THE OFFICER by Michael E. Bistrica
When Lara Rose’s surging Hollywood career begins to stall, her manager arranges a tour to entertain the troops during the Thanksgiving holiday. With the interference of fate, unassuming Captain Edward Madin is assigned as her escort. Over the two weeks they are together and as her visit ends, Lara believes she is growing fond of the young captain. At her manager’s urging and for both a publicity stunt and her own interest, she begins writing him letters while he is on assignment in the Middle East. Over the course of their letter writing their short acquaintance becomes a friendship, then in Lara’s eyes perhaps something more.
Upon his return Lara forces the issue and their relationship blossoms into romance. As their romance develops Edward begins to struggle with Lara’s rising celebrity status. Will a secret uncovered by the tabloids and paparazzi drive these two apart, or can love truly conquer all?
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Author Bio:
Michael E Bistrica was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, graduated from Ursuline High School (’75) and then attended Youngstown State University where earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, served in various staff and command positions in the United States and overseas, and was an ROTC instructor before being deployed to the middle east for Desert Storm. He retired from the US Army in 1996 as a Major. After the army, Bistrica worked as a project manager for an engineering firm and then became the project manager for a general contractor in assisting the building of the Georgia World Congress Phase IV Expansion. He later managed several projects in the state of Georgia and earned his master’s in technology management.
He has been married to his wife Karen for over 34 years and they have one daughter, a granddaughter, and a great-grandson. In his community, he aids in the construction of several Habitat for Humanity houses. In his spare time, Bistrica enjoys reading, astronomy, woodworking, and board and computer war gaming.
FROM THE AUTHOR
Allow me to provide some background on how this book was written. As a student throughout my entire academic career, I was a C+ to B- student in my English classes. I had to work hard after graduating college and throughout my career in writing adequate military and business correspondence. I am not a writer though I wrote and had an undergraduate thesis published and had two short articles published when in the military. I never had any intention of authoring a book much less a love story. I had no experience in writing a book. I began drafting this book the summer of 2021 having retired in 2020 from my last civilian job.
On the first day I started writing, I wrote almost 12,000 words and discovered I enjoyed creating and developing the characters. At one point I was going to delete what I had done and move on. Then for some unknown reason I decided that since I had put such effort into it, I would draft a complete book.
It took over a year to complete because of a busy life with my family. After spending two months of self-edit, I decided to file a copyright to protect my work. That is where Dorrance Publishing discovered my manuscript and requested a copy. As I had no intention of trying to get it published, I tried to put them off, but they eventually convinced me to send them a copy. It took about nine months from then to THE OFFICER being published in August of 2023.