Written by Michelle Dunne
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This morning, I am delighted to welcome to my blog, Author Michelle Dunne whose psychological thriller, While Nobody is Watching, is taking part in a #bookbirthday blog tour, organised by Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources today.
Michelle has written a Guestpost called Mental Health Aspect, discussing her own experiences as a deployed soldier, from which she draws background for her character Lindsey Ryan's PTSD.
Michelle has written a Guestpost called Mental Health Aspect, discussing her own experiences as a deployed soldier, from which she draws background for her character Lindsey Ryan's PTSD.
The blurb:
While Nobody Is WatchingA semi-inflated football and a curious little girl.
They called it peacekeeping. For Corporal Lindsey Ryan it was anything but.
It’s been three years since that bright day in the Golan Heights and the explosion which killed two and changed the survivors forever.
Now Lindsey deals with the many problems of the city’s troubled youth, to distract her from her own. But as damp days turn to night the kids return home, or somewhere like it, and she returns to her own private war. One that exists solely for her.
Certain that she’s being watched and certain that she’s losing her mind, Lindsey battles with the demons of post traumatic stress, while a very real threat edges ever closer until she finds herself face to face with someone who wants nothing more than to finally help her to die.
And it’s the last person she ever could have seen coming.
Blue helmets and blurred lines - While Nobody is Watching delves into the dark world of PTSD and a battle scarred soldier struggling to find a place in her new world.
Psychological Thriller
Mental Health Aspect
“You’ll come home with a fine tan ...”
“Will you bring me back some cheap gold, or a few bottles of knock-off perfume? I’ll fix you up when you get back.’
‘Don’t take any shit from all those men out there ...*laughs* ...’
‘Thank God you’re only Peace keeping. At least no-one will be shooting at you.’
These were just some of the major concerns/conversation topics from civilian friends and acquaintances in the weeks before I deployed to Lebanon with the UN, because that was as much as they knew about what went on during Peacekeeping missions and they weren’t completely wrong. Yes, sometimes the climate was better than at home in Ireland, so tanning of the face, neck and lower arms was possible, though not with my skin tone. Yes, there were some entrepreneurial locals who sold just about any item, gold or otherwise, that you could possibly want. As for taking shit from the men? Well, I just smiled and nodded in return to that one. I was deployed with B-Company. The calibre of human beings that I served with was second to none, but as a minority (of one), I suppose could see why people felt the need to focus on it.
But here are some of the things that the people at home never talked about: The lack of sleep thanks to the shelling that took place almost on a nightly basis; the red tracer rounds that lit up the night sky above us; an Irish company being pummelled by heavy artillery, blowing out generators, leaving craters in the road, direct hits to just about every corner of the tiny camp that they called home. The un-exploded mortar round that would have taken out an occupied accommodation block had it functioned as it should have. The adrenaline that courses through the body as you call in a Med-Evac for two of your friends, while also having to state that the area was still red, meaning that the Med-Evac couldn’t come any time soon. The feeling of relief and camaraderie the next day as camp gets re-built and jokes are cracked about “the look on your face when ...”
These are the situations that soldiers are very well trained for. Civilians didn’t talk about them much, because they don’t really know. These aren’t things that soldiers pick up the phone about. No-one wanted their parents, partners, friends, families worrying about their safety, so if the story doesn’t make the news, then they never know. If it does, then the standard response is along the lines of “oh that was miles away from where I am.”
So what about the bits that the army can’t train you for? Did you know that a rumour can make it from Ireland to Lebanon or vice versa, faster than Uber Eats can deliver a curry? I’ve seen soldiers much stronger than me almost drive themselves insane about the fact that their partner was “seen with someone else”. Men have come off the phone from their wives after being told that the bailiffs were at the door, threatening to take away their family home. A soldier who’s kid was being bullied at school. Parents with health problems, relationships breaking down ... the list goes on and what can anyone do about it? Nothing. It’s all happening thousands of miles away and a soldier’s head needs to be very much in the game when they work in a war zone.
Soldiers often return home to a very different reality to the one that they left. But even if everything at home is the same, they see things differently now because of the experiences that they’ve had and other people can never really understand any of it. Simple things like walking through the aisles of your local supermarkets while your partner discusses the merits of custard creams over Hob-Nobs, can feel very, very wrong all of a sudden now that you know what’s going on in that tiny village that no-one else in the biscuit aisle has ever heard of. Add to that our culture of not talking about any of it, particularly if it becomes a struggle and there you have it!
While Nobody Is Watching tells the story of Lindsey Ryan, a former soldier trying to adjust to civilian life three years after being severely injured on a UN patrol in Syria. Forging a new career with people who know nothing about any of it is all she can think to do to survive. Keeping her PTSD to herself is priority, but the manner in which she chooses to counteract it will eventually cause her two worlds to collide.
| Author Bio – Michelle Dunne |
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 Michelle Dunne wore a Blue Helmet in South Lebanon with B Company the Irish army and the UN, probably in that order. She now lives in Cobh with her husband, daughter and a cast of characters waiting to be written about. Michelle was one of those sporty types growing up, all bony elbows and knees, and as she lived on an island, it stood to reason she’d spend her first couple of decades taking in the salty, seaweedy air at the local rowing club (not the serene looking, posh rowing, but the other kind, undertaken by hardy fishermen). This was where she learned just about everything she ever needed to know about anything. They brought home the County’s, All-Ireland’s were won, but the banter on the bus was always the real prize. From there it made sense that she’d leave town and join another club/asylum and found herself wearing a blue helmet somewhere in South Lebanon. She’d become attached to the UN, but more importantly, to B-Company, the boldest, brightest, bravest the Irish army had to offer. She called them lots of other names too, but only to their faces. As tracer rounds lit up the sky above her and artillery rained down, she learned the words of every patriotic Irish song ever written and how to smile, laugh, and joke about things that would otherwise have you curled in a ball, rocking back and forth in the corner of the room. Once her eyes had been opened and she returned to Irish soil, Michelle was promoted and following a spell back at college, is now a part of a company providing physiotherapy and staff training in nursing homes and hospitals all over Munster. A slower pace, but still an unruly bunch when they want to be. She’s back living on the island of Cobh with her husband Dominic and their daughter Emily and the hundreds of colourful characters waiting to make their way onto a piece of paper. While Nobody is Watching is Michelle’s third book, which draws from her military experiences and the types of relationships that form within its ranks. |
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