A Post-Thanksgiving Situation Report

There are plenty of leftover blog-blessings to count in this post-Thanksgiving haze. Forgive the short-hand, but I've been told that brevity is the soul of wit. Besides, I miss the push-to-talk button on my old Army radio.

Performed in the days leading up to Veterans Day, the first run of "Telling: Des Moines" went very well. It was a lot of work at the last minute, it was a great and humbling experience, and I was blessed to share the stage with a number of friends, both old and new. We hope to re-stage the work in Central Iowa sometime in spring or summer 2013. People laughed, they cried, it was better than "Cats."

Also in November, I was invited to participate in a Washington, D.C. conference titled "Common Ground: The Media, the Military, and P.T.S.D." Underwritten by The Robert R. McCormick Foundation; facilitated by the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.; and held at the National Press Club. There were lots of insights and ideas bounced around the room.

During a quick lunch at the conference, I got to stop by the nearby Medill News Service offices, introduced myself to a few Military Reporters & Editors members there, and collected a handsome plaque.

More news: I have recently taken a full-time military-writing position with an undisclosed firm. I continue to wear Hawaiian shirts on a daily basis, although I am holding off on growing the required graybeard. One may be issued to me at a later date.

I don't plan to write about the mil-contracting gig here on the Red Bull Rising blog, but I can say it's nice to see some familiar faces on a more regular basis. I have officially returned to the ranks of the CAC-holders, and it's proving an opportunity to expand my writing skills into new territory. Nothing too sexy or strategic, mind you, but I am enjoying the new intellectual challenge.

Time, energy, and eyesight, on the other hand, are increasingly low in supply. The blog will have to find a new frequency, a new normal, a new battle rhythm.

Finally, I am pleased to report that an additional sponsor of the Red Bull Rising blog is pending announcement in December. Remembering, supporting, and celebrating our soldiers, veterans, and families—whether in writing or other ways—continues to attract fellow travelers, supporters, and practitioners.

Thank you for your continued readership. It looks to be a rather eventful 2013.

Editor's Advice to Mil-Writers: Be Flexible, Be Engaged

In terms of military writing, November 2012 exploded with the publication of multiple anthologies focused on themes of war, peace, service, and remembrance. Many of these journals have open calls for submission, and an eye toward publishing new volumes in 2013.

These include:

• "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors," published by the Southeastern Missouri University Press and others the first of this month.

• "O-Dark-Thirty," a new quarterly journal published Nov. 11 by the Veterans Writing Project, Washington, D.C.

• The Journal of Military Experience at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kent., its third volume to be published in November 2013.

Despite looming deadlines, the editors of these publications recently offered Red Bull Rising readers their insights into writing for, submitting to, and getting published in journals and anthologies.

This is Part III of a 3-part series of blog-posts resulting from those on-line interviews.

*****

Travis L. Martin is a baritone-voiced evangelist and advocate, a standard-bearer for changing the ways in which veterans issues are framed and discussed on campuses naionwide. The Iraq War veteran is the founder and managing editor The Journal of Military Experience, published for the first time in 2011 on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kent. In July 2012, the publication's second volume was published in conjunction with the inaugural Military Experience and the Arts Symposium, a national-level arts and learning event that brought together veterans, arts practitioners, and educators on the EKU campus.

While a graduate student of English at EKU, he helped create a multi-disciplinary Veterans Studies Program that offers an academic minor or certificate. He continues to teach while also pursuing his doctoral research at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kent., regarding 19th and 20th century war memoirs.

In parts literary, arts, and academic journal, The Journal of Military Experience publishes selected works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and the graphic arts. The journal's third issue is scheduled for publication in November 2013. Deadline for submissions is Dec. 31, 2012. Click here for guidelines.

Selections from the first and second issues of The Journal of Military Experience are available free of charge at the EKU Encompass website.

Print back-issues are also available here and here.

As managing editor, Martin attempts to make The Journal of Military Experience a venue in which veterans can explore old stories in new ways. He encourages experimentation, and instills a collaborative approach to crafting and curating the publication. "My goal with the JME is to help authors craft the best story possible through one-on-one workshopping and mentorship," he says:

I want our authors to use publishing with the JME as a resource to improve both their works and their overall skills. I sincerely hope that the works we help out with end up in larger bodies of writing. That said, I find myself trying to balance this 'idealism' with rigor and quality. We expect the author to hold up his or her end of the bargain and give it 100 percent. I think anyone with the guts to write their story probably has a good one to tell. We just want to help.

Martin advises aspiring writers and artists to aggressively research the journals, contests, or anthologies to which they're submitting:

Think about where you are with your work before submitting to a journal; think about what kind of conversation you want to enter into and what kind of audience you want to reach. [...]

When in doubt, read. Get copies of the journals and previous editions that you are considering submitting to. What are the common themes in their stories? Do they go for the 'guts and glory' stories? Do they attract both female and male authors? Put yourself at an objective remove, and ask yourself where your writing fits or stacks up. If you want more info, just ask.

More than anything else, Martin relishes the engagement, the collaboration, the conversation. "If other editors are anything like me, they probably have no life and live vicariously through the works of their authors," he jokes. "Because of this, they love making new friends. Write up a brief synopsis of what your work is about and get the conversation going before sending in your work." He continues:

My ambition to be a source of support and growth contrasts greatly with journals that reject works outright. I don’t mean to disparage those different approaches. If a journal attracts extremely experienced and accomplished authors, odds are they have earned a reputation that helps them do so. You might think brushing elbows with the greats is a good idea from the get-go. However, you might find that the reviewer weighs your portfolio of publications and affiliations at a proportion inappropriate to the quality of your work. You might also find that the audience for a journal is not the one you want to address. The JME is engaged mostly with returning veterans and those active in the veteran support communities. Other journals might be looking to start a conversation with someone totally different.

Like any veteran editor, however, Martin is also always on the lookout for conversational danger signs and tripwires. "I’m of the belief that no piece of writing is ever complete," he advises:

When someone attaches a story along with a note that says they have written the perfect piece, I get a little weary; I know this person is going to have a tough time taking criticism because they don’t see room for improvement. It’s just not a realistic approach to take. Be humble. Be flexible. These things are not at odds with being a great writer.

*****

Disclaimer: This content regarding military writing is underwritten by Victor Ian LLC, a military media and gaming business. The business publishes Lanterloon, an eclectic lifestyle, technology, and military blog; has a physical retail storefront called "Dragons and Dragoons" located in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and hosts military-writing workshops and other events under the "Sangria Summit" brand name. 

Q&A with Ron Capps, Veterans Writing Project

In terms of military writing, November 2012 exploded with the publication of multiple anthologies focused on themes of war, peace, service, and remembrance. Many of these journals have open calls for submission, and are working toward publishing new volumes in 2013.

These include:

• "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors,"  published by the Southeastern Missouri University Press and others the first of this month.

• "O-Dark-Thirty," a new quarterly journal published Nov. 11 by Veterans Writing Project, Washington, D.C.

• The Journal of Military Experience at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kent., its third volume to be published in November 2013.

Despite looming deadlines, the editors of these respective publications recently offered Red Bull Rising readers their insights into writing for, submitting to, and getting published in journals and anthologies.

This is Part II of a 3-part series of blog-posts resulting from those on-line interviews.

*****

Ron Capps is a 25-year Army veteran and founder of the Veterans Writing Project. The Washington, D.C. based non-profit offers writing workshops for soldiers, veterans, and military families; helps research the use of writing as medically effective therapy for patients diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) and/or Traumatic Brain Injury (T.B.I.); and publishes both online and print literary journals.

Capps is also author of "Writing War," a portable curriculum for teaching creative writing techniques to military audiences.

Why should writers consider submitting their works to journals and/or anthologies? How does it potentially benefit their output, development, and/or marketability?

Primarily, the value to submitting to and publishing in journals is in developing a portfolio of work. Very few writers get a book deal with their first work. Publishers love to see that a writer has been previously published, especially in established literary journals or magazines. It does a couple things for the editor or publisher: It shows that the writer has established a readership—this leads to increased sales—and it means that other editors have already seen the work, helped the writer get it ready for publication, and in a way validated the choice the publisher is making to purchase a collection of stories, poems, or essays, or a book-length work.

And writers who are trying to develop a deeper portfolio should probably not publish multiple pieces in the same journal—I mean, unless it’s The New Yorker or some place like that. Try to publish your work in as many different journals and on as many different platforms as possible.

What roles do journals/anthologies play in communicating military experiences to audiences? What types of audiences do they reach?

This varies wildly. Narrowly focused journals tend to have a narrowly focused readership. If a journal only publishes military-history essays for example, readers who want science fiction or fantasy are unlikely to subscribe. Even journals that publish a broad range of works can sometimes be too narrowly focused in their targeting of readers. If an editor or publisher is trying to help bridge the divide between the military and civilian communities, it’s important to put the journal into the hands of both groups. We give copies of our journal away to military units, ships, hospitals and veterans service organizations, but we also put copies in front of civilian readers, too, through book fairs, writers’ conferences and online marketing.

As both a writer and an editor, what success strategies would you suggest toward getting published in journals/anthologies? How do you select/craft works to submit? How do you choose markets to which to submit work?

From the writer’s standpoint there are two things that are critical first steps: Fit the conventions, and stand out from the crowd. This sounds a little contrary, but it’s not. You have to fit the conventions in that you have to submit to the journal in the format they expect and demand. You can’t just drop something over the transom in a manila envelope and expect to be published. You have to use the journal’s preferred method of submissions, put things into the proper format, attach an effective cover letter, and get it to the editors in the format they demand.

Plus, you have to make sure the manuscript is in the best possible condition. Spelling, grammar, and formatting errors are killers. But you also have to stand out from the crowd. Your writing has to be fresh and interesting. Don’t use stale metaphors or too much jargon. Make sure your characters’ dialogue sounds realistic and their actions are believable.

Once you’ve reached that point in developing your manuscript and are ready to submit, think a bit strategically. Go to the library or bookstore, or online, and read through copies of journals to make sure that what you’re submitting is what the editors want. Don’t submit a story about zombies to a journal that focuses on unicorns. Make a list of 10 journals that publish works like yours. Start by submitting to three. When you hear back from those three—either way—move to the next three and so on. It’s helpful to make a matrix to help you track this stuff, too. I have specifically and successfully targeted stories to journals just because I thought the story might be of interest to the editor. So make sure you read the editors’ bios, too.

And there is some etiquette here. Once you’ve submitted, be patient. Most journals will tell you right on their submissions page how long you should expect to wait. Part of your submissions matrix should a column that lists a date when you feel you should query. And if they’ve got one of your pieces, don’t send more until you’ve heard back about that one.

Capps was recently interviewed by National Public Radio here.

To be published four times annually, "O-Dark-Thirty" is available for $10 PayPal purchase here, and $30 annual subscription here. Gift subscriptions may also be funded for wounded and deployed service members.

For submissions guidelines, click here.

*****

Disclaimer: This content regarding military writing is underwritten by Victor Ian LLC, a military media and gaming business. The business publishes Lanterloon, an eclectic lifestyle, technology, and military blog; has a physical retail storefront called "Dragons and Dragoons" located in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and hosts military-writing workshops and other events under the "Sangria Summit" brand name.

Editor: Military-Writing Anthologies Are a 'Triple-Win'

In terms of military writing, November 2012 exploded with the publication of multiple anthologies focused on themes of war, peace, service, and remembrance. Many of these journals have open calls for submission, and are working toward publishing new volumes in 2013.

These include:

• "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors,"  published by the Southeastern Missouri University Press and others the first of this month.

• "O-Dark-Thirty," a new quarterly journal published Nov. 11 by Veterans Writing Project, Washington, D.C.

• The Journal of Military Experience at Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kent., its third volume to be published in November 2013.

Despite looming deadlines, the editors of these respective publications recently offered Red Bull Rising readers their insights into writing for, submitting to, and getting published in journals and anthologies.

This is Part I of a 3-part series of blog-posts resulting from those on-line interviews.

*****

Susan Swartwout is the editor of "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors," a 255-page anthology of veterans' fiction, non-fiction, and poetry published earlier this month by the Southeast Missouri State University Press. (In the interest of full disclosure: The author of the Red Bull Rising blog has a poem that appears in this work.)

The project was undertaken with assistance from the Missouri Humanities Council (M.H.C.) and the Warriors Arts Alliance, the latter a non-profit organization dedicated to building communication and understanding between veterans, families, and communities through creative writing and visual arts.

Swartwout calls anthologies a potential "triple-win" for military writers, families, and members of the public:

[T]he soldier-writer is the expert voice here. Without those voices, the general American citizen remains hugely uninformed about the daily events and the ground-level opinions of our soldiers involved in conflicts. We only hear the news media’s coverage, maybe a few oral stories from friends and family. But little else is actually crafted by the soldiers into a permanent piece of written communication that is published in a professional volume to help inform the public.

The anthology format preserves not only the individual pieces of writing, but also the multiple opinions and viewpoints of involved human beings, all in one artifact. The printed anthology informs the public, allows the soldiers’ and their families’ voices to be heard, and preserves their writing. Triple win.

Swartwout also notes the utility of published credits in marketing oneself or one's work: "For the soldier, or any writer, it never hurts to have a publication credit or two! When one enters the job market—or reenters—publication credits can help make the difference between [one] writer's application and all the others. Businesses like employees who can communicate well in writing."

According to a news release, the road to achieving the final "Proud to Be" product was long and twisted:

The warriors writing project began with Geoff Giglierano, executive director of the Missouri Humanities Council, and Deb Marshall, president of The Missouri Writers’ Guild, who paired up to launch a pilot program: The Missouri Warrior Writers Project. The project featured creative writing workshops in veterans hospitals to promote self-expression and confidence, with laptops provided by Missouri Humanities Council and writing instruction by Deb Marshall.

The workshops metamorphosed into the Warriors Arts Alliance and a new project: an annual anthology funded by the Missouri Humanities Council. The Missouri Humanities Council and Warriors Arts Alliance extended their partnership to include Southeast Missouri State University Press and its director Dr. Susan Swartwout, who edited the anthology. The project grew to include a writing contest, judged by stellar writers Mark Bowden (“Black Hawk Down”), William Trent Pancoast (“WILDCAT”), and veteran/poet Brian Turner (“Here, Bullet” and “Phantom Noise”). The title of the anthology emerged from veterans’ comments about the pride they feel in serving their country [...]

The $15 book is available via Amazon as well as directly from the university press.

To help celebrate the anthology's publication, an evening of readings from the book will hosted by the St. Louis Poetry Center Nov. 27, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., The Focal Point events center, 2720 Sutton, Maplewood, Mo. 63143.

Submissions guidelines for the next volume will be published later this month.

*****

Disclaimer: This content regarding military writing is underwritten by Victor Ian LLC, a military media and gaming business. The business publishes Lanterloon, an eclectic lifestyle, technology, and military blog; has a physical retail storefront called "Dragons and Dragoons" located in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and hosts military-writing workshops and other events under the "Sangria Summit" brand name.

A Class Act on Veterans Day

The past week has been a busy one. Helping to organize, publicize, and perform in "Telling: Des Moines" has taken a lot of personal brain-power and bandwidth. Remembering old times, while furiously memorizing my lines. To top it all off, I've been eating poorly, and sleeping worse.

Against that backdrop, on Friday, my kids surprised me with a 3x2-foot "Veterans Day Card," made of poster board, signed by all the children in each of their respective grade-school classes.

Best. Veterans Day. Ever.

Infantry Squad vs. Aliens / Zombies / Robots

Photo by U.S. Marine Cpl. Reece Lodder

Some quick musings generated while conducting research on genres of military writing ...

Just as the infantry squad is the basic building-block of U.S. ground forces, it can also serve as the basic building-block of fictional narrative. Throw a couple of military characters into a stressful environment, arm them with some weapons and strong personalities, and issue them a mission. You'll have a good war story in no time.

Parachuting a squad-sized, modern-day military unit into nearly any situation seems likely to pay off in fictional fireworks. Take these nearly out-of-this-world examples:

• Squad plus instantaneous intergalactic travel equals "Stargate SG-1."

• Squad plus zombies equals Image Comics' "Graveyard of Empires."

• Squad plus robots equals "Transformers" (2008).

• Squad plus dinosaurs equals DC Comics' "The War That Time Forgot."

• Squad plus cartoonish terrorist organization equals "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" (2009).

• Squad plus team member who is secretly a superhero, alien, and/or mutant equals Sgt. Rock storyline in DC Comics' "Men at War" (2011-2012).

• Squad plus paranormal activity in Area 51 equals "Nightstalkers (Area 51 series)."

• Squad plus caper to steal Nazi gold equals "Kelly's Heroes" (1970).

• Squad plus alien hunter equals "Predator" (1987).

• Squad plus full-blown alien invasion equals "Battle: Los Angeles" (2011).