Sunday, July 10, 2011

Proofs ... proofs...and more proofs!

I have submitted my second proof for editing...

There are still interviews to add, yet the main body; letters and historical content, are complete!

What a journey!!!

Release date

The tentative release date for "It's Lonely Here in Hell" Love Letters from Nam is November 11, 2011...Veterans Day.

Soon there will be an opportunity to sign up for a pre-release copy at a discounted price.

The books price will be $14.99. There will be a limited amount available and the pre-release date has yet to be set...so stay tuned.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Interview with the Calaveras Enterprise

In the spring of 1967, James Piper told his wife he loved her for the last time.

“I thank God each night for my wife and my life and also enjoy every breath that I take and praise every morning I wake up ...” the Army private wrote from Vietnam on April 9, 1967. “It means another day gone, another day I’m alive, and another day closer to being home with my wife forever.”

Piper never made it home to his young wife, Micki. He died from small-arms fire just two days after writing that letter. The couple, who married June 18, 1966, planned to vacation in Hawaii and try to start a family when he was scheduled to return home to San Lorenzo later that summer.

On April 4, 2011, Copperopolis resident Micki Phillips took the letters out of storage, deciding it was time to share her late husband’s story and the stories of other Vietnam veterans.

“I picked that letter up – first two words into it and I already knew which one it was,” she said, even though she hadn’t seen it in nearly half a century.

Phillips, who co-owns Micki and Larry’s Sports Pub in Copperopolis, decided friend and author Charity Maness was the perfect person to pen the story.

Without reading any more, Phillips handed the letters over to her friend.

“They were so musty and old, I felt like I was holding history,” Maness said.


READ MORE

Friday, July 1, 2011

More Reading....

I figure I have digested about 400 pages of information that our government has kept "secret" for 44+ years...and believe it or not, I am not bored in the least. Though it has created an extremely long list of questions that will most likely be left unanswered I am still plowing through.


My hope in writing this book is that people will walk away from reading it with the realization that Vietnam Veterans are NOT simply a statistic, they are real people with real fears, hopes, dreams, and a memory of a time the world should never forget.

To all you veterans out there...THANK YOU!!!!!