M
ERRILL VAUGHAN never set out to simply tell stories—he set out to write the kind that stay with a
could believe. “It had to feel real,” he says, “because it was.” His favorite moment in the book mirrors that emotional excavation. Delaney, trapped in the metaphorical quicksand of trauma, finally pulls himself free. It’s a moment of release— honest, vulnerable, and hard-won—that Vaughan considers the heart of the novel. His writing routine is grounded in discipline. Mornings are for clarity, though inspiration sometimes comes later, on its own terms. What matters, he says, is persistence. “Write it down. Flesh it out later. Replace can’t and won’t with I can, I do, I will. Those words will change your future.”
reader long after the final page. For him, fiction is a vessel for truth, a way to explore the consequences of right and wrong while grounding narrative in facts that challenge, inform, and enrich. “I want the reader enthused by what they read,” he says. “A story should make you think.” His latest novel, Thru The Eyes of a Warrior, does exactly that. The book follows Jack Delaney, a Vietnam War veteran who has spent decades locking his memories away. When a letter arrives from the granddaughter
“Replace can’t and won’t with I can, I do, and I will. Those words will change your future.”
of his fallen best friend, the past he has long tried to silence breaks open. Through their correspondence— interwoven with poems on veteran struggles, holiday loneliness, and reflections on America—Delaney confronts the cost of war and the quiet burden carried by those who served. For Vaughan, the most rewarding part of writing the novel was watching the story assemble into something emotionally true. The hardest part was more personal: unlocking his own memories of service and shaping them into scenes a reader
While authors like Patterson, Clancy, and Cussler fill his shelves, Vaughan insists this project is wholly his own. And it has already sparked ideas for future war-themed work. For now, he’s deep into the next installment of his Cold Case Investigator series. As he continues to write, one truth anchors him: stories heal—both the teller and the reader. Through Jack Delaney’s journey, Merrill Vaughan hopes more people will finally understand what many veterans quietly carry, and the courage it takes to remember. EC
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EC Magazines | Christmas Edition 2025
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