Dear Reader,

It was a delight and honor to be part of this very special Christmas anthology for several reasons. I want to thank Birgit Davis-Todd, Senior Executive Editor, for allowing this project to become a reality, and especially for asking Harlequin writers who are military vets to write the military romance novellas you will read in this book.

I was in the U.S. Navy as an AG3 (weather forecaster) and pioneered the military genre in 1983 with Captive of Fate (Silhouette Special Edition). My other two sister writers, Delores Fossen, U.S. Air Force, and Geri Krotow, U.S. Navy, are also military vets, so the readers are getting the real deal. The novellas will have a uniqueness that no one else can produce because we were in the military and understand how it works from the inside out. We’re able to lend an insider’s knowledge to the novellas as a result.

With the drawdown and our heroic military men and women finally coming home from Afghanistan, it makes our stories all the more heartrending and poignant. Delores, Geri and I know what it’s like to be stationed somewhere else in the world when the holidays hit. And it’s a very lonely time for everyone because of the separation involved. Christmas is the single most important holiday a military person yearns to be home for and celebrate. And so often it doesn’t happen. The sacrifices our military people make are many.

To our military personnel, thank you for your service, your hours alone overseas, so far away from your home and family. And equally, let’s praise those wives/husbands and children who also make those sacrifices in different ways when their loved one is so far away from them. It’s hard on everyone. Just know that you are not forgotten by any of these military women vets and authors here at Harlequin.

Hooyah!

Lindsay McKenna