“Danger Close: Alaska” — what a weekend!

Whew, what a weekend! My head is awash with ideas and insight after a two-day writers’ workshop called “Danger Close: Alaska.” Writers both civilian and veteran gathered together in Anchorage to trade ideas and learn from seasoned authors the art of the written word.

It was quite the get-together, with people participating from nearly all walks of life and writing disciplines. We had Air Force and National Guard public affairs writers from JBER, a divorce lawyer turned budding author, a chaplain’s assistant trying her hand at telling her story, a young lady who’s poetry would blow everyone away and even an astronaut. A radio journalist from KMBA was there eager to learn more, and old veterans like myself rounded out the balance.

This was the first time such a group has ever been assembled in Alaska, according to the hosting authors and 49 Writers, one of the event’s sponsors. We were all very enthusiastic to take part and learn the finer points of word sculpting from the pros. If this is any indication I believe this event is one heck of a success. This is the start of a fine tradition in the education of the written word for many years to come.

We were broken up into small groups headed by host authors Lea Carpenter, Elliot Ackerman, Sherry Simpson and Benjamin Busch. We were scattered throughout The Boardroom, a “coworking” office space in Anchorage. For nine hours each day we lived on hot coffee and snacks while we picked their brains — and each others’ as well — in our quest to learn from the best (we did break for lunch). It wasn’t all work. In fact, it was quite fun to study and share from our experiences. By the end of the day, the inflow of information was nearly overwhelming. My head was fairly buzzing all the way home. But boy, did it feel good.

One of the activities was the peer review of manuscripts submitted by everyone taking part in the workshop. It was an eye opener when mine came up for group scrutiny and under the keen eyes of Ben Busch. It was an article on PTSD I had written last summer, one I thought to be one of my best. Ben and the others pointed out some serious flaws in it. One was repetition, a tendency I failed to notice before. This was pointed out along with some very good ideas on how to really make the article a real hard-hitting one on a subject I know far too much about. Ben was the hardest critic, yet he was honest as one G.I to another who has been in the same place: Iraq. They all were very open and helpful and I learned valuable lessons from all. Good training was had all around.

They only one in my group to remain unscathed was the young poet Makenzie DeVries. Her poetry stopped Ben in his tracks, not a flaw to be found. It was that good. So we spent the remainder of the peer review having miss DeVries read her poems to us. It was a powerful lesson in the images and thoughts poetry evokes that spoke volumes.

The workshop wound up with a lesson in screen writing by Mr. Busch. Along with being a Marine and a published author, he is also a actor and director of independent movies and television (including “The Wire” and “Generation Kill”). He showed some scenes he had filmed and explained how they worked. I found it fascinating since I’m a lover of film with a huge collection of DVD movies and classic TV shows. That would end Danger Close: Alaska on a very good note, but my weekend wasn’t over yet. I still had to conduct an interview with Ben Busch Monday afternoon at the radio station.

We met at Fireside Books and then off to the studio at KVRF to do the interview. Ben was my first actor/director/author (and 80’s rocker) ever to interview on the radio. We had a blast talking about his book, “Dust to Dust”, the Danger Close workshop and the book signing he was there for next door. He was very relaxed and open to any subject. I thought I was done after that and planned on attending his reading later that night.

Turns out Mike Chmielewski, station manager of KVRF had a wee surprise for me. We were going to live stream Ben’s reading of “Dust to Dust” and I was going to do it — for the first time in my life! No pressure, nah, none at all. Despite one little incident with mic feedback, everything came up roses, as Ben read selections from his memoir to a small but very interested audience. I sat there working the controls to keep sound levels in the green in the corner next to the science fiction section in the bookstore. Some of the stories had the audience laughing, and I had a hard time keeping myself from cracking up and being picked up on the sound track. That capped off my entire weekend, which left me exhausted. And it was worth every minute.

It was quite the learning experience, and I have Fireside Books and KVRF to thank for sponsoring me. I’m going to sleep in this weekend, the alarm clock is on notice it will be shot on sight if it even so much as peeps.

Daniel D. Grota is a retired U.S. Army veteran with over 21 years in service. He is also a Tuesday morning co-host on KVRF 89.5 FM, Radio Free Palmer. Write to him at news@frontiersman.com.