Debut Memoir
CAMOUFLAGE: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage is about a woman’s journey from being overshadowed by her husband’s military career to rediscovering her identity as a single mother entering a new stage in life.
The memoir explores how, like many military spouses, she camouflaged her identity, conforming to the expected role of the supportive wife who was secondary to her husband’s career as a Navy officer. But after she ended her thirteen-year marriage in her late thirties, she set out on a quest to figure out who she was as a woman without her husband, discovering that the hardships of military life—the forced independence, frequent loneliness, required adaptability, and fierce resilience—had trained her for life after divorce.
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Author. Essayist. Freelance Writer.
Heather Sweeney is a Virginia-based writer whose essays, creative nonfiction, and poems about life as a military spouse, divorce and relationships, parenting, and women’s health have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The TODAY Show, Business Insider, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Next Avenue, Healthline, Electric Literature, Reader’s Digest, Brevity Nonfiction Blog, MER - Mom Egg Review, and elsewhere.
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED WHEN I WENT TO MY FIRST VISION BOARD WORKSHOP
MY BODY WENT THROUGH A MASSIVE CHANGE IN MY 40s. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED UNTIL MUCH LATER.
I DIDN’T PUBLISH A WORD ABOUT MY DIVORCE FOR A YEAR
Publications
I WAS TRYING TO PROVE TO MY NEW BOYFRIEND HOW ADVENTUROUS I WAS ON A ZIP-LINING DATE NIGHT
CHRONIC PAIN MADE ME QUESTION MY ABILITY TO TRAVEL
More Published Work
I SUFFERED SINGLE MOM GUILT FOR YEARS, ONE DAY CHANGED IT ALL
DIVORCE IS HAVING A MOMENT. AND I WISH IT HAD HAPPENED 10 YEARS AGO
I WAS A COLLEGE ATHLETE, I’M RELIEVED MY TEENS CHOSE DIFFERENT SPORTS
Books
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Lessons Learned from My Dog — Role Model
Essays, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry
Jane Friedman — The Pros and Cons of Launching a Book Without a Publicist
Electric Literature — 9 Divorce Memoirs About the Empowering Potential of Endings
Unbroken Journal — Impermanence
MER — High School Graduation
Roi Fainéant Press — Muscle Memory
Maudlin House — This Is How the Marriage Ends
Five Minute Lit — Are You Okay?
YourTango — I Moved To Japan With My Husband — And It Was The Loneliest I Ever Felt In My Marriage
Healthline — No One Warned Me About the Grief That Comes With a Hysterectomy
Your Teen — My Daughter Wanted to Donate Her Quarantine Hair
The New York Times
Tiny Love Stories: Thanks for Sheltering Me
Tiny Love Stories: Clarity in a Six-Week Recovery
Keeping Marriage From Becoming a Casualty of War
A Spouse Confronts the Military-Civilian Divide
The Washington Post
When I got divorced, I didn’t want to be in transition forever. Here’s how I moved on.
I was a military wife for 13 years. I won’t do it again.
HuffPost
I Binged ‘Ted Lasso’ To Deal With Burnout And The Lessons It Taught Me Were Priceless
The 'Golden Bachelor' Divorce Came As A Shock — But The Show Did Offer A Message
This Memoir Shows How To Find Beauty In The Aftermath Of Divorce
‘This Is 40’ Helped Me Choose Happiness And End My Marriage
Business Insider
Our family lived in Japan for 3 years. We're back in the US now and I really miss these 3 things.
I had no idea how expensive senior year of high school is. I spent over $2,100 before it even ended.\
Brevity Nonfiction Blog
I Didn’t Publish a Word About My Divorce for a Year
How Chronic Pain Changed My Writing Process
How Seeing a Therapist Helped Me Finish the First Draft of My Memoir
The Girlfriend from AARP
Saying Goodbye To My Beloved Pet
The Annual Birthday Adventures That Remind Me Anything Is Possible
SheKnows
How a Hysterectomy Helped Me Talk to My Tween Daughter About Her Body
10 ‘firsts’ after divorce that really had my head spinning
Epilogue on Medium
Writing Through Stressful Times
Dealing with Coronavirus Anxiety? Now’s a Good Time to Meditate
7 Misconceptions About Being a Writer
The Best Advice I Was Given as a New Writer: Done Is Better Than Perfect
Military.com Archive
THANKS FOR SHELTERING ME