My beloved stepdad Charlie was a Marine in World War ll. He fought on Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima with the Third Marine Division. I first began interviewing him for this trilogy of books (one for each island) decades ago. He lived in Illinois, I lived in New York. I came home with my kids every summer. In that time, Charlie could only ever do one interview per visit, they fried him so badly. Two weeks after our last Iwo Jima interview, he died. I was devastated. His death hit me far harder than I ever imagined it would. Every time I tried to write on his books, it was all maudlin crap. So I decided to put it away until I was able to write in the way he deserved. In the meantime, I wrote my memoir Freak: The True Story of an Insecurity Addict, Manifest Destiny, a sci fi horror novel, wrote and illustrated two children’s books: Hurt Magic and Robin the Mighty Red Breast (Robin is slated for publication in 2026), and did a boatload of other creative projects. Finally, I felt I could turn to the World War ll books and write them with the dedication and clear thinking they deserve. It has been the greatest honor of my life that Charlie trusted me enough to share his memories of that terrible time with me. I found out at his funeral that he never spoke of the war to anybody. So it is incumbent on me to do these books justice. And I will.

As many of you know, I’m currently working on the second of my trilogy of books about my beloved Charlie as a Marine in the Pacific during World War ll. This one is really hard, All. Unlike the first book, Bougainville, the horror is constant. I have to go there with him, try to accurately portray what really happened. I take courage from what he told me when he read the two screenplays, which I wrote first: “You got it. I don’t know how, but you got it.” So wish me luck that I’ll get it right with these books. I won’t settle for less! Wait until you meet Charlie, or “Bud,” as he was called then. You will love him.

Tip for today: Insecurity is a sneaky little parasite. It’ll talk to you in your own voice, take over your own thoughts and emotions, all to create a comfy environment for itself. Unfortunately, that comfy environment it thrives in is a soup of self hatred, guilt, shame and fear. So, as you do the daily exercises to get the little squatter under control, don’t beat yourself up when progress doesn’t appear overnight. It took a while to get this miserable, it’ll take a while to heal. Think of it as a broken bone. Those take time to heal. You’ll get there. I was such a wreck, that when I first began these self love exercises, it took me six months to feel even the slightest difference. But I kept at it. Persistent repetition is the key. Insecurity really hates patience and determination. So hang in there.