Rod Merkley spent over ten years as a medic in the Army Reserves. During that time he was mobilized for two years to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and deployed once to Iraq. He is currently studying clinical psychology as a 2LT in the Army Health Professions Scholarship Program and plans on serving as a psychologist in the Army after graduation. He writes short fiction and non-fiction about both his experiences in the Army and the psychological impact of war on the young men and women who fight it.

He had the following to say about working with Military Experience and the Arts:

“Working with the people who I met through the Journal of Military Experience and the Military Experience and the Arts Symposium has been awesome. I actually wrote most of my short-story “Walk Until You Sleep“ before I became involved with these wonderful individuals. They not only helped me find ways to refine my writing but they also helped me to meet the people who have given me the opportunities necessary to succeed as a writer. I truly believe that expressive writing can help us to understand the things that have happened to us in our lives and that through the veterans art movement we can all become better people.”

Rod’s story, “Walk Until You Sleep“, originally published by O-Dark-Thirty, the literary component of The Veterans Writing Project founded by Ron Capps who, coincidentally, was also an MEA 2012 instructor and lecturer, was recently published by Time Magazine. Click here to read Jeff Stein’s report about Rod and these other fine veteran authors.

Congratulations Rod! We love working with you and look forward to reading your finished contribution to the innagural issue of The Blue Falcon: A Journal of Military Fiction.