Open Endings and Characters in Military


Before I get into it, I’d like to thank Michael for hosting me today! Thanks, Michael!

I love well-written characters who are or were in the military. Who doesn’t, huh? There’s just something about them. They represent an idea, they are easily recognized hero-type. Readers may have different opinions about military in real life, but in books? Especially in romance genre, be it gay or straight love story? Most of us LOVE those characters.

I am no exception. An author gets brownie points from me every time there’s an interesting military man (it’s usually a man, but I’d love to see more women in uniform, too!). And when I write, nine times out of ten, there will be at least one person who serves or served in the past, although they don’t always get to be the main character.

In the case of Open Endings, there’s a twist, though. Cole, one of my main characters, is a Marine, but he doesn’t want to be. He sees joining up as one of his greatest mistakes. He did two tours overseas and he’s battled with PTSD pretty much ever since he went back from the second one. When the story starts, he’s transferred from his old unit and now he just wants to get to the end of his contract.

I didn’t want to write him as a tragic character. I don’t believe he is. I think he’s on his way to create a new life for himself, even if his old one hasn’t quite let go of him and probably never will, not completely. But that’s just life, isn’t it? We all have old scars, but we can try to move on, we do move on.

And Cole moves on, too. Because one thing we love about military heroes is their strength. And sometimes people use their strength to walk away, just like Cole does.


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