Twenty years in uniform gave me a lot of stories. It took leaving the uniform to understand what some of them meant.

My first book, "Authority Without Control," is about leadership when rank, position and authority are no longer enough. It grew from two decades in the Nebraska Army National Guard, two deployments to Afghanistan, command, instruction, failure, violence, restraint and the responsibility of caring for people you can never completely control.

My second book, "Cost Deferred," goes somewhere different.

It asks what happens after a life of service. What happens when the skills that made you successful follow you home? When brotherhood, loss, dark humor, aging, faith, family and memories from 20 years ago begin presenting their bill?

It isn’t a war story so much as a story about what comes after one.

Some of it is funny. Some of it is uncomfortable. Some of it still hurts.

But underneath both books is the same belief: service costs something - and for most of us, it was still worth it.

"Authority Without Control" is available now. "Cost Deferred" arrives this Veterans Day.