Saturday, March 8, 2014

Authors Supporting Our Troops 2014 Will Send 1200+ Books to US Troops Serving in Kuwait and Afghanistan

photo by Elizabeth Constantopoulos
I recently joined more than 150 indie and small press published authors in an effort to send more than 1200 personally signed books to US soldiers serving in Kuwait and Afghanistan.  "Authors Supporting our Troops 2014" was started by horror and military author Armand Rosamilia from Jacksonville, Florida. Rosamilia is the author of "Football Espionage" and "Zombie Football".  I connected with him after a fellow author posted about the project on Facebook. 

Reading offers an escape from the routine of military life, and books are in scarce supply for many of our troops.  I've been doing a lot of research on women in the military, coming home, and wounded warriors for my novel-in-progress  "Swim Season", which features an Army nurse who comes home from Afghanistan suffering from PTSD and drug addiction.  This is a small but helpful way for me to give back to those who make sacrifices to serve our country. 

Rosamilia, known locally as a radio personality at Surf 1700 AM Radio, says each day he receives three to five packages from authors containing books, and will continue to collect books for another month. "More than 500 authors have asked for the mailing address, so I expect many more books."

Rosamilia says personal contacts referred him to the soldiers selected to receive the books.  "We'll be shipping to five soldiers overseas in hostile territories, and we're looking for at least three more."  The soldiers will receive three to five boxes of signed books to pass out to his or her unit.  

The cost of shipping such a heavy load is tremendous.  People are purchasing T-shirts and donating money via PayPal to help raise the funds. You don't have to be an author to help in this cause.  Every dollar counts.  To find out what you can do please visit the website.