Gwynn drops in

I thought it's about time I pitched one of my books! With women in combat again in the news to some extent since it's now going to be official policy, a book I did some time ago is relevant again. First let me give a bit of background or story behind the story of Andy Vs The Colonel.

Since I wrote the book and even since it was published early in the last decade, women have played a key role in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. A young woman of the Hopi tribe in Arizona became the first Native American woman to die in combat and a number of women have been wounded, taken prisoner and suffered the same hazards and harm as the men in our military. I have mixed feelings about it but basically agree that women who are able to do the necessary tasks should be able to participate in any area of military endeavor that they want to. Although they may not be as large or strong on the average, they do not lack in courage or any of the inner qualities that are needed. I tried to bring that fact out in this story, some years before it became reality.

At the time I did the first rough take on this tale, I was still working for the U.S. Army at Fort Huachuca, where major elements of both the Army Communications Command and the army's portion of the military intelligence community were located. I was mostly working in human resources and some number crunching  stuff but the atmosphere was all around me. Chameleon that I am, I soaked it up. I took pains to stay away from specific equipment and all classified information so the scenario is fictionalized and only the overall feeling and atmosphere is conveyed in the book.

I know that most writers cannot help but weave a certain amount of themselves and their personality or background into their stories. Andy (Andrea), the heroine of the book, is the daughter of a career Air Force officer and his domineering manner plays a major role in the person she is and in the plot of the book. The colonel in question is a different stripe of officer, a Vietnam vet who was enlisted before he became an officer so he has a much more casual view of military etiquette than Andy's father and other officers she has known. Although I was not a military brat, I too had some conflicts with my dad as I grew up and parts of that crept into the tale!

Although the book was always billed as a romance, it isn't in the strictest sense although the developing love between Andy and her colonel is a major plot thread but her own development and eventual coming to terms with herself and where she wants to go is what the book is about. There are still some passages that make me tear up when I read them so I hope I got some powerful emotions woven into the story as I created it.
So, without much further ado, I'll give you the cover, blurb and an excerpt in another post. If you are intrigued, the book is still available on Amazon and though Mundania.