Former Navy Man Responds to My Post About Inaccurate Reviews of Military Fiction

ByPhyllis Zimbler Miller

Former Navy man Gary Chase sent me the following email in response to my blog post “Developing a Tough Skin to Inaccurate Reviews re the Military” and then gave me permission to include his email in a blog post:

My wife Elaine [Raco Chase] forwarded your “Developing a Tough Skin to Inaccurate Reviews Re the Military.” I read your [novel] LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS a while ago and enjoyed it very much.

Back in the 60’s when I was assigned to the USS Shangri-La I was 18 and did not have a driver’s license but as a radar operator sitting directly behind the captain of the Shang I learned a whole lot real quick — including piloting an 889-foot-long aircraft carrier.

So when I went back through the reviews of your book I had to laugh at the one guy’s review saying the protagonist was over the top. I rather doubt he was ever near the water much less in the Navy. Teenagers running multimillion dollar systems and ships are a commonplace thing in the Navy. So I suggested he “Join the Navy and See the World” before criticizing the commonplace.

You write a damned good book much in the style of W.E.B. Griffin.

I would like to see a few more of this type of book — for example the life of a sailor during the Cuban missile crisis stationed on Gtmo (as I was — they haven’t gotten that story right yet!). Be that as it may, [LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS] is a good book. Keep ’em coming and ignore the “technically challenged” ignoramuses!

I am very grateful for this lovely email from Gary Chase. It certainly made my day!

P.S. Last week LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS was free on Kindle for one day. (The thriller is also available in paperback.) This week today, Dec. 4, my brand-new cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE is free on Kindle. Click here to see cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE on Amazon.

(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at http://amzn.to/NBoSGU)

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including the military fiction MRS. LIEUTENANT: A Sharon Gold Novel (2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist) and the cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com