In June 2005, retired Marine Sally Drumm set out to create a memoir-writing program for military people. Four years later, Milspeak Creative Writing Seminar participants’ work is collected in Milspeak; Warriors, Veterans, Family, and Friends Writing the Military Experience (Press 53, 2009).

I talked to Sally's group in the fall of 2008 about freelance writing, and loved meeting so many talented writers--her program is truly unique and inspiring. Then I contributed a short essay, "The Risks of Writing and the Courage to Do it Anyway," to the collection.

The book includes fifty-eight selections of poetry, essay, and memoir by new and established authors, among them Michael Kobre, Dinty W. Moore, Richard Peabody, and Rebecca McClanahan. Sally also provides readers with the workshop story as it unfolds parallel to her own search for home and stability following a twenty-year military career. The book is available from Press 53 and from Amazon.com.

Hilton Head Island; Unpacked and Staying (Catawba, 2007) is a collection of more than forty selections from Lowcountry authors, including short sotries, non-fiction features, memoirs, poems, and photographs. While the stories and poems vary from light humor to deep spirituality, each conveys the writer's intense love of the island that we are so fortunate to call home.

I was a member of the Island Writer's Network for three years and contributed a short memoir, "Islander," about moving to the Hilton Head and learning to call the island home. Contact me to purchase a copy, or check availability on Amazon.com.