Continuing Actions
Continuing Actions Chapter 2
DEADLY MISCONCEPTIONS MECHANICAL ADJUSTMENTS are easy. If a pistol-shooter consistently hits low on the target, it’s more than likely they’re anticipating the shot. A good pistol coach can break that bad habit and have them drilling the bull’s-eye in short order. The same cannot be said for mental adjustments. Mental adjustments cannot be externally imposed—they have to come from within. In order for us to change how we perceive the world, we need some motivation, some personal understanding of why the adjustment is necessary. Years of inertia must be overcome before most people will even listen to a different viewpoint, [...]
Continuing Actions Chapter 1
NONE OF THIS IS NEW A FEW YEARS BEFORE the invasion of Iraq, Mongo (his mom didn’t name him that; we—his friends—did) was flying a Cobra helicopter with a senior officer from our squadron. Crossing a huge desert training range, they heard the electronic beeping of an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) coming through their radios. Knowing a stricken aircraft must be nearby, they began searching and soon spotted smoke rising above the desert scrub. Not far away from the blackened remains of the jet, they saw the pilot, still strapped in his ejection seat and not moving. After landing the [...]
Continuing Actions for Free: Prologue
I'm going to try something new. Over the next 16 posts or so, I'm going to chop up my entire second book, Continuing Actions: A Warrior's Guide to Coming Home, and send it out through blog posts. I'm doing this because, despite ringing endorsements from Dr. Jonathan Shay (Achilles in Vietnam, Odysseus in America) and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and bestselling author Tom Ricks, it hasn't exactly been leaping off Amazon's shelves. Instead, I'm seeing posts on social media from veterans and their families struggling to make sense of their lives post-service and trying to adjust to their new normal. Heartbreakingly, [...]
How to address veteran suicide–other than filming ourselves doing pushups, I mean.
I've done the 22 pushups-thing. Other than giving my giant mutt unfettered access to thoroughly tongue my ears, I can't say they accomplished much. That's not completely true--my ears are sparkly clean--but that wasn't the point. The short videos were supposed to help raise awareness that an alarming number of veterans are choosing to take their own lives. I don't know who started the whole campaign but I think it has, thankfully, run its course. Veteran suicide, on the other hand, hasn't gone away. Funny thing, that. Letting folks know about the problem is one thing. Addressing it [...]
Mines! No, Seriously. MINES!
What happens when a unit has to go through a minefield? In a perfect world, they'd wait for Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams to clear it. In reality, the one EOD guy in the Battalion teaches hundreds of suddenly very attentive grunts how to poke around in the dirt with pointy things and hope nothing goes boom. That's more preparation than veterans get for the challenges of transitioning out of the service. That process can be just as deadly as a field of bouncing betty's but veterans aren't given a pointy stick to clear their path. Hell, most of us don't [...]
Tom Ricks Reviews ‘Continuing Actions’
Tom Ricks has an impressive resume. With five books under his belt (including the best-seller Fiasco), a Pulitzer prize for his reporting with the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and contributing editor for Foreign Policy Magazine, Tom has made a career out of calling bullshit on things that don't seem right. Which is why I am so very pleased with his review of my second book, Continuing Actions. Here's a link to the review on his blog: Tom Ricks Review by Tom Ricks, Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter for the Wall Street Journaland Washington Post, bestselling author of Fiasco, Senior [...]
Marketing Strategy: Reviews
You are probably saying "What? Why's Dan writing about his marketing strategy on his blog about coming home from war?" Well, because it involves you, that's why. As you probably know, I've just published my second book, Continuing Actions. Now that the book is available on amazon.com, my efforts shift from production to marketing. Hence, this post. The most valuable marketing tool available to a self-published author are the reviews posted on the book's amazon.com product page. These reviews allow potential readers to see what other readers, just like them, thought about the book. The best reviews give a little background [...]
Continuing Actions Is Now Available On Amazon
I'm very pleased to announce that my second book, Continuing Actions: A Warrior's Guide to Coming Home is available for purchase at the following link: Continuing Actions: A Warrior's Guide to Coming Home I have written several posts explaining what this book is about, how it is different from my first one, and why I chose to write it. I won't rehash any of that here and will just close with this: Continuing Actions is the book I wish I'd read before going into combat. It wouldn't have changed what I did in Iraq, but it would have better prepared me to [...]
What’s In A Cover?
As the release of Continuing Actions: A Warrior's Guide to Coming Home draws near, I thought I'd share a little bit about the cover design that the team from Ascent created for it. I might be able to write, but that is where my creative talents end--I am not a visual arts kind of guy. For both of my books, I have outsourced the creation of the cover design with little-to-no guidance about what I wanted them to look like. Usually my instructions to the design team went something along the lines of, "I don't want this, or that. I want [...]
Dr. Jonathan Shay Has Written The Foreword For Continuing Actions
I intended to have Continuing Actions completed and available for sale by last May--thank god I blew that deadline. If I hadn't, I would have missed out on an opportunity that felt so remote I hardly allowed myself to consider it a real possibility. But I delayed publication, took a chance, and Dr. Jonathan Shay agreed to write the Foreword for my second book. For those who don't know Dr. Shay, here's a short list of his credentials and accomplishments: He's a clinical psychiatrist (MD) with 20 years working with Vietnam veterans at the Boston VA, a classical scholar (PhD), the best-selling [...]
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