Unwrapping: Veterans Day - Thank You!

To all the Veterans and their families - thank you so very much for your service, your sacrifices and your outstanding loyalty to the Red, White and Blue!

As the daughter of a Veteran, I have a deep appreciation for all that our military do so that we may reserve our freedom and the rights provided us by our government. I'm glad a day is set aside to pay tribute to all of the Veterans of this proud country but personally, I believe every day should be Veterans Day. So the next time you see an active duty military personnel or an older person wearing any kind of military insignia, please do something nice for them like hold a door open, let them step in front of you in line or just smile and say 'thank you' ... it will be so greatly appreciated.

As Romance readers, we love our heroes in or out of uniform ... partial to a military man out of uniform, if you know what I mean.  Romance Novels abound with heroes and although Regency centers around English heroes, Americans have their share of historical heroes beginning with those that fought for our freedom from the Brits in the first place.  Our proud country has a long history of men and women willing to sacrifice everything for our freedom beginning with the first Marines, the Minutemen and the civilian colonists that took up arms against the British tyranny suffocating our society, economy and right to free speech. The uniforms may have changed over the past two hundred and thirty-six years but the cry for freedom and the willingness to defend it hasn't changed one bit. Our United States Marine Corps is celebrating its birthday this month, actually yesterday (November 10) and next year we will celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the start of the War of 1812.  A war that our young country fought to preserve the freedom that had just been won less than 35 years earlier. We lost 2,260 American soldiers, marines and sailors both on land and on the ocean fighting a war against Great Britain and their North American colonists - our neighbors to the north, the Canadians - but we persevered and maintained an unbreakable hold on our freedom that still thrives today.  That's a very long history, my friends.  By the way - Happy Birthday Marines, semper fi.

I love Regency Romance but I have often wondered why it is that we only focus on the British scene for our romance stories. Why don't we have more stories of the era involving Americans both as heroes and heroines? One author, who is one of my personal favorites, has been for years creating stories that do blend the societies and it makes for some very enjoyable reading. The author - Johanna Lindsey, the series - the Malory Novels ... we have heroes and heroines from both sides of the pond meeting, falling in love, fighting each other and others who get in their way. The Malory-Anderson family is a mixed bag of ladies and gentlemen who bring the best of two worlds together and give honor to the steadfast loyalty that each side of the family, whether Malory or Anderson, have for their kin and their countries.  Since this is more a tribute to our American Veterans and a thank you for their sacrifices, I'm not going to discuss literature more than just that at this time. If you're interested in Ms. Lindsey's Malory series or any of her other works, please feel free to visit her publishers website. I will include a list of her Malory novels at the end of this post.

In the meantime, may all our brave Veterans, including my father who is a Veteran of both WWII and Korea, have a good day every day and may your families be proud for you are each our greatest heroes and shall always be remembered for all that you have allowed us to take for granted. Our greatest thanks and gratitude this day and always.

Happy Veterans Day and Happy Reading Everyone!