It’s been about ten years since I first thought about writing a book about my experiences in Iraq, but I can finally say I’ve done it. This week, Driving Around, Waiting to Get Blown Up is in print. You can buy it on Amazon or order it from any bookstore through IngramSpark.

I first started putting some ideas in a notebook when I was on terminal leave from the Army in 2014. That prompted me to seek out a veterans’ writing group at Walter Reed the following year, which is when those ideas became short stories in that same notebook. Encouraged by some of the instructors in that group, I applied to the Johns Hopkins MA in Writing program at the beginning of 2016, and that is where an actual narrative started to come together. When I graduated in 2019, I had a first draft of about 50,000 words and thought my manuscript was about 90% complete. “I just need to write some connective tissue to make these stories flow better.” As you can see, I was little off. After five years, about another 50,000 words written, ten rounds of editing and revising resulting in deleting about 35,000 words, my book is actually ready to see daylight.

I hope you like it.