Standby for Broadcast: A Memoir (Manuscript)

Reviews"In her debut memoir, Rhyan, a Navy nurse, writes about contending with the aftermath of war...a forthcoming and brave testament to our capacity to transcend the grip of trauma. Bracingly candid...deeply affecting." --KIRKUS INDIE REVIEWS5-Star Review: "Hectic prose-poetry, so vivid, you can't help but remember..."--INDIE READER"An emotional reveal about pain, fear, and the hope of recovery. Ultimately this poignant literary effort should appeal to both those who have served and those who have fought their own battles with similar strength and sensibility." --BLUE INK REVIEWS "Hauntingly lyrical." --WAYNE JOHNSON, author of Snake Game, Deluge, and The Devil You Know "Fast paced and dark as hell." --MATT BORCZON, author of A Clock of Human Bones, Battle Lines, and Ghost train 5-Star Review: "Rhyan writes with high emotion...dramatically constructed and terrifyingly realistic, Standby for Broadcast is a cry for greater outreach to those who serve in auxiliary roles in times of warfare, who are forced to deal with the horrific effects without the sympathy reserved for combatants....a moving memoir." --CHANTICLEER BOOK REVIEWS Five years ago, when I returned from a deployment to Bastion Hospital, a British trauma unit just west of “The Most Dangerous Place in the World,” I thought I could resume a normal life. But neither the Navy nor my nursing experience could have prepared me for the devastating injuries that had poured in from the Sangin Valley between 2010 and 2011. Then, one night, after rescuing the family dog from a painful, but otherwise insignificant, household accident, I ransacked the bedroom and screamed at the top of my lungs—forcing an unsettling question from my spouse: What’s happening to you?At the urging of a trusted colleague, I was transferred from my station as Hospital Director to a locked psychiatric facility called The Willows with other convalescing service members in similar predicaments. There, I meet Riza, a no-nonsense social worker bent on demystifying man-made trauma, both at home and abroad. To pass the program, each patient must compose a combat timeline to be read aloud in The War Room: A place that means more than stories being told...the place where the strongest people in the world share their battles within themselves. With fear and triggers mounting, I must be dying, I think, as Riza begs us to cut through our traumas to live. More sea story than PTSD clinical narrative, Standby follows the—sometimes humorous—cockeyed drama of my recovery at The Willows, and later at home, alerting everyone to the slow and not-so-obvious fallouts of war.