Come join us at the upcoming Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) Writers Edcuation event with Bob Doerr, Past MWSA President and author of 27 books. Hear Bob's thoughts on the importance of Telling, Narration and Dialogue. Join your friends and colleagues at this link on July 27, 5:00 PM EST.
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/events/2025/telling-narration-and-dialogue-bob-doerr
We recently received an email from a like-minded organization called War Horse. Here’s their mission statement:
The War Horse is an award-winning nonprofit newsroom and the most trusted source for bulletproof reporting on the human impact of military service. Our team strengthens our democracy by holding power to account and improving the public’s understanding of the true cost of military service.
War Horse is seeking applications for an upcoming seminar, so we’re sharing this info with our members.
Writing Seminar Details
The War Horse, an award-winning news site, invites Black veterans to apply for its 2025 Writing Seminar.
Despite centuries of courageous service, Black veterans have often been overlooked in the nation’s historical record and narratives about military life. Their voices deserve to be heard to set the record straight and enrich our collective understanding of war, sacrifice, resilience, and community.
The War Horse’s all-expenses-paid seminars offer new and seasoned writers a chance to find and hone their stories. Participants will meet with mentors, editors, and other veterans in a supportive environment allowing them to write, share, learn, and heal.
This year’s seminar will run from October 19-24th at Lucky Spur Ranch in Justin, Texas.
To learn more about the seminar, including how to apply, please visit: https://thewarhorse.org/writing-seminar-black-veterans/
Applications close on July 27, 2025.
Military Writers Society of America’s (MWSA’s) 2025 anthology, Reflections: Service to our Country, has been published and is available for purchase.
Anthology Chair and Senior Editor Bob Doerr said, “Every few years, MWSA provides an opportunity for members to be published in one of our anthologies. Reflections: Service to our Country includes poems, articles, and stories. Some will make you laugh. Others you will find enlightening. You may even shed a tear.”
This was the first year MWSA published its anthology under its own publication entity with Military Writers Society of America as the publisher. MWSA thanks the 31 member contributors for sharing their words and our volunteer editors for giving their time. We’d also like to thank our layout and design professional, Andrea Reider of Reiderbooks.com, for her extraordinary efforts and patience in working with the MWSA team under this new process.
All 31 contributors will receive their paperback courtesy copies in the next few weeks.
We hope you enjoy our reflections in keeping with MWSA’s mission of “Saving History One Story at a Time.” You can purchase paperback and eBook copies here: 2025: Reflections, Service to our Country — Military Writers Society of America.
Our latest Writers Education, Write Your Story Zoom Session, is available for viewing. To watch the video, click on the image below.
You can also view the video directly using one of the links below:
YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmd3nDpmWAY
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/MWSA.MembersPublic/videos/673666208987988
To watch any of our prior Writers Education videos and to see what we have scheduled in the future, visit our Writers Education page:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/writers-education#wys
Click on the image to watch the video
The moment we’ve been waiting for is here – our new merch store has launched and is officially open! 🎉
We’ve created a special place where you can shop for all our exclusive branded merchandise and some awesome products that show off what makes MWSA unique. It’s all here—designed with you in mind!
Everything You Need!
With a wide variety of stylish apparel, we’ve got something for everyone. Show off your organizational pride!
How to Get Started
Visit the store here: https://yourmpstore.com/mwsa or navigate your way to the last item on our MWSA Resources page
Create an account using your [email address] and [password]
Start exploring and enjoy shopping!
Get Involved
We’d love to hear what you think about the store! After you’ve checked it out, feel free to share your feedback with us at vp@mwsa.co. Is there something you’d like to see? Anything we can improve? Your input will help us make the store even better.
Thank you again for all your support. We’re excited to share this with you and can’t wait to see you wearing our gear. As a bonus, our supplier is a veteran owned business!
Let’s celebrate the launch and show off our MWSA camaraderie together! 💥
After many weeks of planning and negotiating, we're finally ready to start taking reservations for this year's conference in Kansas City, September 25-28.
For this year, we have three registration options:
Full conference–$275
Half conference–$205
Awards banquet only–$145
Rates for non-members are $25 higher than the prices listed above. However, as an added incentive to join MWSA as a full member, those registering for full or half conference attendance will become full members (a 50% discount on the regular cost of a one-year membership).
To learn more about this year’s conference or to register for both the conference and the hotel, visit the conference page on our website:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/events/2025-conference
In addition to asking everyone to put the conference dates on their calendars, we are looking for members who would like to be a presenter or a panel member. If you've been to prior conferences, you know they are easy-going affairs. We also need volunteers to help work the registration table, to be timekeepers, and so on. If you would like to volunteer as a mentor, you can let us know via the volunteer form on our conference page (link above).
If you’ve never joined us for a conference in the past and would like to get a feel for what you can expect, you might want to have a look at our past conferences. On each conference’s page, you’ll find photos of the "action" and the agenda of activities during each of our prior member get-togethers. Here’s a link to our past conferences page:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/events-past-and-future#conferences
We're looking forward to another successful and enjoyable conference this year. If you have any questions, please email our conference organizers at events@mwsa.co.
See you in Kansas City!
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MWSA will host the third installment of our Writing Your Story educational webinars on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific.
This edition will be presented by Jack Woodville London and is titled: Starting Your Story/Characters.
Visit our Writers Education page to see more details, get the Zoom link to join our session, watch our prior two sessions, and/or see what’s on tap for future episodes:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/writers-education#wys
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Another unique benefit of MWSA membership is our author interview program. All dues-paying members can submit an interview form, which we’ll publish online (on our website and various social media outlets) and in our Dispatches magazine. Use our interview program to spread the word about your latest writing adventures and to let your existing readers know about any ongoing or future writing projects. If you’re a new author, introduce yourself to future readers and put in a plug for your new book.
Under our system, you have complete control over the interview: you tell us which questions to ask and provide your answers. It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s just another benefit of being an MWSA member.
To learn more, read other authors’ interviews, or submit your interview to us, visit our author interview page:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/author-interviews
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Last year, the MWSA Board of Directors conducted a thorough bylaws review to ensure our bylaws continue to reflect the purpose and direction of the organization. We made administrative updates and are not looking to make major changes. However, as a board, we believe it is in the best interest of our members to have a legal review of our bylaws. In the past, we have had member lawyers do this review for us pro bono.
If we have a member out there who would be willing to review our bylaws during 2025, please let our Vice President, Val Ormond, know by emailing VP@mwsa.co.
MWSA received the following notification regarding an upcoming book awards program, which we pass along to members. This does not imply official endorsement.
The Next Generation Indie Book Awards, currently in its nineteenth year, is the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers. The Indie Book Awards is now accepting entries from independent publishers and authors worldwide who have a book written in English and released in 2024, 2025, 2026 or with 2024, 2025, or 2026 copyright date. For the 2026 awards program, the Indie Book Awards offers 80+ categories. The entry fee is $80 for the first category and $65 for every additional category entered for the same title. The entry deadline for the 2026 year is Thursday, February 12, 2026.
Winners and Finalists will be announced in mid-May. Winners in each of the 80+ categories are given $100 cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary stickers, social media coverage, possible representation by a leading literary agent, and recognition as one of the top independently published books of the year. Three Grand Prize Winners will be selected from all entries received and will be awarded cash prizes of $1500, $750 and $500 based on their order of win. All Winners and Finalists are invited to attend the Indie Book Awards gala ceremony. Enter today at http://www.indiebookawards.com.
Please join our first Writers Education Series of the year on May 18, 2025, when MWSA award-winning author Jack Woodville London will present “The Character, the Conflict, and the First Sentence – Setting up your Reader to Turn the Pages.” All webinars this year will be held on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific. You'll also find these webinars listed on our website's Events page.
This event will include a presentation, discussions, and questions and answers.
Please use the following link to join the meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/2245629439?pwd=AH6c5VaddDONn88i6dXU2aZKm1RLcB.1
If anyone has any questions, contact Jim Tritten at jimtritten@comcast.net.
If you weren’t able to join us for the second installment of our writers’ education Zoom for 2025, we’ve made a video, and it’s available now.
Host: Jim Tritten
Presenter: Nancy Arbuthnot
Subject: Write Your Story, Setting
See our Writers’ Education page for a list of all our educational video presentations.
The Kensington Day of the Book Festival is a family friendly street festival, held rain or shine, spanning three blocks of Howard Avenue in the heart of historic Kensington, MD. In its 18th year, the event will take place Sunday, April 27, 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
MWSA member Dick Epstein said, “It's that time again. The last Sunday in April is the Day of the Book Festival in Kensington, MD. I have the pleasure of hosting an open mic event at the Veterans Tent where writers, poets, singers, songwriters, and standup comics, can have a time slot at the mic to show or tell a welcoming audience about your recent work or activity. Please let me know if you are interested in participating and help get the word out to your followers. Let me know by return email at dick_epstein@hotmail.com if you want to participate. If you have any questions, call me at any time at 301-996-3016.”
For additional information about the festival, please visit https://www.dayofthebook.com/.
Congratulations to the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) for earning its Gold Seal of Transparency with @CandidDotOrg! For updates on MWSA’s impact through its #NonprofitProfile, please see the MWSA Candid Link.
From Candid - Nonprofit Profiles and Seals of Transparency
Candid offers a common online profile that can be updated, for free, by any tax-exempt organization. When an organization claims its profile and earns a Seal of Transparency, it becomes more visible not just on Candid's site, but also on more than 200 partner platforms including Facebook, Network for Good, and donor advised funds. Organizations earn Seals of Transparency by contributing information about their mission, staff and leadership, programs, goals, and more.
click to sign up for your free copy
Don’t pass up a chance for a free book! Visit our book giveaway page to sign up.
Here are the available books as of today:
The Road to War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture by Steven Burgauer
SAMS and NIGHT CARRIER LANDINGS by Roland McLean
Sparks in the Ether; A True Story about a Pioneer Radioman by Valarie J Anderson
Circle of Service: Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and the Family Business by Rick Bessette
Available to MWSA members only.
MWSA received the following notification regarding an upcoming short story awards program, which we pass along to members. This does not imply official endorsement.
The Next Generation Short Story Awards, currently in its second year, is a not-for-profit international awards program for authors of short stories. We are a Canadian company and host our awards program annually. The Short Story Awards is now accepting entries, i.e. short stories and poems in English (5000 words or less) for the 2025 awards program in 30+ categories.
The entry deadline for the 2025 year is Thursday, February 27, 2025. Winners and Finalists will be announced in mid-May. Winners in each of the 30+ categories are given $75 cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary digital promotional stickers, social media coverage, literary exposure with their stories published in an Anthology of Winners, and a complimentary copy of the Anthology of Winners.
The entry fee is $25 for the first category and $20 for every additional category entered for the same story. Three Grand Prize Winners will be selected from all entries received and will be awarded cash prizes of $500, $300, and $200 based on their order of win. They will also be invited to attend the Indie Book Awards gala ceremony.
For additional information, please see http://shortstoryawards.com/.
MWSA is happy to announce another new member benefit: book giveaways. There are similar programs out there–Goodreads immediately comes to mind–offering a way to get free copies out to your readers. As you know, book giveaways are a good way to generate buzz about a new book premiere or to rekindle interest in a book you published a while ago.
Unlike our review swap program, there is no requirement to write a review after receiving a free copy. Of course, it’s always a welcome result when any author gets a new review. To learn more or to start giving away copies of one of your books, see this page on our website: https://www.mwsadispatches.com/book-giveaway
MWSA is still seeking submissions for its 2025 anthology. Prior guidance has been provided and can be reviewed again at https://www.mwsadispatches.com/anthology-submissions.
We recommend taking advantage of this opportunity, especially if you are a new author. Having something published in an anthology can only enhance your “resume.” Please make sure your dues are up to date and get writing!
Questions are always welcome and should be submitted to anthology@mwsa.co.
MWSA hosted the first of five Writers Education Series educational webinars on January 19. If you haven’t seen that presentation, you’ll find a video of Jim’s Zoom presentation here.
The series will continue on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific as follows:
March 16, 2025, Setting – Nancy Arbuthnot
May 18, 2025, Starting Your Story/Characters – Jack Woodville London
July 27, 2025, Telling – Narration and Dialogue – Bob Doerr
August 17, 2025, Plot and Story Arc – Jim Tritten
If you would like to nominate a fellow MWSA writer for our Writer of the Year award, you can nominate someone using the form on this page: https://www.mwsadispatches.com/mike-mullins-woy
The page also has details associated with the award and a list of past winners. Please submit your candidate by June 15.
Thanks to a generous donation from longtime MWSA member and prolific author Joe Badal, we’re offering reduced-price memberships for new members and six-month dues expiration extensions for existing members.
Who qualifies for the discount, and how do I get it?
Recruit a new member–the newly recruited person can join with a 50% discount, while the recruiting MWSA member gets a six-month dues extension.
Attend a Write Your Story seminar.
Contribute to our Dispatches magazine or 2025 anthology.
For a limited time, existing associate members can upgrade to a full member at a 50% discount.
Visit our website for more details or to apply for this exciting new membership deal: https://www.mwsadispatches.com/membership-discounts.
We will soon be opening registration for our MWSA Annual General Membership Conference to be held in Kansas City, MO, Sep. 25 – 27, 2025. A big thank you to MWSA board member Rob Lofthouse, who volunteered to be our MWSA 2025 Conference Chair. Stay tuned!
If you weren’t able to join us for our inaugural writers’ education Zoom for 2025, we’ve made a video, and it’s available now.
See our Writers’ Education page for a list of all our educational video presentations.
97 books and 26,597 words—what a surprise!
After posting the latest book submitted to MWSA for our 2025 season on Goodreads, I discovered a page I’d never seen before: My Year in Books.
This new (for me) feature includes many interesting tidbits and is worth a quick perusal.
Click on the image to the right, or visit this link:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024/69843339
After that, have a look at our Tips and Tricks section for another recommended article covering Goodreads’ “Tips for Authors.”
Remember, Goodreads is a great way to market your books. Learn as much as you can, and start selling those books!
Please join our first Writers Education Series of the year on January 19, 2025, when MWSA prolific and award-winning author Jim Tritten will present “Writing Your Story.” All webinars this year will be held on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific. You'll also find these webinars listed on our website's Events page.
This event will include a presentation, discussions, and questions and answers.
Please use the following URL to join the meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/2245629439?pwd=AH6c5VaddDONn88i6dXU2aZKm1RLcB.1
or click the image above.
If anyone has any questions, contact Jim Tritten at jimtritten@comcast.net.
This final membership-wide News Blast of the year is definitely packed with news and information. Your MWSA board is excited to wrap up this year and to bring in 2025 with new opportunities and benefits to our members.
From all of us at MWSA, we wish you a festive and joyful holiday season and a productive and writing-filled New Year!
Thanks to a generous donation from longtime MWSA member and prolific author Joe Badal, we’re offering reduced-price memberships for new members and six-month dues expiration extensions for existing members.
Who qualifies for the discount, and how do I get it?
Recruit a new member–the newly recruited person can join with a 50% dues discount, while the recruiting MWSA member gets a six-month dues extension.
Attend a Write Your Story seminar.
Contribute to our Dispatches magazine or 2025 anthology.
For a limited time, existing associate members can upgrade to a full member at a 50% discount.
Visit our website for more details or to apply for this exciting new membership deal:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/membership-discounts
Contact our membership secretary (membership@mwsa.co) if you have any questions.
Cue the music, with Fats Domino singing, “I’m going to Kansas City. Kansas City, here I come.”
Although our voting resulted in a near three-way tie, the MWSA board selected Kansas City for our 2025 conference. The deciding factor was that one of our board members lives nearby and has offered to head up our conference planning. A big shout-out to fellow board member Rob Lofthouse!
As soon as Rob’s planning allows us to nail down the hotel venue and date, we’ll let everyone know so you can start marking your calendar and making your travel plans.
In addition to voting for a conference location preference, we asked survey takers several questions about how we run our conferences. We also solicited input on other MWSA member benefits and programs. Click on the link below to see the responses.
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/2025-conference-membership-poll
MWSA will host five educational webinars during 2025 on the following topics:
January 19, 2025, Writing Your Story – Jim Tritten
March 16, 2025, Setting – Nancy Arbuthnot
May 18, 2025, Starting Your Story/Characters – Jack Woodville London
July 27, 2025, Telling – Narration and Dialogue – Bob Doerr
August 17, 2025, Plot and Story Arc – Jim Tritten
All webinars are on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific. You'll also find these webinars listed on our website's Events page.
These are the same topics that were presented by these same people at the Admiral Kidd Club in San Diego on September 26th as our Write Your Story Workshop. Our intent is to record these presentations and make them available for others who want to use them for local presentations elsewhere. Events will be scheduled and links posted on our MWSA website and MWSA Facebook pages as we approach the dates listed. If anyone has any questions, contact Jim Tritten at jimtritten@comcast.net.
Tis the season to make resolutions about losing weight, exercising more, being a better spouse, family member, friend, etc., and then forgetting about the promises you made to yourself two weeks later. How about trying one or two (or more) of the following resolutions to make your 2025 a brighter and more literature-filled one?
Here are a few suggestions to get you started—MWSA style.
Help an author get their book a bit more polished before it’s published by offering feedback via our Beta Reader Program.
Buy an MWSA author’s book at least once this year.
Try browsing through our award winners to help you pick something worthwhile: https://www.mwsadispatches.com/award-winners
Have someone on your gift list you can’t imagine a present for? Buy them an MWSA author’s book as a gift.
Order a paper copy of an MWSA book. Read it and then donate the copy to your local library to help someone else discover their new favorite author.
Promote a fellow MWSA author’s book.
Tell your friends and family
Write about it in your author's blog
Mention it in your communications with your readers
Write a review and post it on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, or wherever.
Although everyone knows that it’s better to give than to receive, giving AND receiving is even better. Use MWSA’s Review Swap Program to GIVE a review for another author’s book and RECEIVE a review of yours.
Reach out to another MWSA author.
Post on their author page, social media account, or website
Send them an email
Go to an MWSA conference and talk to them in person
Recommend an MWSA book to your book club.
Share news about a fellow MWSA author’s success.
Make sure you support your local bookstore.
Yes, buying online from Amazon is easier, but the trip to your local bookstore will pay dividends—to the struggling owner and you. You might even talk them into stocking one of your books.
Attend another author’s event at the bookstore.
Request that the bookstore stock one of your favorite MWSA books. While you’re at it, do the same thing at your local library.
Help a fellow author by reviewing for MWSA.
If you’re not a reviewer, become one! (https://www.mwsadispatches.com/mwsa-reviewer-signup)
If you’re already a reviewer, recommend someone else to join our reviewing team or review “just one more book” during the season.
Every writer knows that reviews are a vital component of their book marketing and sales efforts. MWSA authors submit their books to our review and awards program and pay a $45 submission fee to cover the costs of running our program and hosting our annual awards banquet. The reviews generated by this program are the “official MWSA review.” But that’s only one review; authors need more reviews–many of us need a lot more reviews. What happens when we run out of friends and family to beg for reviews?
MWSA created its Review Swap program to allow members to purchase or borrow each other's books and exchange reviews after reading them. You can consider this MWSA program as an online venue where our members can “meet” and agree to whatever review-swapping methodology they consider mutually convenient.
To learn more or to submit your book for swapping, visit our Review Swap page:
https://www.mwsadispatches.com/review-swap
Notes:
In order to participate, you must be an active (dues current) member, and you have to sign in to your MWSA account to participate.
Click on the Subscribe button to get notifications when new review swap opportunities are added.
MWSA does not monitor these individual transactions between our members, and the reviews represent the individual opinions of our members.
Although we've received several submissions since our window opened on December 1, it's not too late to submit your contribution to our 2025 anthology.
For further details, please visit our Anthology Submission page.
MWSA members can submit ads to Dispatches for inclusion in each edition; we accept three free ads, first-come, first-served. We currently plan on offering free ad space to our members once a year. If you’d like to advertise more than once a year, you might want to take advantage of our special half-off sale. Visit our Dispatches submission page (https://www.mwsadispatches.com/dispatches-submissions) for details and to submit your ad.
Of course, we’re also always looking for content, so please feel free to submit your latest short story, poem, or article!
The submission window for MWSA's 2025 review and awards season will open on January 2. If you're planning on submitting your book, you'll find the details on our main awards page.
If you'd like to join our reviewer team, we'd love to have you join us! If you're interested, please email us or visit the page below:
By Valerie Ormond
While MWSA is a member-funded organization, we have also received sponsorships and donations in the past. Some donations have been from members, and some from organizations. We would like to thank and recognize the following sponsors during 2024.
• The Phillip Morris International (PMI) Community Foundation program - $738.00 to support our Write Your Story Workshop in San Diego
• AutoCrit online editing program (https://autocrit.com) - $360 value for two Annual Memberships in support of MWSA’s Buckaroo Auction
• Rob Lofthouse, owner of Hold The Line Press, LLC (https://holdthelinepress.com) - $250 value for five hours of writer coaching in support of MWSA’s Buckaroo Auction
• Sue Rushford Editorial Services (https://suerushford.com) - $500 value for 50% off an editing job
• Bowkers (https://www.myidentifiers.com/ ) - 15% discount for MWSA members
We will be requesting donations again in 2025 to support our Buckaroo Auction, which is a way we reward our volunteers for their work throughout the year in the form of Buckaroos. Watch for the calls in eBlasts, or you can always reach out to me, MWSA’s Vice President and Buckaroo Auction Chair at vp@mwsa.co, if you have services or items you would like to donate.
Also, MWSA has a donate button on our website, available 24/7/365 at this link: Make a donation to MWSA.
By Jim Tritten
MWSA will host five educational webinars during 2025 on the following topics:
January 19, 2025, Writing Your Story – Jim Tritten
March 16, 2025, Setting – Nancy Arbuthnot
May 18, 2025, Starting Your Story/Characters – Jack Woodville London
July 27, 2025, Telling – Narration and Dialogue – Bob Doerr
August 17, 2025, Plot and Story Arc – Jim Tritten
All webinars are on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Mountain, and 2:00 PM Pacific.
These are the same topics that were presented by these same people at the Admiral Kidd Club in San Diego on September 26th as our Write Your Story Workshop. Our intent is to record these presentations and make them available for others who want to use them for local presentations elsewhere. Events will be scheduled and reminder links posted on our MWSA website and MWSA Facebook pages as the dates near. However, we normally hold sessions at our MWSA Zoom meeting link here, passcode 430028. If anyone has any questions, contact Jim Tritten at jimtritten@comcast.net.