Memoirs of a US Marine in Chile
Travel, Military, Religion, Personal Memoir
Date Published: November 4, 2019
Publisher Lucid Books
Behind Friendly Lines is the story of a US Marine officer serving as the only foreigner in the Chilean Marine Corps’ most important combat unit. Lieutenant Colonel Mark McGraw arrives with his young family to Chile full of optimism and certainty about his ability to navigate the obstacles of language, customs, and security, but quickly runs headlong into difficulties presented by a tragedy in the home, a commander initially hostile to Americans, and the isolation of his family’s inability to speak and understand Spanish. The author takes the reader far off the tourist’s beaten path on dangerous missions from the far-flung arid northern deserts to the frigid Straits of Magellan where he lived, trained, and suffered alongside the Chilean Marines. Behind Friendly Lines explores the challenge of recalibrating nearly every facet of a family’s existence while forging lifelong friendships and learning irreplaceable lessons.
What does it mean to serve your country while learning to love another one on the other side of the world? How does a family adjust to life in a new place and then find that they must adjust again to the place they always considered home? This memoir raises questions about the nature of nation, service, and belonging, while providing an honest view of American foreign policy decisions from a retired military officer.
Interview with Mark McGraw
As a writer, what would you choose as your
mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
The wolf. You won’t see me in
the circus.
How many hours a day do you put into your writing?
anywhere between 15 minutes
and three hours. It depends on if I have a story I really want to tell.
Do you read your book reviews?
I absolutely read every word.
I assume that the people who write them were respectful enough of what I wrote
that they read it all and I repay that respect. The book is not complete until
it is read, so I want to see how that process is for the reader.
Do you leave hidden messages in your books that only a few
people will find?
Yes.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Behind Friendly
Lines?
The people I write about in this
memoir are the members of my family and the Chilean Marines I served with. Some
are real heroes like David Hardy who survived a total parachute malfunction.
Some are super-tough guys like Patricio Silva who went out and ran 50 miles one
day just for fun. Others were incredibly thoughtful and helpful to me and my
family like Francisco and Cucky Fierro.
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have
planned for the future?
I am working on translating Behind
Friendly Lines into Spanish. I think people in Latin America will be very
interested in it.
Do you allow yourself a certain number of hours to write or do you
write as long as the words come?
I write when I have a story I want
to tell.
Do you have a certain number of words or pages you write per day?
I don’t, but I can tell you that if
I write a single page that I’m really pleased with, something that moves me to
tears or makes me laugh, that’s a great day.
What inspires you to write?
I write primarily because I want to
better understand and process an experience. Writing about something helps me
relive it or imagine it if it is fiction. Secondly, I want to tell stories that
I think are fascinating and valuable to the reader/listener. Everything is
story, whether it is a book or a series on Netflix, teaching your children, or
telling your spouse how your day at work was. Story is intimate and personal.
Would you rather
Read fiction or
non-fiction?
Fiction (which may sound odd because Behind Friendly
Lines is memoir. The original novel, Don Quixote, is my favorite book).
Read series or
stand-alone?
Stand alone.
Read Science fiction
or horror?
Science fiction. It’s not about the future, you know. It’s
about today.
Read Stephen King or
Dean Koontz
Stephen King.
Read the book or
watch the movie?
Read the book.
Read an ebook or
paperback?
Ebook. I like to look up the etymology of unfamiliar words.
Be trapped alone for
one month in a library with no computer or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi
only?
I’m a little bit of a current events/news junkie, so I’d
like the computer and wifi option.
Do a cross-country
book store tour or blog tour online?
Cross country book store tour for sure. I grew up in the
South thinking we were the most hospitable part of the country, but the more I
traveled, the more I realized that most people in most places are incredibly
giving and nice, especially if you are, too.
About the Author
Mark McGraw was born in Ft. Worth, Texas, grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana, and lived and worked in thirty-four countries during his twenty years of service as a U.S. Marine officer. He is a writer, translator, and language professor, having earned a master's degree in Modern Languages and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Texas A&M University. He has also translated Joseph Avski's Heart of Scorpio (Tiny Toe Press, 2012) and One Step from Juarez (Mouth feel Press, 2015).
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1 comments:
thanks for hosting
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