Posted As Missing

Early in World War One, a young Canadian soldier is wounded and trapped behind German lines. He uses quick thinking and ingenuity to evade capture, then deeper into enemy territory, he meets a young woman who recently lost her father and brothers to the war. She takes him home to meet her mother, hoping he can help them escape back to their family roots in Switzerland. As they flee over the mountains, love blossoms and stirs old traumas. He's torn between following his heart and honouring his sworn duty.

This is a war story, but instead of being mired in blood and guts, it examines deeper issues of the human condition.

The envelope images on the cover of Posted As Missing are taken from my personal collection, and they inspired this story. I did some Photoshop manipulation to alter the soldier's name, initials and regimental number. He was posted as missing in April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres, a battle famous for the first use of chlorine gas in warfare and for John McCrae's penning of In Flanders Fields, the poem which was the origin of the poppy as the symbol of remembrance.