Working hard this week, got several new drafts posted. These are mostly things I had in very rough form already and have been cleaning up, organizing, revising and trying to decide how they all fit together. All center around the arrival home and going to England AFB, beginning the process of refusal.

Having some problem figuring out how to insert a scan – it’s there, but won’t scale down to right size… maybe I can get one of my genius sons to help me figure it out. I’m just a techno-challenged old man.

I’ve posted a new chapter, Welcome Home, in draft form. This is just the journal entries for the chapter, and may actually get broken up into several chapters as I insert narrative and genre pieces into the various slots in the journal.

I know I will add the story “Kill People Mostly” at some point in the chapter, perhaps as a separate chapter. There’s also a piece on a conversation with my mother that I still need to write that will go into the sequence early.

The chapter also needs some narrative to fill in gaps in the whole ‘process of getting out’ story – my journal writing was always sporadic and left out a  lot, so there will be narrative at various points. For this sequence, I’m thinking of breaking it up into smaller chunks rather than the big overlapping pieces I’ve been doing so far, mainly because the sequence is more critical here and the level of detail is greater. Also, my journal is pretty dull and flat, so needs something to perk it up! I may actually treat it as background and try to round out the story in narrative, so that the journal entries are optional…. not sure that’s a good idea, though.

Now I just have to start reading it and seeing what needs to go where… Lots of work before this one gets updated! But when it does, the original story will be complete. Just need to finish the Trip narrative. Getting close!

I just revised the NKP page… significantly changed and added to the chapter, with lots more specifics. Still may need some revision and editing, though.

I posted two new sections today, “Rocket Alley,” about being at Da Nang Air Base, and “NKP,” about being at Nakon Phanom Air Base and momentous events there that extended my tour.

The Da Nang piece I’ve been working on for a while and feel okay about it, though it may need additions and revisions. The NKP piece is definitely still draft form. Have barely read it. It seems flat to me and needs lots of work, maybe total revision. Ole Bob Seeger sure got it right: what to leave out, what to leave in, that’s the hard part.

But it’s there in some form. This is a little easier to write about, emotionally, than the earlier stuff, but harder to get it good… 

I’ve posted (as a page) my favorite story of this cycle… The Wall, 1973. It’s been written for a while, based on journal entries, but keep tweaking it. Finally decided to just post it. It may get further edits.

I deviated a bit from the standard format – introduced the story with a bit of journal. But I think by now, the reader will flow with that, no problems. Hope to get some feedback on these format issues from people who read it… so please comment!

Also am working on, at least mentally, the next chapter/section/piece, “Rockey Alley” – I’m only 3 pages into it, but hope to finish drafting it this weekend. I may begin posting drafts here, identified drafts. All of this is in a sense, draft version. I guess a few of these pieces I feel solid enough about to call done, but most are still malleable in my mind. And the overall order, organization, could radically change when it’s all together. Comments re: that issue would also be appreciated. I like the near-random nature of it, but I don’t want to go so far as to leave the reader wondering what the hell’s happening. Of course, I usually feel that way when reading Toni Morrison, and she gets away with it! Not comparing my writing to hers, of course. But I am inspired by her work, as well as other more obvious people – like Tim O’Brien and Susan Griffin, and recently my friend Sonya Huber – whose creative non-fiction has given me the audacity to try to put my story together.

To all of you who have begun reading this, thanks so much! It has been a long time since I began this work in the warm embrace of a writer’s circle, and I miss that feedback. I am reticent to ask anyone to read it, so I am extremely grateful to those of you who’ve volunteered! I value every response, even if it’s negative. Since I’m treating this as experimental, I need to know what doesn’t work for you.

Thanks! May you all be happy and peaceful! May all beings be happy! Deep gassho!