The Middle West Press LLC project in partnership with the Military Writers Guild. Contributors include service members past and present, as well as scholars, historians, journalists, and civilians with experiences in international relations and national security.

Includes index. "A Military Writers Guild anthology."--Cover.

Calls to action, calls to arms -- Get your legacy in writing / by Steve Leonard -- This blog of mine goes forth to war / by William Treadway -- Pressing the button / by Joe Byerly -- How the world I imagined became real / by Andrea N. Goldstein -- Unraveling my own knowledge / by Phil Klay -- On writing the other Clausewitz / by Vanya Eftimova Bellinger -- Tall ship ... and a story to steer her by / by John "Jack" McCain IV -- Bridging the civil-military divide / by Marcia Byrom Hartwell -- William Sims and sailors as scholars / by Benjamin "BJ" Armstrong -- I write / by Andrew Steadman -- How I fell in love with AP style, but settled down with doctrine / by Miranda Summers Lowe -- Writing and our profession / by Mick Ryan -- War stories -- The squeaky wheel and the expanded universe / by Kate Germano -- How I write / by Robert L. Bateman -- The proof is in the jump / by Jocelyn Corbin -- Basic training teaches more than marching and maneuvers / by Ben Wilbert -- We write alone, but we are not along / by Jessica Scott -- Remembering private first class Hutson / by Peter Van Buren -- On first drafts and embracing the suck / by Teresa Fazio -- Writing myself to sleep / by Matt Condon -- Finding "Ashley's war" / by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon -- Some true lies about conflict reporting / by Carmen Gentile -- The three pillars of T.E. Lawrence / by Hal Wilson -- Armour against atrocity : writing to find one's moral compass / by Tom McDermott -- Beating my muse into submission / by Robert B. Robeson -- Sharing stories of service between generations / by Chad Corrigan -- Attention to detail / by Steven L. Moore -- Recovering the rhythm of war / by Bill McCloud -- Making sense of what went wrong / by Jeremy H. Warneke -- The perils of spilling your guts / by David Chrisinger -- Building bridges & platforms -- Why I launch "the grenade" / by James M. Thompson -- Podcasts : writing to be heard / by Mick Cook -- "Semper write" : one aviator's opinion / by Carl Forsling -- The power of op-eds : how to inform and influence / by John Spencer -- Creating better alternatives : the story of "divergent options" / by Phillip A. Walter -- My first war novel / by Rachel Kambury -- A passage of lines : starting a literary journal / by Christopher Lyke -- Novel or memoir? It's the stories that matter / by Wane E. Johnson -- My grandfather's thumb / by Michael Lund -- Veterans' voices : our shared story / by J.A. Mood II -- Writing to build social capital / by Will Meddings -- Confessions of a reformed PME critic / by Kelly Dunne -- Writing as a catalyst for change / by Gary M. Klein -- The quill that bridges the divide / by Dale R. Wilson Sr. -- Operationalizing "the field grade leader" / by Josh Powers -- Writing to think : writing intentionally for professional development / by Ryan Hilger -- The arts of war & writing -- Dreaming of Ishtar in the land of two rivers / by Jonathan Baxter -- "It" shoots : zen and writing / by Eric Chandler -- I left the CIA and wrote a satire of the war on terror / by Alex Finley -- War is (funny as) hell / by David Abrams -- How I wrote "World War Z" / by Max Brooks -- Getting lost on the way to the future / by P.W. Singer and August Cole -- Three Lieutenants / by Roger Misso -- Making military history relevant through fiction / by Kiki Watkins -- The warrior-poet and unexpected journey / by Colin D. Halloran -- An Iraq War veteran reads the Iraq War / by Hugh Martin -- "Listen up, maggots! April is national poetry month!" / by Randy Brown -- "Reach for the skies" : writing a western helped me face down rejection / by Kori Schake -- First, write about a barn / by Jerri Bell -- Babylon revisited / by Thomas E. Ricks.