Showing posts with label About My Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About My Books. Show all posts

A Note to the Reader by Marilyn Celeste Morris

There really was/is a Camp Sobingo, located outside the capitol city of Seoul, South Korea at the end of WWII. This military compound’s cookie-cutter “quarters” was home to the women and children who joined their Army officer husbands during the US Occupation. The camp had a school, a post exchange, a dispensary, a commissary, and even a movie theatre (think “MASH”). Ever-present, however, was the military presence, both Korean and our own US forces, and the tyranny of the Russians located across the 38th parallel, who merely annoyed the dependents with their random denial of electricity to the American contingent.

Most of the Americans had deployed to other assignments before June 25th, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Those remaining escaped safely, but “The Land of the Morning Calm” would never be the same. In 1954, my father was ordered back to Korea as part of the Military Advisory Group. He took a short drive to what remained of Camp Sobingo, and sent snapshots of our former quarters, (Hq.G-27) which had been pock-marked by aerial strafing, and natives were stripping the floorboards for fuel.

The window, where I had sat and dreamed a 10 year old’s dreams and played with my homemade doll-house populated by models cut from the Sears, Roebuck catalog, was boarded up. More pockmarks surrounded the framework.

An unusual childhood, one might correctly assume, yet I was not alone in this kind of adventure. There are vast numbers of military brats and wives of servicemen who carry the same experiences from different countries. Thanks to the power of the Internet, we are finding each other. Two such sites that assist in this process are: http://www.military-brats.com/ where you may register so that others may find you, and http://www.overseas-brats.com/. Another organization of interest is the American Overseas Schools Historical Society, which recently broke ground for a museum to be built in Wichita, Kansas, housing such “sacred artifacts” as my 4th grade report card from Seoul Dependents Elementary School. Many of the schools currently in operation overseas are being closed as our military presence is no longer required.

Researchers and historians will be astounded by such a treasure trove detailing one small but important part of our nation’s history.

Marilyn Celeste Morris
Author, The Women of Camp Sobingo

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A Bit About Me And My Books by Elena Dorothy Bowman

I am an author who writes in several genre's including: futuristic science fiction, and mystery romance novels that have a touch of the paranormal running through them. I started writing fiction seriously during my lunch hours at work. I needed the diversion since most of my writing at that time was devoted to technical writing. With my first published novel, I guess it started with my smoking. Yes, I used to smoke. I don't now, haven't for many years. But one day while sitting in my office during a break, after a real rough morning, I lit a cigarette.
I watched the curled smoke from my cigarette rise toward the corner of the office disappearing into a crack in the wall. I watched this for several minutes wondering where the smoke was going. Was it just being swallowed up into the wall, or did it vanish into the nooks and crannies that were hidden from view and led to God knows where. Needless to say, my imagination took hold and before I knew it I was writing the first chapter to my science fiction/mystery/romance novel Sarah's Landing-I-Contact. I have since taken the smoking aspect out of the story and replaced that part of it with a human being — the lead character — which ultimately led to the birth of four complete novels in The Sarah's Landing Series. All four books in the series have been released in ebook format by Write Words, Inc., ebooksonthe.net. The print editions will be released sometime in 2007 by their imprint Cambridge Books.

My fifth published novel, a Romance/Suspense/Mystery Thriller, The House On The Bluff, first came into existence due to a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited house on a ledge that overlooked the ocean. A place where I had never seen anyone enter or leave in the many times I had visited there. It was as if the house sat there waiting for something or someone. It was a foreboding looking house, especially on a cloudy day. Still, there was something majestic about the way it stood its ground against the ocean crashing up against its seawall, and the mystery
surrounding it — just added to the equation. This, too, lent itself to a three book series entitled The Legacy Series. All three books in the series have been released in ebook format by Write Words, Inc., ebooksonthe.net. The first two books in the series have been released in print by their imprint Cambridge Books. (http://www.cambridgebooks.us/).

We come to my eighth published novel, Time-Slip, in the Romantic Paranormal Suspense genre. At present, it is only available as an e-book, but hopefully it, too, will be released in paperback. This novel had its birth while researching ancient histories and lost civilizations. The thought occurred to me as I read certain books that what if, what they say is true, about a continent that disappeared in the Pacific? What if it all did happen exactly the way they say it did? But what if it all wasn't lost? What if a part of it was trapped in a sort of bubble, but no one, just by looking, would ever discover it? What then? What if some young archaeologist decided to search for
ancient artifacts and was caught in a seaquake, an undersea earthquake that opened the door to a portal that only the Earth remembers —and to an undersea world that shouldn't exist? This, too, will be released in print sometime in 2007 by Cambridge Books. More about all of my novels, excepts and reviews can be read on my website: http://sarahslanding.com/ or http://elenadb.home.comcast.net/. My blog: http://elenabowmanscifimysteryromanceauthor.blogspot.com/

Elena Dorothy Bowman
Author of Gatekeeper's Realm
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