Life Tales of a Military Wife with author Judythe Morgan

Win a copy of Love in the Morning Calm 

and meet author Judythe Morgan 

today at the Book Boost!

Adventures = Ideas for my Writer’s Well

Adventures are exciting or very unusual experiences. My life is filled with adventure and the adventures I have provide an endless source of story ideas.  2013 has proven to be one of my most adventuresome of all.

The year started with a major move from Houston, TX to a small, small town (population three hundred) in the Rio Grande National Forest. Downsizing from a big house of 3,300 square feet to a small house of 1,200 square feet offered many challenges and generated story ideas I may never get to unless I live to be one hundred!

Then two months before our scheduled move, temperatures dropped to -35 degrees for several days in South Fork and four pipes in our new house froze and burst. We rushed to repair the damage before delivery of our furniture and household goods. More fodder for my writer’s mill.

The move itself went smoothly, not much to write about there, but many emotions swirled around as we pulled away from our home of thirty-three years. Those feelings will show up in my characters.

When the moving truck pulled away, I thought my days of adventure were over. That was, after all why we chose to live in the forest…a quiet life with time to write. Not so.

We’d unpacked the last moving box and started plans for a garage addition when we received a call in the wee hours of the morning. The West Fork Fire Complex was heading toward our house. We had to evacuate! Nine days later, we were finally able to return to our home. Check my blog for details about life in a wildfire. There’s already a story percolating about that little adventure.

Prior to this year, the biggest adventure in my life had been following my husband after he received unaccompanied orders to report for duty at Eighth Army, Seoul, South Korea. Quite an adventure!

I was young and not willing to spend over a year separated from my husband. The Army could not stop me (and our toddler daughter) from joining him although housing on the military compound would not be available. I sold our car for airline tickets to South Korea and set up house in a village outside of Seoul. Many of the scenes in my newest release Love in the Morning Calm came from my time living in U.N. Village Apartments in Han Nam Dong.

Adventures are what make life so exciting. Some of my adventures are planned, others just happen. I hope readers enjoy the stories created from all my adventures. My newest novel is Love in the Morning Calm and the story blossomed from my adventures in South Korea. Ace and Lily, the main characters, are composites of the people I met and worked with as a Department of Army civilian.


A Note from the Book Boost: I did the same unaccompanied adventure many years ago but to Japan instead of Korea.  Many stories to tell there.  Thanks for joining us and I'm sure our readers will enjoy hearing your tales.

 
Blurb:

While on temporary assignment to South Korea in 1966, Major Ace Cabot meets Lily Reed, a Department of Army civilian at Eighth Army Headquarters.

A high-potential career officer, Ace knows he should resist the temptation of any woman, but Lily stirs feelings he can’t ignore.

She’s a firm supporter of the budding women’s lib movement with no room in her plans for any man. No matter how captivating his smile.

In an uncertain time, yielding to temptation changes two lives forever.


Excerpt:

Two days later at G3, Eighth Army Headquarters, Lily opened Mack’s door to the outer office and stepped into the crowded anteroom. The Green Beret from Walker Hill, the officer she’d seen in the restaurant, sat in front of Sam’s desk. Her shorthand pad dropped to the floor. Her lips parted, but her vocal chords froze as her gaze locked with the intense eyes she hadn’t been able to forget.

She scanned across the tautness of his Class A green tunic. The rows of colorful campaign ribbons confirmed the vast experience she’d assumed. Today, the rectangular tag above the left pocket revealed his last name. Cabot. It seemed only five minutes since she’d seen him at the resort.

An unrestrained smile swept across his face. He recognized her too.

Sam, his brow furrowed, moved into the narrow corridor formed by his desk and hers on either side of Mack’s door. Skirting her immobile body, Sam bent, picked up her shorthand pad, and leaned through the doorway. “Major Cabot has arrived, sir.”

“Send him in,” Mack’s gravelly voice called.

Sam shifted back to his desk. The major advanced into the space Sam vacated as Lily squished against her desk.

Cabot gave her an exaggerated wink and went into Mack’s office. His spicy aftershave misted her senses and sent her pulse soaring. Fireworks exploding inside her body singed her cheeks.

He stopped precisely eighteen inches in front of Mack’s desk and snapped his arm in a perfectly executed salute. “Major Cabot reporting for duty, sir.”

Mack returned the formal salute with a wave of his right hand in the general vicinity of his forehead.

"At ease, Major. Have a seat.”

The exchange broke Lily’s trance. She closed the office door and scowled at Sam. “Why didn’t you say something at Walker Hill?”

Sam shoved the shorthand pad at her. “Didn’t know it was him. Reporting orders don’t come with pictures. Even if they did, I don’t know that I would have recognized him. I wasn’t paying as much attention to the man at Walker Hill as you were.”

She didn’t argue. Her good manners had disappeared Saturday night at The Crane. And worse, the major likely took her attention for interest. She sank into her metal desk chair. The wheels creaked on the linoleum, mocking her distress. “He’s the liaison?”

“Yep. He’ll be coordinating between G3, the Embassy, ROKA staff officers, and the advanced White House staff.”

With more pomp than necessary, she propped her steno pad upright on the metal typing table with a clanking thud. Major Cabot would be around until President Johnson left. Way too long to have to deal with the man and the effect he had on her.

“From what I hear, the major’s quite the Casanova. I’m hoping to pick up pointers.” The G3 clerk, Lewis Watts, pushed away from his desk. I’m off to deliver the troop report.”

Lewis paused at her desk, slid his stubby brown fingers down into the key well of her typewriter. She looked up. He flashed one of his goofy, playful grins. His white teeth sparkled against his ebony skin.

“I saw that wink the major gave you. You may have met your match this time. He’ll not give up easily.”

A fireball of panic formed a knot in her stomach.

"Lewis is right,” Sam said. “I’ll be watching him, but you need to guard yourself, Lily. Cabot has a reputation.”

Lily aligned the letterhead paper and carbons in her typewriter. “I’m not interested. He’ll figure that out for himself soon enough.”

And, somehow, she’d ignore the explosions the major ignited in her body.

Want More Judythe?

 
Visit her on the web here: www.judythemorgan.com

Pick up a copy of her book today!  Click here.

Contest Time:
Leave a comment about one of your adventures and include your email for a chance to win a free copy of Love in the Morning Calm. Winner will be contacted on Tuesday, August 6th.