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You Want It When?! The Value of Deadlines

Dennis L. Peterson

Aug 7, 2020
3 min

You Want It When?! The Value of Deadlines

Viewed another way, however, they can be of great benefit, regardless of your job title, but especially if you are an editor or a writer. We all have deadlines in life, many of them imposed on us by others, some self-imposed, and some that we impose upon others. Some deadlines are realistic, others are downright ridiculous, and a few are totally meaningless. The key is distinguishing one from the other and dealing with each appropriately. As a student, I had to meet certain d

Announcing New Book Contract!

Dennis L. Peterson

Jul 21, 2020
1 min

Announcing New Book Contract!

I just signed a contract with TouchPoint Press for publication of my book Evangelism and Expulsion: Missionary Work Among the Cherokees Until Removal! Not sure what the release date will be, but the process toward that goal has begun! This is my third book with TouchPoint. My first work they published was Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History, released earlier this year. The second, Christ in Camp and Combat: Religious Work in the Confederate Armies, is due to begin

Dream!

Dennis L. Peterson

Jul 17, 2020
3 min

Dream!

One memory I have of Nannie Summers, my maternal grandmother, was her attitude toward dreams. I recall her saying that one should never tell anyone what he or she had dreamed lest it come true. As a child, I thought that odd because I often had good dreams that I wished would come true! I haven’t dreamed about muddy water lately (that I recall), but I have had several dreams about several family members (many of whom passed into eternity years ago), friends, and even some for

The Worst Writing Advice

Dennis L. Peterson

Jun 26, 2020
3 min

The Worst Writing Advice

In last week’s post, we considered some of the most helpful advice about writing. But, as I mentioned in that post, everyone is a critic, ready and more than willing to offer advice. Some of it is helpful, but much of it is anything but that. And much of that counsel is offered by people who are not writers, and some of it comes from those who are still working at the craft but have not yet been published. So how do they know what works? They only know what hasn’t worked for

Advice that Helped My Writing

Dennis L. Peterson

Jun 18, 2020
2 min

Advice that Helped My Writing

Someone once asked what pieces of advice have helped me most with my writing. After contemplating the question for a while, I think I’d have to give the following answer. “Make Every Word Count.” Use a thesaurus to help with this task. It will show you that even broad synonyms have various shades of meaning. Choose the exact word. 2. “When In Doubt, Cut It Out.” But be forewarned: writing tight is hard work. The shorter the text must be, the harder it is to write. But your wr

Life’s Interruptions

Dennis L. Peterson

Jun 12, 2020
2 min

Life’s Interruptions

The first event occurred last Thursday afternoon as I was putting the final touches on my blog posting, which was to appear the next morning. Before I could post it, I suddenly had no internet service. The Friday blog post didn’t happen. (Did you miss it?) It’s not too uncommon in our area for us to lose that connection for a few minutes, but this outage was unusual, lasting until the technician came and fixed the problem (a broken underground cable) Sunday afternoon. It made

What’s That Smell?!

Dennis L. Peterson

May 22, 2020
3 min

What’s That Smell?!

It’s funny how smells can trigger various emotions and thoughts. You detect a certain odor, and your mind immediately flies to a memory of a person, an event, or a substance. A former teacher’s perfume. A steamy apple pie fresh from the oven. A smelly, stale, sweat-saturated locker room. An old elementary school classroom. Fresh cut pine lumber. A skunk that is now roadkill. My mind turned to thinking about odors while I was shampooing my hair during my shower. I began to thi

Learning from Rejection and Failure

Dennis L. Peterson

May 15, 2020
3 min

Learning from Rejection and Failure

Different teachers have different teaching styles. Even students recognize that fact, and they often like (or dislike) a teacher because of his or her style. This fact becomes even more profound when one becomes a teacher. Furthermore, a new teacher often tends, consciously or subconsciously, to imitate the style of one of his or her favorite teachers. We tend to teach as we were taught. That can be either good or bad. The first brick he had me lay were limited to parts of th

Remembering William Zinsser

Dennis L. Peterson

May 12, 2020
2 min

Remembering William Zinsser

Zinsser was born October 7, 1922. Following service in the Army in North Africa and Italy during World War II, he returned to the United States and fulfilled a life-long dream by being hired as a writer for the New York Herald Tribune as a theater reviewer. When that stopped being fun for him, he quit and became a freelance writer. He also taught writing courses at Yale and later became executive editor of the Book-of-the-Month Club. In addition to numerous articles and revie

The Virtue of Silence

Dennis L. Peterson

May 8, 2020
3 min

The Virtue of Silence

My week started off with a measure of excitement for me. I was able to meet (in a virtual sort of way) an author whose works I’ve long admired. The meeting occurred during a Zoom meeting (a technology that I’ve come to appreciated during this time of enforced isolation) of the “scribes” for the Coolidge Foundation with its board chairman, historian Amity Shlaes. I logged in early to ensure that nothing went wrong with the new (to me) technology and in the hope that I might be

Where Has the Time Gone?!

Dennis L. Peterson

May 1, 2020
2 min

Where Has the Time Gone?!

First, he calculated how much time he had had to that point of his life. (I think he was in his mid-70s at the time, having been born about 1908.) He laid it all out, down to the number of hours and minutes. (He was a much better mathematician than I am.) Then, he began to recount his estimation of the various activities of his life and how many hours he had spent doing each of them. Sleeping took up much of that time, of course. He had gotten relatively little of it during t

Tuesday Teaser: Victory Is Certain!

Dennis L. Peterson

Apr 28, 2020
1 min

Tuesday Teaser: Victory Is Certain!

(Excerpted from Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History by Dennis L. Peterson. Available on Amazon at http://ow.ly/ZXQ350xX9mx) #DennisLPeterson #reading #writers #Militaryhistory #books #publishing #editing

Organized Chaos

Dennis L. Peterson

Apr 24, 2020
3 min

Organized Chaos

“A cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind.” That statement often runs through my mind when I look at my desk or wherever I happen to be working (i.e., writing) at the time. And I write all over the place. The location depends on a variety of factors. My back has taught me that too long a period sitting at one location can wreak havoc on one’s back. Sometimes, it depends on my current task and how much room I need to do it. Lately, my possible work locations have been

Tuesday Teaser: Supply and Logistics

Dennis L. Peterson

Apr 21, 2020
1 min

Tuesday Teaser: Supply and Logistics

(Excerpt from Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History by Dennis L. Peterson, available on Amazon at http://ow.ly/ZXQ350xX9mx.) #writing #DennisLPeterson #Combat #writers #Militaryhistory #books #publishing #editing #Lessonslearned

Blisters over Blather

Dennis L. Peterson

Apr 17, 2020
1 min

Blisters over Blather

The Korean War has often been called America’s “forgotten war.” People remember World War II and Vietnam, but sandwiched between those conflicts was Korea, and people tend to overlook it. Foremost among those lessons is the importance of leading by personal example. Ridgway knew the importance of getting out among his soldiers, of seeing things from their perspective, of coming to a firsthand understanding of the problems they faced. He made a point of rubbing shoulders with

Lessons from Sun Tzu, Jomini, and Clausewitz

Dennis L. Peterson

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

Lessons from Sun Tzu, Jomini, and Clausewitz

Throughout much of America’s military history, its strategies of warfare have been based to varying degrees on the teachings of three great military men: Sun Tzu, a Chinese philosopher and military strategist who wrote The Art of War around 500 B.C.; Antoine-Henri Jomini, a French general who published Treatise on Grand Military Operations in 1838; and Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian general whose work On War, published posthumously in 1832, emphasized the moral (psychologica

Context Is the Key

Dennis L. Peterson

Mar 27, 2020
3 min

Context Is the Key

Some (dare I say most?) history textbooks present “the big picture,” painting a broad impression of what took place in a particular era’s, region’s, or country’s history. Others look at a much smaller picture, focusing on what happened in a specific year, month, or day, or in a specific city or other small (relatively speaking) location. Another way of putting it is that some historians look at historical events through the lens of a telescope, whereas others look through the

Tuesday Teaser: Faithfulness in the Least

Dennis L. Peterson

Mar 24, 2020
1 min

Tuesday Teaser: Faithfulness in the Least

[From Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History by Dennis L. Peterson, available on Amazon at http://ow.ly/ZXQ350xX9mx] #writing #DennisLPeterson #Combat #reading #lessonsofhistory #writers #Militaryhistory #History #education #books #publishing #editing #learning

Change and Continuity Revisited

Dennis L. Peterson

Mar 20, 2020
2 min

Change and Continuity Revisited

Today, I take a brief glance backward to August 28, 2015, when I posted this article, my first effort at blogging. Much has changed since that time. I’m older. My fingers are bent a little more from arthritis. I have more grandchildren. But many things also remain the same. I’m still living my dream of writing. I continue to learn from history. And I hope I’ve grown a little better as a person and as a writer. Sometimes it’s good to look back and evaluate where one is in rela

Write2Ignite Interview Article

Dennis L. Peterson

Mar 16, 2020
1 min

Write2Ignite Interview Article

https://write2ignite.com/2020/03/16/combat-part-ii/#respond. #writing #DennisLPeterson #Combat #reading #writers #Militaryhistory #bookreviews #books #publishing #bookprogress

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