Jocelyn Green, Military Success Network guest blogger is today’s WoW–Words on Wednesdays feature as today is the general launch day of Widow of Gettysburg. This is Green’s 2nd book in the series entitled: Heroines Behind the Lines.
A bonus on the book is that for a limited time it is available FREE to readers as a download. A great celebration of Green’s craft and generosity as well as a super warm up to not only Mother’s Day on May 12, but also the observance of Military Spouse Appreciation Day on May 10!
Now onto the words of the story and a few about the process….. The Battle of Gettysburg is the most documented and well-known battle of the American Civil War. Jocelyn Green’s novel, Widow of Gettysburg, takes us beyond the battlefields to the daily battles fought by women and children who struggled just to survive in the time of the Civil War.
This is Green’s second Civil War set novel and story in a series dedicated to Heroines Behind the Lines. It is aligned with her signature mission: “Inspiring Faith and Courage.” The book called on her writers craft and invoked the strength of her experience as a real life military spouse. In the process she reminds us that the challenges of war whether a soldier is lost to death or living a difficult life as a result of battle, are not limited to the warrior.
“During my research for this novel, I read so many accounts of the battle of Gettysburg; I began having battlefield-inspired nightmares. OK, that was easy to fix-I just had to read something or watch a TV show before bed to get my brain to switch gears before sleeping.”
“I knew that if this was happening to me after only being immersed in written accounts, how much more so would this be the case for the reporters who were immersed, literally, in the sights, sounds, and smells of human wreckage. I’ve also interviewed several of today’s generation of combat veterans, and they have told me about similar intrusive thoughts they’ve had after combat.”
The gore and the glory of war has always been recorded by war reporters. They are the eye witnesses to history alongside warriors and commanders and civilians under siege.
Jocelyn Green, author (photo supplied)
Green also counted on this source and below a quote she excerpted from one, a reporter who became a minor character in her book, Widow of Gettysburg:
“But let me say if those who envy the war correspondent were once brought into close contact with all the realities of war — if they were obliged to stand the chances of getting their heads knocked off by an unexpected shell, or bored through with a minie ball, — to stand their chances of being captured by the enemy, — to live on bread and water and little of it — to sleep on the ground, or on a sack of corn, or in a barn with the wind blowing a gale and the snow whirling in drifts, and the thermometer shrunk to zero,— and then after the battle is over and the field won, to walk among the dying and the dead and behold all the ghastly sights … to hear all around sighs, groans, imprecations and prayers — they would be content to let others become the historians of war.”
Read about this reporter and other elements and inspirations in the process of writing this novel at Green’s own blog post on it.
To read about how one young woman, widowed at Gettysburg carries on past the wretched battle’s destruction, personal loss and on to new beginnings check out the book, The Widow of Gettysburg. It is available FREE through the upcoming weekend as a download at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
You are encouraged to review the book and to share your opinion. Readers who appreciate Green spiritually infused writing will not be disappointed.
Jocelyn Green’s tips for writers from a previous Military Success Network post can be found here.
Read the insights Green shared from her role as a modern day military spouse. Her tips focus on how a Military Spouse can ease transition when it tugs at spouse and family. The tips offered are her personal, field tested advice when the military service member in a family undergoes the transformation from military roles to new civilian footholds.
If you’d like to read a bracing view of war from a modern day warrior, read about author, Antonio Salinas and his book: Siren’s Song The Allure of War.
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Thanks for taking time to comment and to read our guest columnists, and full time authors’ pages.