Kirjahaku

A Military Writers Society of America 2016 Gold Medal in Poetry winner An overseas tour de force and a memoir-in-verse An evergreen satire of the "Forever War" in Afghanistan and Iraq Armed with deadpan snark and poker-faced patriotism-and rooted in the coffee-black soil and plain-spoken voice of the American Midwest-journalist-turned-poet Randy Brown reveals behind-the-scenes stories of U.S. soldier-citizenship. "From Boot Camp to Bagram, Afghanistan." And back home again.The book includes haiku, sonnets, and less-traditional forms of poetry, intended to create moments of emphathy and conversation among military veterans and civilians.Here's a taste: THREE CUPS OF CHAI-KU1.I had hoped, I guess, for something more like Starbucks, not yellow water.2.We build our nationsone tea party at a time.They serve, we protect.3.No one here can leadthis endless talk of action."Que shura, shura."

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 scholarsWriting workshopsClassroom discussions of war literature, literary history, and popular cultureProfessional development forumsContributors 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)

The Girls-Kathy, Sharon, Alex, and Becky-have come to this tropical paradise to scatter Molly's ashes. She was the one that brought them together their freshman year at the University of Idaho. They expected tears and laughter as they remembered Molly and the life they shared with her. And more than just a few shots of tequila. What they didn't expect was someone from Kathy's past to be in the bungalow right next to theirs; someone unknown to them, but someone who was a big part of Kathy's life a long time ago. Someone Kathy is not happy to see.Steve has hit the wall. He has no more stories to tell. For more than thirty years he has been turning out bestsellers. This is the first time he doesn't have book proposals sitting on his editor's desk. After staring for hours at the blinking cursor on his laptop screen, he welcomes the distraction of the voices of his new neighbors. But not for long. The girl from his past who is a woman now is among the group. A woman with anger and pain in her eyes.Two people who haven't seen each other in forty years. Both are in need of a friend as events in their lives unfold. Will their shared past help them through the days ahead or will it keep them apart? Fate brought them together. What happens next is up to them.

Pain dropped Quinn to his knees, he started to black out as the air was squeezed from his lungs. Thousands of miles away Gabrielle crumpled to the floor as Quinn's pain crashed into her. As the breath was squeezed from her she reached for him. Quinn rushes to Moldova expecting to meet Ana and the two fourteen year old girls with Talent she'd found. The war in neighboring Ukraine escalated before she and the girls could cross the border, forcing Quinn to go in search of them.Gabrielle is back at work cataloging records and moving them across town into storage as the museum remodel draws closer. When Quinn is unexpectedly struck down just as he finds the girls, she reaches for him with her new found abilities in a desperate attempt to save his life.Annabelle, after two years of no communication with her husband, convinces a group of pentagon generals to end the fool's mission Captain Dixon and his men have been on. One of the generals decides to kill her for interfering with his private war.

Randy Brown, after suffering many years of stress from being a college basketball coach, walked through the horrific life events of losing two of his daughters to a very rare disease. His daughters deaths, depression, and numerous relocations of their homes, took a toll on him that caused Randy to make decisions that cost him his marriage, his job, his passion to live. Unimaginable events then led to imprisonment and in his two-year incarceration.Randy had plenty of time while in Butner Federal Prison to reflect on the decisions he had made and more importantly, the time to choose recovery instead of continuing the life of an addict. Any addict addicted to any substance can relate to Randy's story and those who have not yet found recovery will be able to gain experience, strength and hope (the 3 most important things a recovered addict needs) by reading Rebound Forward.Join Randy as he, with much humbleness, shares his road to a better life. Rebound Forward--Rebound from Life's Most Devastating Losses and Stay in the Game

"Every poet," warns Randy Brown, "has a heart filled / with shrapnel." In his new chapbook "So Frag & So Bold," the former U.S. Army "brigade staff jester" takes aim at endless wars, parent traps, social media, and stodgy religious beliefs. It's an iconoclastic cluster-munition that's bursting with hundreds of haiku, aphorisms, philosophical puzzles, and other experiments in pithy and pulpy poetry. Brown's careful constructions of line-breaks and language are intended to variously provoke chuckles, empathy, and thought. "Any poem is a device," he writes, "improvised to explode with meaning ...] ignited by a trigger / word." Get ready for amusement, bemusement, and plenty of pyrotechnics

WHAT LESSONS CAN AN OLD MOVIE TEACH US ABOUT GO-TO-WAR MINDSETS?In a cheeky critique of the classic American airpower narrative "Twelve O'Clock High," award-winning soldier-poet, essayist, and humorist Randy Brown explores what it means to be a leader or follower at war-morally, physically, and psychologically. The book is packed full of insights into military life, as viewed through the lenses of war movies, history, and the author's personal experiences as a one-time U.S. Army-trained "lessons-learned analyst.""I started out to write 12 haiku poems about a favorite old war movie," says the author, "but my 'whimsical experiment in minimalist war poetry' mutated into a 'maximum effort' mix of memory, media, and military culture " TWELVE O'CLOCK HAIKU: Leadership Lessons from Old War Movies & New Poems now comprises a salvo of provocative poetry, a companion essay about the film, and resources for enthusiasts of World War II aircraft, history, and movies.Brown first encountered the 1949 movie when on temporary duty as a U.S. Army citizen-soldier. Whether as a novel, film, or late-1960s television series, the "Twelve O'Clock High" franchise continues to be a key tool in 21st century Professional Military Education (PME) and business-class discussions. A great conversation-starter about transformative leadership, management techniques, organizational learning, and ethics In addition to other accolades, Brown is a three-time poetry finalist in the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards, administered annually by the Chicago-based literary journal Line of Advance. His 2015 collection, Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire, was awarded a gold medal distinction from the Military Writers Society of America. His chapbook So Frag & So Bold: Short Poems, Aphorisms & Other Wartime Fun was published in 2021.In 2010, Brown was preparing to deploy as the sole "knowledge manager" for a deploying U.S. Army National Guard brigade. After a paperwork SNAFU dropped him off the list, he retired with 20 years of military service and a previous overseas deployment. He then went to Afghanistan anyway, embedding with his former colleagues as a civilian journalist.He is the co-editor of two non-fiction books: 2015's Reporting for Duty: Citizen-Soldier Journalism from the Afghan Surge, 2010-2011; and 2019's Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War.As "Charlie Sherpa," he blogs about modern war poetry at www.fobhaiku.com, and about writing on military themes at www.aimingcircle.org.

In this timely new anthology, 66 emerging and established voices from the science-fiction-poetry and war-writing communities have joined forces to deliver visions and explorations regarding how humans, Artificial Intelligence, and robots may learn to live, work, grow, and fight. "Every day, our news feeds are crowded with dystopian reports of flame-throwing robots, killer drones, and cyber implants," writes anthology editor Randy Brown. "Against this virtual crush of ash and black, we wonder: If futurists and fiction-writers, warriors and wargamers can deploy their respective toolkits to probe potential threats and opportunities, why not poets?" The book collects 92 poems involving concepts, narratives, and cautionary tales of "human-electro-mechanical-cyber interaction, connection, and competition." To motivate other writers, veterans, and readers, the anthology includes a special section of 7 discussion-starters and prompts, for use in writing workshops, book clubs, and other gatherings.