You %$#@ Jody!

Questions from the readers:

Levi calls Kiser a Jody. What the devil is a Jody?

A Jody is every military man's worst fear. The name refers to a soldier who sleeps with other men's wives/girlfriends while they are gone on a mission, deployed, or TDY. He's good-looking, muscular, has all his hair, drives an awesome car, and is very well endowed---a feature he doesn't waste.

How can you spot Jody?

Jody is the one standing, er . . . laughing, on the edge of the runway with champagne, Kleenex, and chocolate while a unit deploys to Timbuktu.

Do the absent soldiers know Jody?

If they have friends, co-workers, live on a base, or have ever laid eyes on another soldier, er . . . man, they do.

Does Jody refer only to men?

[Hysterical laughter] Um, no.

So being called a Jody is a bad thing, right?

That depends. Did your unit just deploy without you?

What happens when someone is called a Jody?

The typical reaction is back-slapping, hand-smacking appreciation for being labeled so pleasantly by one's acquaintances. Thanks all around and drinks on the house!

Wait! Is being called Jody an insult or is it a complement?

Yes.

Where is Jody now?

If you have to ask, you're not him.

So, uh, when exactly do you expect your man to return?

You %$#@ Jody!

Imagine This!

The title of the book ENTANGLED actually comes from the phenomenon of the same name according to quantum physics. The mechanics of this, of course, would take a scholar to explain. I do not claim to be a scholar by any stretch. In fact, I've spent many looong nights researching the subject only to wake the next morning with my laptop askew, some drool, and absolute lack of comprehension regarding anything to do with quantum physics. I do, however, know a quantum physicist personally and, therefore, feel I am qualified enough not only to write a book on the subject, but also to conduct an experiment---on you.

Take a moment to slip into Mandy and Levi's world. Try to imagine what it would be like for one day to have someone you've never met hearing your every thought---all of them, even the embarrassing ones. Imagine going through that same day being bombarded by the private thoughts of someone else. No lies, no secrets. At this point, you may include frustration.

Scholars believe entanglement such as this would drive you crazy. I find the idea intriguing. It would be noisy at first, but eventually it would be tolerable. During the experiment, please, please do not speak aloud, giggle incessantly, babble, and/or argue alone publicly or you may find yourself the center of unwanted attention.

Warning---schizophrenia can produce delusions that the sufferer is in telepathic communication with others; such delusions include thought broadcasting and thought extraction. This is dangerously close to what we're dealing with here. I urge caution.

Try next to imagine how hard it would be to perform simple tasks such as counting money while the other is dialing a phone number, or read an article while the other is singing in the shower. Imagine blurting someone else's conversation in the middle of your own. How might your life be disrupted? What if you didn't get along? Would you keep this a secret? How do you look in a straight jacket?

What would you do? xo, dc

Beginnings

Okay, okay, I've been properly convinced. I'm starting a blog. I'll begin with the history of ENTANGLED. It all began one dark, stormy night...

I'm teasing. actually, I had a bad dream. I woke up in the middle of the night positive someone had just spoken right into my ear. Scared the bad word out of me! I guess I must have been sleeping pretty hard, because it took a minute for me to realize there was no one in the room. Then, it occured to me that the voice had happened in my head. The very idea of being mentally locked with some strange man was horrifying, even though I knew it had only been a dream. By that evening, bizarre scenarios were building. I settled on the one involving strong, bad-ass commandos, of which I'm terribly fond by the way, and I ran with it. ENTANGLED was actually written about three times from front to back. The first time, the story was reeealy corny. I didn't have a clue how to write other than silly short stories I'd written as a child. I had to learn how to do it. All internet baby! Those websites at 3:am. The second time, I had to start researching my commandos in order to bring them to life. I'm a military wife and lived on an airforce/army base surrounded by them. Voila! Oh, and SEAL documentaries, escape evasion books, interviews with special forces, aviators, etc. then---here's the hardest part---I had to learn to think like a man! Wow. That was a challenge. I had to draw a difinitive line between male and female and then crash the two together. Did you know men don't say 'yuck'? I had to learn this. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as interviewing a man and asking him 'What are you thinking?' Quite the opposite! The amused responses to that question often led to very high eyebrows, wide eyes, and pink cheeks. So, armed with this new knowledge, I cleared my throat and got creative. For the record, men and women think very, very differently. The third and final time I wrote the story, I actually had awesome characters, months of research, my own new quirky writing style, and a farfetched goal in mind. So far, so good . . . xo, dc