After more than forty years, many
of the “little stories” about the Vietnam War have been lost. That’s too bad because I
suspect George Santayana was right: “Those who cannot remember the past are
doomed to repeat it.”
Thus, when a friend, who was a medic in the secret war in Laos in
the early 1960s, offered me his notes, I was thrilled. As a medic, my friend treated men covered with hundreds of leeches, a baby monkey, and Hmong children with yaws and vitamin A deficiency besides lots of wounded soldiers. He also received survival training in the Philippines, served as a medic for the Hmong general Vang Pao, and was sent home after he earned his fourth Purple Heart.
My problem is I’m not a historian. I
write modern thrillers and mysteries with a woman protagonist, Sara Almquist,
who is too young to have first-hand knowledge of the Vietnam era.
I decided to set the novel, titled Riddled with Clues,
mainly at the VA Center in Albuquerque because my dog Bug and I are a pet
therapy team there. We’ve met Vietnam era veterans in the rehab programs at this
large VA center. Many homeless veterans also roam the campus and its over
seventy buildings. I realized the convoluted nature of the layout of buildings
would be great for a chase scene, and the veterans in rehab units could be the
basis of colorful supporting characters in the book.
Are you curious how I used the notes? Sara, a scientific consultant for the State
Department, gets a mysterious summons to the VA in her hometown of Albuquerque.
She discovers Xave Zack (her old friend from previous novels – Ignore the Pain and Malignancy) was seriously injured while tracking drug
smugglers. He hands her a note he
received before his accident. The
note is signed by “Red from Udon Thani.” However, he doesn’t know anyone
called Red, and the last time he was in Udon Thani was during the Vietnam
War.
Xave proceeds to tell her potentially
relevant details from his wartime experiences in Laos. (The experiences are all
based on my real friend’s adventures). After Sara
listens to his rambling tale of all the possibilities, both are assaulted. Xave is left comatose. Sara must determine
whether the attacks were related to events during the war fifty years ago or to
the modern-day drug trade. As she
struggles to survive, she questions who to trust: the local cops, her absent best friend, the FBI,
or a homeless veteran who leaves puzzling
riddles as clues.
Sound exciting? I
hope so. Wouldn't it make great reading over the Memorial Day weekend?
I also hope you’ll gather “historical”
information from older friends and relatives and use the details in your
writing.
