Semper Fi is a story about a man who has withdrawn from the world during the late years of a global war. Living alone for five years, a Marine officer meets a family who changes his life. With the love of a young woman in her middle teen years, he finds old emotions which he thought he'd lost and he discovers in himself desires and needs he'd believed could never be part of his life again. The story features a redemptive romance, scenes of combat, and the harsh effects of war on even the most hardened of those who fought it.

If you, the reader, are unwilling or unable to read about teen sexuality, adult-male / teen female sexual activities, mental illness, brutal combat, or other controversial and difficult concepts, or you don't feel you wish to challenge some of your thoughts on these subjects, please read no further: You likely won't enjoy this story and there are thousands upon thousands of other stories out there which contain subject matter you'll enjoy much more.

Still here? Great! As the author of these stories, I want to reinforce to the reader that this is all fantasy. Many of the negative and otherwise damaging consequences of the acts herein are never encountered by the characters as they would be in reality (though this story does incorporate some of those realist effects.) I generally enjoy reading, and writing, stories where people struggle with complex choices and debate ethics and morality in a sexual context, and eventually come to enjoy and embrace their decisions.

A couple of things I'd like to mention about this series and how it differs in some ways from most of my other series, such as Shipwrecked, Flower Petals, Groundhog Nights, and Run. First, unlike most of my other stories, the sex scenes are less frequent and, generally, briefer and somewhat less extensively-descriptive. The narrative is heavier, and there will be chapters where sex or other erotic moments are widely separated. In addition, the chapter lengths are generally longer than what is normal for me. I hope you'll find these slight differences worth it.

Second, also unlike my other stories, this one focuses on one-on-one relationships and you won't find the sex scenes bringing each of the main characters together at some point. While there are a few moments shared by more than two characters, I chose a much more realistic set of encounters which don't include the pollyanna-polyamory you tend to find elsewhere in my writing. Just because a new character is introduced, don't assumed that Hitch or the other main characters will become intimate with them.

Third, incest. Many of my stories feature it and I, as I'm sure you can tell, love writing about it. Due to the thoughts I expressed in the point above, I wrote of more practical, realistic interactions between related characters. While there are a few shared moments, most of the incest you'll find here is voyeuristic rather than physical, hinted at in ways but not explicit. I wanted to explain this before you start the story because, if you are a reader of my other series, you've likely come to expect related characters to eventually have sex. Semper Fi does not follow this tendency.

Finally, because of the longer chapters and the desire to avoid spoilers about characters introduced, the Chapter Cast section has been placed at the end of each chapter rather than at the beginning.

Semper Fi introduces you to Hitch, a former active-duty US Marine Corps officer who has wearied of war and the horrors it brought after many years on the front lines. Late in the war, the story centers on a man who has given up on a connection to other people, a man who has lost everything but an animal instinct to survive. Along with Hitch, you'll meet a family who comes to know him, a family not unlike others living all over the world, one trying to cling to a tenuous peace and a sense of normalcy that is difficult to find as armies clash around them.

A couple of notes on the setting and story line: First, the geopolitical situation is similar to the world in which we now live, but it is set in the future and the events which take place are a combination of semi-plausible scenarios mixed with unlikely and (hopefully) fantasized aggression and alliances. I have taken liberties with these international scenarios in order to describe the context of this redemptive romance the way I envisioned it rather than trying to go into a more difficult process of forcing the 'real world' to be mirrored in a more plausible way. Likewise, there are many technological considerations which are deliberately simplified in order to tell the story I want to tell.

Second, I have tried my best to give the reader a sense of what it is like to experience combat and the stress and doubt and mental illnesses which can result from its brutality, as well as the lasting and complicated nature of the impact of that trauma. I realize, like the geopolitical setting, that the combat, the military scenarios, and even the mental health issues are, at best, plausible. I don't pretend to be a military tactician, a psychologist, or someone whose experiences lend themselves to making the scenes of combat and episodes of PTSD wholly realistic. I hope, however, that I have done justice to those aspects and that you find the scenarios plausible and real enough to be drawn into the greater narrative.

Finally, I hope I have also done justice to the men and women who fight, who see combat, and who experience some of the most brutal and traumatic events in the human experience, including those which occur long after leaving the field of battle. I have a tremendous respect for people who are capable of performing under the extraordinary stress of combat punctuated by long periods of restless boredom, fear, regret, doubt, and at times, guilt-ridden reflections about the thrill and excitement of combat even in the midst of terror and brutality. Combat is complex and unique for each individual, and its impact cannot be generalized or easily defined, even by those who have seen it. I don't write about these topics lightly, and I do so only with a desire to make the scenario I describe realistic and not to capitalize on such events in order to simply produce a fap story.

I hope I have given a proper treatment to both the veterans of such intense and complicated experiences and to those who care about them, and I hope that all readers will consider contributing to organizations, such as the Wounded Warrior Project and The Soldiers Project, which seek to address the terrible lack of support for military men and women from governments and from societies in general. For all the Marines out there, especially, Semper Fi. I know you understand how difficult it is to stay faithful to your many duties, responsibilities, expectations, and demands made of you under stress and doubt and frustration and terror, often without the necessary understanding and compassion from even the people who love you. Hang in there. You have my respect and my support.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the series and I'd especially like to hear from Marines, soldiers, and others who have served. I'd love to know what you think of this story.

There is one mystery teased but left unanswered during the story. It isn't integral to this plot, and not knowing what it means has no impact on the series or its characters. I have intentionally left this teaser unaddressed because I may choose to write about the events surrounding it sometime later. It is a backstory to a couple of characters, but I will say no more about it here.

Outside of this one teased mystery, I don't expect to write more about this particular tale, though I won't rule out returning to the setting in the future should I find the need to tell about some of the millions and millions of unique sets of experiences The War described herein has produced. Perhaps I will do so, but at this time, I feel this story, the one involving Hitch and those around him, is complete and needs nothing further to get across the points I'm trying to make and to deliver on its promises. I hope you enjoy.