Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Interesting that so many television shows are now writing episodes that concern PTSD and how it affects lives. "Madame Secretary's" latest offering centered around Tea Leoni's character being caught in an ambush as she visited a dignitary in his home. The writers did a pretty good job of showing what PTSD can look like from outside. I thought the confusion of her family and the growing impatience within the sympathy of her coworkers, while only slightly touched on, was still accurate. But, they only had an hour so the writers seem took the easy way out and, after getting a pep talk, a therapist's business card and telling her husband what really happened "over there" after a game of Halo, everything was right in her world again. It's not that neat. Healing doesn't happen within a prescribed amount of time. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all and that's a shame.

We are committed to giving $1 of every copy of "Walking Between The Raindrops" to the Wounded Warrior Project PTSD. That's just us. You don't have to buy a book to support the incredible work these people are doing to help our soldiers. Please help support them in any way that you can.

"Walking Between The Raindrops" by Mary and Paul Roland on sale at Amazon.com in paperback and eBook.

"$500,000 by tonight or all you'll need that money for is his funeral." February 27, 2008

That's what the voice on the other end of the phone demanded of my brother-in-law at 6:45AM on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Paul's been gone just minutes short of 24 hours.Now, we know he's alive. As an added incentive to move quickly, the kidnapper told Tom that Paul was "in a bad way...needs a doctor; maybe a hospital." My stomach lurches at the images of torture and terror that Paul's going through.

Horror turns to panic as the realization hits us that we have less than a day to find HALF A MILLION DOLLARS! Thankfully, a team is growing and assembling in Georgetown, Texas to save the day:

Sergeant Pete Hughey, Detective James Maugham, Texas Ranger Matt Lindemann and First Assistant District Attorney, Jana McKown.

Will they get there in time? Where, on earth, will we ever be able to find that kind of money? Why did this happen?

"Walking Between The Raindrops" by Mary and Paul Roland - An American couple's true story of kidnap-for-ransom in the United States by the most Vicious drug cartel in Mexico - on sale now at Amazon.com.

"No one could have ever invented a story like this. I was especially gratified for their honesty ...", February 22, 2015
By Bridget (Tarentum, PA USA)

"A book of true courage," February 5, 2015
By sharon

"This is a very good book. Follows the victims and suspects from the beginning to the end - seeing the suspect in jail and the victims recovering." February 26, 2015, By Barbara

Imagine...

...Reprising from the original post - my way of counting down to book release...

Imagine that you're blindfolded, your wrists are bound tight by a plastic zip tie and the people who have you constantly tell you that you'll be tortured and mutilated or burned alive or shot or even eaten by lions if ransom isn't paid. Imagine that each possible end to your life is told slowly, one at a time in graphic detail and with great relish on the part of whoever is talking.  Imagine, also, that you are kept in a room like this and that it's dark and then light and then dark and then light, over and over to make you think that days are going by instead of hours. And, imagine a person holding a gun to your head over and over and over. He pulls the trigger again and again and again. You hear a click but you know a bullet could be in the next chamber. Imagine the nightmares you might have.


"I look around and see four other people, young Mexicans, their tied hands behind their backs, being unloaded from a truck. Once unloaded, they are told to get down on their knees and wait. After what seems several minutes, a couple of men carrying guns walk from the building I’m in and lead the four back. They enter in a big door. The door closes behind them. Suddenly, I hear screams and the popping of gun shots. The door opens again. Four men drag four bloody bundles, each the size of a human being, and toss them into the shrimp boat. I can’t look away as I watch what is going on outside the building. This is going to happen to me and my family will never know what happened to me." - excerpt from "Walking Between The Raindrops"

Imagine...