Be Careful - It's My Heart by Eleri Grace

The drama and larger-than-life grand love affairs of the 1940s was one of the things that drew me to write romance novels set during the pivotal years of WWII. Everything from the era's glamorous Hollywood stars and box office hits to the crooning ballads of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra sets the stage for epic love stories.

The war provides the perfect antagonist -- it cruelly separates, endangers, wounds, and forever shapes the character and life path of my heroes and heroines.

But in addition to the romantic love central to my novels, I think some of the most emotional depth in my work comes from the subplots relating to family and friendships that I weave into my Clubmobile Girls series.

In my first novel, there's the love Vivian has for her fellow Red Cross Girl and best friend Mabs, and the fierce love Jack has for all the men in his B-17 crew. There's the greater love of humanity that threatens to crush Vivian's spirit as she watches the mounting casualties among the bomber crews. She's terrified of losing Jack of course, but her heartache for all the Allied forces is genuine. In my second novel, Skip's heartbreak over the loss of his beloved older brother at Pearl Harbor drives him and colors all his actions, while my heroine Hadley wrestles with her own demons and the loss of a dear friend years ago.

Showing a range of love relationships in our novels adds power and resonates with readers. I read extensively in the genre of war memoirs as background research for each of my novels. I also read a few "big-picture" books for whichever locale I'm focusing on for that novel. For my debut novel, I started with "Masters of the Air," which remains one of my all-time favorite WWII nonfiction books. There are quite a number of similar books and combat memoirs written by the men who fought in the skies over Europe. I was particularly touched by the theme that cropped up again and again in these accounts by and about the bomber crews -- those ten men became an insular and tight-knit family.

They were truly brothers-in-arms and dropped all boundaries that military rank, education, race or social class might normally have divided them. They fiercely defended each other -- both up in the air in combat and on the ground in the give-and-take of life on a military base and on recreational leave trips. That's one of the love relationships I'm most proud of in my both my novels -- the bromance that was a bromance before it was cool, the love that was so prevalent among the valiant crews of our airmen.

Love is all around us, and I think our readers appreciate when we take advantage of our ability to show the range of human experience with love in all its forms in our stories. 

Learn more about me and my writing on my website or follow me on my social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

You can find my Clubmobile Girls novels on Amazon. 

Villains Take All Forms by Eleri Grace

Like some of the bloggers who have posted this month, I don’t really read regularly in any genre that truly puts a villain on the page. When I saw this month’s prompt, my mind instantly went to Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series. I also considered writing about the antagonist in Kristan Higgin’s most recent novel, Always the Last to Know, who, like Snape, is far more complex than she first appears. But then I read Barbara Binn’s blog featuring COVID-19 as a villain created by the 2020 writers’ room, I veered in yet another direction.

Barbara’s post spurred me to consider how I often use an external force as a villain in my own writing. War – WWII specifically in my case – is the overriding antagonist in my novels. It rips my characters out of their ordinary world, keeps them from their loved ones, is a source of loss -- loss of comrades, friends, loved ones, loss of liberty, loss of innocence. They all wanted to do their part. My heroines will maintain that despite the hardships and grief and separation from home and loved ones, they wouldn't have missed it for the world. Naturally, my combat veteran heroes might have more complex emotions on that point, though they too were proud to have been part of such an important undertaking.

Though I don’t show it on the page, it’s safe to assume that war leaves an indelible mark on my characters. My heroes and heroines get their happy ending, but as in any well-written romance novel, their evolution and personal journeys to resolve their inner conflicts and their relationship barrier are shaped in extraordinary ways by the war and its lasting effects.

Down the road, I plan to do a “reunion” of my Clubmobile Girls heroines, perhaps set in the 1970s, to explore some of the long-term effects. I know that my heroines, based on their historical counterparts, will have often enjoyed professional and career success while also raising a family (including their daughters, who are no doubt among the vocal feminists advocating for equal rights beginning in the 1960s). As with my heroes and other male veterans, my heroines will cite their wartime service as the most memorable and transformative experience of their lives. They left their overseas postings convinced that they could now do anything, anything hey wanted was within reach. Of course, that wasn't completely true, but their optimism no doubt helped them topple barriers that might have once stymied their progress. My heroes may have taken advantage of the GI bill to pursue additional education or start a small business after the war.

They might well have taken advantage of benefits that allowed them to buy a home with a low-interest loan. My characters returned home to a booming economy that bore little resemblance to what they had experienced during their childhood and adolescence.

Yet, there were surely negative effects from the war as well. Both my heroes and my heroines may have suffered from some residual PTSD, though it would be decades after the war before their struggles had a diagnosis and a name. Framed photos of loved ones who were lost in the war will long trigger grief and sadness. Some of my characters may have preferred to shield their children from later wars. 

War is definitely a non-traditional villain, but a villain or antagonist all the same. And as with human villains, its arc is neither simple nor a straight-line.

Learn more about me and my writing on my website, and you can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

You can find my Clubmobile Girls books on Amazon.