A Picture Paints 70,000 words by Janet Raye Stevens

Story ideas can come from anywhere, a dream, a memory, a random comment overheard in a coffee shop. As for my romantic WWII-set time travel, Beryl Blue, Time Cop, the idea came from this picture I found in an antiques shop.

A good time was had by all!

Now, it’s no secret I’m a World War II history buff, so when I saw that picture, I had to buy it (two dollars!). My first thought was, what would it be like to be there with these guys? Well, no, that was my second thought, my first thought was, these happy fellas are totally pickled.

 

A lot of other questions cropped up, but since there’s no identifying info on the back of this 5x7, those questions are still unanswered. Where was this photo taken? Who were these guys? Were they friends meeting up one last time before they were shipped out? Or just a bunch of guys on leave who grabbed an open chair at the local bar and met some new friends?

 

Another not-so-secret thing about me is I'm obsessed with the time travel genre. I love to read, watch movies and TV shows, and especially write time travel (and especially, especially if it’s set in WWII). So, seeing this picture, a time travel story popped into my mind: What would happen if a contemporary woman, a feisty librarian, perhaps, time traveled into this world, and fell for one of these guys?

 

Interesting idea, but it needed more depth.

 

What if she’s plucked out of her own time by a cop from the future, who sends her to 1943 with

a mission to protect the soldier she falls for? And what if the cop from the future tells her a time traveling assassin is after the soldier she falls for and her job is to stop the bad guy by killing him, or the future is toast? Now we’re talking!

 

And so, Beryl Blue, Time Cop, a time travel adventure, was born (or written, rather).

Her mission: Save the soldier, save the future…even if she loses her heart

 It took me a while to get going. There were a lot of who, what, where, and especially why questions to answer before the story came together. Beryl's backstory got complicated. So did her love life. That picture of a group of GIs gathered around a tiny table in a nightclub became a pivotal scene. A wicked funny, romantic, but bittersweet scene that set the tone for the rest of book.

 

You can check out Beryl’s story here: Beryl Blue, Time Cop.

 

And here’s a bonus sneak peek at the cover of the second book in the Beryl Blue series. It’s July 1946, the war is over, and Beryl is once again hurtled across time to save the man she loves in, It’s Been A Long, Long Time. 

Coming Soon!

Thanks so much for spending time with me today – I love hearing from readers, so feel free to drop me a line or sign up for my newsletter at https://janetrayestevens.com/!

 

Meet author Janet Raye Stevens – mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and weaver of smart, stealthily romantic tales. A Daphne du Maurier award and Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award winner, Janet writes mystery, time travel, paranormal, and the occasional Christmas romance with humor, heart, and lots of kissing.

 

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Book cover design: Elizabeth Turner Stokes

Author photo: Tim Rice Photography 

One-Hour Vacations

By Courtney Pierce

It’s a toss-up: a pedicure or a deep tissue massage, the serious kind. Either option is a great mini-vacation to indulge myself, but a combo of the two services just might entice me to cancel a trip to Disneyworld (not that I’d ever go there anyway).

Step one on the enjoyment meter is to shut off my phone. No intruders are allowed to bust into my bubble.

Step two is to use the restroom. Avoiding any interruption once we get going is mandatory. Who wants to get off the warm massage table or pull their wrinkled feet from the bubbling water to take a pee? Not me.

If I start with the massage, I like to supply my own CD of nature sounds, gentle rain, and a thunderstorm.  It speeds up the “turn to jelly” process.  I have an outstanding masseuse here in Kalispell. He even hangs from the ceiling and uses his feet. He’ll run his heels up my back and over my shoulder blades. It’s amazing.

I'm not a gabber or gossiper when it comes to services. I like to mentally go away while I'm being pampered. Pedicures allow me to pull out my notebook and write the old-fashioned way.

The pedicure is all about tools. Pickers, clippers, and files are essential for a fulfilling

session. They get rid of all the stuff that I can't reach or even see. I rest the back of my head in silence as the chair vibrates during the leg massage. I grab the remote for the back roll and pause.

To the undulating roller, I think about my indulgence. Suddenly I feel guilty. It's not about me. I never fought, never sacrificed. We women work through lists to make sure our families have what they want and need. We have and need so much, way too much.

Here it is Memorial Day. So many soldiers sacrificed their lives for me to be able to get that pedicure and massage A spoiled girl, a privileged girl, a girl who never had to push the way our forefathers did. That's not right. I need to work harder.

In my binoculars are two adult geese with fourteen goslings. They line up in a perfect line, like little soldiers, for their trek across the lake, not a single youngin' out of place. They are in a lock-down for learning to be independent, not to do nothing and sure they will be taken care of. But maybe not. There are threats from eagles and osprey that could turn their family of eight to a family of two or three.

The geese take care of their young, with only a minimal handout for them to hunt for their

sustenance. Daddy watches. Mama herds to make sure an eagle doesn't pick off one of her precious ones. There's only so much they can do.

And there you have it. The Yin and Yang of the Memorial weekend. I hung the American flag this weekend in honor of our fallen soldiers. It flies free and so do I.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2020!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting for her too . . . for a different reason.

Purple Heart for Valentines Day

By Diana McCollum.    

I’ve spent a great deal of time pondering what I should write about this month.  The subjects that were suggested by our Blog Queens "Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum."

I chose something entirely different.

I realize death is a sad subject to discuss.  It’s going to happen to all of us at some point in time.  The hope is we live long, healthy, happy and productive lives.  The sad truth is that many lives are cut short by accident, illness or war.

War brings me to the subject of this post on death.

Not all casualties of warfare come home in a flag draped coffin.

While watching “60 Minutes” last weekend I was stunned to hear the Veterans Association state that the average number of suicides per day for vets is twenty-two.  Every 65 mins a vet commits suicide. That is eight thousand and thirty lives per year.

Most of these are young veterans, men and women who survived Iraq and Afghanistan--but who saw such atrocities that their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was more than they could live with or who were injured so severely, death seemed better than life.

The young vet, Clay Hunt, who was the featured story, survived the war.  He won a Purple Heart, watched his buddies die in front of him and was wounded, sent home, recovered and went back to war.  When he finally was discharged from the Marines, he told his mother the events of his buddies’ deaths (and there were many deaths) kept playing over and over in his head like a horror movie.  He had PTSD.  Clay told his mother and father, “Marines are at war, and America is at the mall.”

He was disillusioned with America and the nonchalance and lack of concern about the men and women fighting the war.

Clay tried to make a difference in the world.  After the Marines he joined humanitarian efforts traveling to Haiti after the earthquake to help the people there.  He traveled to Chili after another earthquake to help.  Clay had a purpose and seemed to be adjusting to life after war.

But he wasn’t healed or adjusted.

Even with therapy and the support of a loving family and friends the war took Clay Hunt’s life.  He committed suicide at the age of twenty-eight.  Clay was unable to overcome survivor’s guilt and the never ending playback of death in his mind.  This is an American tragedy played out twenty-two times a day.

This young man won a Purple Heart.  He fought heroically for America.  He was brave.  He came home and the war took his life on American soil. https://stopsoldiersuicide.org
My heart goes out to Clay Hunt’s family.

To all the veterans I say thank you for your service, and God bless.  May you find peace of mind in this life. 

You can help by donating to the following organization:

https://stopsoldiersuicide.org

This Valentines perhaps donate to save another soldier.

“Live in the moment.  Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.” unknown

Where Are the Women? A Military Mystery

WANTED: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Needs Charismatic Heroine

Qualified applicants should be physically fit and battle tested with investigative- or intelligence-gathering experience and leadership abilities. Training in self-defense, survival skills, and weaponry a plus.

The muscled images of ex-military heroes—men trained as SEALS, Special Operatives, Rangers and Military Police—grace the covers of dozens of romantic suspense novels written by women. Male authors have been even busier penning novels with veteran heroes from Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and John Macdonald’s Travis McGee to Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.

So where are the ex-military heroines?

Capable heroines populate many of today’s crime novels. They work as district attorneys, homicide detectives, medical examiners, and Secret Service and FBI agents. Yet only a handful of leading ladies list military experience on their resumes.

To be fair, if it weren’t for a lifelong friendship, I doubt I’d have been smart enough to cast a 52-year-old retired military intelligence officer as the star of my Marley Clark mystery series. Wanting a heroine with “thriller” qualifications, I immediately thought of Arlene, a friend since kindergarten and a retired military intelligence officer. Arlene graciously shared details to give Marley relevant career experiences and depth.

I’ve met a number of Arlene’s Army friends, and these ladies are smart, physically fit, witty, and often hold advanced college degrees. They also know how to use weapons and understand tactics. Excellent heroine material.

According to various sources, U.S. women military vets number between 1.8 and two million, with more than 214,000 women on active duty in all services—about 14 percent of the entire U.S. military. In 2011, West Point graduated 225 women. At the Naval Academy, female cadets make up about 17 percent of graduates. About 35,000 women serve as officers.

As a result of policy reforms, 91 percent of Army and 99 percent of Air Force occupations are open to women. Dozens of career paths provide women with the skill sets needed to unravel mysteries and combat deadly foes. A partial list might include military intelligence analysts, who assist in collecting information and then work to filter, assess and knit it together to identify enemy units, personnel and equipment; military intelligence officers specializing in operational, communications or physical security; lawyers with the Judge Advocate General; Military Police, members of the Criminal Investigative Division, who may even work undercover to investigate a variety of crimes such as dealers attempting to sell drugs to military personnel. 

Many are also battle-tested. Almost 41,000 women served in theater during the Persian Gulf War. More than 20,000 women served as peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo, and about ten percent of U.S. Forces serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are women.

 

Given the nature of warfare today, front-line combat units need support units nearby. That means the driver of an Army supply truck or a communications specialist must always be alert to ambush and attack. In every arm of the service, a person’s first job must be soldiering—specialties come second.

My conclusion? Marley Clark may soon share mystery/suspense bookshelves with many more ex-military heroines. There are too many heroic possibilities out there to ignore.

Do you know a vet who’d make a great heroine?

My Marley Clark Mysteries, DEAR KILLER & NO WAKE ZONE, are available as e-books and trade paperbacks. Visit my website for buy links.