By JOYCE FAULKNER
Special to Atmore News
?Your Gift to Me,? a military-themed novel by Atmore native Bonnie Bartel Latino and New Jersey resident Bob Vale recently received a 2012 Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America in Dayton, Ohio. The award nomination package described the book as, ??a story of love and war spliced with historical fiction?warm, engaging ? and oh so thought provoking, the novel celebrates the resilience of human connections across time and space and mortality.?
A former columnist for Stars and Stripes in Europe, Bonnie met Bob, who is now an award-winning writer, graphic designer and photographer, online in 1996 on CompuServe?s Military Forum. They have been writing together professionally for over a decade, sharing a byline on freelance articles for The Birmingham News, Mobile-Press Register, Atmore News and ?atmore? magazine. They have never met in person.
Bonnie, a correspondent for the Press-Register book page from 2004 until October of this year, describes ?Your Gift to Me? as sharing the same subtle, but central, theme of the healing powers of love and laughter to triumph over grief that was found in ?Top Gun? and ?Steel Magnolias.? The book concludes at Air Force Special Operations Headquarters (AFSOC) at Hurlburt Field, in the Florida Panhandle. A brief synopsis reveals the novel?s Special Operations connection: Nearly ten years after Emily Ann Meade?s husband died in a fiery Special Ops Pave-Hawk helicopter crash in the 1991 Gulf War, she moves from Hurlburt to Hawaii, where she meets charismatic F-16 pilot, Colonel Ted Foley. Although she is attracted to Ted, his fighter wing has recently lost two pilots in unexplained air crashes. He is the very type of man she has sworn to avoid?a man whose life could be in danger.
The co-authors set their story in the world of the contemporary fighter pilot, writing about what Bonnie knows best, the military way of life. She was an Air Force spouse for 30 years before her husband Colonel Tom Latino retired, and they moved back to her hometown of Atmore.
Among the book?s impressive endorsements is one from Alabama native and New York Times best-selling author, Andy Andrews, ??What would you get if Stephen Ambrose, Patricia Cornwell, and Max Lucado teamed up to create a story? The result, I suspect, would turn out to be something very close to the compelling narrative found in ?Your Gift To Me.? Get your copy right now?You owe yourself the attention this book deserves.?
A recent review in The Tampa Tribune described the novel as, ?An accurate, smart, sensitive look at military lives and military wives.? The October Midwest Book Review said, ?This is a book you do not want to miss. It is an entrancing story??
?Your Gift to Me? is available in paperback and eBook formats from Amazon.com.
Editor?s note: Bonnie Latino will have signed copies of ?Your Gift to Me? for sale at the Atmore News / ?atmore? magazine booth at WSD. She will accept Patron of the Arts scrip.
Joyce Faulkner is immediate past president, Military Writers Society of America.
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