J.E. Laine calls central United States home. Growing up in the country provided lots of time to read and write, skills encouraged by her maternal grandmother, also a writer and avid reader. Laine has written coming-of-age fiction and Bible devotionals/studies. Her latest goal is to create wartime stories with relatable characters.
Her husband and she have two children and five grandchildren. They tend to adopt animals, including Scruffy, best dog ever, and five abandoned kittens (not all at the same time), and more recently a mother/daddy duck couple.
She loves God’s Word, endures golf and finds gardening a blessing and a curse. Also, she takes walks, rides her bike and knits. The couple enjoys traveling and free summer concerts with their friends.
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see, and what it means.” — Joan Didion
ABOUT ME
In second grade I plagiarized when printing, not cursive writing, my first book. An avid reader of Bobbsey Twins mysteries, I decided to create The Scott Twins and the Jewelry Mystery, typed by my mother and illustrated with Sears catalogue cut-outs. And yes, I still have that manuscript. At a young age, I was hooked on reading, writing and publishing.
During my school years, I was the editor of our high school’s newspaper, then a writer/editor for the college yearbook. Later I wanted to be Barbara Walters where I would interview and then organize my notes into an article. I still write quarterly features for our local newspaper about intriguing people.
Finding time to write has been my greatest challenge. In raising our family, my steady income as a teacher was needed. So, for twenty years, I spent most of my time correcting and coaching writing. Those were my personal journaling decades.
After the children left home, I had more time to write. My first story was published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Mothers and Daughters 2006. It detailed our daughter’s birth, crazy fast and haphazard. That same year my friend Janet taught Marlene Bagnull’s Write His Answer at our church, the group morphing into Heartland Christian Writers (HCW). Co-leading this group, I wanted all writers to have their work in print so we self-published two anthologies.
Later our HCW’s co-leader challenged me to write fiction. “Your grandchildren will enjoy stories more than studies.” So, I tried to shed the teacher mantel and go back to my first love—a good story. Much easier said than done.
Telling a good story ignites my fire to leave a legacy.
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Reader Reviews
Fun Facts about me
Enjoys ice cream
- Travel count: 18 countries + 42 states in USA
- Not a buzzing bug fan
- Loves movies and plays
- Challenged by NYT connections & wordle puzzles
- Known my husband since we were teenagers
- Afraid of high-altitude edges
- Addicted to most British dramas and/or comedies
- Reads the weekly comics
- A whirly gig brain
Shabbat, October 7, 2023, sirens and bombs instantly alter a reserve soldier’s life. Within hours, twenty-one-year-old Vitaly Katz is recommissioned into the Israeli Defense Force.
Return to Duty rushes into a whirlwind of chaos after weeks of Jewish holidays. Soon, Vitaly is deployed to the smoldering ruins of the Nova Music Festival, attended by his sister and her friends. Hours later, his family’s Ashdod kibbutz is attacked.
Later, Vitaly and his squad deliver supplies to Ashkelon’s Medical Center, devastated by enemy bombs. They eventually tunnel through the “Gaza Metro” on a hostage search. What they find is astonishing and dangerous.
Depressed and confused, the young soldier struggles. An unanticipated opportunity is offered, redirecting his service and, surprisingly, his entire career.
Unforgettable, relevant, and relatable, Return to Duty depicts war in real time. AMAZON