YOUR MILSPEAK BOOKS PURCHASE SUPPORTS MILSPEAK FOUNDATION DONATE TO MILSPEAK FOUNDATION WEAPONS OF CAIN THOM BRUCIE WEAPONS OF CAIN, a memory-vision of Vietnam, is the spellbinding story of Lieutenant Joseph Tompsen, whose tour of duty in Vietnam introduces him to street-wise villagers who become his family and to military cohorts who become his antagonists. As he faces life on death’s terms, one shattering moment will forever change his world and theirs in this novel of loss and redemption. Author Thom Brucie has been called a voice of the unheard because of his ability to reveal the sometimes unheralded beatitudes of fortitude and charity through his stories of the everyday deeds of ordinary lives. His use of Vietnamese folklore and folk practices embellish the rich descriptions of place to create a setting so full of sensory detail that one feels as if the exotic village of Cam Ranh is located just down the road and around the corner. PURCHASE OR SAMPLE AT THE MILSPEAK BOOKS STOREFRONT WAR STORIES EDITED BY SALLY DRUMM AND SALLY SHORE War Stories, a collection of short stories written by veterans, touches upon every aspect of military life from hard combat to losing a comrade, to making love after being blown up by a mortar to honoring the war dead to remembering the Indian Wars, WWII, lost loves, and surrender to a medical system that never understands its military patients and yet is designed to serve only them. This anthology, featuring new and previously published fiction, is loaded with the imaginative powers of veterans from every era of war since the Korean War. With selections from 27 authors complemented with art by veteran Robert Wilson, this collection is packed not only with stories that bleed off the page and into your mind, but also with a new understanding of military life for those who have never experienced it. Purchase at the MilSpeak Books Storefront or download a sample BROTHER DIONYSUS SEAN BRENDAN-BROWN In BROTHER DIONYSUS, veteran Sean Brendan-Brown explores military life and its aftermath through characters as strangely wrought as those peopling Sherwood Anderson’s fiction and as real as those portrayed in Raymond Barthes’ collection of cultural essays, Mythologies. Brendan-Brown’s characters navigate the quagmire of life after military service, never failing to make a strong statement about the state of the culture, never failing to find humor in the most mind-boggling situations, and never failing to disappoint readers’ desires to know what it’s really like to live after going to war. Not since Raymond Carver has a writer more clearly shared the vagaries, joys, and comedy of human existence, while revealing the salvation in it for us all. Purchase at the MilSpeak Books Storefront or download a free sample HOW TO NOT TELL A WAR STORY MICHAEL LUND In this collection of short stories about veterans who went to war but left without a war story to tell. Forty years after their experience, these veterans begin asking if there is something more to say about their military service. Among other things, they come to appreciate the lovers, friends, and family who helped them shape a new post-war identity. Explore with Michael Lund the lives of these veterans who discover being in the service is not something to be edited out of a personal history, but an experience that stays in memory, not an ending but the beginning of a measure of peace, no matter how short the stint, or inglorious. Purchase at the MilSpeak Books Storefront A COMMON BOND II Poetry, Prose, and Song by Participants of The Memorial Day Writers' Project in Tribute to America’s Veterans 1993-2011 Edited by Richard Epstein This eloquent anthology, carefully stitched together by veteran Richard Epstein, contains poetry, prose, and songs written by 21 Memorial Day Writers’ Project participants. Spanning 1993 – 2011, a period in United States history that began in peacetime and has stretched into the longest war fought by the U.S. military since Viet Nam, this sampling will make your heart bleed, but your soul will smile. Read an Excerpt Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront THE WESTERING TOM SHEEHAN These twenty-one short stories tell of the pioneering of those who came from many countries, many customs, many cultures, and brought much of that mix with them to create the American West as we now know it. Sheehan once again delights and astounds readers with majesty and mastery of craft. Read an Excerpt Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront HARRY AND BO AND OTHER STORIES FROM A RAMBLING MIND Danny Johnson Not since Breece D'JPancake has a writer the likes of Danny Johnson emerged from the South with all the glory and hell of life attached and intact in his fiction. Add a measure of Tim O'Brien's stylization of military life and you still have only a glimmer of the storytelling you'll love in the Harry and Bo collection. Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront MICKEY 6 JOHN KOELSCH In Mickey 6, Vietnam Veteran Koelsch’s carefully wrought characters, torn between duty and personal ethos, tread deeply into the circumstances that force payment of an eternal price from the souls and minds of those who serve, and from those who lead, as they fight for their country. With themes applicable to warriors of all eras, Mickey 6 chronicles the struggles of leadership in war, of loss of humanity, and of the enduring spirit of those who must return to life from the ravages of war. Read an Excerpt Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront TRIPTYCHS: A ‘NAM MARINE’S NOW AND THEN Poems & Prose by Andrew Syor Illustrated by Henry Avignon Composed of riffs on the forms of haiku (extended haiku), memoir (micro memoir) and photography (photosculpture), this electronic book is composed of 51 panels grouped in sets of three as 17 triptychs. To form each triptych, these folding-in-upon-center panels are arranged as two tablets of writing that enclose an image, the inner core, a visual representation of the writer’s thoughts. Together, each triptych is a communiqué formed of written and visual art created by collaboration of writer and artist. Read an Excerpt Purchase at MilSpeak Books storefront KOREAN ECHOES POETRY BY TOM SHEEHAN, KOREAN WAR VETERAN The 45 poems that compose KOREAN ECHOES draw the reader into piecing together a puzzle, with each poem presenting a small measure of the Korean War soldier's world, a world wholly embedded in the deepest design at the heart of human experience, embedded as if words were shrapnel, steel moments of clarity rendered from language and pounded into consciousness through Tom Sheehan's craftsmanship, each poem a sharpened moment of awareness of all humanity can be, do, and endure, and still love life and living. KOREAN ECHOES, a poetic testament to the tenacity of the human spirit to survive the killing fields of war through time eternal, presents themes as well known to today's warrior as to the ancient warrior of The Iliad and The Odyssey: the battle to understand war, to achieve reconciliation, and to forgive the enemy and the self. Read an Excerpt Purchase at the MilSpeak Books Storefront NIGHTMARE IN NORWAY DICK REYNOLDS In his third espionage thriller, author Dick Reynolds packs the pages with world travel, love, murder and the surreal life of unwilling spy Sandy Gilmartin. A momentary encounter with a Norwegian beauty sends Sandy, engineer and reluctant spy, on a journey from the groves of Orange County, California to the snowbanks of Norway. Will drifting into a life of espionage and romance lead Sandy to the secret of becoming the hero of his own life? Find out in this romp of a novel that will feed your need for more Scandinavian adventure if you love The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Travel through Norway, China, and California with author Dick Reynolds, world traveler and mountain climber, who puts his all into every scene, every twist of plot, and every moment of guilty romantic pleasure. Read an Excerpt Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront Last Hurrah for an Evil Empire Casey Cavanaugh As the sun begins to set on the Soviet Union, desperation slowly grips this once great empire's staunchest champions. This is the story of the courageous few who fight to hold off that final sunset, and of the American counter-intelligence operatives who bring the Cold War to end game. When a country calls, some give all.... Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront  The American Letters Dennis Adams  A not-so-innocent abroad recounts his travels to a French village for an international convention of towns with the name "Beaufort." Adams contemplates life while learning fresh lessons about customs and attitudes from hosts who know the true meaning of "hospitalite." The completely bilingual text in English and French is a great resource for learners of either language. If you loved Raymond Barthes' Mythologies, you'll love The American Letters. Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront Mayhem in Mazatlan Dick Reynolds Vicky Armstrong, 48-years old, is broke & living in a VW van in California after her husband leaves her for another woman. Vicky changes her life and seeks revenge. Her quest for justice takes her to Switzerland in this powerfully erotic tale of murder, romance and international intrigue.    Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront Averil, My Anchor Dick Reynolds  A romantic thriller chockfull of cross-continental challenges to test Averil and Mark Holloway's 10-year marriage. As Mark's fascination with his first love leads to an affair, will Averil's love endure Mark's tangled web of deceit? Will the answer matter if Averil's terrorist ex-husband finds her?   Purchase at MilSpeak Books Storefront  ALWAYS FREE MilSpeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family & Friends Writing the Military Experience Edited by Sally Drumm    The complete anthology & workshop memoir as it appeared in print is available as a FREE eBook. A great volume (for the living room or the class room) to get the conversation started about the wartime experience and military life. What are our troops and their families really enduring to answer the call to duty? Revisit the Korean War and Vietnam War on your way to Gulf Wars in memoir written by those who have lived the military life. contact: milspeakfoundation@milspeak.org Copyright 2005-2015 MilSpeak Foundation, Inc. Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks or logos does not constitute endorsement of Milspeak, Milspeak Memo, or linked sites, or the information (written and graphic), products, or services contained therein, by the Department of Defense, any other government agency or office. MILSPEAK FOUNDATION (501c3), foundation programs and publications, do not engage in political activity; however, writers and artists may present political opinions. Every attempt will be made to make space for diversity. Content on these pages represents thoughts and opinions of the writers & artists, and not the official position of MilSpeak Foundation, its directors or of any other person, organization or institution.