The release of Girls Don’t! A Woman’s War in Vietnam coincided with year-two of the pandemic. As a result, I did not get to visit my audiences - hugs to hugs - on our usual winter tour of the continent or on the Islands as I had with my earlier books.
Instead, like a lot of folks in these locked-down years, I was imprisoned within my book-lined office walls speaking at each and every book event in front of my laptop screen. I am a self-proclaimed tech-moron, but I was forced to consider lighting, angles, and backgrounds on Zoom gatherings of hundreds of faceless listeners. I did my best, and they did theirs, but I was starved for a glimpse of that exhausted man sound-asleep in the front row, or the woman in the crowded-middle who was visibly itching to ask her important question. I wanted to feel my audiences.
I delivered a keynote address to a the world conference of Vietnam War historians. (Imagine for a moment the time-zone considerations.) I spoke to journalists; I spoke to veterans; I spoke to women’s groups; I spoke at universities - all without leaving my swivel chair. (Oh, Inette, do not swivel. Do not adjust your glasses.) So much to learn.
But out of this pandemic-driven necessity, a new website was born. And on this new website, there are video and audios and so much more than can reasonably find a home on this Return Voyage website. If you’ve read Girls Don’t! in hardcover or Kindle - or if you’ve been patiently awaiting the softcover release - this new website is full of living conversations about: the state of women’s empowerment (now and then); the long-ago war and its absolute relevance to today’s headline stories.
Here it is: Please take a look.