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Sportswriter and Southerner extraordinaire Tommy Tomlinson shared the four questions he uses to help writers figure out what they want to write about in a great post.

For the descriptions of how to answer the questions, visit his post. But for a quick preview, here’s the skinny:

1. What do you know about?

2. What do you care about?

3. What are you curious about?

4. What scares you?

Ay yi yi. Short but big questions, no?

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to the Lucht brothers. Hailing from small-town Wisconsin, the three of them served aboard the USS F.M. Robinson together during the 1950s.

They shared a lot of colorful anecdotes, and Herbert, the middle brother, even saved a man’s life.

Click here to read how these three brothers developed a closer bond than most as they ventured into military life, Cuba and a few scrapes.

The lost art of letter-writing, the Civil War sesquicentennial, and an RSS feed: the messages from James, a Union soldier, to his Dear Molly are being posted on the 150th anniversary of their writing at the Missouri History Museum. If you know me, you know I’m a sucker for that era in history, a good teary-eyed love story, and (you guessed it) the written word.

Spending the past month working with the words of U.S. vets, how they talk about their spouses and families, has given me more insight (though, safe at home, my understanding only scratches the surface) into how difficult war-torn romance must-be, not to mention war-torn family life.

James is a moralist in the cause, as well as a lover of “boquets” of flowers (he mentions them throughout correspondence).

My favorite of the letters I’ve read thus far: March 22nd, 1863. It talks about conscription, Lincoln’s promise to shoot deserters (which Lincoln did not feel easy about making good on), and some sourly-expressed jealousy on the part of Miss Molly’s many beaus.