Interview With Military Historical Fiction Author PJ Edgewater

 

1.       What is your debut novel, Passages: A Voyage From War to Peace, about? Passages is a story of transitions, relationships, and healing. Superficially, the character AJ is an aging Vietnam War Navy combat veteran who gets himself in trouble and is committed to a hospital and required to have a psychiatric evaluation. The principal doctor who is assigned to his case is a young foreign medical doctor, what we now call an international medical graduate (IMG), who is just entering a psychiatry residency - the latter training phase for a specialty, the time that follows medical school and internship. So, one of these interlocutors is in a late-life transition under duress and the other is in an early life transition under its own form of duress. Some readers might expect friction with just such a mash-up.

 

During the telling, one learns a lot about how each got to this moment of their meeting and events formative to their character and world view. I had hoped to draw the reader into the narrative with a glimpse of military and medical training reality, if that had not been part of the reader’s own experience. I also tried to be as genuine in the description of scenes, so that those who have been in those or similar places could readily identify with them. You might imagine that working in this platform allows for touching on so many of the relationship flash points in our lives – parents and children, our reactions to authority figures, finding one’s place in the world, and bringing one’s talents and aspirations to bear. Story telling has always been a media for passing down from generation to generation not only history, tradition, and practical knowledge, but lessons on emotional resilience. I didn’t shy away from major taboos that challenge us. We all run up against circumstances that try to break us.

 

Open warfare is the most devastating violence we heap upon each other, but we all experience battles in our lives and strive for victory, or at least peace. No one has all the answers, but stories that carry examples, options of reactions to challenges, can resonate for some of us. Identifying with the challenges of one character or another is what draws thoughtful people into a story and give it meaning. I have always been fascinated with unsung hero-types I’ve encountered, and the courage they demonstrate when confronted with challenges. Passages is more a story of relationships than military engagement or outcomes.

 

2.       What inspired you to write this story? Foremost, I wanted to bring out conversations that I have had with so many patients and families over a long career about emotional pain, family conflict, depression, and suicide - in story form. I drew from the experiences of people who provided me insights I had not considered.

 

3.       You and your five siblings, all served during the Vietnam War, though you did not experience combat. Why did each of you volunteer for a bloody, unpopular war? My sister, the eldest offspring, joined the Marine Corps along with a girl she worked with, just for the adventure and change from working in a cafeteria after high school. The US involvement in the hot war had not begun. At 17, the eldest brother was getting into trouble at home and high school and joined the Navy. The next three brothers followed him as they turned 18. It was during those years that the war ramped up to become increasingly controversial and casualties mounted. I was recruited to the US Air Force Academy by its wrestling coach – it was an offer I couldn’t refuse for many reasons. In the net, the combined experiences that were brought home to our family house was a rich mix for thought and discussion. Without too sharp an attribution, my eldest brother revealed a particular aspect of the psycho-emotional impact of war on young people that most people may not be aware of.

 

4.       As a doctor of 40 years, now retired, you have treated many people, including veterans. Is your book trying to help veterans, or at least to help us understand them? In that the story is re-enacted so often in our society following any hot military deployment, it is helpful to veterans and their families to know that they are not alone, that their unseen wounds are also real, and that the moral injury can be named and reasonably managed. So, yes, the trajectory of the story may be useful to vets and their families. The situations, character portrayals, and therapeutic discussions are intended to have a broader application for many lives beyond military families.

 

5.       Your book has been described as “philosophical and deeply human.” How so? My short answer is any deeply held opinion not supported by reproducible evidence is philosophical. Philosophy is the love of knowledge. Any notion that provokes one to ponder, which this book will, is descriptively philosophical, whether it be philosophy of the mind or ethical philosophy. “Deeply human” would refer to what humans do best of all forms of life – self-awareness.

 

6.       It is a story of healing. How would you define what that process is like? Healing, above all, is finding a path forward despite the damage done and the physical and emotional scars that will remain. I’m hoping readers will perceive Passages as not just a story about war and veterans, but, indeed, about healing. Some reviewers on Amazon have also made comments suggesting they have found the story healing to the reader as well.

 

7.       How would you describe your writing style? I work to be efficient with scenes and exposition where possible, then slow down when I want to convey some concept that may be useful to the reader. The concept may be something hard to face or generate painful mental images. I enjoy carefully dropping a bit of imagery from time to time at the beginning of new chapters to reset the pace or merely to allow for some reflection.

 

8.       The Vietnam War concluded 50 years ago. As you reflect upon it now, what thoughts come to mind?  The decades have provided perspective. The majority of survivors of participation in the conflict are deceased. There has been considerable reconciliation and appreciation of Vietnam veterans and their sacrifices, rather than blame. We have the outward expression from a grateful nation in the form a strikingly beautiful and evocative memorial to our service personnel in that war in the center of our nation’s capital.  That act by our people and government was, may I say, monumental. The American public from that era has also undergone attrition. Perhaps nudged along by US participation in two Gulf Wars and other foreign skirmishes with US participation around the globe, our civilians have a better understanding that unnecessary wars are easy to start and difficult to conclude with definable results, putting the Vietnam conflict into a revised context.

 

9.       How did you draw Miko, your lead character? Is he based on someone? Miko is a composite of many doctors in training, and psychiatrists and psychologists I’ve encountered, not a unique individual. I created his intern experiences from my own flexible internship retrospect, and the psychology acumen from career-long experience and continuing education in navigating difficult personalities, drug seekers, and people in chronic pain.

 

10.   Why are military historical fiction books so popular? War is real, not science fiction, and human history is replete with bloody conflict. There are so many accounts of events to draw on. It’s difficult to imagine a more dramatic arena.

 

11.   What do we need to know about PTSD and the mental well-being of our soldiers? PTSD is a variable manifestation of a conditioned response to a variety of stimuli. The results are often debilitating. I flirted in the novel with Miko writing the case for a defense budget that includes allocations for individualized mental health recovery processes for vets returning from conflict. I understand that some of that already exists, although the penetration in the burden of disease may be  inadequate. 

About The Author: P. K. Edgewater, a military veteran, and doctor of 40 years, is the debut author of a novel, Passages: A Voyage From War To Peace. He was named a Top Doctor by Phoenix Magazine, annually from 2005-2019. He has served as a clinical volunteer in numerous countries, including Vietnam, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, and Nicaragua, as well as in Guadalupe and Phoenix in Arizona, and published a doctoral dissertation on short-term medical volunteering overseas. He has treated many military veterans in the course of his medical practice. Edgewater served during the Vietnam War in the Air Force but did not see combat. His four brothers served in the Navy and his sister in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam conflict era. All were volunteers. Edgewater attended the US Air Force Academy. Edgewater is married and resides in Depoe Bay, Oregon. Connect with him here: P.K. Edgewater | Facebook. and (21) Paul Caldron | LinkedIn

 

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For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

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