Ask the Author: Nancy Stroer
Answered Questions (3)
Nancy Stroer
Lots of people have asked how much of Playing Army is autobiographical, to which I can only respond - none of it! Yes, I was an Army officer, but I never took over a failing Headquarters Company, and was not stationed at Fort Stewart at the time of the build-up of the peacekeeping mission to the Balkans.
But also - all of it! I was a woman in the Army and had to deal with the intense, non-stop scrutiny of my body, and with the fact that my performance was being evaluated by every single man, even the dirtbags, even as their own right to stand in the ranks was a given. I had to be an effective leader in the face of all that, and the other women were usually my staunchest allies but sometimes my worst enemies. And tragically, the thing that happens toward the end of the story actually happened.
But also - all of it! I was a woman in the Army and had to deal with the intense, non-stop scrutiny of my body, and with the fact that my performance was being evaluated by every single man, even the dirtbags, even as their own right to stand in the ranks was a given. I had to be an effective leader in the face of all that, and the other women were usually my staunchest allies but sometimes my worst enemies. And tragically, the thing that happens toward the end of the story actually happened.
Nancy Stroer
Well, I have this funny little idea that's been nagging at me, to write a fanfic of The Ballad of the Sad Café, the classic novella by Carson McCullers. Since I'm obsessed with military communities, I'm calling it The Ballad of the Sad Commissary. It's just an experiment to amuse me while I'm working on a longer project. We'll see if/how it pans out!
Nancy Stroer
I love making connections between story elements - how, when plotting and revising, aspects of the real-world timeline work in tandem with the tension I'm trying to create in the fictional landscape, or (even more fun) when something brand-new bubbles up from somewhere I can't define, that just perfectly solves a narrative problem. I'm a giant sucker for the creative process! It's hard when the universe and my subconscious don't operate on my command, but if I can be patient, these are the carrots that make me stick with writing.
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