Robert Wideman and Cara Lopez Lee - Unexpected Prisoner: Memoir of a Vietnam POW

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

22. Unexpected Prisoner: Memoir of a Vietnam POW by Robert Wideman and Cara Lopez Lee (2016)
Length: 343 pages 
Genre: Non-Fiction 
Started: 18 November 2016
Finished: 21 December 2016
Where did it come from? Many thanks to Samantha at Roger Charlie for sending me a copy of this book to read.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 25 October 2016
Why do I have it? I like non-fiction and Robert Wideman and Cara Lopez Lee are new authors for me.

Having spent the past three and a half years in the Navy, Lieutenant Robert Wideman was looking forward to returning to America after completing his tour of duty during the Vietnam War. The recent newlywed had big plans and dreams for his future, and was determined to put them into practice as soon as he came back home. With only twenty-seven days left in his tour of duty - on what should have been just another routine bombing run for him - Lieutenant Robert Wideman's plane is shot down and he crashes in a secluded village somewhere in North Vietnam. The date is May 6th, 1967.

His deepest fear is realized when he is captured and held as a Prisoner of War for the next six years. Although Robert endured the sort of treatment that makes people question humanity, physical torture was never his biggest problem. During his six years spent in captivity, Robert experienced first hand the pain that is orchestrated by other people: shocking instances of 'Man's inhumanity to Man', as well as the truthfulness behind Jean-Paul Sartre's words: 'Hell is other people.' 

Unexpected Prisoner by Robert Wideman and Cara Lopez Lee chronicles a POW's struggle with both enemies and comrades alike; his mistreatment by Vietnamese interrogators and his various dealings with American commanders. Robert Wideman's poignant and heartbreaking memoir further chronicles his personal struggle to maintain a firm hold on his dreams for the future in the face of such prolonged trauma. Ultimately, Robert must find a way to survive and to maintain a solid hold on the memories of his past life, his faltering dreams of the future, as well as his own personal sense of himself as a person.

I must admit that while I learned quite a lot about the Vietnam War in school, I was slightly surprised to learn just how much more of a vicious reputation the South Vietnamese soldiers had than the North Vietnamese. I realize that the Viet Cong - as the South Vietnamese allies of the North - had rightfully earned such a horrific reputation for brutality; but while the North Vietnamese soldiers were considered the enemy, they also seemed slightly less brutal in their treatment of prisoners of war.

In my opinion, this was a thoroughly thoughtful memoir and I truly felt for Mr. Wideman and everything he went through during his captivity. I also understand how hard it must have been for him to come back home and have to adjust to civilian life. To be perfectly honest, I found the story to be extraordinarily poignant and thought-provoking. Although I spent more time reading this book than I probably would have preferred, I would definitely give this book a solid A!

A! - (90-95%)

May you read well and often

Introducing Vampire Blood: Prequel to Human No Longer by Kathryn Meyer Griffith!

Monday, December 12, 2016

Hello Everyone! I was delighted to learn that Vampire Blood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith will soon be free to download from Amazon - at least for a short time. Yes, starting in January of next year, Vampire Blood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith will become free to download from AmazonVampire Blood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith is the prequel of Human No Longer, which I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing back in July of 2013. I would advise you all to grab your own copy as soon as possible!


Meet Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-two years ago now, and have had twenty (ten romantic horror, two horror novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance and three murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press; and I’ve self-published my last five novels with Amazon Kindle Direct and my dinosaur novels are my best-sellers.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-six years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha and Cleo, and live cat Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.

2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my horror novel The Last Vampire - Revised Author’s Edition ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my thriller novel Dinosaur Lake.

Connect and Socialize with Kathryn!


Vampire Blood: Prequel to Human No Longer by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2015)
Length: 264 pages
Purchase your copy from Amazon!

Vampire Blood: Prequel to Human No Longer Blurb:

For years the vampire family lived in the shadows, hidden by the night and people's disbelief; feeding on animals or throw away people who would never be missed. As the family moves into an old theater to cover up their crimes, the youngest are restless and determined to live as they like. Killing and feeding when and where they want. Feeding on who they want. 

Only the oldest vampires have managed to keep them in check. But no longer. Unaware of the nightstalking menace, the townspeople of Summer Haven, Florida, blithely go about their daily lives until, one by one, they disappear.

Screams are heard in the night. Fear grows. But the lost are never found...alive. 

Jenny Lacey and her father, who are hired to renovate the old Grand Theater, can't escape when they find themselves caught up in the middle of the vampire's war. In the end, it's up to Jenny, her brother and her ex-husband to get rid of the bloodthirsty fiends that are destroying their town...if they can.

Human No Longer by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2012)
Length: 267 pages
Purchase your copy from Amazon!

Human No Longer Blurb:

Jenny and Jeff Sanders become victims of a bizarre crime; leaving Jeff dead and Jenny in a temporary coma. She returns to her children. With Jeff’s death she must move back to her childhood home, a haunted farmhouse, in Summer Haven, Florida, where once they destroyed a family of vampires.

Jenny has no appetite. She’s edgy. Her eyes hurt. She thinks it could be trauma or grief. Until one night she can’t resist the night woods or the overpowering urge to drink warm animals’ blood - and accepts the truth. Her attackers were vampires.

Now she’s becoming what she once reviled. She can’t abandon her children but must find a way to live in the human world. At night she hunts, in the day hides what she’s becoming and attempts to fit in.

Then townspeople begin dying. Like years before. With her blackouts, she fears she may be the killer, or is it her vampire attackers? For they've found her and demand she joins them–or her family will die. She resists until they kidnap her children. Then she has to find a way to outwit and ultimately destroy them.

The prequel to Human No Longer - Vampire Blood - is also for sale on Amazon.

May you read well and often

Introducing Christmas Magic 1959: A Short Story From my Childhood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith!

Saturday, December 3, 2016

I'm delighted to tell you all that Kathryn Meyer Griffith has recently released a wonderful short story and with the holiday season in full swing, she has decided to offer Christmas Magic 1959: A Short Story From my Childhood for free everywhere through Christmas! I would certainly advise you to grab your own copy while you can!

Meet Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-two years ago now, and have had twenty (ten romantic horror, two horror novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance and three murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press; and I’ve self-published my last five novels with Amazon Kindle Direct and my dinosaur novels are my best-sellers.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-six years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha and Cleo, and live cat Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.

2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my horror novel The Last Vampire - Revised Author’s Edition ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my thriller novel Dinosaur Lake.

Connect and Socialize with Kathryn!



Christmas Magic 1959: A Short Story From my Childhood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2016)
Length: 19 pages
Purchase your copy from Amazon and Smashwords!

Christmas Magic 1959: A Short Story From my Childhood Blurb:

Have you ever wondered what a writer’s early years were like and how it affected their future writing and the stories they would tell later in their lives? Have you ever wondered what their childhood Christmases, their early holidays, were like?

Well, wonder no longer. This story is about one of my most cherished childhood Christmases...in 1959 when I was nine years old. After my beloved musician/singer/songwriter brother Jim passed away in 2015 from cancer I felt an intense need to write this short story about that special Christmas Eve I shared with him, my other siblings, mother, father and grandparents, and put it out there for everyone to read as a tribute to him and my family.

This is my story, part of my childhood, and some of my fondest memories. Note: in the late 1970’s I did a series of illustrated (by me, because I’m an artist, too) short stories for my local newspaper and I’ve used one of my old article drawings from that newspaper from 1977 for the first page of this short story.


May you read well and often

Reading Wrap-up For November at Emeraldfire's Bookmark

Thursday, December 1, 2016


Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Emeraldfire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog.

Anyway, I started out November with about two hundred unread books lying around the house and ended the month with...umm...uncountable amounts of books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from authors, Paperback Swap and Amazon.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:


Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging by Beth M. Caruso

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! :))
- Christmas Magic 1959: A Short Story From my Childhood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
- The Blue Witch by Joni Parker
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me, considering. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 1
Pages Read: 345
Grade Range: A+! 

So, there you go! The reading month that was November. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

May you read well and often