Writing Guide

  • Journey, writing about war

Still, the journey

The last three times I have traveled it was to Vietnam. I prepared in all ...
  • Seeking Quan Am

The POW-MIA Metaphor

My writing group, The Pen and the Sword, considers topics related to any war, but ...
lighted candle on black candle holder
  • Seasonings

Advent 2023

As soon as we arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the early 60s, my parents went "church shopping," visiting Methodist churches one after another. Things went awry every time. One church didn't have a Sunday School. The minister at another told newcomers to stand up and he commented on one woman's 'lovely hat.' The final straw was the church that gave out Green Stamps to those attending. (Who remembers Green Stamps?) My parents, though both ...
  • writing, thinking, talking
A Place for Interesting Things
a coffee cup and a pen on a desk

Two high school classmates take very different paths to negotiate the war that marked their coming of age. Decades later they reconnect, learn to listen to one another’s story. They travel in space and time to the Vietnam of their memories and seek to reconcile both with the reality of today.

SEEKING QUAN AM
A DUAL MEMOIR OF WAR AND VIETNAM

 

by Susan R. Dixon and Mark M. Smith

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