Jeffrey Miller's Blog: Jeffrey Miller Writes, page 32
July 13, 2012
Amazon Reviews
I have a new marketing strategy.
Actually, it’s not a new one and I didn’t even come up with the idea.
What I do is look for indie writers who self publish like myself, download their books, read them and then write a review. Some of the writers are my Facebook friends and I believe in helping them out because the quickest way to sell books is by word of mouth and having reviews for people to read.
And hopefully, they will do the same for me (some already have!)
Check out some of my favorite writers who I have done this for:
I recommend these writers and the books they have written. Check them out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
July 7, 2012
War Remains — 2012 Global E-Book Awards Finalist
Just a little over a week after I was featured in a Korean War documentary on MBC television in Korea talking about my novel War Remains and the Battle of Hoengseong, I received an email the other day that War Remains was selected as a finalist in the 2012 Global E-Book Awards.
The awards ceremony will be held on August 18 in Santa Barbara, California with Marilu Henner (Taxi, Johny Dangerously) the keynote speaker for the awards.
I’ve said this before, and I will say it again, I am very proud of this book. It is a good story.
I am happy with all the recognition and visibility this book has gotten since it first came out in the fall of 2010. What I am proud about the most is that more and more people have the chance to know about this book and read about one of the battles of this so-called forgotten war as well as the ongoing remains recovery and identification efforts. A couple of my readers have experienced this firsthand and for them and all those other families whose loved ones have come home or for those still waiting for their loved ones to come home, the story about Bobby Washkowiak resonates strongly for them.
June 30, 2012
Korean War Documentary on MBC (South Korea)
Two months ago I was approached by a Korean filmmaker who asked me if I would be interested in taking part in a documentary he was making on the Korean War. Turns out the documentary he was making was about the Battle of Hoengseong which I described in my novel War Remains and that one of his friends (who also happened to be one of my Facebook friends) had read my book and told him about it. A few messages and emails later, we met one afternoon at SolBridge in April and talked about his documentary. Two weeks later, I was on my way back to Hoengseong and Massacre Valley to be interviewed and describe the battle that was fought here in February 1951 and the battle which is at the beginning of War Remains.
Then, on my birthday, May 28, which was also Buddha’s Birthday in Korea this year, the producer/director Park Jong-woo came down to Daejeon and filmed more scenes in my office at SolBridge.
Article on the SolBridge International School of Business website
Part Two of the Documentary. I am at 10:30.
June 29, 2012
The End is Nigh
It has taken me six months, but I feel that I almost finished with my latest writing project, a novella about one day in 1968. I wrote out the first draft for this novella, based on a poem I wrote a few years ago, when I was in Laos last December-February. The story itself is already finished; I am now just fleshing out a few chapters and scenes.
Like my first novel, War Remains, I knew how the story was going to finish before I even started to write it. What was most interesting for me was the journey I would take to get to the final scenes. For me, writing is always a journey. It is always a journey of discovery. For this story, I drew upon a lot of my childhood memories growing up in Oglesby, Illinois in the 1960s. There are some autobiographical moments in the story and at the same time, the story allows me to travel back home.
I like this story a lot. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it is the best thing I have written–even better than War Remains.
June 14, 2012
Places Where Your Writing Takes You
Writing is a journey. It’s a journey in your mind and soul. Writing takes you to places that you know and places you have visited or it can be new destinations in the past or the future. For myself, wherever my writing takes me, it is always a journey of discovery and sometimes, rediscovery. It’s also a journey back to my roots: how I got to where I am at today. It’s probably no surprise that most of my writing takes me back home to America’s Midwest and growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.
I like where my writing takes me. I like what I discover along the way.
For my latest writing project, a novella about one day in the spring of 1968, I have been immersing myself in the music of the era. It’s just as much to inspire me as it is a soundtrack in my mind. Much of the music I remember listening to at the time; other music, I vaguely recall. And along the way, I have rediscovered some gems from the era.
I remember hearing this song at some point in my past (maybe it was the We Five version) but I had forgotten all about it to the other day when, listening to some other music from the era, happened to come across it on YouTube.
Yes, I like where my writing takes me.
June 3, 2012
Why I Love My Job as the SolBridge Web Manager
I love teaching at the SolBridge International School of Business.
Since 2010, I have been teaching Honors English and since last year, I have been teaching U.S. History (with President Dr. John Endicott) Highlights of Asian History and East Asian Politics (again co-teaching with Dr. Endicott).
After all these years of teaching in Korea, I have finally settled down into a comfortable and very rewarding teaching regime.
Another part of my job which I love a lot, is being the school’s web manager and having the chance to promote our school on our website and Facebook page. I am responsible for most of the content, text and photos, and get to attend some wonderful events like our school’s annual Culture Day.
These students from Mongolia made these dumplings stuffed with lamb. The dumplings were out of this world!
Students from Russia make last-minute costume adjustments before taking to the stage during SolBridge’s 2012 multicultural festival.
A student from Indonesia performs a traditional Indonesian dance.
May 31, 2012
June 2012 SolBridge E-Letter
It was another busy month at SolBridge during the month of May. Although our school did not have special visitors or lectures, we had lots of student activities from Sports Day to the 1st Korean Language Contest.
Read the E-Letter here.
May 27, 2012
How to Deal with a Bad Review
There are good reviews and there are bad reviews.
Then, there’s this one.
I’m not even sure if the reviewer even read the book because he sure doesn’t have much to say about the book other than to throw some literary reference into the review (taking up almost half of the review) and then mentioning that the book suffers from bad sentences. That’s it. Gee, I wonder if the reviewer woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
I sent an autographed copy of my novel to the reviewer in February in addition to an email. I never got a reply to the email. I waited a month and sent another email asking if he received the book. Didn’t get an answer. Finally, a few weeks later, I sent another email, this time to the editor just to inquire if my book had indeed been received.
Shortly after I sent the email, I got a response from the editor apologizing for the lack of communication and that the problem had been resolved.
I in turn got a lousy review.
May 23, 2012
Return to Massacre Valley: Command Post for 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment — Hoenseong, South Korea
After shooting some footage in Hoengseong near the site of the Netherlands’ Battalion, for the next part of the documentary, we entered Massacre Valley and went to the location where the command post for the 3rd Battalion of the 38th Infantry Regiment was located in and around the village of Saemal.
I describe Saemal in War Remains and how Bobby and the others of Support Force 21 felt that once they reached this village where the rest of the regiment was bivouacked, their ordeal would be over. However, by then the enemy had already positioned themselves in the high ground and for Bobby and the others, their ordeal was far from being over.
Although I visited Massacre Valley in 2010, just prior to War Remains being published, this time back was very special for me. So many people have been touched with my story of Bobby not to mention learning about the battle that was once fought here. What I have done and what Park Jongwoo is doing with his documentary is making people aware of what actually happened here in February 1951.
Why did I choose the 38th Infantry Regiment to be one of the main military units in my novel? What I wanted to do was to show how this regiment had been in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict, from the breakout along the Pusan Perimeter to Kunu-ri and then finally Hoengseong. By choosing this regiment, it allowed me to write about three major events in the first nine months of the conflict with special attention to Hoengseong because many people might not be aware of this battle.
In the photo, Producer/Director Park Jongwoo and I talk about the battle and the location of the 38th Infantry Regiment near the village of Saemal.
May 22, 2012
Ganghwa Fortress — The 1871 US Expedition to Korea
Today, in my Highlights of Asian History class, I’ll be teaching an overview of the Choson Dynasty, about three hundred years of the dynasty in about 90 minutes, from the Hideyoshi Invasions to the Japanese annexation of the peninsula. One of the things that I will talk about will be the attack on the merchant ship the General Sherman in Pyongyang and the 1871 United States Expedition to Korea to establish trade and diplomatic relations, as well as to find out what happened the General Sherman.
When Korean shore batteries fired upon two US Navy ships, the US attacked ten days later (after having received no apology from the Korean command).
Not exactly an auspicious beginning for US-Korean relations.
I first visited the island, which is about a ninety-minute drive west of Seoul in April 1991, but I never got around to visiting the the Gwangseong-bo Fortress, the site of the 1871 battle, until 2002 and 2003 when I wrote about the island and some of its historical landmarks (including Goindol, Korea’s most famous dolmen) for the Korea Times.
The battle itself was a combination of the Joseon (Choson) Dynasty’s “hermit kingdom” isolationism and the assertiveness of the Americans. After all, it had only been a few years since Japan opened its doors to the West, so why not Korea?
And speaking of Japan, there would be another battle here involving the Japanese in 1876 and the subsequent Kanghwa Treaty. When Japan wanted to exert influence on Korea before Europe, it sent a warship to survey coastal waters and was subsequently fired upon by the Korean shore batteries (no doubt the French and US intervention still fresh in their memories). This eventually led to the 1876 Kanghwa Treaty, which started Japan down the path to its domination and colonization of the Korean peninsula until 1945.
