BROTHERS AT WAR Documentary Provides a Window into the Iraq War Experience

I've just viewed the documentary BROTHERS AT WAR directed by Jake Rademacher. Directed is a bit of a misnomer because what really happened is that Jake took a camera crew to Iraq to experience what two of his brothers have experienced as soldiers there.

Jake is the oldest of five brothers and two sisters, and he tried to go to West Point and wasn't accepted. Although he doesn't say so, it appears it may be because of his eyesight. But brother Isaac goes to West Point and brother Joe enlists.

And so Jake gets his own body armor and helmet and goes off with a camera crew to record his own experiences on patrol and sitting in a sniper nest.

The documentary is really a family portrait of a large family with two sons as warriors and one as the recorder of the story of those warriors. It's a story that draws you in as you learn more about the relationships in the large Rademacher clan.

I recommend seeing the documentary for both its personal look at the warriors' experiences and at the impact these experiences have on the family back home.

On March 25th Nancy Brown and I will be interviewing Jake Rademacher on our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com. Listen live at 6:30 p.m. Eastern or listen afterwards to the download.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

College Applications: The Paradox of Having to Write Well Even If You're a Math Major

I've been contemplating the paradox of college application essays. Regardless of what your planned college major may be, if you want a good chance of getting into a top college -- besides having high SAT scores and a high GPA you have to be able to write well. Because how well an applicant writes his/her college application essays can have a significant impact on that applicant's acceptances.

Given this paradox, I'm pondering how well high school seniors are prepared to write good college application essays and how prepared they are to write good college course papers. And I'm also pondering whether, a few years from now, college applicants will not be required to write college application essays. Instead they'll submit a YouTube video answering the essay questions. Or provide their own password-protected websites.

As a writer, I find it discouraging that writing skills will become less important in the future. And that said, I'm off to do more social media networking to promote my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT.

(At 9 p.m. Eastern time tonight I'm going to be a guest on the BlogTalkRadio show Urban Literary Review. You'll be able to listen to the interview later if you can't catch the show live.)