an Idaho Story with Military Roots in AFRICOM

All the gods of writing are quick to trot out the old phrase, "..write about what you know..". I agree with that whole heartedly. That's how words about Idaho, Montana, the Salmon River, and telemark skiing, along with daughters and strong women all appear in this series of books. To be clear, in real life I have daughters and have been married to a strong capable woman for 22+ years. Needless to say, but I will anyway, for the daughter and woman parts of these books, research was many times just listening and watching my daughters and wife. Very convenient, no need for the library to do that.

New Grass Growing is the follow up book to River and Ranch. A chunk of the lives of two characters is spent in Africa, where since 2007 there has been an official military presence..wait for it... labelled as AFRICOM. Turns out there's a whole bunch of military entities ending in COM, which you may have guessed is an abbreviation of "Command". I'll leave you the astute reader to guess as to what "AFRI" stands for. It turns out that, in the case of background for my books, art is in fact imitating life.

As you might expect, researching these topics required more than just watching my kids. Hello Google.

Good old Wikipedia has this to say about AFRICOM. Another, recently discovered source is the Black Agenda Report. While I only found this web site this week, it reads well and seems to bear a bit more investigating. Mark Fancher talks about AFRICOM in an article he wrote. Hopefully it is well done, I have not yet read all of it. My apologies in advance if I link to something beyond good taste. Hopefully not though, I found the first few page to be good.

In a 26 day April challenge, that just happens to fit the alphabet, you may have guessed that tomorrow we have the always effervescent letter "B".

tucked away in Idaho

In the followup book to River and Ranch, New Grass Growing continues the stories started in River and Ranch. Stories that include a small family ranch in Idaho, a river rafting company in Salmon, and a group of men that have been friends and remain committed to each other, even as their worlds change and their circles get bigger. This part of Idaho exists. It is real. I was there for a few of the best years of my life. It's still there and is a place that I think everyone should visit. From Leesburg to North Fork to Tendoy, from fly fishing the Skwala hatch on the Bitterroot to making first tracks at Lost Trail, flyover country remains an incredible place and serves as one of the inspirations for writing this series of books.