If you love your freedom, thank a vet. That sums it up, folks. Without the sacrifices made by our military members past and present, you and I would not have the freedoms we enjoy and all too often take for granted.
And while you’re thanking that vet, thank his or her family members, too. If you’re married to or are the child of a plumber or an accountant or a small business owner, you live a pretty normal life. But the families of military people often live as single parent households while Dad (or Mom) is on deployment. Birthdays and holidays are missed. Family events and problems are dealt with alone. And they never know when that staff car might pull up and a couple of officers and a chaplain come to the door.
I am proud to say that so far, we have given 982 copies of our VFW Camping e-book to veterans, and we will continue to do so for any requests received through the end of the day. If you want a free copy of the e-book, e-mail me at editor@gypsyjournal.net and I’ll send you one.
Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, and there’s one in every crowd. Well, three actually. One veteran who responded to our offer only wanted the e-book if it was free, the VFW posts didn’t charge anything, and they had full hookups. Another was offended by my canned response thanking him for his service and not a personal message. “I appreciate the book, but I get the same message with it my buddy did. That’s pretty sterile. How hard would it be to write something personal,” he asked. Again, 982 copies?! I have to eat and sleep sometime. And then there was the guy who e-mailed me to say he appreciated my generous offer, but didn’t want an e-book and told me to send a printed copy to him by Express Mail so he’d be sure to get it by Wednesday, since Monday is a holiday. Umm, I’m offering a free e-book, but he expects me to send him a printed copy, and Express Mail would be $26.95 to his destination. Sorry, I’m just not that generous.
When I wasn’t sending out e-books, I spent much of yesterday reviewing more chapters of the audiobook version of Crazy Days in Big Lake, and it’s really sounding good. 17 out of 25 chapters are finished, and I’m hoping it will be done and available for sale by Christmas.
And speaking of audiobooks, the winner of this week’s drawing for a free copy of Judy Howard’s excellent Coast to Coast With A Cat And A Ghost is Belva Sackett. Congratulations Belva! If you haven’t won yet, don’t give up. I’ll start a new drawing on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, if you know anybody looking for a good teen/young adult fantasy, my friend Albert Benson’s The Nemesis, The Wizard and The Waterfall, Book One, is free on Smashwords. And The Dream Valley, Robert Thomas’ first book in the Crystal Point Legacy trilogy, is free on all of the popular e-book outlets. Or check out the novella Geek of Legend: The Elvish Screwdriver, It’s 99 cents on Amazon. And if you’re looking for a nice story that will warm your heart, check out my friend Mike Meyers’ The Three Kitties That Saved My Life.
Bad Nick was also busy yesterday, writing a new Bad Nick blog titled God, We Have A Problem. Check it out and leave a comment.
And don’t miss out on our latest promotion, because it’s a good one. For a limited time we are offering a CD set of back issues of the Gypsy Journal for the years 2003 – 2013. That’s eleven years of our RV adventures and misadventures for the amazingly low price of just $50, with free shipping! The back issues are in searchable PDF files that will work on any computer. If you were to purchase them individually from our online download site they would cost you $198. How can you lose with a deal like that? To order, just click the button below or log onto www.paypal.com and make payment to editor@gypsyjournal.net. Hurry, at this price we can’t do this for long.
Thought For The Day – It must be exhausting being offended by everything in the world.
Check Out Nick’s E-Books In Our E-Book Store
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
As one of those 982 vets who took advantage of your generosity, I very much appreciated the e-book Nick. We are new fulltimers and this will save us some bucks for sure. And also, Nick, thank you for your service. I think we were in country about the same time. I was in III Corps 1970 -1971. Welcome home brother.
Thank YOU Nick, for ALL that you and Miss Terry do, and have done. First, as a US Veteran and secondly as a VERY GENEROUS (and wise) experienced RVer. You two share more of your hearts and knowledge than most – willingly, graciously and warmly.
There will always be the sot or two who doesn’t appreciate what is done for them, or expects yet more, but don’t let that sour your good deed(s). The vast majority of your readers are loyal fans and appreciate you for your 100% honesty & integrity – exactly what the majority of Veterans are all about too.
I salute you all everyday, but especially on this Veterans day. Thank you again.
Thanks Nick and back at ya my friend!
Three assholes out of 982 veterans is not a bad average.
Words cannot express our thanks to our veterans who serve us courageously in wartime. Then they come home, sometimes recovering from dreadful injuries, and resume contributing in their communities. What heros!
I kiss a Vet every night and every morning, My wife, Thank You honey. 30 years ago.
I agree with Sue, 3 jerks amounts to about 3% of the group. Better than the 5-7% that I normally encounter. But I do get a kick out of reading about these people in your blog.