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| 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.