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Band
of Sisters
By Annette Lyon
When
the war on terror calls
their husbands to duty,
five LDS women are left
behind to fight battles
of their own: Kim,
newlywed and pregnant,
frightened of what the
future might bring.
Brenda, struggling to
manage three unruly boys
and a crippling bout of
depression. Jessie,
secretly grappling with
mixed feelings about her
emotionally abusive
husband. Marianne,
wrestling with a
rebellious teenage
daughter. And Nora, the
seasoned Army wife with
perfect hair, an
immaculate home—and an
ill-tempered mother
dying of cancer.
Knowing the separation
of deployment is
extremely difficult,
Nora gathers the wives
every week to share
lunches and burdens. In
good company, they worry
over safety in the field
and stability at home
and offer one another
counsel and comfort. But
as their personal crises
build, each woman faces
the risks of forming
deep bonds of trust. And
when tragedy strikes,
they must confront the
painful realities of war
that pull families apart
and bring friends
together as sisters.
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Getting
to Know Annette Lyon
1.
What caused you to write
this book?
While a friend was
dealing with her
husband’s deployment,
I interviewed her and
four of her Army wife
friends for a feature
magazine article about
what deployment is like
for the families at
home. The stories they
shared left me weeping.
After the article (which
was way too short and
couldn’t come close to
capturing the essence of
their experiences) was
published, the subject
stayed with me. I just
couldn’t stop thinking
about it—I knew I had
to do more. A few months
later, I decided that
there was a novel just
waiting to be written.
One evening, a scene
popped into my head with
a specific character,
and I started writing.
The rest flowed out
quite quickly. For
research, I relied on
the same wives I’d
interviewed before. 2.
What do you most enjoy
about being an author?
I’d have to say two
things: first, the
friendships I’ve made
through conferences and
networks with other
writers. Some of my
dearest friends in the
world I’ve made
through this process.
The second is anytime I
hear from a reader who
says that in some way
I’ve touched their
lives or reflected their
reality—that I “got
it right.” One reader
asked how “I knew”
what an experience was
like (one I’d never
had but wrote about).
Recently, a woman who
went through deployment
read the first three
chapters of Band of
Sisters on my
website and came away
with tears in her eyes,
telling me I’d
“nailed it.”
There’s a satisfaction
with that kind of
response you can’t get
anywhere else. I know
I’ll never fully
“get” what
deployment is like
without experiencing it
firsthand, but I hope my
imagination and writing
came close.
3. What do you
hope people come away
with after reading your
book?
First off, I hope that
readers will have
greater compassion for
families dealing with
deployment. The families
tend to slip through the
cracks, largely because
many of us mistakenly
think that deployment is
much like the deployed
spouse is simply taking
an extended business
trip.
Second, the book is
about more than
deployment. It’s also
about the strength and
ability of
women—regardless of
age, economic status,
education, or anything
else—to reach out and
help, to be friends and
supports for one
another. I hope that
after putting the book
down, some women will be
more open to reaching
out to others in loving
and supporting ways,
women they might not
have considered as
potential friends
before.
4. Are any
experiences in the book
based on real life? Were
any characters based on
real people?
The events and
characters in Band
of Sisters are
based on real kinds
of things that can and
have happened during
deployments. The
thoughts and feelings of
my characters reflect
the types of things the
wives I interviewed
expressed. But no, all
my characters are
fictitious. None of
“my” wives are based
on them or anyone else
real. I wanted five very
different women of
different ages, with
different life
situations and trials so
I could explore how each
would react to
deployment given those
varying circumstances.
(All the women I
interviewed were close
in age and roughly in
the same stage of life.)
5. What is the
next project you are
working on?
I have several fictional
pots in the fire, but my
next release is
something entirely
different. It’s
related to my other
love: chocolate! October
will see the release of
a cookbook called Chocolate
Never Faileth! with
nearly 130 chocolate
recipes. Best of all,
they’re easy
and made with
ingredients found at
regular grocery stores.
You can always upgrade
to the high-end
chocolates and other
fancy ingredients, but
the point of the book is
that anyone can
make great chocolate
desserts with the
regular stuff you have
on hand. You don’t
have to be scared of
chocolate or of making
things from scratch: you
can do it. And
it’s lots of
(delicious!) fun.
Annette's
Flat Daddy Involvement:
In conjunction with her
book’s release (Band
of Sisters),
Annette Lyon is
partnering with the Free
Flat Daddy® Project to
help raise awareness and
funds to support
families with a deployed
parent. Based entirely
on donations, the Free
Flat Daddy® Project
creates life-size,
adhesive photographs of
deployed parents from
the waist up, which a
family can attach to
cardboard or foam core
and then, if they wish,
cut into a silhouette.
Individuals can benefit
the Free Flat Daddy®
Project in three ways:
• Donate a monetary
amount of your choice to
be used toward the
creation of new Flat
Daddies®.
• Buy a Flat Daddy®
for a military family
you know personally.
(You’ll need to enter
their e-mail address. A
code will be sent to
that address so they can
claim it.)
• Buy a Flat Daddy®
for an unknown someone
who needs it. You’ll
be sent a thank-you note
via e-mail from the
family who
receives your gift to
find out what it means
to them.
*For more information,
visit Annette's website:
annettelyon.com/flatdaddies.
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Discussion
& Trivia Questions
Discussion
Questions:
1. What are some of the
common misperceptions
about deployment?
2. Why do women tend to
compare themselves to
one another—and always
come out on the losing
end?
3. What “masks” do
we wear in public, and
why do we wear them?
Which ones might we
perhaps benefit from
dropping?
4. What trials have you
been through that are
difficult to share with
someone unless they’ve
also experienced
something similar? How
can that common bond
strengthen both of you?
5. In what ways can we
be more sympathetic and
helpful for anyone going
through a trial
(deployment or anything
else)? What kinds of
“help” are actually unhelpful?
Trivia
Questions:
1. What fictional
character do the wives
use as their party’s
name when they reserve a
table at
restaurants—and why?
2. Jessie’s profession
is important to more
than one character. What
is it?
3. Nora feels judged and
criticized by two family
members in the same way.
Who are they?
4. How does Justin first
hear that Kim is
expecting their baby?
5. What recurring health
symptom does
Marianne’s son have
that’s related to the
stress of deployment?
Trivia
Answers:
1. Penelope. It’s a
fitting name because she
is Odysseus’s wife in
Homer’s The
Odyssey—Penelope
is waiting for her
husband to return from
war.
2. Jessie is a nurse,
which is helpful for Kim
with her pregnancy and
for Marianne with two of
her children’s health
situations.
3. Nora feels judged and
criticized constantly by
her mother and younger
sister.
4. Justin first hears
about Kim’s pregnancy
from Colonel Lambert.
5. Marianne’s son gets
chronic stomach pains
due to the stress of his
father’s deployment.
Recipe:
Nora’s Perfect Pancake
Mix
This
recipe was inspired by
the Christmas gift Nora
gives to her fellow Army
wives. Book club
hostesses can create
pouches of the mix for
attendees as a favor
from the night or (even
better!) make the
pancakes and serve them
as a dessert to their
book club guests,
slathered in
chocolate-caramel syrup
(below, a recipe from
the upcoming Chocolate
Never Faileth! cookbook)
and with topped whipped
cream.
Mix
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
optional: ½ tsp
cinnamon
Mix
together well. If using
the mix as a favor for
the night, make enough
batches for each member
and put the mixes into
decorative bags with a
tag listing the wet
ingredients and
directions.
Wet
Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten lightly
with a fork
¼ cup (half of a stick)
melted butter
1 ¾ cup milk
Optional:
For a more dessert-like
flavor, add either
1 tsp vanilla OR
1 tsp almond extract
Directions:
To the dry pancake mix,
add the wet ingredients.
Combine well with a hand
mixer for at least 30
seconds. Pour by scant
¼ cups onto a hot
griddle set to 375
degrees. When each
pancake stops creating
new bubbles, the edges
are dry, and the tops
are no longer glossy,
flip them. Cook the
other side just until
done.
*Makes
about twenty 4-inch
pancakes.
Chocolate-Caramel
Syrup (from Chocolate
Never Faileth!,
coming in October)
In addition to being
great on pancakes,
waffles, and French
toast, this syrup is
great for desserts like
crepes and even as an
ice cream topping.
It’s got the goodness
of caramel wrapped in
the wonder of chocolate.
Best of all, it’s easy.
Can’t ask for more
than that!
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup cocoa
¾ cup buttermilk OR
sour cream
1 stick butter, softened
2 Tablespoon corn syrup
(light or dark)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Mix together the sugar
and cocoa in a small
bowl. In a medium
saucepan, combine the
sugar-cocoa mixture,
buttermilk (or sour
cream), butter, and corn
syrup. Over medium-high
heat, stir until the
mixture boils. Continue
stirring while it boils
for 7 minutes. Remove
from heat and stir in
the vanilla.
The syrup will thicken
on standing. Serve warm
on your favorite dessert
or breakfast.
NOTES:
1) For a slightly
thicker syrup, boil and
stir a little longer
than 7 minutes. You
won’t be able to tell
how thick it will end up
until you remove it from
the heat and it cools
slightly. I suggest
making the recipe once
to see how thick 7
minutes makes the syrup,
and then you can decide
whether you want it
thicker next time. In
that case, boil it 1–2
minutes longer.
2)
When the syrup cools
completely, it will
harden, so serve it
warm. You can liquefy it
again by warming it up slowly,
Makes about 2 ½ cups of
syrup. either in
a pan (I’d even
suggest a double boiler
to avoid burning) or in
30-second intervals in
the microwave, stirring
between each run.
However, while it’ll
still taste good
reheated, the
consistency won’t be
quite as smooth as it
was fresh.
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