Veteran's Day is Friday. I daresay everyone reading this has had a loved one or known someone who has been a veteran. But unless we've actually served in the military, how do we really know the sacrifices they've made to protect our freedom?
Catherine West has written Yesterday's Tomorrow, about a journalist who travels half-way around the world to bring the Vietnam war home to those left behind. Today she tells us how she came to write that novel on such a difficult subject. Be sure to check our her blog (http://www.catherinewestblog.blogspot.com) for a chance to win a copy of her book. She'll be giving it away on Veteran's Day, this Friday, November 11th.
~ Angie
Many years ago, an idea
for a story came to me.
Why it did, I'm not sure.
But it took hold and hasn't let go yet.
I heard a story about
combat-journalists, many were young women, who left home, some left their jobs,
to fly halfway across the world into a war zone. They risked it all, risked
their lives, to cover The Vietnam War. And I wondered why. I wondered what that
would be like, what those women were like, what made them tick, and what a
story like that would look like. And I knew I had to write it.
A few years later, I
completed a manuscript called Yesterday's
Tomorrow. It takes place over a span of a few years, 1967-1975,
predominantly in Vietnam, during the war, and the female protagonist is a young
woman who strikes out on her own as a combat journalist.
For a long while, I didn’t
fully understand why I wrote this story, why the pull was so strong, why it
meant so very much to me. Thanks to OakTara and their willingness to take on
what is sometimes still seen as a controversial setting and subject, now that Yesterday’s Tomorrow has been published,
I’m starting to find out.
I was too young to
remember the Vietnam War being fought. Living in Bermuda, I'm sure my parents
didn't get as much news as they would today. Although I don't remember it,
there is something undeniable about that time in history that draws me.
I have never been to
Vietnam.
But as I wrote this story,
I lived there.
As I read the stories of
those brave men and women who were in the thick of it and survived, I went
there with them.
Writing this book took
months of research. I didn't set out to write a war story, so it was never my
intention to bog down the story with military information, but I knew it had to
be authentic. So I launched my attack on every book I could find, every website
and every photograph that covered the era I would write about.
Writing Yesterday’s Tomorrow changed me.
Up to that point, I had no
idea what war was all about.
War was a faraway concept.
Something I learned about in school. Something I read about in the newspaper,
watched reports about on television.
Something I would
certainly never have to face or deal with firsthand.
While that is still true
and I pray it stays so, I have a greater understanding of what it means to go
into battle.
And I know that is a good
thing.
I remember getting to a
point in my story and having to stop and take a break and pull away.
I even questioned whether
I should continue writing it.
Somehow I felt as though I
was stepping on holy ground.
I was.
But, with a lot of
encouragement, I pressed on.
They say Vietnam gets into
your soul.
It does.
Those who were there and
came back will never be the same.
War does that to a person.
Although the war ended
thirty-six years ago, it lives on in the hearts and minds of those who came
home. It lives on through the memories we have of those who didn’t. It lives on
in the legacy that the courageous men and women who lost their lives in Vietnam
left behind.
I learned that even after
thirty-six years, there are things you just don't talk about.
After thirty-six years,
the pain doesn't end. Maybe it lessens a bit, but it never really goes away.
I am not sure a writer can
ever capture that kind of truth in the way it needs to be told.
I don't know that one can
ever accurately portray the fear of being in a helicopter heading for a hot
zone or wading through a dark, dank and putrid swamp with no idea who might be
hiding in the depths of that jungle. How can you describe with any authenticity
what it must be like to watch a friend die in your arms?
But we try. And I believe
we should try.
Because all these
things—the horrors of war, the deep bond created between those who served
there, and the ultimate sacrifice so many made—should never be forgotten.
Although my book is a work
of fiction, I have heard from more than a few people that it has helped them
see Veterans in a different light. It has given them a new perspective on war
and its many facets. In some small way, it has helped them understand. And to
that, I say, thank-you, God.
I came away from this
project with this question: Do we write merely to entertain? Or do we write to
enlighten, educate and encourage our readers to examine their hearts on matters
they may have previously ignored?
"Greater love has no
one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13
That's what I learned in
Vietnam.
---------------
Yesterday's Tomorrow
---------------
Yesterday's Tomorrow
Vietnam, 1967.
Independent,
career-driven journalist Kristin Taylor wants two things: to honor her father's
memory by becoming an award-winning overseas correspondent and to keep tabs on
her only brother, Teddy, who signed up for the war against their mother's
wishes. Brilliant photographer Luke Maddox, silent and brooding, exudes
mystery. Kristin is convinced he's hiding something.
Willing to risk it all
for what they believe in, Kristin and Luke engage in their own tumultuous
battle until, in an unexpected twist, they’re forced to work together. Ambushed
by love, they must decide whether or not to set aside their own private agendas
for the hope of tomorrow that has captured their hearts.
---------------
Educated in Bermuda,
England and Canada, Catherine holds a degree in English from the University of
Toronto. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find
her taking her Border Collie for long walks or tending to her roses and orchids.
Catherine and her husband live on the beautiful island of Bermuda, with their
two college-aged children. Catherine is a member of Romance Writers of America,
and American Christian Fiction Writers, and is a founding member of
International Christian Fiction Writers. Catherine’s debut novel Yesterday’s Tomorrow, released in March
2011 through
OakTara Publishers.
Catherine’s next novel, Hidden in the
Heart, will be available in the near future, also through OakTara.
Website: http://www.catherinejwest.com
OakTara Website: http://www.oaktara.com
