long weekend, long memories

As you probably know, the reason for this (American) long weekend is to honor the memory of those who died while serving their country. As ever, I’ll be thinking about my friend Marty, who died 30 years ago so heartbreakingly, so needlessly, and so close to Memorial Day.

It also feels like a good time to share a podcast on which I was recently invited to speak about military fiction. The story we chatted about (not one of mine) is called Jack Fleming Lives! by fellow veteran-writer Benjamin Inks. It’s hilarious and poignant and so alive itself. If you want to be reminded of how awesome soldiers are, even when they’re made up, you can read the story here.

And listen to our discussion of it here:

I hope it cheers you up and if it gives you a new way to think about people who wear the uniform, that you tell me about it below!

NB – Towards the end of the discussion I make a distinction between combat stories and other kinds of military stories. Listening to it now I wish I’d just called them either combat or non-combat military stories. I think that’s a more clear way to talk about them.