Why We Write by Steve Leonard

Why We Write by Steve Leonard

For military service members, veterans, and families-and all those who write about them

Tap into PUBLISHING INSPIRATIONS, WRITING MARKETS, and CREATIVE TECHNIQUES with advice from MORE THAN 60 BEST-SELLING, ESTABLISHED, and EMERGING AUTHORS of military, national security, and war topics

Whether you're writing military-themed genre fiction or literary non-fiction, strategy or policy analysis, history or journalism, or even modern war poetry, Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War puts an arsenal of innovation and expertise at your fingertips

Choose your weapons: Podcasts Memoirs Novels Book reviews Short stories Op-Ed essays And more

Entertaining, informal, and accessible, this first-ever Military Writers Guild-sponsored anthology is ideal for:

• Individual creatives and scholars
• Writing workshops
• Classroom discussions of war literature, literary history, and popular culture
• Professional development forums

Contributors include such leading authors as:

• Phil Klay (Redeployment)
• Vanya Eftimova Bellinger (Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War)
• David Abrams (Fobbit and Brave Deeds)
• Alex Finley (Victor in the Rubble and Victor in the Jungle)
• Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (Ashley's War and The Dressmaker of Khair Khana)
• Thomas E. Ricks (Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom; The Generals; Fiasco; The Gamble)
• Kate Germano (Fight Like a Girl: The Truth Behind How Female Marines are Trained)
• Peter Van Buren (We Meant Well and Hooper's War)
• Kori Schake (Safe Passage; Warriors and Citizens)
• Max Brooks (World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War)
• Jessica Scott (The Coming Home; Falling; and Homefront romance series)
• Carmen Gentile (Blindsided by the Taliban: A Journalist's Story of War, Trauma, Love, and Loss)
• Hugh Martin (In Country; Stick Soldiers; and So, How Was the War?)
• Robert L. Bateman (No Gun Ri: A Military History of the Korean War Incident and Digital War: A View from the Front Lines)
• P.W. Singer & August Cole (Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War)

Randy Brown began writing before he knew what he was doing. This led to the acquisition of the ability to scrub walls and floors, a talent that has proven to be quite useful in today's environment. He began to fill notebooks with sloppy handwriting after learning to read and write. More people were able to read what he wrote after he learned to use a typewriter. They didn't, in fact.

He worked in a variety of occupations until 1977, when he joined a tiny instant print firm as a printing press operator. He did it in Boise, Idaho, and other locations in and around Portland, Oregon. When he returned to Idaho, he worked as an offset press operator until the need for his services dwindled and he was laid off. Since 1996, he has been a member of the RWA's Coeur Du Bois chapter.