POST WAR TRAUMA & COMFORT

War trauma seemed to be a recurring theme of Veteran's Day this year. It's also a theme in COMFORT, the sequel to BLUE.  So in keeping with Veteran's Day I'm posting the prologue.

 It was my friends and neighbors and the singing of Imogene’s people that got me through that first year after the war.

 But to tell you the truth,  I never thought it would be a matter of just getting through.

For some reason, I thought that when my daddy come home from fighting, my world would be put back right again.

Not perfect right, of course, on account of Bobby dying of polio while Daddy was gone. And me catching it too and coming home from the hospital on crutches.

Still, I thought Daddy and me both coming home would be like putting the last piece in a puzzle and sitting
back to enjoy the pretty picture.

But hard as I tried, I couldn’t make things be the way I
wanted them with Daddy.

I learned quick enough that when someone drops a bomb in one small place on this planet, it shatters the
whole universe.

And not just for a little while either.
The breaking goes on forever...

It wasn't until after the Vietnam War, that PTSD began to get the attention it deserved.  But within COMFORT, several WWII veterans find their way together. With a little help from Ann Fay Honeycutt.

FINDING MY BRAND (With A Little Help From My Friends)

This week, Penny Sansevieri, author of Red Hot Internet Publicity had a great post on author branding.

Branding is something I've thought a lot about in the last year. I'd like to think I'm making some progress from the days of "designing" my own website, printing out my own bookmarks, and changing my blog template on a regular basis.

One of the areas that Penny emphasizes it that of Consistent Marketing Materials.

Thanks to the fantabulous Nathan Clement (graphic designer, author, picture book illustrator) for help in this department!

Here are a few of the items he designed for me.

Nathan and I began with the "center of the universe" as Penny calls it - a website that reflects my style.  And since I'm a history writer who tends to wax a wee bit nostalgic, I went for the old fashioned photo album look. I knew I wanted some movement on the home page so Nathan came up with the signature that writes before your eyes.

When we moved on to the bookmark, Nathan incorporated the signature into it as well.  I like that!

If you read Blue and its sequel, Comfort, you know that wisteria is a symbol in both novels. I love how, on my website, Nathan included a sprig of it in a blue bottle (also a symbol from the books).  He incorporated a stylized version of the wisteria vine on the website and as an overlay on the postcard below.

For Healing Water, Nathan used the same floral overlay technique as on the postcard for Blue and Comfort.With hibiscus, of course!

Of course I also wanted this blog header to connect to the look of my website and other materials. The incredibly savvy photographer, Johnna Brynn offerred to do that in exchange for publicity I gave to one of her projects.  Nathan sent her a screen shot of the webdesign and Johnna adapted it.  I love what she did with it!

My next project is a bookplate and maybe a brand new business card too.  Because after all, I'm still using one that I designed.  Penny Sansevieri would not be impressed!