Monday Meandering - December 8th

It's been a good week. Had oral surgery last Monday. I was really nervous (and resentful about the cost), but it's healing well, so I'm grateful for that.

First meander ...

On Friday, I was interviewed about my NaNo experience by a local paper.

Second meander ...

Later on Friday, I did some interviewing of my own. It was for Swing Vote and the short story that comes before that, A Season of Change. The main character is Marc North, a Marine pilot.

I already know (and admire) the man I interviewed. He's a retired Army helicopter pilot and fire battalion chief who's been deployed several times to the Middle East. I could listen to him for hours. He was very helpful with information about how military missions work over there and answered lots of general flying questions.

Listening to him reinforced the impression I already had: this is a genuinely good man. His off time focus while over there was humanitarian. You can follow this link to see one of them, The Afghan Orphan Project. While there, they were able to coordinate twelve life-changing surgeries for children. Seriously, he should write a book his experiences over there.

As for my book, this real man is the perfect model for my character, Marc.

Third meander ...

Speaking of doing good. Author Tristi Pinkston has a call out for short stories for an anthology she's going to put together in 2015. All proceeds will go to the Festival of Trees, an event to raise funds for Primary Children's Hospital. This is a premier hospital in our area, and they take all children, regardless of their family's ability to pay for their care.

If you might be interested in submitting a short story for the anthology or know someone who is, please check out Tristi's post here.

What have you been up to this week?