So, how did you get started with the writing? Any special training?
I was probably better at writing than most of my peers, but I didn't have any special talent or training. Writing is mostly just hard work. During my freshman year at Purdue I took a semester of advanced composition so that I could test out of English. I busted my backside and got a big, fat "C."
Anyway, I was like a lot of people: "I've always wanted to write a book." Well, after Desert Storm there was no one writing any of the sorts of first-person accounts of the fighting that I had enjoyed reading as a young man. I figured that I had been there and that I could write about it as well as anyone else, so I gave it a shot. That, combined with the fact that Monica and I had just bought our first computer. I can't imagine writing a book on a typewriter. Agh!
This was "Hornets over Kuwait?"
Yes, and I did everything wrong. I just wrote it and sent it straight out to about a ga-jillion publishers without an agent or even a proposal or a query letter. Most of the manuscripts came back with notes that essentially said, "Thanks, but no thanks," or "You suck and so does your book," or "Don't ever bother us again." Of course, not exactly in those words. There were a couple of bites though, and eventually after a rewrite or two and some tough editing, Naval Institute Press published it in 1997.
The Marine Corps hated it. In the book I used some colorful language and I picked on some of the senior generals, and some of the Marine Corps's policies. I slammed the AV-8B Harrier and questioned the role of women in the military. But because of my frankness and honesty I made a lot of friends and sold a few books. I think that the Naval Institute Press was pleased.
Now, almost a decade later, I sometimes cringe when I pick it up and read bits of it. Not because my stance on any of the controversial issues has changed, but rather some of the writing appears very amateurish. I could write it so much better now. Still, I think the publisher puposely edited it that way in order to keep the book honest--so that there was no doubt it was written by a warrior rather than a professional.
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