(This story is both a companion piece and a sequel to "My War" by LeapYearGuy and is written with his permission. My thanks to him for very graciously allowing me to use his characters from his moving and poignant story. Although the original story is somewhat covered by PFC Kent, the original should definitely be read to get an understanding of the characte...
1 FOREWORD I have never felt that a single guide or "how to" manual has given me what I need, so please do NOT count on me alone. There is much to be learned that I won't offer here. In Part 2 of STYLE & MENTALITY I want to show you how I create characters. I don't go by a strict guide. I just have habits that work best for me and they may work for you....
It was Saturday at ten in the morning and I had just finished my laundry. I am George Harris, 33, tall a little chubby, single. I am a staff photographer for a university. The home I was living in was inherited from my Grandparents. My neighborhood was originally developed after WWII and the house is what is known as a teardown because the area is being rede...
I studied the woman in front of me. White hair. Wrinkles. Posture somewhat stooped. Glasses with what seemed like half a dozen different lenses in them. The only thing that seemed to be the same anymore were the eyes. They were still green, still alive and interested. The rest of her... when did she get so old? I sighed and turned away from the mirror. I se...
Hank Murphy scanned the sky for the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes. The sky was clear except for the four North American FJ-4 Fury jets far below and in front of his plane. He scanned the sky again, then concentrated his search to the north. That is where any playmates were likely to come from. He saw a slight glimmer out to the north, low. He c...
First off, I wanted to say that I'm sorry to the kind readers who've been visiting me for the extended period of silence. Over the past few months I've tried getting back to it a few times, and had a few resulting false starts. It's difficult for me to pick up a thread like that, though, when I haven't been at it for a while, especially when I have a lot on...
The package was on Tim's desk on Monday morning the following week waiting for him just like every other mail he was expecting delivered to his office. However, had he been aware of the content of the package, he would have been somewhat frightened and worried about his secretary handling it when she left it along with the other pressing memos on his desk wh...
Allow me to first set the background for this story. I am a senior sergeant in the U.S. Army. I am also single 27-year-old soldier being stationed in Germany for my first time. It is in the late 1970’s and I was stationed in a small town along the East/West German borders. I reported into my command and was assigned a Company. When I reported to my company...
If Warren Cochran had been a little more cautious, a little pickier, or a little more suspicious, he would probably not have been in the army. The name of the girl who got him there doesn't matter, since she barely comes into the story at all. The thing was that Warren spent some time with her on a blanket in the bushes off the road, and she came to him tel...
She is now 73 years old. Her figure is well preserved even though she never exercised, ate healthily, slept regular hours, or took particular cautions where sex and social media, the internet, and banking were concerned. Not until 2019 did she become aware of who she was due to the influences of her childhood. Her mother harangued her unmercifully as a tee...