Hello, I’m about year short of being half-a-century old (and yes I feel it most of the time). I retired from the navy in 2004 after 20 years of working in the field of intelligence (IS for any navy types). The first half of my career I worked as a Russian analyst then moved over and became a Chinese analyst. Like most in intelligence I became a full time terrorism analyst on 9/11. While in the navy I had the distinct displeasure of being stationed in Norfolk, VA., but the pleasure of being stationed in San Diego, CA., Mayport, FL., and my favorite, Anchorage, Alaska. I’ve served aboard several ships including the aircraft carriers Coral Sea (CV-43), Kitty Hawk (CV-96) and the Spruance class destroyers Radford (DD-968 and Spruance (DD-963) (there were others, but these were my main ships). I also have numerous six-month deployments under my belt including two Mediterranean, two Pacific and two Persian Gulf deployments; the PG deployments were as a member of the anti-terrorism boarding team. This was high sweat, high stress work, but I loved it. I also have a few anti-drug deployments under my belt as well. After retiring, I became a sports reporter for The Concord Standard & Mount Pleasant Times, a local newspaper in the area I moved back to. It was a nice change from the hard realities I learned about the world while working in intelligence and also the reason my favorite genre of books to read is Sci-fi/fantasy. However, I do like to read historical books and just started The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer and American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael Kauffman. After three years of sports writing, I was ready to move back into the world of hard news, so moved to Kodiak, Alaska where I worked on stories concerning the commercial fishing industry, crime, wildlife and anything else I could come up with for the The Kodiak Daily Mirror. After about a year in Kodiak, the economic crash reigned supreme and the newspaper industry (along with the rest of the country) fell on hard times. In short, I ended up back in Concord and after being out of work for six months I reluctantly started work in the security field, which is a fancy way of saying security guard. I haven’t stopped writing, though. About the same time I started security work I also started to get my degree in history, which I just finished last month (August 2012). My plan is to get my masters of history and start teaching at the university level. My main area of focus is on early American history (from European discovery through the reconstruction.) Initially I was only going focus on discovery through the Revolution, but I found I liked learning about the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Anthrax! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirments. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
Great, Thanks for the information. I came in suspecting I couldn't post right away and didn't want to anyway. Besides, I want to read and get to know people before they look at my work. I joined specifically because I am at that point where I need people to look at my stuff and give suggestions. Reguardless, I'll be taking it slow either way. Again, thanks for the info and I look forward to being here. Ralph
Very interesting life! Sounds like you have a lot to write about. I hope you'll find this place to your liking.
Welcome, Anthrax! I love history, too, but I love 20th C history. You've got a very interesting background -- so much good stuff from which to draw stories!
welcome, youngster!... you sure packed a lot o' living into that almost 1/2-century... my own almost 3/4 has been pretty eclectically eventful, as well... all good grist for our writer's mill, right? i'm looking forward to seeing what you'll post when you've gotten the site requisites out of the way... love and hugs, maia
