Dispatches - March 2012

Submitted by Joyce Faulkner on March 24, 2012 - 23:56

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is enjoying spring weather. Pat Avery, Jim Greenwald, Buddy Cox, and I took a trip to Dayton last week to finalize details for our conference there this fall. We are all excited about the venue and about the program that is shaping up. Please read this information here and watch for updates in the next few weeks.

I'm also excited to announce a coop between MWSA and Perceptive Marketing. This is a wonderful opportunity for MWSA as an organisation and for members who are looking for help to develop marketing plans - either for a book that's already been published or for a book in the pre-publication stages. The arrangement lowers the price of this kind of professional support to a level that most of us can afford. See details here.

We are also pleased that several of our members are being considered for a trip to Italy and Spain to talk about their books arranged by the Navy Librarians in that area. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Congratulations to Marcia Sargent on recieving the William E. Mayer Award for March. Here is what she had to say about her poem, "Lost Friends" - This is a recent poem. I lost a friend two weeks ago to another damn airplane crash. I had never met him but felt he was a member of my family--the first blogger I ever followed. Capt. Carroll LeFon was an officer in the Navy for over 30 years and a true gentleman who wrote under the name of Neptunus Lex. He flew the Kfir in the aggressor squadron at TopGun and crashed on landing. 52 years old.

I wasn't sure why I had the blood in the poem until he died. Now I know each death cuts me to the heart and I bleed trying to pick up the pieces. His memorial is on Tuesday. I will be at Fort Rosecrans to do him honor and to show his family respect.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Marcia -- and Godspeed, Captain LeFon. We'll keep you and your family in our thoughts.

Next month's William E. Mayer inspiration phrase is: "Moving On"

Also, congratulations to Marcia Sargent for doing our very first MWSA Online Book Discussion about her Memoir, "Wing Wife: How to be Married to a Marine Fighter Pilot" -- the topics were intriguing and educational. Everyone who has and is participating, you are making a wonderful contribution to the quality of what we can offer each other. The second Online Book Discussion will be Walt Shiel who will discuss his novel, "Once a Knight" on Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29th. It will be moderated by Jack London.

Next month, I'll be training two new editors for Dispatches. Dwight Zimmerman has agreed to be the Executive Editor and James Enderle will be the Managing Editor. As we have moved forward to a social networking-friendly online version, I'd like to know how important the laid-out Magazine pdf form of Dispatches is to you. If you'd like to keep it, we need a majority of our members to vote to keep it and a volunteer to learn how to format it. So, be sure to vote in this poll.

MWSA Site Features

Group Calendar

News Feeds

Book Review Forum for Marcia Sargent's Memoir "Wing Wife" - Content & Message

Book Review Forum for Marcia Sargent's Memoir "Wing Wife" - Technique

Frank Cox Radio Interview

Book Review Waiting List

Positively Pittsburgh Live Interview of Carolyn Schriber

Positively Pittsburgh Live Interview of Joe Sanchez

Should we keep the pdf version of Dispatches?

Columns

Fighter Pilot Rules for Life - Marcia Sargent