French Letters: Engaged in War, is on the shelves and on the e-books — it’s launched? It is the parallel-quel to Virginia’s War, the 2009 finalist for BEST NOVEL OF THE SOUTH, BEST HISTORICAL FICTION, AND BEST ROMANTIC NOVELS WITH A TWIST.
Engaged in War is the novel of Will Hastings, an Army doctor thrown onto the landing beaches of Normandy in 1944, a very green new doctor who learns field surgery the hard way — alone, afaid, and in the hedgerows that blocked the Allies’ way to St. Lô.
It is said of the men of that generation who were in the war that they didn’t talk about it, and of the women – no one asked them. Virginia’s War is the novel that asked the women about it. Lynette Bivins, Dondra Downs, Alice Wells, Gail Sulak, Judy Kostura, Barbara Brannon, and many other women said they wanted to know what their fathers went through. Their comments went straight to the editor and straight to me; I believe you will find that Engaged in War tells you what the men in that war found hard to talk about.
Reviewed by Sarah Flanagan: ”This book is extremely well written and tunes right in to the time period. You can almost feel like you are there. It is truly amazing. It is a shockingly real portrayal of our armed forces.”
Lieutenant General Paul Myers, Surgeon General of the United States Military (retired): “A realistic and skillful portrayal of doctors in our armed forces, both their successes and failures. I highly recommend this book.”
William Whitehurst, Past President, International Academy of Trial Lawyers and State Bar of Texas: “One of the finest accounts of trial drama I have ever read…”
And, yes, there is a trial in the book, a court martial, meticulously researched from the trials of American soldiers that took place in school rooms and barns in France in the war.
I’m very proud of Engaged in War and hope that you enjoy it. It launches today, at your bookstore, at Amazon in print and on Kindle. If you would like for me to sign one, send me a note while I still have my small allowance of author’s copies. And, to each one of you has supported me and encouraged me, I thank you sincerely. I could not and would not have done it without you.
Jack