Mike's last day of predeployment leave

David and Mike on Mike's last day of "predeployment leave." No, Mike is not the husky guy with the buzz cut. He's the naughty one who grew a goatee on leave! Drinking beer from David's birthday gift of brand new "Git 'R Done" beer glasses, a gift from a staff member. At this point I'm thinking Jesse and I need to visit Christina Rauh Fishburne (an awesome, witty, writer) in Germany to discuss the homefront experience and test beer... (Missy)

OK folks, we are human here.
Missy drinks wine, emails about the wine and what is happening, or has a beer and emails about the beer... In order to stay in synch I keep the same stuff on hand and have some too. Sometimes I send Doc to the store for an emergency run! Ok, occasionally there's martini night, Alaskan ale night and red wine nights... I guess it depends on the music and the moment-- We work really hard, and with all that deployment, redeployment, injured veteran stress.... we find ways to let off steam.....

Now, Missy's brother Mike is off to the sand box. Missy has a great piece written about the last days with Mike before deployment, but we can't post it until it is featured in a paper first. Stay tuned for that. She also has an op/ed that is NY Times worthy...we'll see where that lands! We are working hard, but we are also loving and suffering--

Beyond that, what really hurts is the unknown, the unknown of how Mike is, wanting him not to be alone, wanting him to feel as safe and warm as we do in our homes. What hurts is the uncertainty and the love that continues even stronger into the unknown.
If you have a drink tonight...be it tea, wine or beer, please raise a glass to Mike and say a prayer too.
I am crying writing this-
J

Support the Troops: Jeffe Kennedy

“Supporting our troops” is far more complex when you are personally connected to a soldier—when you feel like Mary Jony, a mother of an Army Ranger who writes, “the world has…shrunk to one man, one boy I want alive above all else.”

J E F F E KENNEDY’s Air Force father crashed his plane when she was only three. She writes about her journey twenty-five years later, along with her mother, to the site where he died. She finds the un-obvious low place in a silent cornfield, a spot that represents the painful truth that “sometimes people don’t come home.”



Most of the stories unfold with war as the backdrop—sometimes it looms, sometimes it wages, and sometimes it lingers from the past inside the writer’s house.

Some of the stories center on the concept of “home” itself, and the search for roots in a culture where home is constructed, and de-constructed around frequent relocations and deployments. Each woman, in her own words and style, tells a unique story, and collectively they illuminate the pathos of this unsung microcosm of American society....


Jeffe lives in Wyoming and writes, "It's such a relief to see a swallow as it should be--I feel restored to see it fly, black and tan shining against the sky. It seems a moment from a novel."
~Jeffe Kennedy, from Wyoming Trucks, True Love and the Weather Channel, University of New Mexico Press, March 2004
http://www.jeffekennedy.com

AMAZON REVIEW!!!!!

Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront (Paperback)
by Missy Martin (Editor), Jesse Loren (Editor)
REVIEW

A Collective Spiritual Consciousness about War and the Women left at Home! , April 13, 2007
Reviewer: W. H. McDonald Jr. "The Military Writer's Society of America / Author of: A Spiritual Warrior's Journey" - See all my reviews

Rarely does an anthology contain such nuggets of wisdom, and pain as does this wonderfully edited collection of stories and poems by the women who are left behind at home during war. The book`s cover shows the image of a pink hand grenade that jumps out at you. The title is just as explosive, "Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront". Inside the book is even better and is filled with stories, essays and poems that will rip and shred your very soul! It is one of the most gripping books related to war that I have read.

The book was put together and edited by Missy Martin and Jesse Loren. It is a brilliantly done. The placement of the poems and stories is thought out well and it seems that the emotional energy just keeps building throughout the entire book. It is one of those books that you cannot stop reading.

There are many different and diverse voices contained in the book, which reflects again, some good editing choices. The book brings war into another level of thinking. War is not often viewed from the point of view of those who were left at home waiting for their loved ones to return; I often wondered what that would feel like when I was in Vietnam. When my own son was in the Gulf War in Iraq and I did not know his daily status, it almost drove me insane with worry. It hurts worse then being in combat yourself!

This book is an honest, compelling look at what these women went through while waiting fro their warriors to return. You cannot read this book without feeling your heart rip and break apart with their pain. This book transcends war -it is about people!

The Military Writer's Society of America gives this book its highest rating of FIVE STARS! It is a must read book! I give this my personal recommendation and fullest endorsement!

Note:
A portion of the sales from this book is donated to "The Fisher House Foundation". That foundation builds "comfort homes" on or near active military and Veteran Affairs medical facilities. The houses are provided for free for injured soldiers who must be close by for treatment. It is also open to their families.

Bombshell Schedule so far etc.

BOMBSHELLS Party—April 21st at
The Irish Pub, Winters

Book signing Wednesday April 25, 5-8
Peet’s/ Vacaville Free drink with coupon-

Book signing Winters Youth Day Parade : April 28,
Friends of the Library table...

Sales and signing TAFB BX, Fairfield May, 9-12

Ok. Happy Easter-

Missy's brother is being sent back to the sandbox. She has writtten a fabulous personal account if it, and maybe we can post it after Easter. J

Critique from New Zealand Reader

Hi Jesse;


I just finished "Bombshells". Congratulations. I'm really proud of
you. The writing is all first class, interesting, moving, powerful
without exception. I hope that this unique collection is widely
purchased and read because it certainly deserves to be. And I hope, as
you say at the end, that it's just the beginning of more along these
lines. Again, congratulations and great work.


All best from down under,

Peter

Deep Sea Fishing in Mexico

Doc went to Mexico to deep sea fish. It took 4 hours to cross the border back. Hopefully he has many fish, I'll eat them, he won't eat them! as soon as there are pics, I'll post them. He fished, drank beer and played cards for 3 days.


Thank you to the folks out there reading the books and writing reviews! I am hoping Missy and I can sew up summer book tour stuff soon.

My best bud from Grad school came up and we made spoken word MP4s, which probably sounds interesting to some people.... I'll let you know. I made an Mp4 of two of the poems in BOMBSHELLS. I'll try to do another, but I am not quite ready to post it. Any interest?
I am not sure how to post an MP4 file, but that is what I have. I make a recording of Infantryman and At Night Stars Forget. I can probably send them to you if you email me.

So, if Missy and I do a west coast tour, mainly near bases, where should we make sure to stop?
Jesse
PS, not entering this as a new post... Doc is back. He is happy with fish tacos. He came back hairy and tanned, and with the deep glow that men have when they win the war of man against nature. He is very proud of his fishified conquest! I have eaten 4 fish tacos, and after a few hour break, I am on my way to have more.

I don't know what all of it is...Lincod? fish? It all looks like fish. So what else can I make aside from fish tacos?
J

Voices of the Fallen

My auntie sent me this. Voices of the Fallen from Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773294/site/newsweek/


Things are going well. Doc changed units and is now non-deployable. I have been busy with work, and I had a fabulous weekend. I went to Napa to see William and Mary Shea . William was in the play "South Pacific" and was a captain. If you don't know the play, it is based in WWII on an island. It has themes of love and hope, along with the unknown, racism and fear. It's clear that many of the same issues from that time period are still alive and well. No pics though. J
Some of you might know that the book is dedicated to Mary Shea...
I have two signatures from the book, now I just need 34 more~