Hi, everyone -

We hit a major milestone on Blasted by Adversity: the Making of a Wounded Warrior: We sent the book manuscript to our publisher December 30th and are now working with the Inkshares editor. If all goes well, we’ll have a book by May 8th. 

To once again thank you for making this book possible, we will begin sharing excerpts. These are “hot off the press,” so you’ll be the first to read them. Feel free to share with your friends on social media or email (and be sure to take credit for helping us write it!). 

Book excerpt #1, Calling Home: 

At Baghdad ER, the tents they took me to after the blast, they asked me if I wanted to call home and I told them no, I was doing fine. I wasn’t up to calling. The medics were kind of insistent, "Do it for your mom or whoever cares about you. You may not make it. We're not saying you're going to die, but people die from these kinds of wounds all the time." Well, when you put it that way… 

 

Regards, 

 Luke Murphy - www.LukeMurphy101.com 

Julie Strauss Bettinger - www.JulieBettinger.com 

We hit the funding goal (again)!  And this time it's solid, no unintended zeros by well-intended backers. Thank you to everyone who sent out messages on Veteran's Day on behalf of Luke's book. We're now back on track to have the book published next spring.  We'll be sending some excerpts in the coming weeks, so you can get an idea of what to expect.

We appreciate you!

- Julie Strauss Bettinger, co-author (on behalf of Luke Murphy who is traveling to a speaking engagement today)

(From Julie, Luke's co-author) I just wanted to share an unsolicited message from the editor for Luke Murphy’s story: "…My post office wasclosed and I was doing errands in another town so I went to their post office,which was jammed with people and I had to wait in a long line and I was annoyedand then I realized why the line was so long—it’s because today is Veterans’Day and postal services are closed—so I thought of Luke and ceased to resentwaiting in line. And because I was fairly fresh from reading his account ofwhat it’s like, that time between losing your limb and all the brave-frontstuff that people back home see—we see them happily walking and running onprosthetic limbs, and we don’t have to “know” what goes on first, how long andpainful—I felt as though Luke had given me, as a citizen of a country, somenecessary knowledge about the scope and actuality of that injury-to-healingprocess. And it’s our obligation to be aware of these things, so that we do notconsent easily to wars and conflicts, so that we understand what the countryasks of these people, so that we take some responsibility as citizens of thistime and place when our leaders send them far away."

Friends, you believed in Luke Murphy's story when we launched the proposal on 9/11.  But we're still way short on our fundraising goal! On this Veteran's Day, please consider sharing the link via email or Facebook, and help give a voice to this new generation of wounded service members. THANK YOU.  - Julie Strauss Bettinger 

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/blasted-by-adversity-the-making-of-a-wounded-warrior


Luke is returning from Texas this week after his 32nd surgery since the blast. He's doing well, but while he was away, we received some bad news that one of our major backers didn't mean to give quite as much as her credit card was charged. So we are re-launching the crowd-funding effort. We appreciate your past support and hope you will help spread the word. We've completed about 10 chapters and this story just keeps getting better and better. With funding, we can have this book out next spring. Thank you for helping Luke Murphy!

Our best,

Julie Strauss Bettinger, www.JulieBettinger.com

for

Luke Murphy, www.LukeMurphy101.com

Userphoto3 original Mark W Groves · Reader · added over 8 years ago
Luke,

Enjoyed reading excerpts of your in process book. I look forward to the rest. Nice work. 

Know you are appreciated not only for your Military service, but as an amputee. I work for a US company that designs and manufactures products to level your, and others like you, playing fields.

Mark Groves
Ohio WillowWood