Military Writers, Writers with Military Topics Alert!

I suspect that many readers and visitors to this blog aren't award of MWSA or its great networking community! 

MSWS is the Military Writers Society of America. It is not just for those who write with a military theme. It is also an organization the supports writers who are or have been military or are related to military. Though it also accepts authors and writers who appreciate the possibilities it offers.

 Membership is reasonably priced and it offers an excellent book award contest. A couple of my poetry chapbooks have won awards and definitely are not military oriented! 

 And now all members of MWSA are encouraged to attend this year’s conference in September. They say, “In addition to a general membership meeting that will enable you to learn more about what’s going on in MWSA and provide you the opportunity to voice your suggestions for the future of MWSA, the agenda includes seminars to improve your skills as a writer and presentations that will entertain and educate you on the military history of San Antonio.

“We have worked hard to keep the conference costs down this year and are offering an early bird price at an amount below prior conferences and way below other writers’ conferences held around the country. The Menger Hotel is located right in the heart of San Antonio, minutes away from many major attractions: the Alamo, River Walk, Old Market Square, and more.

Learn more at http://www.mwsadispatches.com/events/2017/9/7/mwsa-general-membership-meeting

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

ew Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

History and A Great Story Rolled Into One

In the Shadow of Suribachi
By Joyce Faulkner
Red Engine Press
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780974565202
Adult/Creative Nonfiction
Author's Site: http://home.comcast.net/~joycefaulkner/suribachi.htm
Contact Reviewer: HojoNews@aol.com
Rating: 5 of 5








Emerging Author Joyce Faulkner
Designs New Kind of Literature

If reviewing were a different sort of animal I could probably pen three lines of 17 syllables, wind up with haiku that would remain with the reader and call it day. I could describe In the Shadow of Suribachi by Joyce Faulkner with words like "heartfelt, consummate skill, emotional and bloody," fool a bit with the caesuras and stresses and--perhaps--give readers a better sense of the soul of the book.

Having said that, there is more to this work than its essence and prose will work better to explain that. Here the author assembles disparate events like the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in Islmorada, Fl, the infamous kristallnacht, the 1942 circus fire in Cleveland. Each real-life event is told from the point of view of a character and may--at first--feel as if they are separate stories. If the reader listens carefully, however, she will hear the intimations in each of how these young men's futures will connect, how what has gone before will affect them later as Marines fighting and suffering in Iwo Jima in 1945.

This book is neither beast nor fowl. The stories (and story) are based on interviews and careful research so it is nonfiction. They are told with all the craft of a fiction writer; that makes it creative nonfiction. They are assembled in a way that would qualify it as a literary novel. A literary novel, after all, tells of the human condition. Characters in literary novels must be carefully drawn and readers should draw something from one that lives long after the last page is turned. This book, published by a new traditional press called the Red Engine Press, qualifies.
Readers should know that, though they may well be mesmerized by this story (stories), it is not easy reading. Endorsed by professionals from the Army's 101st Airborne Division to history teachers, it captures what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman calls "the reality of human aggression and combat." This is a time when we, as a nation, need to fully understand what we are sending our young men and women to do. To understand it may behoove us to visit--or revisit--Suribachi.

It won a Military Writers' Society of America gold meda.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Harkening, a collection of stories, has won three and her how-to book for authors, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, is USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." Her new chapbook of poetry, Tracings, to be includes her own childhood memories of WWII. It is also a Militar Writers' Society Award-Winner. She wrote a foreword for another Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Learn more about her at: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.)