Iraq War Marine Military Memoir: How it Helps my Writing

I picked up Joker One by Donovan Campbell after reading his article in Guideposts magazine. I wanted to see how his faith fared while he was immersed in the military/combat life. In the book, the faith/Christian themes are pretty low-key; however, the insightful observations Campbell draws about the human spirit and LOVE in particular were – at least for me – a clear expression of his spirituality.

This is the most balanced war memoir I've read. It's not about politics and it's not dripping with military ego/pride. Campbell's ability to be straightforward and honest about his own shortcomings, regrets and emotional state is truly compelling. It's about his personal journey and how he is changed by what he experiences – and he's not afraid to tell it like it is. He's obviously driven, and he's hard on himself.

In fact, I found parallel characteristics between Campbell and Major Aaron Bricewick, the fictional 'star' of True Surrender, my novel-in-progress! So there was an extra element of discovery in reading this ... any doubts I had about whether my character was acting realistically were settled!

Besides that, Campbell's either got a natural knack for writing or an incredible editor, because this book pulls everything together in a way that other Iraq memoirs I've read haven't. And - let's face it - 'technically' good writing makes for an easier read, allowing the book concept to really come to life. Nothing gets in the way of Campbell's sometimes powerful realizations ... which is just what I've been working on in True Surrender!

One Small Interview for (Wo)man ... One Giant Step Forward for Book

I just had a really enjoyable - and hugely productive - meeting with what I call a "SME" (Subject Matter Expert). This SME is an ex Air Force physician, and when I first met him back in July, I had put this novel (the one I'm working on now) on the backburner - even though the plot line was more than half done.

Much of that had to do with time constraints. But also, I think, I was stagnating in certain aspects of the plot. I don't feel my fiction needs to be 100% percent literal and accurate - it IS fiction, after all, and needs some room to breathe - but I do like believable settings, and understanding the settings enough to use them for character development (like flying with medevac before I wrote "Last Chance Rescue").

Meeting this particular SME really jump-started the novel. It was like a message from above: 'YES, I want you to write this story now, and I'm sending you the tools to do it.' I know it will be a better story because of this person's experience, insight - and willingness to share those with me. So thanks, SME (you'll know who you are)!

I Know It's a Good Book When...

I'm still thinking about it 10 days after I finished it.

I've been reading Iraq military memoir as I've been working on novel #2 (since the novel involves a military officer held hostage in Afghanistan), and I recently finished 'The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell' by John Crawford. Here's what I thought:

I was looking for brutal honesty and the raw emotional toll of war (not a factual history tome), and I got it in this book. Sometimes it was as much what WASN'T written as what was. That is a delicate balance for a writer and it was powerful. (Note: toning down the swear words and tightening up the sentence structure would have made it even more powerful by making it less distractive to read.)

I caught a snippet of a documentary on TV the other night, about a situation where our bombers killed our own soldiers because they "got confused by the smoke." It's dismaying to realize that some things never change. I WANT to believe the Army Reserve is smarter and better organized now than my experience in it 20 years ago, but John's experiences sound uncomfortably familiar – our tools were outdated, our training was under par, and the left hand never knew what the right was doing.

I (like the author) joined the National Guard to help pay for college; the recruiters laughed off any suggestion that we'd actually be sent anywhere to fight. What do you expect an 18- or 20-year-old to believe? And when you are immersed in a culture, you tend to adopt that culture's attitudes (especially when you're young) – and the military IS a culture. I lost site of some of the morals I'd been brought up with and I'd be willing to bet some of the author's less tasteful characteristics may have been 'exacerbated' by this immersion too. I would have liked to know more about who the author was before he went to war, and what happened when he returned home (perhaps that's another book altogether?).

There was one mind-blowing moment in my life when I thought I was being activated to Desert Storm. Thank God it was our armory-sharing MP unit instead – or I might have had the same disillusioning experience!

Gripping, personal account of Iraq War

I am supposed to be in WI getting ready to go rafting tomorrow, but Mother Nature had other ideas (cold and rainy here!). So I was doing a little ‘homework’ today: reading “House to House” by David Bellavia (with – a LOT, I think – of help from journalist John Bruning). It is a memoir of his time serving in Iraq, and particularly Fallujah.

Last Chance Rescue’s character Jessie Van Dyke is an Iraq veteran, and though the story is taking place AFTER her tour of duty, the experience of war has left her with emotional baggage. And ... a divorce.

Her ex-husband, Major Aaron Bricewick, is the main character in my current novel-in-progress. The military life played a role in Last Chance Rescue, and it’s a BIG theme in ‘Bricewick.’ So besides just being interested in the subject matter of the Iraq war, books like this one are fodder for my writing.

The main purpose to my own five years in the Army Reserves was the GI Bill (to pay my way through college). The big scare during my time in the military was Desert Storm (thank god I was never activated), but you don’t see such gripping, personal accounts of that conflict as you do for Iraq. I find it fascinating, and I hope I can reach military spouses and family with “Last Chance Rescue”...and eventually my next book.