Unlike her two older brothers, Mary chose to put off college so she could experience life outside the classroom. She worked at a Medicaid clinic in her central Illinois hometown and, at the suggestion of her boyfriend, joined the medical detachment of an infantry battalion, Illinois National Guard. She began to consider a medical career, until ... in July 2003, the President federalized her Guard unit and sent it to Iraq. There she did indeed experience life outside the classroom, including the appalling living conditions of her fellow human beings, the death of her two fellow soldiers, the loss of her hand and foot, and the introduction to her own sexuality. The Other Mary deals with the effects of war on the survivors. Human sexuality becomes a central part of Mary's approach when she becomes a clinical psychologist. And it sizzles in her many romances.
