Remember our Veterans with your writing

Since it’s Veterans Day, this will be a somewhat nontraditional “Writer Encouragement” column. However, the message is as important as any I’ve likely written before: Remember our veterans.

Write about them. Encourage them and their families by acknowledging their sacrifice for our country. Look for ways to feature their stories and submit them to periodicals. Never let our country forget that freedom is not free.

I happen to be a “Blue Star” mom. In other words, I have a son who serves and has, since 9-11 crashed into our world and changed our lives forever.

When he joined the military, we had just found out that my only daughter had an inoperable brain tumor. I prayed and prayed and hoped he’d not go in. But the Lord had other plans. I knew that and gave him my blessing. It was one of the hardest sacrifices I’ve ever made.

And now his wife and children make that sacrifice, and do so, time and again, as his military rank advances and his responsibilities grow. He has saved many lives and won many medals.

This photo was taken several years ago when my son’s daughter was just two and he’d just flown home from a deployment.

Yet it comes at a cost as his wife and children carry on without him being their time and again. As his mom, I often am unable to even get a text to him just to see how he is. That’s where being a prayer warrior for him and other military members helps keep me sane as I entrust him into the Lord’s hands.

I encourage you writers to bring their stories to life. There are thousands of veterans and active military out there. Don’t let their sacrifices be ignored or forgotten. Be sure to protect their privacy—especially if they currently serve— because revealing their personal info can put them or their families in harm’s way.

We can’t all serve our country. But we can tell the sagas of those heroes who have been on the front lines.

Carry on.

Elaine Marie Cooper has two historical fiction books that released in 2019: War’s Respite (Prequel novella) and Love’s Kindling. Love’s Kindling is available in both e-book and paperback. They are the first two books in the Dawn of America Series set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherless and Bethany’s Calendar. Her 2016 release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She penned the three-book Deer Run Saga and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including the recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive, Live Happy. Scarred Vessels, a novel about black soldiers in the American Revolution, will release in 2020. You can visit her website/ blog at www.elainemariecooper.com