Category Archives: Writing Life

“Describe a barn…”

Posted on September 5, 2017 by readersquest

I always find the criticism of war literature on friend and colleague Peter Molin’s blog Time Now thought-provoking, and one of his posts this week challenged me to some personal reflection. A subsequent e-mail exchange provoked me into writing about … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literary Criticism, Stories, Writing Life | 3 Comments

Writing Life: Down the Rabbit Hole (Again)

Posted on April 17, 2016 by readersquest

I’ve been struggling for a couple of weeks to write the introductory section of Chapter Four of the book Tracy Crow and I  are working on. I have pages of research notes and only 1,500 words or so to write. … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing Life | 2 Comments

Writing Life: Year in Review

Posted on December 29, 2015 by readersquest

I’m not usually inclined to write a “year in review,” even in my journal, but I ended up with so many projects about women veterans and writing that a recap seems to be in order – especially since I got … Continue reading →

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Writing Life: Stitch-and-Bitch

Posted on November 19, 2015 by readersquest

Was recently reading over some of the emails home that served as my journal of our three-year tour in Moscow. My late mother-in-law, God bless her, had the foresight to print out the ones she found interesting and collect them … Continue reading →

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Writing Life – Call for Submissions, Upcoming Deadline

Posted on October 20, 2015 by readersquest

The response to our call for submissions to the Veterans Writing Project’s literary journal O-Dark-Thirty for a special themed issue, writing by women veterans, has been gratifying. We’ve received four or five times the usual number of submissions for a quarterly issue, and … Continue reading →

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Writing Life: I Want to Smack Sam Sacks

Posted on August 26, 2015 by readersquest

This post is mostly not about the writing of women veterans; please forgive the digression. In 2005, a couple of weeks into my first semester of the Writing Program at the Johns Hopkins University, my mother-in-law asked to read some of my … Continue reading →

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Writing Life – July 4, 1994 (aboard HMS Sheffield)

Posted on July 4, 2015 by readersquest

After spending time reading some entertaining, amusing, and moving diaries of American servicewomen, I thought I’d go back and re-read my own diary from my deployment to the Barents Sea on HMS Sheffield in 1994. The Sheffield deployment was special. Only one American intelligence … Continue reading →

Posted in Nonfiction, Writing Life | 4 Comments

Call for Submissions

Posted on April 21, 2015 by readersquest

O-Dark-Thirty, the literary journal of The Veterans Writing Project, is pleased to call for submissions from women veterans who write for an upcoming (February 2016) themed issue of O-Dark-Thirty/The Review: Women Veterans’ Writing. Guidelines: The editors will consider short stories (up to 5,000 … Continue reading →

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The Writing Life: Hurry Up and Wait…

Posted on April 2, 2015 by readersquest

After twenty years in the Navy, I know how to “hurry up and wait.” But knowing how doesn’t make it any easier – especially when it comes to my writing. Back in December, I finished writing and revising five short … Continue reading →

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