In November, I had the honor of attending the Readers’ Favorite Award Ceremony in Miami for awards that I had won in 2020, 2021, and 2022. My husband and I had a wonderful time, and you can read more about it on my blog.
The awards were for the first three books in the Rise Again Warrior Series in Military Fiction. Mission: Believe won a Bronze (2020), Mission: Accept won a Gold (2021), and Mission: Repair won a Gold (2022). While talking to other authors during the event, I was asked the same two questions repeatedly: You write military fiction? What inspired you to do that?
That’s what this post is about today. Yes, I write military fiction, and it is very realistic, heartwrenching, intense, and hopeful. Most of you know I retired from law enforcement a few years ago, but I was never in the military. I was, however, married to a man in the US Navy, and my son currently serves in the US Navy.
I have a lot of friends who served in the military, and I have seen them go through highs and lows after their service. I also belong to many groups that support military veterans and current service members.
I am dismayed at the statistics of suicide among our veterans. I am equally appalled at the number of men and women who live on the streets and don’t get the treatment they need—but I am beyond horrified at the number of veterans who do not get the RESPECT they deserve after serving our country.
Perhaps it is because the civilians of our country do not understand what they went through, what they deal with every single day inside their minds. Or, it’s because the wars our veterans have fought are so away that you don’t even know what or who we were fighting. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Maybe for us, but not for them. Many of them are still stuck in a place far from home and fighting to find a way to live ordinary lives again. Although to them, ordinary just doesn’t make sense.
That is why I write these books. Perhaps they are to entertain people, but I try to educate people about what our men and women have gone through, what they continue to go through, and how hard they fight every single day to service the demons that constantly live on their backs and in the shadows of their minds.
That is why I write them and will continue to write them while I work with veterans to support them any way that I can.
Stacy Eaton is a USA Today Best Selling author and began her writing career in October of 2010. Stacy took an early retirement from law enforcement after over fifteen years of service in 2016, with her last three years in investigations and crime scene investigation to write full time.
Stacy is very involved in Domestic Violence Awareness and served on the Board of Directors for her local Domestic Violence Center for three years.