“Few established writers are willing to share the secrets of their craft; and, until now, no group of award-winning writers has done so. Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets breaks new ground and provides an entertaining and extraordinarily useful guide for beginning, emerging, and established writers. Read this book, and then pick up your pen!”

— Admiral James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and author of a dozen bestsellers, including 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible of Decision.

“Although much of this invaluable book is focused on writing thrillers, I found lots of useful advice and welcome inspiration in it for all kinds of writing—articles, essays, memoirs, fiction of all stripes. I’ve been toiling in these fields for decades, and I’ve even written a few books on writing myself; but to find a book that’s as straightforward, informative, and just plain conversational as this one is rare. It’s like having a private consultation, over a beer and pretzels, with a group of insiders willing to spill the secrets and answer all the pressing questions about everything from conception to publication, and beyond.” — Robert Masello, bestselling author of The Einstein Prophecy, Robert’s Rules of Writing, The Haunting of H.G.Wells, and many other books

“A comprehensive guide to mastering the art of thriller fiction, delivered with vim and gusto by two of the genre’s finest storytellers!” — Dr. Matt Cook, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Sabotage and Good Little Marauder

LISTEN NOW: https://www.podpage.com/the-admirals-almanac/how-to-write-a-book-people-will-read/

Hello Writing Friends

As I mentioned in my July missive the sole intent of these newsletters is to share some things I’ve learned along the way and to encourage you all to share as well.

You all know this, but it bears repeating. It takes courage to write. Here is a quote I keep near my computer monitor. It is from Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de Richlieu (just Cardinal Richlieu to his pals) “Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men and I will find an excuse to hang him.”

Like many of you, I am a huge fan of Disney’s Pixar movies (hard to believe that the first one, Toy Story, was released in 1995 – over a quarter-century ago!)

Why have they been so successful? We all see and enjoy the animation, but at the heart of each movie is the story.

That is why I was so happy when a screenwriter friend of mine shared the Pixar storytelling secrets with me. As a writer, reading them was an “ah ha” moment.

See for yourself:

https://nofilmschool.com/2012/06/22-rules-storytelling-pixar

As to sharing best practices, perhaps more than any other writers that I know, and as I shared last month, I make a near-religion of reading books about writing. Recently, I reread E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel. Like you, I have many friends and acquaintances who approach me at Starbucks, in the grocery checkout line or elsewhere and say: “I want to write a novel.”

The first thing I ask them, borrowing from Forster’s book, is what kind of novel is it?:

• You are writing a story if your high concept is: “The king died and then the queen died.”
• You have a plot if your high concept is: “The king died and then the queen died of grief.”
• You have a mystery if your high concept is: “The queen died, and no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.”

As writers, this sounds so simple, and it is, but as you provide advice to beginning and emerging writers you might help them bound the problem by having them decide what kind of novel they want to write.

Finally, whenever I find an article online or in print that I find useful in upping my writing game, I have the “need to share” that afflicts most humans. I put these articles on my website: https://georgegaldorisi.com/.  If you go to the site you’ll see “Blog” at the top and the pull down menu takes you to “Writing Tips.” Perhaps you’ll find some of these useful.

That’s it for now. As always, I’d love to hear about your latest writing project(s).

All the best – George

Hello Writing Friends

Does the world need another writing newsletter? I’ll let you be the judge.

Before Covid knocked the world sideways, we used to see each other at writing conferences and seminars. Sadly, in the post-Covid world, many of those events have not restarted.

So here we are, doing our solitary work of writing. While all of you are self-actualizing as most writers must be, every once in a while it might be a good thing to give your keyboard a rest and poke your head up to share best practices with your fellow scribblers.

That’s the sole intent of this newsletter—as well as those that will follow—to share some things I’ve learned along the way and to encourage you all to share as well.

Since I’m sending this to you via a BCC list, you don’t know who else is getting this newsletter, but if you have something you think is worth sharing, I’m glad to be your “agent” and pass that along to others on this list.

The first thing that I’d like to share it this article: “The Power of Narrative:”

https://nautil.us/the-power-of-narrative-15975/

You’ll note that this article has an environmental focus, but that it is mostly about stories. The second paragraph begins: “Defined in the simplest possible terms, a narrative is a story about something. Stories are essential to us because as human beings and social animals, we are storytelling creatures.” We are all story-tellers, that’s what we do.

As to sharing best practices, perhaps more than any other writers that I know, I make a near-religion of reading books about writing. My bookshelves groan over the weight of these books. I’ve read some of them multiple times. Recently, I reread Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer. I find that it helps me derive writing best practices from anything that I read. If you haven’t given it a try you might want to consider doing so.

Finally, whenever I find an article online or in print that I find useful in upping my writing game, I have the “need to share” that afflicts most humans. I put these articles on my website: https://georgegaldorisi.com/.  If you go to the site you’ll see “Blog” at the top and the pull down menu takes you to “Writing Tips.” Perhaps you’ll find some of these useful.

That’s it for now. I’d love to hear about your latest writing project(s).

All the best – George

George Galdorisi is a well-known author and Coronado resident with 15 published books to his name. Kevin McDonald, hailing from Austin, Texas, and a former naval aviator, has written books centered on aviation and history. The two have combined their wealth of experience to co-author a book about the art of writing.

Despite the differences in their writing journeys, the duo’s history is intertwined. They first met in the Navy in 1985 when Galdorisi was McDonald’s commanding officer at HSL-43. Three decades later, they have come together to pen “Braveship Writers Share their Secrets: How to Write Books People Actually Read.”

Read this The Coronado News Article Here: “U.S. Navy duo shares secrets to writing a successful book by: Sofie Fransen“

In an era of great power competition, the U.S. Navy is focused on high-end warfare—engaging anti-ship cruise missiles, defeating hypersonic weapons, protecting the homeland and allies from ballistic missiles, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning and other high-tech weapons. We are focused on defeating those we sometimes still call “near-peer” competitors. Our fleet’s muscle will not make it to the high-end fight, though, if it fears the deceptively destructive naval mine. Here, one former naval officer suggests one way to deal with sea mines by using unmanned surface vessels.

Click Here to Read “A Better Way to Deal with Deadly Sea Mines By LCDR U.H. (Jack) Rowley, USN (Ret.) SWO/EDO” from the Summer ’23 Issue of Rotor Review

In this episode The Admiral’s Almanac starts off with a new style intro and the announcement of The Admiral’s Almanac Writers Series. Sitting down with frequent guest and New York Times best selling author George Galdorisi, we discuss what’s in store for you in this upcoming 6 episode series. Not only do we discuss how to get started but why leaders must get started. Enjoy this new series and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Get it now on Amazon!

Millions of trees have been turned into pulp and then into paper, a great deal of ink has been spilled, and countless printed words have been turned into electrons—all with the express purpose of educating and entertaining our fellow humans. Writing is in our DNA.

While there is no reliable data that tells us when Homo sapiens first started speaking, we do know when they started “telling stories”—it was at least forty millennia ago. We know this because there are cave paintings that date back that far.

And doesn’t that make sense? When “Ugh”—or whatever his name was—left the cave in search of food and brought the dead saber-toothed tiger back to the cave, we think it unlikely that he just threw it down in the dirt and gestured, as if to say, “Enjoy your meal.”

Many of Ugh’s comrades likely didn’t make it home from that battle, so Ugh probably felt the need to tell his audience about the titanic fight in which he bested the beast. And since life in those days was brutal and short, he then drew pictures of the encounter on the cave walls for posterity to see. While there is much speculation as to what constitutes “the oldest profession,” we believe evidence suggests that, other than hunting for food to survive, storytelling was the first vocation.

We have spent decades not only telling stories, but leading writing seminars for diverse groups. We have benefited from a great deal of help along the way and want to pay it forward to beginning, emerging and accomplished writers. To that end, we pulled together our best-practices into this book, Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets, to serve as a companion to those who want to take their writing to the next level. You are a writer, not that “special and gifted” someone else.

Advance Praise for Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets

“Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets is the most complete guide to writing, publishing, and selling a book I have ever read (and I’ve consulted many). Both never-before and widely-published writers can glean actionable, useful, and original tips from this practical roadmap, written with humor and empathy for today’s authors.”
— Taylor Baldwin Kiland, military non-fiction author and ghostwriter of more than fifteen published works

“An outstanding introduction to the aspiring novelist, this book is also a welcome review for any experienced author. The lessons on how writers can use social media to publicize their work are quite insightful. Secrets is also great for writers who want to shift from nonfiction to fiction, identifying the elements necessary to create novels people actually read.”
— Dr. Sam J. Tangredi, award-winning nonfiction author

“George Galdorisi and Kevin McDonald have done the impossible—create a book about writing that’s actually helpful. Their practical approach pairs perfectly with informative tips for aspiring writers at any experience level. From asking scribes to plumb their motivations to explaining the realities of 21st century marketing, the Braveship Writers have crafted a guide into a timeless topic that is fresh, modern, and insightful.”
— Joe Pappalardo, author of Inferno, Red Sky Morning and (in 2024) Four Against the West

“George Galdorisi, Kevin McDonald, and the Braveship Team have written the most comprehensive treatise on the craft and business of writing since Stephen King’s On Writing. Braveship Writers Share is a must read for any author regardless of where they are on their journey. Easy to digest and handy as a reference, this one belongs on the desk—creased, earmarked, and highlighted.”
— Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata (U.S. Army, Retired), national bestselling author of 16 novels, including his current General Garrett Sinclair series: Chasing the Lion, Total Empire, and 2024’s The Phalanx Code.

“It is always a challenge to write a book. I have written over thirty books myself and find each and every one has its own story and adventure. I like to write. That is why I highly recommend Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets to help aspiring authors unleash their creativity. These authors are especially helpful in providing insights in an area in which I have not done a book, namely writing a novel. Well, after reading this book, I just might try!”
— Dr. Robbin F. Laird, author, most recently, of Australia and Indo-Pacific Defence: Anchoring a Way Ahead and The Coming of the CH-53K: A New Capability for the Distributed Force

“A comprehensive guide to mastering the art of thriller fiction, delivered with vim and gusto by two of the genre’s finest storytellers!”
—Dr. Matt Cook, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Sabotage and Good Little Marauder

“Finally, a book about the secrets of writing for aspiring and experienced authors that can help us expand our thinking, perceptions, and actions to capture hearts and minds and ensure bestselling success.”
— W. Craig Reed, New York Times bestselling author of Start With Who and Spies of the Deep

“Although much of this invaluable book is focused on writing thrillers, I found lots of useful advice and welcome inspiration in it for all kinds of writing—articles, essays, memoirs, fiction of all stripes. I’ve been toiling in these fields for decades, and I’ve even written a few books on writing myself; but to find a book that’s as straightforward, informative, and just plain conversational as this one is rare. It’s like having a private consultation, over a beer and pretzels, with a group of insiders willing to spill the secrets and answer all the pressing questions about everything from conception to publication, and beyond.”
— Robert Masello, bestselling author of The Einstein Prophecy, Robert’s Rules of Writing, The Haunting of H.G. Wells,
and many other books

“Few established writers are willing to share the secrets of their craft; and, until now, no group of award-winning writers has done so. Braveship Writers Share Their Secrets breaks new ground and provides an entertaining and extraordinarily useful guide for beginning, emerging, and established writers. Read this book, and then pick up your pen!”
— Admiral James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and author of a dozen bestsellers, including 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible of Decision.
“We, as a society, are in desperate need of a new generation of writer that is both courageous and passionate about telling—and defending—THE TRUTH. Not ‘a truth’ as a publisher wants it written, or ‘a truth’ from a political viewpoint; but instead, the reality of what happened, where it happened, and why it all took place. This book inspires that writer in all of us to get back to the starting point. If you are considering picking up a weapon far more powerful than the sword (i.e., the pen), I highly recommend this book.”
— Scott McEwen, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper, the Sniper Elite series of novels, and many other fiction and non-fiction books.

“Does the world need another book on writing thrillers? There’s always room for more insights, more advice, and more encouragement in a tough business. I know I enjoyed this volume.”
— David Poyer, author of Arctic Sea and Writing in the Age of AI

George Galdorisi, a Coronado resident and New York Times bestselling author, says we can manage AI, and it will not manage us.

The headline on the first page of the New York Times Sunday Opinion page in early July could not have been more stark or more menacing: “The True Threat of Artificial Intelligence: Technology Forged by Private Markets Won’t Solve the World’s Problems. It Will Only Amplify Them.”

It that statement doesn’t get your attention, it’s likely that nothing will.

It would be difficult to identify a technology that has been talked and written about than those under the umbrella of artificial intelligence or AI.

Read the full article here

The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, has proposed that tomorrow’s U.S. Navy grow to 500 ships, to include 350 crewed vessels and 150 unmanned maritime vehicles. While the composition of the future Navy’s crewed vessels is relatively well understood – based on ships being built and being planned – what those unmanned maritime vehicles will look like, let alone what they will do, remains opaque. This article sheds light on missions these unmanned craft might perform and what role AI can play in making them “smart wingmen.” Read More – click here to view the publication online or click here to download as a pdf.

Publisher avatar for Naval Helicopter Association, Inc
from Rotor Review Spring 2023 #160

by Naval Helicopter Association, Inc

One of the great things about working at a Navy Warfare Center, such as Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, is that you have the opportunity to see new technologies envisioned, created, and, in many cases, implemented into the Fleet or Fleet Marine Forces. With over 5,500 government employees, and an equal number of contractors, our warfare center is involved in a breathtaking number of projects.

Increasingly, given the U.S. Navy‘s commitment to unmanned systems and the Chief of Naval Operations’ vision of a hybrid fleet comprised of 350 manned vessels and 150 Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS), a great deal of our work has focused on unmanned systems in all domains: air, surface, subsurface and ground.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan accelerated the development and use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Unmanned Ground Systems (UGS), however, the development of unmanned systems in other domains has fallen behind. The Navy has now shifted focus to the development and fielding of multi-mission UMS. To aid in that development, Fifth Fleet established CTF-59 to experiment with UMS and UAS and accelerate their development and fielding.

In late 2022, CTF-59 orchestrated Exercise Digital Horizon. This multinational exercise featured 12 Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) and three UAVs, linked using artificial intelligence, to push the boundaries of these platform’s contributions to important naval missions, especially Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The importance of Digital Horizon 2022, and a view of what would be accomplished, was highlighted by one naval analyst this way:

Despite the cutting-edge hardware in the Arabian Gulf, Digital Horizon is far more than a trial of new unmanned systems. This exercise is about data integration and the integration of command and control capabilities, where many different advanced technologies are being deployed together and experimented with for the first time.

The advanced technologies now available and the opportunities that they bring to enhance maritime security are many-fold, but these also drive an exponential increase in complexity for the military. Using the Arabian Gulf as the laboratory, Task Force 59 and its partners are pioneering ways to manage that complexity, whilst delivering next-level intelligence, incident prevention and response capabilities.

Digital Horizon 2022 brought together emerging unmanned technologies with data analytics and artificial intelligence in order to enhance regional maritime security and strengthen deterrence by applying leading-edge technology and experimentation in unmanned and artificial intelligence applications for the Navy. A key goal of Digital Horizon 2022 was to speed new technology integration across Fifth Fleet, and seek alternative, cost-effective solutions for conducting MDA missions.

Digital Horizon lived up to the high expectations of all involved. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. Fifth Fleet, and Combined Maritime Forces described what was accomplished during Digital Horizon 2022 thusly:

We are creating a distributed and integrated network of systems to establish a “digital ocean” in the Middle East, creating constant surveillance. This means every partner and every sensor, collecting new data, adding it to an intelligent synthesis of around-the-clock inputs, encompassing thousands of images, from seabed to space, from ships, unmanned systems, subsea sensors, satellites, buoys, and other persistent technologies.

No navy acting alone can protect against all the threats, the region is simply too big. We believe that the way to get after this is the two primary lines of effort: strengthen our partnerships and accelerate innovation. One of the results from the exercise was the ability to create a single operational picture so one operator can command and control multiple unmanned systems on one screen, a Single Pane of Glass (SPOG). Digital Horizon was a visible demonstration of the promise and the power of very rapid tech innovation.

The results of Digital Horizon 2022 could change the way the world’s navies conduct maritime safety and security. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are able to amalgamate the sea of data created by unmanned systems into actionable, realtime intelligence for use by commanders, which enables U.S., allied and partner nations to dedicate their crewed vessels to other missions.

Using a two billion dollar ship and a crew of 300 officers, chiefs, and sailors to conduct surveillance operations is not a cost effective solution when a medium-sized commercial offthe-shelf (COTS) USV (such as a MARTAC Devil Ray T-38, one of the participants in Digital Horizon) can be bought or leased in a contractor owned, contractor operated (COCO) arrangement for a relatively modest cost and equipped with state-of-the-art COTS sensors to provide persistent surveillance. During Digital Horizon, the T-38 provided AIS, full motion video from SeaFLIR-280HD and FLIR-M364C cameras, as well as the display of charted radar contacts via the onboard Furuno DRS4D-NXT doppler radar. These were all streamed back to Task Force 59’s Robotics Operations Center (ROC) via high bandwidth radios. The force multiplying potential of unmanned systems demonstrated during Digital Horizon has already been recognized by the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) and the rotary wing community.

Elbit Systems Seagull unmanned surface vessel operates in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 29, during Digital Horizon 2022. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Murphy)
Elbit Systems Seagull unmanned surface vessel operates in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 29, during Digital Horizon 2022. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Murphy)

So why is this important to us? For those of you who attended the 2021 NHA Symposium and listened to the Flag Panel, you heard that Naval Aviation is on a glideslope to be approximately 40% unmanned circa 2035. Though exact timelines and percentages are impossible to predict, the unmanned future is coming, spearheaded by the MQ-25 Stingray, the MQ-4C Triton and MQ-8C Fire Scout leading the way.

The Fire Scout is currently the Rotary Wing Community’s only “skin in the unmanned game,” and though the MH-60S Knighthawk and MQ-8C Fire Scout are currently embarked onboard Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), where Rotary Wing Aviators and Surface Warfare Officers are developing CONOPS for their use together, the Navy is scaling back its inventory of LCS. This will shrink the opportunities for our community to explore tactics, techniques and procedures to develop man-machine teaming or to develop Fire Scout “smart wingman” in the same fashion that the U.S. Air Force is doing with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and emerging UAVs.

In remarks at the December 2022 Reagan National Defense Forum, Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro, said that the Navy intends to stand up additional unmanned task forces around the globe modeled after Task Force 59, noting:

We’ve demonstrated with Task Force 59 how much more we can do with these unmanned vehicles—as long as they’re closely integrated together in a [command and control] node that, you know, connects to our manned surface vehicles. And there’s been a lot of experimentation, it’s going to continue aggressively. And we’re going to start translating that to other regions of the world as well. That will include the establishment of formal task forces that will fall under some of the Navy’s other numbered fleets.

The Naval Rotary Wing Community needs to be part of this emerging technology development, lest we be left behind as the Navy and NAE place huge bets on a force increasingly populated by unmanned systems. As to how we can do this, those of you wearing flight suits are best-qualified to develop new concepts for how our community can leverage rapid developments in unmanned systems in all domains to ensure that we have a warfighting advantage in future conflicts.