Amanda Matti: Author, Veteran

I was scheduled to fly a commercial airline out of DC’s Dulles International Airport to Amman, Jordan with a brief layover in Amsterdam; then continue on to Baghdad via military aircraft after spending a night in Jordan. Shawn drove me to the airport and our "goodbye" reminded me of a scene from one of those sappy romantic movies where the lovers part for what is to be a simple summer abroad but ultimately fall out of touch and never see each other again. “Kick some ass over there girl,” Shawn said as he hugged me. “Take care of yourself and remember, shoot first and ask for forgiveness later.” “I’ll call or email when I can to let you know I made it there okay,” I replied, and then I walked away.        My flight departed relatively on time and shortly after takeoff I got to chit-chatting with my seat mate - a young girl who looked to be about 18. I learned she had just graduated from high school and was on her way to spend the summer in Amste...

So I am beginning to get a little discouraged that we'll never find a publisher willing to take on my book. Millions of books go unpublished every year so it's not like I had my hopes too high anyway. But that is the beauty of the internet - you can publish anything you want anytime for all to see. I decided I'd start making installments with snippets of each chapter of my book to hopefully spur some interest and perhaps encourage a publishing of my memoir "A Foreign Affair". I don't plan on "giving away the entire farm", but enough to hopefully peek interest in any reader who stumbles upon my blog. So, without further ado, here is Snippet #1 - enjoy. “Sometimes, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale.” - Anonymous You live only once. You breathe in. You breathe out. The days go by, each seeming like a replica of the one before, but it isn't. You will never see the day you just lived again. It is gone ...