Author Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of Mrs. Lieutenant and is herself a former Mrs. Lieutenant and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book "Seasons for Celebration." She has recently written a teen guide based on her coaching of young people and lives in Los Angeles. Visit her website.The author has graciously agreed to do a guest post here on A Book Blogger's Diary. Please welcome, Phyllis Zimbler Miller:
My book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL was released in April. The book takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam War and tells the story of four young women who meet as new officers’ wives at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. As people can tell from the cover of the book, the four women are quite diverse.
Here are frequent questions that I get:
What prompted you to write a book about this era? Was it personal experience?
Was your info on the four different wives taken from the lives of family and friends or of strangers? Are you portraying yourself in one of the four women?
Phyllis Zimbler and Mitchell Miller at the Coronation Ball at Michigan State University on Saturday, November 18, 1967, sponsored by the Cadet Officers Club and the Arnold Air Society.
Yes, personal experience prompted me to write this story. In the spring of 1970 I was, indeed, a new army officer’s wife at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, right after the Kent State National Guard shootings. And although the army did not say that officers reporting for active duty at Armor Officers Basic training could bring their wives, many wives – myself included – came along with their husbands.
Once we arrived and managed to find housing off-base, we were told there was an official training course for us to learn how to be proper officers’ wives. And I did volunteer to be the chair of the entertainment committee for the wives’ graduation luncheon.
What’s also true is that, besides me – a Jew from Elgin, Illinois, on the luncheon entertainment committee were a Southern Baptist, a black, and two Puerto Ricans, one of whom didn’t speak English. Needless to say, we all had to do some adjusting to each other.
Since then I’ve always wanted to write this story because I believe that it represents an important slice of women’s social history in the U.S. All fictional books and movies of which I know about the Vietnam War era depict only the men’s point of view. I wanted to talk about the women’s point of view and also what was expected of an officer’s wife during that time.
In addition, I wanted to talk about overcoming prejudice. And while in the actual writing of the characters I mashed up characteristics from many different people, there are many incidents and characteristics that are true.
I’m hoping that social studies and history teachers in high schools and colleges will find their way to this book because it provides several discussion topics for students studying that era in the U.S. And on my website at www.mrslieutenant.com I provide book group discussion guidelines along with the first four chapters of the book and original 1970 army documents.
Oh, just so you know – while Sharon Gold is the closest character to me, I was not an anti-war protester. I had my head stuck very far in the sand in order to ignore the nightly news of fighting in Vietnam because my husband had said on our third date: “I’m going to Vietnam.”
Here are frequent questions that I get:
What prompted you to write a book about this era? Was it personal experience?
Was your info on the four different wives taken from the lives of family and friends or of strangers? Are you portraying yourself in one of the four women?
Yes, personal experience prompted me to write this story. In the spring of 1970 I was, indeed, a new army officer’s wife at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, right after the Kent State National Guard shootings. And although the army did not say that officers reporting for active duty at Armor Officers Basic training could bring their wives, many wives – myself included – came along with their husbands.
Once we arrived and managed to find housing off-base, we were told there was an official training course for us to learn how to be proper officers’ wives. And I did volunteer to be the chair of the entertainment committee for the wives’ graduation luncheon.
What’s also true is that, besides me – a Jew from Elgin, Illinois, on the luncheon entertainment committee were a Southern Baptist, a black, and two Puerto Ricans, one of whom didn’t speak English. Needless to say, we all had to do some adjusting to each other.
Since then I’ve always wanted to write this story because I believe that it represents an important slice of women’s social history in the U.S. All fictional books and movies of which I know about the Vietnam War era depict only the men’s point of view. I wanted to talk about the women’s point of view and also what was expected of an officer’s wife during that time.
In addition, I wanted to talk about overcoming prejudice. And while in the actual writing of the characters I mashed up characteristics from many different people, there are many incidents and characteristics that are true.
I’m hoping that social studies and history teachers in high schools and colleges will find their way to this book because it provides several discussion topics for students studying that era in the U.S. And on my website at www.mrslieutenant.com I provide book group discussion guidelines along with the first four chapters of the book and original 1970 army documents.
Oh, just so you know – while Sharon Gold is the closest character to me, I was not an anti-war protester. I had my head stuck very far in the sand in order to ignore the nightly news of fighting in Vietnam because my husband had said on our third date: “I’m going to Vietnam.”
Synopsis of Mrs. Lieutenant :
They had their whole lives to look forward to if only their husbands could survive Vietnam. In the spring of 1970 - right after the Kent State National Guard shootings and President Nixon's two-month incursion into Cambodia - four newly married young women come together at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, when their husbands go on active duty as officers in the U.S. Army. Different as these four women are, they have one thing in common: Their overwhelming fear that, right after these nine weeks of training, their husbands could be shipped out to Vietnam - and they could become war widows.Sharon is a Northern Jewish anti-war protester who fell in love with an ROTC cadet; Kim is a Southern Baptist whose husband is intensely jealous; Donna is a Puerto Rican who grew up in an enlisted man's family; and Wendy is a Southern black whose parents have sheltered her from the brutal reality of racism in America. Read MRS. LIEUTENANT to discover what happens as these women overcome their prejudices, reveal their darkest secrets, and are initiated into their new lives as army officers' wives during the turbulent Vietnam War period.
Now, the Giveaway!
The Prize: Phyllis is generously offering up a free copy of this book to one lucky winner.
Eligibility: Anyone in the world can enter this giveaway! That's right, it's OPEN WORLDWIDE. (So, please spread the word to your international friends)
To enter: Please read the author guest post and the book's synopsis. Then leave a thoughtful question for the author in the comments of this post, along with your email address.
Ends: midnight CST of August 13th.
Read the Disclaimer.
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