A message from Military Veteran and Author D.L. Jackson...
Please take a moment to read this and share. The more this post is shared, the more eyes will be on it. Because of federal regulations, I cannot state I am donating total sales of a product to a particular charity, so I need to be non-specific who I give to. I know, I know, regulations. I will therefore round up my donation up to the nearest whole dollar amount and give a lump sum that is a little bit more than what I earned for the quarter. It will not be the "sales" but a sum a little bit more than what I earned and to a charity that won't be named (Just know it's going to help service members, past and present).
Every 65 minutes, a military veteran commits suicide.
I'm going to be honest here. Finding Mercy took a lot out of me when I wrote it. I had so much to say and there was no other way I could think to show you what I felt. Finding Mercy is not a warm and fuzzy romance. It is a struggle for one man to learn to love again, himself, and someone else. It is a book about hope, when all seems hopeless. It is a book about choosing to step out of the dark, no matter how impossible it seems.
Combat medics have a dangerous job, and part of that job is dragging wounded off hot battlefields. They have hearts for healing and helping, and because of this, cannot help collecting a few scars of their own, both physically and mentally.
If you haven't read Finding Mercy, I’ll warn you, it probably has one of the most grisly battle scenes I've written. The hero is damaged—searching for peace and a way to start over. He is at a crossroads in his life that many vets face every day. He's in pain and a very dark place. He has a weakness for the bottle, desperate to drown memories he can't forget. For some readers, I've been told, the scenes are hard to stomach. What the hero goes through is too painful to read. I am aware I was pretty brutal to my hero, but I needed to paint a realistic portrait of the face of PTSD in our active duty military and veterans. This story has been called everything from graphically violent to an anti-romance.
So be it. It got your attention.
We cannot erase PTSD or injuries caused in battle by pretending
they don't exist. But we can move forward by supporting our military and
vets, as they face those crossroads. Here’s a link to some facts about
veterans and active duty military featured on PBS, Public Broadcasting
System: http://www.pbs.org/coming-back-with-wes-moore/about/facts/
I’d like you to join me in raising some money for a great cause.
I’ve asked my publisher to track all sales for this book for the month
of April, May and June 2015. I’m not asking for reviews or a bump in the
ratings. You don’t even have to like this book, but I hope you do. What
I am asking, is that you buy this book April 1st- June 30th 2015, and
share the link. It costs $2.99, the price of a cup of coffee. Not a huge
chunk of change. We spend more than that on a salad or burger at any
given time.
Starting April 1st and running through June 30th, I will donate my total royalties from the sale of Finding Mercy, an erotic military romance, to a charity that helps military and veterans who suffer from PTSD. Again, I have to be non-specific which charity, because of federal regulations.
Buy the book, help a service member. It’s that simple. This is
about something I strongly believe in. You see, I’m a vet. My husband is
a vet. His grandfather served in the Navy in WWII, my father in the Air
Force during Vietnam. My mother-in-law is a Marine, and both of my sons
are active duty. My oldest is currently on his third deployment. My
youngest, a Combat Medic, is preparing for his first.
I’ve seen the face of PTSD. It belongs to our sons and daughters, wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers. It is our neighbors, friends and co-workers. It doesn’t discriminate, and it doesn’t just go away. Wounded vets need help.
Help me, help them.
If you’d like to read my book and still give to a great cause, you can buy it at any of these links. Please purchase your copy between April 1st and June 30th:
Sounds like a great read but sounds a bit to loaded for me as far as what I like to read. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks really good.
ReplyDelete