Playing Army

". . . a captivating read that serves as a reminder of what has changed and what hasn't for women in the military." -Daria Sommers, Writer/Filmmaker, Lioness

" . . . a page-turner that kept me hooked from the beginning." -Daniella Mestyanek Young, author, Uncultured

"Whether readers are officers, enlisted, or civilians, this is a nuanced, realistic narrative guaranteed to generate leadership insights, ethics discussions, and professional empathy." -Randy Brown, author, Twelve O'clock Haiku: Leadership Lessons from Old War Movies & New Poems

Can you really fake it till you make it? Lieutenant Minerva Mills is about to find out.

It's 1995 and the Army units of Fort Stewart, Georgia, are gearing up to deploy to Bosnia. But Min has no intention of going to war-torn Eastern Europe. Her father disappeared in Vietnam and-longing for some connection to him-she's determined to go on a long-promised tour to Asia. The colonel will only release her on two conditions: she ensures the rag-tag Headquarters Company is ready for the peacekeeping mission and she gets her weight within Army regs.

Min only has one summer to kick everyone's butts into shape, but the harder she plays Army, the more the soldiers-and her body-rebel. If she can't even get the other women on her side, much less lose those eight lousy pounds, she'll never have another chance to stand where her father once stood in Vietnam. The colonel may sweep her along to Bosnia or throw her out of the Army altogether. Or Min may be forced to conclude that no amount of faking it will ever be enough to make it and, as was true for her father, the Army is an impossible space for her to occupy.

Nancy Stroer holds degrees from Cornell and Boston University, and served as an Army maintenance officer in the beer-soaked trenches of post-Cold War Germany. Her work has appeared in Stars and Stripes, Soldiers magazine, Hallaren Lit Mag, the Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Things We Carry Still, an anthology of military writing from Middle West Press.In addition to writing, Nancy is a teacher and trainer and an adjunct faculty member of the Ellyn Satter Institute, a 503(c) not-for-profit organization that helps individuals and families develop a more joyful relationship to food and their bodies. Playing Army is her first novel.