any patriotic holiday, and for any writer’s day.
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MEMORIAL DAY AND THE WRITER
By Mary O’Gara


Today is a fine day for a writing dialogue with someone you loved–or might have loved if he or she had returned from a war, any war–or perhaps for writing a heartfelt prayer for the ones who did come back.


In Red Oak, Iowa, my home town, they still fly the funeral flags of our hometown veterans on Memorial Day. Among them are two men I loved who came back: My father and my grandmother’s brother, who was my surrogate grandfather: Charles Arthur Reese and Philo Douglas Clark.


The stories they told me as a child were wildly exaggerated and made war sound like a great adventure. Today I might dialogue with Uncle Philo about his real memories of World War One. Dialogues aren’t limited to living people.


You could also dialogue with the condition of living in a world at war, and you might be surprised at what you discover for your own life and your writing.


Or this may be a chance to say good-bye in dialogue–or hello to someone you never got to meet.


Dialoguing is simple: Sit quietly and breathe slowly and deeply. Write a name on the journal page and make a short list of up to a dozen milestones in that person’s life, remembering that you are only one of those milestones. Then close your eyes and imagine that person or something representing the situation in front of you.


Close your eyes.
Write: Hello or some other greeting.
Listen and record what you hear or understand.
Write your next sentence. Continue until the conversation drops.
Ask if there’s anything else.
Sit in silence a little longer, waiting.
And when it’s really done, jot down a summary sentence for yourself or maybe a reminder about what you want to take into the rest of your life from this moment.
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Military Reminiscences

By Chester Campbell

I thought about writing a Memorial Day article, but that was yesterday. Anyway, Ben and Mark have done a more than adequate job of covering the subject. Also, make sure you check out Pat Browning's Memorial Day blog here. If you happened to be around back in the day, as they say, it will evoke lots of memories of times you witnessed. It certainly did for me.

In fact, it got me to thinking about writing a lighthearted memoir about my own military adventures, starting with the events as a kid that led up to my decision to volunteer for pilot training in World War II. War is no joke, but the things our warriors do at times can be pretty hilarious.

While out walking tonight about dark (it's still Memorial Day as I write this), I even came up with a title and an opening paragraph. The title is A Date with Destiny. Now is that dramatic, or what? Here's the first paragraph:

"When I began searching for a title that would capture the essence of my military 'career,' I immediately thought of A Date with Destiny. It seemed to fit. The only trouble is I can't remember her last name. In fact, I'm not even sure her first name was Destiny. But I did date a girl once while I was in the Army Air Forces back in 1945. I don't remember much about the date, except that I was my usual bumbling self. The girl was nice, and I displayed my best behavior. You see, her father was a general at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where I was a lowly Aviation Cadet at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center."

I don't know if I'll keep it, but that's the tone of the project. I wish my memory were a bit less rusty. I can't recall all the circumstances. It was a blind date arranged by another cadet. His girlfriend wouldn't go out without someone to link up with the general's daughter. I think I called her after a day or so, but I never saw her again. I was in love with a girl back home and wasn't interested in any casual relationships.

Come to think of it, that may doom the book from the start. I don't fit the stereotypical picture of the soldier who hops in and out of beds as he travels from place to place. Will a book without sex sell?

What do you think? Should I bare my sole (a soldier travels on his feet) for the world to see? Or should I be a sensible guy and stick to mystery writing?

Memorial Day

by Ben Small




Yes, I know Mark beat me to it, and I tried hard not to fall back on Memorial Day as a topic today, but this is Memorial Day, and that fact has been in my thoughts all day.

I've never been in the service. You might say I flunked out. Oh yes, I was called for duty in Vietnam, but when it came time for fitness for service pronouncements, I was deemed unfit. Believe it or not, my feet were too large and I was too tall. And the allergies. Evidently somebody thought I'd be too good a target even in my bare feet, and that my sneezing would give our location away.

I wasn't unhappy about it, needless to say, because I was one who thought we shouldn't be in Vietnam anyway. And not having to go left me free to attend law school.

So my war record can be described in two letters: 4F.

And believe it or not, I don't know anybody who was killed or badly injured in war. So, after watching the Indy 500 yesterday -- my usual way of celebrating Memorial Day -- I felt a bit guilty. I saw that Washington was celebrating Memorial Day with a concert, so I tuned in.

Wow! What an impact. When Katie Holmes and another actress talked about Jose's ordeal, and I saw him, I cried. And then I thought about my nephew serving in Afghanistan. He volunteered. And he's on his third tour of duty. He doesn't whine, doesn't criticize, he trains and then goes. And he's proud of his service. And I'm proud of him.

I can't imagine the terror that must strike these soldiers the first time they see an insurgent, or the first time they hear an IED going off. And the post traumatic stress so many of them suffer for a long time after their service. The Agent Orange hangover from Vietnam. The poison gas from the first World War, the hordes of Chinese invading Korea, the beachhead at Normandy. So much terror...

But our soldiers were called and they served. And no matter what is said about why or how we got into and are fighting any particular war, we need to remember that this is all rhetoric to those who are actually doing the fighting. For them, it's a matter of life and death.

God bless these brave men and women.

Happy Memorial Day

By Mark W. Danielson

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. For most, this three day weekend is one of family gatherings and a celebration of the Indy 500. For others, it’s a time to reflect on those who have served and died for our country. Chances are, few citizens will give thought to the remaining members of our Greatest Generation or those before them who gave us this freedom. Fewer still will remember that we are still fighting a war on terrorism.

It’s easy to forget about our servicemen and women who are currently deployed overseas for they are out of sight and mind. But day in and day out, these soldiers lay their lives on the line for a pittance of a salary, and they do it willingly.

Memorial Day celebrates family fun, but it is also a day of rememberance respecting those who served, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. If you should see someone wearing an article that identifies them with having served their country, please take a moment to smile and shake their hand. They will truly appreciate it.

I salute all of our veterans past and present, and thank them for their service.