Category Archives: Veterans Day
Veterans Day and Doughnut Dollies
I love this fabulous painting outside the Salvation Army Building in Tulare, CA re: the photographer © Karinoza – Dreamstime.com .
(originally posted on A Slice of Orange.net — visit my sister site to meet some wonderful authors and read their posts!)
I was a doughnut dolly.
Back in the day, I served with the U.S. Army in Livorno, Italy. My job was to make coffee and play pool with the troops, set up entertainment and gourmet tours.
And make cookies. I whipped up hundreds and hundreds of cookies. Chocolate chip.
And doughnuts, too. I got help from the mess hall sergeant, a bespectacled guy from the Midwest who let me commandeer his big pots. Along with my Italian liaison, Maria, we’d cook up hot doughnuts and top them with powdered sugar we got from the PX, a sweet favorite with the boys.
Those were the days.
I’m proud of the time I spent with US Army Special Services — I made turkeys, fruitcakes, hot chocolate, and tons of cookies!
So on this Veterans Day I think about all the Doughnut Dollies who helped bring our servicemen and women a touch of home.
Especially on this 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day when the treaty was signed in a railcar in the French forest on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour.
God bless all those who have served our country. Thank you.
Jina
PS — For fun, I put on my old uniform with U.S. Army Service Clubs patch. And yeah, I lost the hat years ago somewhere in Italy.
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For this Veterans Day, my Civil War time travel romance is on sale for 99 cents!
She wore gray…he wore blue…but their love defied time
How many women soldiers fought in the Civil War?
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And check out this audio/video excerpt from Chapter 1 of my WW 2 sweet romance.
Christmas 1943
American soldier and an Italian nun in war torn Italy dare to fall in love…
The captain thinks he’s found Shangri-La until he realizes there’s stolen art, Nazis and a whole lotta snow
A Soldier’s Italian Christmas on Amazon
Happy Veterans Day: A soldier, a little girl and her mom, and a Christmas Piano Tree
Veterans Day is for healing…let’s not forget our wounded warriors who suffer not only the physical pains of war, but the mental as well.
PTSD was first talked about during the Civil War by physicians who described it as nostalgia, while others believed it was a disturbance of a soldier’s mental capabilities caused by severe trauma to the brain.
After World War II, John Huston directed a documentary called Let There Be Light, about the care of soldiers with mental disturbances suffered during wartime.
These are wounds you do not see.
But they are very real to the soldier with PTSD.
In my holiday romance, “The Christmas Piano Tree,” the hero, Sgt. Jared Milano, is a wounded warrior suffering from PTSD from his last mission in Afghanistan:
“His brain went into freefall and he couldn’t stop it. No matter how hard he tried, how much he squeezed his mind, the memory stayed lost in a thick, suffocating fog swirling around in his head.
Lost.
Dead and forgotten.
Angry, frustrated, he tried to reach out and grab it, but whatever his buddy said to him before he died remained silent and still in his mind.
When would he remember? When?”
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“The Christmas Piano Tree” is the story of a pretty young war widow who re-discovers the magic of the holiday season with the help of a homeless vet and an old piano. And Rachel, her little girl, who believes that Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a tree.
Even if it is a piano.
================
I’ll never forget the Christmas I spent stationed overseas in a small town in Italy. The hot chocolate and cookies I baked and gave to the soldiers who signed up for my Christmas Eve Midnight Mass tour. Off we went on that wintery night in an old military school bus…
We were a motely group of military and Special Services personnel attending the service in a medieval cathedral that was cold and damp, but filled with song and hope for a better future.
Many of those men had seen the horrors of combat and suffered from PTSD (what we called DSS–delayed-stress syndrome–back then). Their stories as they told them to me have stayed with me always…
Thank you for spending part of your Veterans Day here with me. We thank all those who have served for their courage and bravery in keeping us and our families safe. God bless you.
~Jina
The Christmas Piano Tree is available on Kindle and KindleUnlimited.
www.jinabacarr.com
www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr
http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr
My Military Heroes: from the Civil War to Afghanistan for Veterans Day
Military heroes…we women love them.
And let’s not forget our female veterans.
So on this Veterans Day, I salute the heroes in my stories who serve our country:
A female soldier, a Southern belle and spy, a mother fighting the Nazis, a World War 2 soldier in Italy, and a returning vet honoring his best buddy’s last wish.
Civil War: LOVE ME FOREVER
Women Soldiers in the Civil War from “Love Me Forever” from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Southern Belle and Spy: Excerpt from LOVE ME FOREVER from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Pre-World War 2: Nazi Germany
The Berlin Diary of Lady Eve Marlowe: Else’s Story from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
World War 2:
A Soldier’s Italian Christmas: Excerpt from Chapter One from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Afghanistan:
I haven’t made a video yet for “The Christmas Piano Tree,” so here’s the story:
What’s Christmas without a tree?
Kristen Delaney can’t afford a Christmas tree this year, but she doesn’t want to disappoint her little girl Rachel. The six-year old already lost her daddy in Afghanistan. To cheer her up, Kristen hires a homeless vet to play Santa at the private school where she works. Little does she know it was no accident the hunky Santa showed up in Kissing Creek just in time for Christmas Eve.
Sgt. Jared Milano promised Scott Delaney he’d take care of his wife and little girl. He also shared with him a secret that would change Kristen’s life, a secret about her Aunt Gertrude and an old piano, but the IED blast blew away part of his memory.
Jared fights his growing desire for Kristen as he struggles to regain his past and overcome the PTSD haunting him. Kristen is lonely and not ready to fall in love again, but she can’t take her eyes off him. Doesn’t want to. When he’s accused of a crime, she refuses to believe he’s guilty and invites the handsome soldier to spend Christmas Eve with them.
When a sudden snowstorm turns deadly and Rachel goes missing, Jared must use all his skills to find her and prove to Kristen he’s guilty only of falling in love with her.
“The Christmas Piano Tree” is the story of a pretty young war widow who re-discovers the magic of the holiday season with the help of a homeless vet and an old piano.
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Thank you to all our veterans for your service!
~Jina
=============
If you love Civil War romance and time travel and TWO hunky military heroes, check out my Kindle Scout winner:
She wore gray.
He wore blue.
But their love defied the boundaries of war.
And time.
My Military Heroes: from the Civil War to Afghanistan Happy #VeteransDay
Military heroes…we women love them.
And let’s not forget our female veterans.
So on this Veterans Day, I salute the heroes in my stories who serve our country:
A female soldier, a Southern belle and spy, a mother fighting the Nazis, a World War 2 soldier in Italy, and a returning vet honoring his best buddy’s last wish.
Civil War: LOVE ME FOREVER
Women Soldiers in the Civil War from “Love Me Forever” from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Civil War Sister against Sister: “Love Me Forever” Time Travel Romance from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Pre-World War 2: Nazi Germany
The Berlin Diary of Lady Eve Marlowe: Else’s Story from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
World War 2:
A Soldier’s Italian Christmas: Excerpt from Chapter One from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Afghanistan:
I haven’t made a video yet for “The Christmas Piano Tree,” so here’s the story:
What’s Christmas without a tree?
Kristen Delaney can’t afford a Christmas tree this year, but she doesn’t want to disappoint her little girl Rachel. The six-year old already lost her daddy in Afghanistan. To cheer her up, Kristen hires a homeless vet to play Santa at the private school where she works. Little does she know it was no accident the hunky Santa showed up in Kissing Creek just in time for Christmas Eve.
Sgt. Jared Milano promised Scott Delaney he’d take care of his wife and little girl. He also shared with him a secret that would change Kristen’s life, a secret about her Aunt Gertrude and an old piano, but the IED blast blew away part of his memory.
Jared fights his growing desire for Kristen as he struggles to regain his past and overcome the PTSD haunting him. Kristen is lonely and not ready to fall in love again, but she can’t take her eyes off him. Doesn’t want to. When he’s accused of a crime, she refuses to believe he’s guilty and invites the handsome soldier to spend Christmas Eve with them.
When a sudden snowstorm turns deadly and Rachel goes missing, Jared must use all his skills to find her and prove to Kristen he’s guilty only of falling in love with her.
“The Christmas Piano Tree” is the story of a pretty young war widow who re-discovers the magic of the holiday season with the help of a homeless vet and an old piano.
==================
Love Me Forever is on sale for $1.99 — A Civil War time travel romance from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.
Thank you to all our veterans for your service!
~Jina
=============
If you love Civil War romance and time travel and TWO hunky military heroes, check out my Kindle Scout winner:
She wore gray.
He wore blue.
But their love defied the boundaries of war.
And time.
LOVE ME FOREVER is on sale for $1.99 from Kindle Press at Amazon.com
Happy Veterans Day
Veterans Day is for healing…let’s not forget our wounded warriors who suffer not only the physical pains of war, but the mental as well.
PTSD was first talked about during the Civil War by physicians who described it as nostalgia, while others believed it was a disturbance of a soldier’s mental capabilities caused by severe trauma to the brain.
After World War II, John Huston directed a documentary called Let There Be Light, about the care of soldiers with mental disturbances suffered during wartime.
These are wounds you do not see.
But they are very real to the soldier with PTSD.
In my holiday romance, “The Christmas Piano Tree,” the hero, Sgt. Jared Milano, is a wounded warrior suffering from PTSD from his last mission in Afghanistan:
“His brain went into freefall and he couldn’t stop it. No matter how hard he tried, how much he squeezed his mind, the memory stayed lost in a thick, suffocating fog swirling around in his head.
Lost.
Dead and forgotten.
Angry, frustrated, he tried to reach out and grab it, but whatever his buddy said to him before he died remained silent and still in his mind.
When would he remember? When?”
================
“The Christmas Piano Tree” is the story of a pretty young war widow who re-discovers the magic of the holiday season with the help of a homeless vet and an old piano.
I’ll never forget the Christmas I spent stationed overseas in a small town in Italy. The hot chocolate and cookies I baked and gave to the soldiers who signed up for my Christmas Eve Midnight Mass tour. Off we went on that wintery night in an old military school bus…
We were a motely group of military and Special Services personnel attending the service in a medieval cathedral that was cold and damp, but filled with song and hope for a better future.
Many of those men had seen the horrors of combat and suffered from PTSD (what we called DSS–delayed-stress syndrome–back then). Their stories as they told them to me have stayed with me always…
Thank you for spending part of your Veterans Day here with me. We thank all those who have served for their courage and bravery in keeping us and our families safe. God bless you.
~Jina
The Christmas Piano Tree is available on Kindle and KindleUnlimited.
www.jinabacarr.com
www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr
http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr
“The Christmas Piano Tree” on a cold, snowy morning…
Tomorrow is Veterans Day…special post tomorrow.
I wanted to preview that post with an introduction to my hero and heroine (a wounded warrior and a soldier’s widow):
In my holiday romance, “The Christmas Piano Tree,” the hero is suffering from PTSD.
The gate is the entrance to the Mary Huber School for Girls where my heroine, Kristen Delaney, works…she’s been feeding homeless vets with leftover food as a way of keeping her husband’s memory alive (he was killed in Afghanistan)–this is a very difficult Christmas Eve for her and her little girl Rachel…until this soldier shows up!!
Here’s a short scene where we first meet him. Kristen gets a funny feeling when she sees a tall man walking toward her…
“She pulled her steering wheel hard to the right to avoid colliding with the tall man bundled up in a black field jacket and khaki pants, a duffel bag strapped on his back, his broad shoulders dusted with falling snow.
“She stuck her head out of the window to give him a piece of her mind and then stopped.
“Something about him made her stare at him. He had that swagger she knew so well. Military. Seeing him touched a nerve. Another homeless vet. Kristen shook her head, understanding. He was the third one this week looking for a hot meal.
“Not surprising on Christmas Eve.”
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“The Christmas Piano Tree” is the story of a pretty young war widow who re-discovers the magic of the holiday season with the help of a homeless vet and an old piano.
Available on Kindle and KindleUnlimited.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Jina
www.jinabacarr.com
www.facebook.com/JinaBacarr.author
https://twitter.com/JinaBacarr
http://www.pinterest.com/jbacarr
Once upon a story... 