New Writing Project
New Direction, New Website
My Uncle Tim gave me some great advice when I got out of the Marine Corps: "You don't have to know what you're going to do forever. You only have to know what you're going to do next." I followed his advice, going from military to civilian pilot for a few years before staying home with the kids. That switch gave me the opportunity to discover something I might never have otherwise: I truly love writing. After two non-fiction books about the human costs of war, though, I was in the mood for a change. So, I've applied his advice [...]
DD-214: End or Beginning?
Unless you plan on dying in uniform, eventually you're going to get out of the military. When you do leave, you'll walk out of Admin on your last day carrying several copies of your DD-214; the official record of everything you did (good or bad) in uniform. It will follow you everywhere you go for the rest of your life. The question is: Does a DD-214 signal the end of a journey, or the beginning? The answer to that depends greatly on why you joined the military in the first place. If you joined for educational or monetary purposes, then [...]
Clay Hunt Act–A Good Start
Thanks in no small part to the lobbying efforts of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act is heading to the President's desk. This bill is designed to, among other things, increase accessibility of mental health treatment for veterans. This bill only passed because the pressure applied by various veterans groups kept it on politicians' "to do" lists. That's no small feat when you remember they also had to squeeze in another vote to repeal ObamaCare (56th and counting). But they did vote on it, and pass it, and now the Clay [...]
Feedback for “Continuing Action: Completing the Warrior’s Journey.”
Just before Thanksgiving I sent copies of the book I've been working on, Continuing Action: Completing the Warrior's Journey, to a few people for some "test reads." I'd gotten the manuscript to the point where I needed some fresh eyes to tell me if it made any sense. I kept the number of readers small but spread them out across several key demographics. While my target audience is centered on veterans and their families, I needed to get feedback from classical scholars, leaders of non-profits, mental-health professionals, and active-duty military personnel as well. This is because Continuing Action addresses shortcomings in the way modern [...]
Title Time
Of all the aspects of writing a book, selecting a title is the one I least enjoy. The pressure to try and encapsulate everything the book is, exclude everything it isn't, and make the title memorable with some little twist or play on words is exhausting. And annoying. But that doesn't mean I can get out of doing it. Even if I don't self-publish this second book, I need to select a working title to use while shopping it around to agents and publishers. Nobody will consider a proposal titled "Book 2", as it is currently labeled on my computer. [...]
The Great Blog Hop 2014
Blog Hop: Why Do I Write? Step One: Acknowledge the person & site that involved you in the blog tour I was invited to this blog-hop by David Hazard, director of Ascent. I’ve known David for five years now and used his company’s services for developmental editing, website design, marketing materials, and cover design of my first book, After Action. I’m working with him on my current project and his expertise and suggestions are just as valuable the second time as the first. David and his design team are on the forefront of the evolving world of publishing and can help [...]
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