Freebies for Troops via Smashwords

As many of you know, my grandson is back now from two tours of duty in Iraq and is now stationed (very luckily) near Monterrey, CA. Thus, the plight of our troops is a subject near and dear to my heart. My poetry writing partner Magdalena Ball and I are giving away e-copies of chapbook of unconventional love poetry Cherished Pulse to 'our' troops overseas as part of Operation e-book drop. They will get an e-mail with a coupon code for a free copy at Smashbooks.

We would love to have you have a copy, too. Partly to see how the program works. Partly to share our poetry with you. The coupon code to use to get it free is ZF39H (not case sensitive).You will enter the code prior to completing your checkout.

Expires: February 28, 2010

You may want to do something similar for the troops with your books. More about Op Ebook Drop is here:
http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/09/smashwords-supports-operation-ebook.html

And they have a Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-EBook-Drop/172002003420

If you prefer to send a real copy of Cherished Pulse to someone, that is easy, too. It is only $6.95 on Amazon, certainly a doable gift. And it is really beautiful with Vicki Thomas’s artwork. Go to www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/. Her novel, collection of creative nonfiction and much of her poetry is informed by interest in leading the world toward acceptance of one another. Find her web page dedicated to tolerance at http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/tolerence_and_utah_links.htm. If your Twitter followers would be interested, please pass this on to them using this widget:

Fayetteville Supports Our Soldiers and Pregnant Mamas

Time magazine runs a regular feature called "Postcard" in their pages. This week it is on how Fayetteville, North Carolina is remarketing itself as military friendly by giving their mini baby-boom mamas a shower (and other marketing efforts). One thing I didn't like about their marketing is that they paint a picture of the rest of the nation being somehow ungrateful or downright hostile to military personnel. I think that is absolutely false (to say nothing of bad marketing!). I see people everywhere thanking, applauding, offering to buy soldiers coffee. The yellow ribbon on my mailbox is still up and that is a small gesture of support.

Still, credit where credit is due. The Fayetteville planners expect the military's economic impact in the area to go from $5 billion of $6.5 billion as bases elsewhere are close down and Fort Bragg and the Pope Ar Force Base grow. But that shouldn't take away from their good intentions.

I know you'll want to know: The baby boomlet came about after the return of some 22,000 of the 82nd Airborne soldiers from Iraq in October of 2007. (-: You'll also be interested to know that the town has assembled a support team of civilians to advise and help military personnel, some 900 of them.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599240173/