Please reach me at craigtrebilcock@gmail.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Yes. The characters in each of my books track their experiences across the 20+ years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. You will see many of the characters appear across each of the (soon to be) three books. Each book stands on its own, so they can be read separately. If one wants to read them in the order of the series, then the first is "One Weekend A Month," followed by "No Time for Ribbons," and then "An Absence of Faith." The latter title is due out in May 2024.
My writing process involves researching the topic, outlining the content, and then writing the first draft. Often the finished book is much different than the original idea. Characters take the writer on a journey, not the reverse. I then revise and edit the draft (again and again) until it accurately conveys to the reader what our troops experience, and what the hidden drivers and unseen agendas are that can shape combat operations.
I find that it usually takes roughly two years to write and edit a book to make it strong enough to publish. I took a hiatus from writing from 2012 to 2022 while I was a criminal court judge, a very busy and rewarding assignment.
The characters are fictional. The situations presented in the novels are based on the experiences of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere during the Post-9/11 period. The goal of my books is to present the stories of these servicemembers, their loved ones, and the people they encounter in a manner that is relatable - to take the reader beyond patriotic slogans and cold historical accounts to feel the frustrations, courage, and unspoken feelings of our troops. The books are not meant to be history and there is literary license taken with dialogue to make the stories flow. Yet, they accurately reflect what military and civilians in those conflicts were enduring at the time, and serve to place the reader in the middle of events they might otherwise never experience. Locations or timing of events may be changed for the same literary purpose. As my tag line says, "The Greatest Truths live in Fiction."
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