EDITING TLC

February 2011 Edition:

It is just unbelievable how time is flying for me.  I am on the downward slope of my final year of teaching third graders (year #36).  After this school year is behind me, I will be devoting my time to Editing TLC and being a facilitator for Love and Logic classes (both for teachers and for parents).  It will give me more time to review for MWSA and make more connections with wonderful authors.  I am glad for all of the connections of the past several years that are now setting me on a new path on my journey of life.  I look forward to my retirement from teaching and into a bit more relaxed daily schedule and a lot of stress being lifted from my shoulders.  Anyway, enough about me, and on to my “CONNECTION” of the month.

I would like to introduce to you, Kathy Rowe, who I was fortunate to “meet” via MWSA. I’m hoping that we can meet in person at this next year’s MWSA conference.  Her book Project: Dragonslayers won the MWSA October 2010 Book of the Month Award.  jim greenwald wrote in his review: “This book will interest males and females and all branches of the military as it will be easy to see the story as something that may have or could have in some way existed for each of them. Lots of toys (weapons) involved to grab the interest of action fans and an equal amount of human interest and interaction.  It is a long book, 578 pages, but one the reader will not put down until finished. For first-time author Rowe this is an excellent effort, the first of a trilogy I know I will read.”  Let me tell you that our Lead Reviewer, jim greenwald does not hand out praise like this lightly.  So take note!

Master Sergeant Rowe will be retiring from the Air Force in July, and I personally would like to thank her for her service to our country. She says she is forty and not getting any older (wish I could say that!) By trade, she is an x-ray technician, and that allows her to use her talent in imaging, and also to meet people and hear stories.  She has been writing for over 22 years and has been published in various types of media: magazine, news, photography, and literary. She is also an accomplished photographer with a few of her photos published in a book. She writes primarily military fiction, and has published Project: Dragonslayers. It's about a small SF unit and the trials and tribulations they face. It deals with issues relevant to our warriors today: suffering with PTSD, anger, and denial. It brings all these to light through fictional characters.

A sequel is finished and published. Dragonslayers: Mind Games brings the team further into the dark world of the SF community and sends them against terrorists hellbent with waging war on the U.S. and her allies. She has two more books in the series (Dragonslayers: Battle Rhythm and Dragonslayers: Kill Box) in the works, waiting for the time for rewrites and editing.

Not wanting to be locked into one genre, Kathy has branched out by writing a contemporary romance called Cowboys and Olympians.  I was able to copy edit that as well as her Mind Games book. Cowboys and Olympians is complete and waiting for a publisher.  She is currently writing a suspense/horror set in Memphis, TN titled The Hall and is also dabbling with a number of screenplay possibilities in various genres. 

Master Sergeant Rowe is one of the most prolific authors I have worked with!  She has so many ideas in that head of hers and she writes every chance that she gets.  We are building a great author-editor friendship through her books.  They definitely are worth checking out.  Something that Kathy introduced me to is SmashWords.com. (You can go there and use coupon code RY64S which is good until March 1^st to download a free copy of Project: Dragonslayers. Enjoy, and please post reviews. We all need to be helping each other out with getting the reviews out to the public.)  Both of her Dragonslayer books are available in paperback and Kindle formatting, which includes .pdf downloads. (I must admit that I have struggled about Kindle and e-books, just because I love to have a “book” in my hands, but the world is changing…and to be able to get Kathy’s first two books at 99 cents and FREE! is quite the deal, wouldn’t you say?)

Grab one of Kathy Rowe’s published books and keep your eyes open for more books to come. She’s a talented author that is going to be giving us many great reads in the future.  It is fun for me to see how she can produce such great stories in various genres.  I can’t say enough about Kathy…she allowed me to use my experiences with her in my power point for the MWSA conference because we met due to the fact that editing was recommended for her first book.  She took that suggestion, contacted me, and we’ve been busy working together ever since.  The thing that has impressed me the most is that Kathy has learned so much in the editing aspect of writing.  She really studies and questions all along the editing process.  She really wants to be the best that she can be at what she does and she is great fun to work with. She never ceases to amaze me. 

So, at this time, we are both looking forward to our retirements this summer…and lots of possibilities of working together in the future. Kathy gets to retire to a farm in Kentucky, where she will spend more time writing and riding her horses.  Now THAT I am jealous about! I’ve seen pictures of Sturgeon Creek Farm where she and her husband will be heading after her retirement. Congrats, Master Sergeant Rowe, on a job well done…both in your service to our country and in the job you are doing as an author. 

March 2011 Edition:

This month I would like to introduce you to award-winning author, Rosalie T. Turner, who has been writing for over 28 years. Rosalie was a service wife during the Vietnam War; her husband, Frank Kile, was a USMC Captain. Rosalie and Frank Kile currently divide their time between Angel Fire, New Mexico and Birmingham, Alabama.  Her book, Sisters of Valor, won the MWSA 2010 bronze medal for historical fiction.  Check out the review written by Claudia Pemberton on the MWSA website and go to www.sistersofvalor.com to learn more about Rosalie and Sisters of Valor.

I had the good fortune of being able to have lunch with Rosalie at the 2010 MWSA conference.  She has a quiet spirit but her background tells me that she is a very strong woman.  I think the reason that we really connected is that Rosalie’s greatest interests in life are children and reading.

Being a military wife and post-military, her husband worked for the railroad industry, they have moved 17 times in their 47 years of marriage.  No matter where she is located, Rosalie volunteers her time; she’s worked with the Navy Relief Society, the Headstart program, church youth groups, jail ministries, Habitat for Humanity, after-school tutoring programs, volunteered with the homeless and other various church activities. Her hobbies are reading, grandkids, water aerobics, and learning to play the harp.

My heart went out to Rosalie when she shared the story of her oldest son, Terry, who became ill with a rare leukemia.  He was treated through St. Jude Children’s Hospital and lived with the disease for fifteen months before he died at age ten.  She states, “Somehow life went on for us and we were blessed with another son, Joel, in 1978.” She also has a son, Kile.  She and her husband have five grandchildren to share her love of reading with, too.

Rosalie’s favorite volunteer efforts have been setting up reading programs in inner city areas of places they have lived.  She was honored to have been nominated for the JC Penney award for literacy programs in Jackson, MS, and again (where she won it) in Jacksonville, FL.  She also has worked as a teacher for adult literacy and ESL programs. 

Her writing career started in the Christian market when she wrote a book that explains the Lord’s Prayer for children.  Next she wrote Going to the Mountain: Lessons for Life’s Journey. She used excerpts from her journal dealing with her son’s illness and death as a basis for this book, which also served as an important therapy for her.  This book is still used as a resource book by Stephen Ministries in Texas.

Rosalie switched to historical fiction after learning of the amazing life of Anna Kingsley.  She was born in 1793 in Senegal of royal blood, captured at the age of thirteen in a tribal raid, and brought as a slave to Spanish East Florida. It wasn’t long before she was running the master’s plantation.  Rosalie writes Anna’s story in Freedom Bound which has won an award in Florida.  It also is used as required reading for a history course at Texas Tech University.

Rosalie’s motivation for writing Sisters of Valor was to give voice to the service wife. She states “at that time with all the books about Vietnam there was nothing from the point of view of the service wife.”  Sisters of Valor tells the story of four very different women whose husbands are serving in Vietnam at the same time.  They come together and support and nurture each other.  The action goes from the women at home to the husbands in Vietnam.  She states that she “brings the story up to today for a very specific reason.  The women look at what the war meant to them as individuals, families, and as a country.  I think it’s important for all of us to have that conversation, if not with others, at least within ourselves.”

Here is some of the feedback that Rosalie shared with me that she has received about Sisters of Valor: “Young wives of today say that it expresses their feelings and emotions, even though circumstances are different.  I had one veteran tell me that he had been married for 42 years and he had never said a word to his wife about what happened in Vietnam, and she had never asked, and he finally had to go for psychological help.  He told me, ‘If we had read your book before, it would have started a dialogue for us that would have made all the difference.’ Another vet told me it helped him so much to understand what the life back home was like for his wife.”

I am very thankful for the time that I got to spend with Rosalie Turner and hope that you will take the time to check out her books.  Just look at some of the amazing people you can meet by attending the MWSA conference.  Hey, that reminds me…I need to reserve my hotel room and get my payment sent in for the conference.  Have you taken care of that yet?  

April 2011 Edition:





When I look back at MWSA Conference 2010, I have many fond memories.  There is one person that when I think about her, I always smile.  That would be Sandra Linhart.  I would give Sandra the nickname of “Spunky Sandi.”  She was a ton of fun to share some time with at the conference because she has such a great (warped) sense of humor! (Okay, I just HAD to say that!) She also was very generous and gave me a set of books to share with my students.  The books that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with in my classroom are: Daddy’s Boots, Momma’s Boots, But…What If? and Grandpa, What If?  (You can check out all of the awards Ms. Linhart has won on her website at: www.smlinhart.com).

My students absolutely loved her books and also fell in love with the illustrations.  Notice the teddy bear on the cover?  You’ll discover it throughout the book!  One of my students could really relate to Daddy’s Boots because her daddy has spent time in Afghanistan as well as other deployments.  It really gave her pride to be able to share this book with the rest of our class and gave her a way to explain her daddy’s job to the rest of us.  She asked to take all of the books home to share with her family.  My students enjoyed writing letters to Ms. Linhart to share just what they appreciated about her books. 

I love the story that Sandra tells on her website about being born and raised in Lander, Wyoming, where there really wasn’t much to do but visit the local library and spend time reading.  I’ll let you explore her website so you can discover for yourself why she isn’t a rock star today.  You’ll see her sense of humor shining through. The reading that she did took her to all sorts of places and experiences.  I tell my students this every day: “Get into that book and let it take you places.  It may be the only way you’ll ever get there.”  The exciting part is that just like Sandi, my students are beginning to also see themselves as writers.  Authors like Sandi, who are willing to share their stories with others, can then see how the cycle continues.  Sandi put a lot of effort into writing and has become an award-winning author, who continues to get her ideas on paper.  One of the motivators for her books was not being able to find literature to read to her five daughters regarding the work that their father did in the military and the reasons for why he had to be away from them for long periods of time.  She writes from her heart and from experience, knowing the life of being a military wife and mother.

Ms. Linhart has also written a series called The Elementary Adventures of Jones, JEEP, Buck & Blue.  I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the series yet, but it is on my “Want to Read” list.  These books have pre-teen main characters who are “military brats” and are faced with the adversities of loss, death, disappointment, and change.  Military children deal with the same “growing up” issues as all children, but sometimes their lives get complicated by all of the moving that they have to do.

I’ve heard from a wonderful source (www.smlinhart.com) that Sandra has more books in the works.  She is working on another installment for the series with Jones, JEEP, Buck & Blue titled Stuck in the Middle which follows the kids into their middle school years.  She also has several picture books in the works.  Keep your eyes open for more to come from this wonderful author.  Sandra states that she is an author, mother, grandmother, and friend, but not necessarily in that order.  I am glad to be considered a friend, and hope that we will be able to build on that friendship at the MWSA Conference 2011. 

July/August 2011 Edition:

Life throws us some curve balls, and we can fade out of the mainstream of things for a while.  That is what happened to me over the last few months.  I lost my brother, due to long-term illnesses, at the end of April.  Watching a younger sibling pass away wasn’t an easy time for me.  Then I had to “close up shop” on a 36-year teaching career.  Oh man, you should see my storage room here at home.  No, actually, you shouldn’t!

I’m working at getting back into the mainstream of life, and part of that includes my volunteer work for MWSA.  I am so thankful for the last book of this contest year that I was able to review. I’m looking forward to being able to do a lot more reviews this next year. Now we’re into the judging stage, and I can’t wait to go to the conference and meet up with friends made at last year’s conference and to make CONNECTIONS with a lot of new people. Military Writers Society of America has some of the most wonderful people in the world.  I can’t thank Bob Calvert (of Talking with Heroes fame) enough for letting me know about this great organization.

So let me move on to introduce to you, Jeffrey Miller, author of War Remains, which has been nominated for the Korean War Book Award, and also in the Army category.  This book captured my heart.  Please allow me to share my book review with you:

War Remains by Jeffrey Miller is an excellent read.  Never having been a history buff due to teachers and professors who made it less than enjoyable for me, I am truly grateful for authors like Mr. Miller who can take me through the Korean War days in a way that attaches it to people and emotions and the reality of how it affected families.

When I think about the title War Remains I asked myself as I was reading it, just what the author had in mind.  The title can certainly have multiple meanings.  The obvious seems to be that many of our military were left behind in Korea and families were told they were MIA and unless their remains were to be found and identified, that would continue to be their classification.  From my research, it appears that we have MIA status for approximately 10,000 of our military.  One fifth of those are from Vietnam, and the other four-fifths from the Korean War. Have I ever once given thought about the family members that have been affected in this way? I’m ashamed to say that I don’t think so.  War Remains has touched me in a very special way.

This book led me to research what has been happening for these families.  Hence, to me, the title can also mean that this war remains in the hearts of the survivors.  Jeffrey Miller’s book will open the hearts and the eyes of those who have lived their lives unaffected by the Korean War.  I thank him for that gift.  It should also prove as a source of hope for families still waiting to have closure.

Mr. Miller begins his book with the discovery of a footlocker in an attic.  This footlocker then finds its way to the son of Sgt. First Class Robert (Bobby) Francis Washkowiak, Ronnie Washkowiak.  It contains many letters from Bobby to his wife, Mary, and their infant son, Ronnie.  When Bobby heads off to war, it is his small beloved family that keeps him going through his time in Korea.  The book uses his many letters, which are then read by Ronnie, and his son, Michael, to take us to the time and place when Bobby is writing the letters to his beloved wife.  In this way, we see the side of war from the Korean War happenings which the author does a superb job of writing, telling readers about what the GIs in Korea were facing and about the many battles and the fact that the Korean War is called a “forgotten war.”  Then we move back to present day, when Bobby’s family is always wondering what happened to their father, grandfather, and husband. Just how long should a young woman with a young son hold out hope for her loved one to return?  How long should one wait to accept that your husband has probably been killed?  Mr. Miller does a superb job of transitioning back and forth between time frames.

Mr. Miller has very successfully written a story that shines light onto what many American families have experienced.  It is a beautiful love story, shown through the many letters from Bobby to Mary.  It is a war story, in that we see the Korean War up close and personal, through Bobby and his GI buddies.  We see our military heroes returning to the States never knowing what happened to buddies that they had gotten close to during their service to our country.  It is not always easy reading when you encounter the Chinese in the rice paddies in the deep of night.  But it is encouraging to know that some families have received closure when DNA has been matched to the remains of their loved one, in more recent times. 

I highly recommend War Remains to readers…this book has touched me deeply and is sticking with me both in my mind and my heart days after completing it.  War Remains is a very impressive first novel for Jeffrey Miller.

Jeffrey has a very interesting “life” story in that he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1976-1980. He has been living and teaching in South Korea since 1990. The genesis for War Remains started with the articles that he wrote about Korean War commemorative events from 2000-2003, especially the interviews with Chipyong-ni veterans, Oscar Cortez, and two repatriation ceremonies in Korea.  He wanted to honor all those who fought in the war, those who didn’t come home, and the loved ones who lost a loved one in the war.  There is a theme of “discovery” that runs through the novel and the hope is that readers will also discover the realities of this so-called “forgotten war.”  You can learn more about War Remains and Jeffrey Miller at: www.jeffreyalanmiller.wordpress.com and/or www.warremains.blogspot.com  I truly believe that Mr. Miller has met his goal of honoring heroes and their families through his writing of War Remains.

September/October 2011 Edition:

Less than a month to go, and those of us attending the conference will be gathering in Pittsburgh.  I am thrilled that I am able to attend again this year. I want to take this opportunity to thank MWSA for believing in me, and allowing me to share my “CONNECTIONS” over this past year. I’m usually the one “behind-the-scenes” helping authors to get the nitty-gritty, not-as-much-fun stuff accomplished, so I’m just a newbie at the writing end of things. So I have greatly appreciated this opportunity.

“Treating Your Manuscript with TLC” is the name of the workshop that I will be presenting.  I’m hoping that authors will come prepared to share the steps they take to get their manuscripts to the final version. Kathleen Rodgers will be sharing her adventures with writing critique groups, too. There are many ways to get a great manuscript accomplished and it is always helpful to hear the strategies other authors are using in the process. I will also share some of the experiences that I’ve had with my authors/clients. I hope to see a lot of you at my workshop.

If you are attending the MWSA conference, and you are interested in being one of my “CONNECTIONS” for the upcoming year, just say so, and we can have a conversation about what you’d like the readers of Dispatches to know about you, and I’ll get you in my 2011-2012 line-up. Never fear, if you are not able to attend the conference, we can still connect via email and/or phone.  Just contact me at: joyce@editingtlc.com Thanks! Best of luck to all of the nominees, and for those of you waiting for a review, please know that reviewers are already reading books for next year!