A Bygone Era when Kindness was a Default by Eleri Grace

My immediate thought on learning of this month's theme was to spotlight an organization I've always intended to become involved in - Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK). But as I've never had the time to volunteer myself, it seemed like an odd choice for this month's blog. I will give it a brief shout-out here before moving on. RAOGK allows individuals to request a genealogical record look-up at a courthouse or a tombstone photo at a cemetery that is located too far a distance to visit in person. Local researchers commit to performing at least one act of genealogical kindness each month. Even though untold resources have now been digitized, we genealogists often really do need someone who can be boots-on-the-ground in places where maybe courthouse and other civil records are not yet fully online or where the cemeteries are sometimes tiny and located on private property. It's a great idea and I hope to one day be in a position to make someone's day by providing them with some treasured bit of genealogical data!

I decided I could be more specific if I instead focus on how kindness was often the default, not the exception, during the WW2 years. My Red Cross Girl heroines relied heavily on the good-hearted local people who could locate hard-to-find resources, explain the area's customs, connect the women to local artists, vendors, and tradespeople. I'm sure I've noted it before, but the Red Cross created and ran thousands of on-base and off-base clubs of varying sizes all over the world during WW2. Sometimes the military designated a specific building on a base to be used for a Red Cross club for the enlisted men, but it was almost always sparsely furnished and undecorated at best. To get a club up and running required the Red Cross Girls to exercise a good bit of ingenuity and persistence, plus call on a certain amount of charm, to obtain everything from paint for the walls to furniture, supplies, games, sports equipment, and on and on. They also relied on off-duty servicemen or local people to perform some of the labor - painting the walls, repairs, moving heavy furniture, hanging decorations, and so on. Granted, many of the men might had more than kindness in mind when they volunteered their off time to helping out the Red Cross Girls, who were often the only female presence in a male-dominated landscape! 

305th Bomber Group Aero-Club, Chelveston, England

But certainly an eagerness to be of help and be kind motivated so many people to come together in common purpose in those times. In the UK, the local villagers were especially pleased to not only invite lonely American fly-boys into their homes for a home-cooked dinner but also to provide resources to the bases. It was only a passing reference in my novel Courage to be Counted, but one local family who had sons serving overseas donated their piano to the 305th Bomber Group based at Chelveston, delivering it to the club on the back of a hay wagon. My heroines might need to do a little legwork, but they could almost always round up whatever supplies they needed for parties and special events by asking around in the area villages. 

Here's a few more examples of the kinds of events or clubs overall that required the kindness of strangers, a kindness that so many people didn't hesitate to extend in those uncertain war years -- enjoy!

You can read more about me and my writing on my website!  

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My! by Eleri Grace

 WWII novels aren't typically scary in the traditional sense -- not in the same way that a paranormal or suspense novel might keep you up at night. 

Yet historical novels can include scenes driven by psychological terror or danger, and I like to believe my novels include plenty of page-turning scenes that leave the reader in suspense. I've written here about the fear of heights common to so many pilots and how that sense of control that most pilots feel in the cockpit evaporated in the face of WWII combat flying, especially with the ever-present odds of being forced to bail-out of a damaged plane. 

My Red Cross Girl heroines likewise faced dangers and fears during their service. In my debut novel, Courage to be Counted, my heroine Vivian was forced to flee in the dead of night when German forces overran the previously-peaceful R&R town of Clervaux, Luxembourg in the opening day of the Battle of the Bulge. She and her fellow Clubmobilers bedded down in the French countryside in the same fields as the advancing American troops, with artillery shells booming overhead. Vivian also experienced a close call with death when a German fighter bombed a US Army work-crew she was serving, forcing her to dive for cover under a nearby Jeep. 

In my 2nd Clubmobile novel, my heroine Hadley's journalistic curiosity lands her in one sticky situation after another. Wanting to write stories of substance for her newspaper back home, she accepted a pilot's offer to go up in a small plane for a quick reconnaissance trip, yet ended up in a combat scenario. Chasing a scoop, Hadley ignored protocol for having a male escort for any drives beyond their immediate work territory in New Guinea and took a female war correspondent into a remote jungle region where they were nearly killed in a crash. 

Though it has no title or cover yet, I decided to share a brief scene of danger and fear experienced by my latest heroine Maggie in my work-in-progress (ever-hopeful that this 3rd Clubmobile Girls novel will be published early next year). Maggie is serving with the Red Cross in eastern India, near the Burma border. She and her fellow Clubmobile worker Jill had done a Clubmobile run to serve doughnuts, coffee, and cheer to the work crews building the Ledo Road, which would later provide the much-needed land route from India to China. Though they had a male Field Director escort in the Clubmobile runs on the Ledo Road and camped overnight with Army troops, the women shared a basha (small hut constructed of native bamboo and grasses) at the edge of camp. An unexpected visitor to their basha kept Maggie pinned to her cot in terror for hours one night. 

Source: Davidvraju via Wikimedia under CC BY-SA 4.0

Consciousness returned in gradual waves. Her body didn’t want to relinquish its hold on a deep, restful slumber, yet something in her brain continued trying to rouse her. 

Something warm and moist nudged the mosquito net flat against her face and moved the netting in a gentle caress over her nose, her cheek, her jawline. Like a lover nuzzling, hoping to reignite an earlier passionate interlude. 

It was the deep throaty rumble near her ear, similar to a cat purring — but deeper and with a hint of menace — that jerked her mind into hyper-alertness. Every muscle in her body tautened. 

Its warm breath near her own mouth carried a coppery tang — an unfamiliar smothering scent that spiked her already rushing adrenaline levels. Blood. Blood in its breath. Blood on its mind.

With soft chuffs, it raked the mosquito netting down her arm, then across her hand. As it nudged its nose against her waist, Maggie’s heart froze in her chest. 

Her escalating fear could prompt it to attack at any moment. An ice-cold shiver snaked down her spine at the thought of its sharp teeth and claws. The engineers and work crews working on the Ledo Road had reported several tiger attacks — men who had been mauled, grievously wounded, or even killed. 

Maggie fought through her suffocating panic and forced herself to center enough to consider options. 

What did she know about tigers? Was it a tiger? It was a big cat — she had grown ever more certain of that. The deep rhythmic sound it was making — akin to a saw scissoring through wood — put her in mind of a cat. It wasn’t a continuous purr like a house cat makes, but similar enough. There were bears here too, but she didn’t think a bear would make this sort of sound. 

 To Maggie’s ears, its investigatory noises reverberated through the basha. Could Jill hear it? She might be deep in sleep and blessedly unaware of their plight, or she too might be lying there, frozen into panicked silence. 

It might grow bored and disappear. As badly as Maggie wanted that outcome, it seemed unlikely. 

If one of them screamed for help, would that scare it off? Or would it pounce, snarling and ripping and sinking its long teeth into her tender flesh? It was the threat of the latter that kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her body completely rigid and still. Her every breath seemed to amplify and must be every bit as loud as the birds and other animals who continued their nighttime conversations, oblivious to the mortal danger in which Maggie and Jill found themselves.

Its soft fur brushed against her arm, what might be its tail swished in the air near her ear. The deep chuffing noise allowed her to follow its progress as it moved around her cot and now pressed against the netting on her other side. Maggie still didn’t dare open her eyes. Feigned sleep had worked so far. On the other hand, it surely must sense her wakeful state from her thudding heartbeat and accelerating pulse. 

It circled the cot twice more, insistently pressing its nose against her body from head to toe through the netting. It seemed to like the texture of the netting - Maggie had the sense that it was rubbing its face against it as cats so often rub their heads against furniture and objects. Grandpa said cats rubbed against things to mark them as their own. Was this one marking her as its next meal, or was it merely enjoying the texture of the soft, feathery netting? 

I hope you enjoyed the above teaser (and yes, Maggie is the heroine, so she does survive her night of terror, though the experience left its mark). 

In case you missed my earlier novels, you can find my Clubmobile Girls novels on Amazon. You can learn more about me and my writing on my website and by following me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.  

Hidden Gems, by Eleri Grace

Our prompt this month asks us to consider the value in our older and/or unpublished writing. Are there hidden gems lurking in your hard drive (or even perhaps housed on diskettes!) or scribbles on old notepads? With published writing under your belt, could you rework what you earlier discarded or filed away as worthless? 

For me, the answer probably is no, but mostly because my earlier writing efforts don't align with my current genre and branding as a WWII historical author. Actually, that's not entirely accurate -- probably somewhere I have some notes and preliminary thoughts for a time travel YA novel that used Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms as a portal to the past. I think I got that idea on one of my visits to the Cabinet War Rooms, noting not only how they've been preserved so precisely as they were in 1945 but also how many hidden nooks and crannies and off-limits rooms and hallways the site has. It seems the absolute perfect place for a portal leading present-day time travelers back to wartime London! 

Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, personal photo of author (2016)

Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, personal photo of author (2016)

I got my start in creative writing with Harry Potter fan fiction. Before trying my hand at fan fiction, I had always considered myself more of a non-fiction and academic writer. I had no sense that I would ever be able to write dialogue or plot out a story or novel. While writing a long-form fan fiction piece, my entire perception changed, as I realized I had far more creativity than I'd ever imagined possible. Not only did I have creativity, but I enjoyed expressing myself in that outlet. Then I had my first child, and writing took a back seat for the next ten years. 

Some of our favorites from Mother-Daughter Book Club!

As my children grew older, I once again explored the possibility of writing fiction. At the time, I was still reading with my children regularly. I coached my daughter's competitive book-reading team in elementary school, and then we formed a mother-daughter book club that was active throughout her middle and high school years. Because so much of what we were reading in those years was YA, I initially launched my writing efforts thinking I might write middle-grade or YA novels. I joined SCBWI, attended their local conferences, and began occasionally meeting with a local friend to write for a few hours in the mornings at a coffee shop. I was writing, but I still didn't have the sense that I had found my way quite yet. 

I don't recall the impetus precisely, but at some point around 2013-2014, I got connected up with RWA and decided to give adult fiction a try. I wrote a contemporary romance and pitched it at RWA's annual conference. It got some nibbles, but I couldn't sell it to an agent or publisher. In looking at the books stacked on my nightstand one evening, it suddenly hit me that I didn't actually frequently read all that many contemporary romance novels. My TBR pile consisted of many historical fiction novels, mostly set during WWII. That got the wheels turning, and I began to explore what women did to support the war effort beyond the home front defense work. I worked out some of the roles that took women overseas, closer to the action and closer to the potential heroes. I knew even in those early days that I wasn't too interested in writing a romance where the action is centered on the home front or where the couple are separated for long stretches of time. I wanted my heroine to be in the thick of it, and I quickly become intrigued by the Red Cross Girls who served overseas all over the globe. Once I learned how much they interacted with the servicemen and how closely they operated to the front lines, the action, the danger, I was hooked. 

So while I can't envision recycling any of my earlier efforts into my current writing, it played a part in proving to me that I was creative, that I enjoyed writing fiction, and that I was capable of plotting and writing a full novel. 

You can buy my books on Amazon, learn more about me and my writing on my website, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

Extraordinary in the Ordinary by Eleri Grace

 In case you missed it -- this was a post from 2019 not long after I began posting here regularly. This seems an appropriate one for Memorial Day month too!

A "superhero" is a fictional character with extraordinary or superhuman powers or an exceptionally skilled or successful person.

Rather than paying tribute to the numerous actual people who populate my life and have exceptional or superhuman perseverance, strength, and empathy for others, I decided to write today about a group of women who straddle both worlds in a sense. The heroines of my Clubmobile Girls novels are fictional, yet they are rooted firmly in our documented history. Based on the thousands of women who answered the call to wartime service with the American Red Cross, my heroines have a strong sense of duty and patriotism, resilience, an adventurous and independent streak, and exceptional courage.

Courage is the first word in the title of my first Clubmobile Girls novel, and it is the attribute my heroines call forth more than any other. As all good fictional characters do, my heroines must summon their mental strength to withstand and extricate themselves and others from dangerous situations. But my heroines evidence mettle from the beginning way before they are in any sort of perilous situation. Indeed, they have built up and drawn on an enormous reservoir of tenacity before my readers meet them. Of course, most American women served in some capacity during WWII, whether working in a factory or defense plant, enlisting in one of the auxiliary military service units, volunteering with the USO, the Red Cross, or a local hospital, or tending a victory garden and economizing in her household. But the women who secured the overseas assignments with the American Red Cross evinced particularly exceptional spirit and drive.

Well before the first women shipped out, before their overseas work was operational, the Red Cross intuited that the women who would organize and staff their clubs and mobile units all over the world must be self-starters with stamina, confidence, and adaptability. Most of the women who applied (only one in six would be successful) were poised, charming, and accomplished professionals who could draw on a varied life experience. They were good conversationalists who could hold their own in a male-dominated environment, who could laugh at a dirty joke but retain "girl next door" respectability, who could offer comfort and stability to both the homesick and shell-shocked soldiers. But it was her inner fortitude that likely won her the job, and it will be that same strength that will see her through it all.

Stand in her shoes and close your eyes. It's 1942, and you've just signed up for the duration. You don't know where you will be posted (a bomber base in southeast England or in the large cities of southeast Australia, a club in Algiers, Calcutta, or Chungking, a train serving men working in the deserts of Persia, a naval base in Iceland or Cuba) or what your day-to-day work will entail. You don't know when you might next see your parents or family and friends. Tied to that, of course, is the dawning realization that you don't know what the "duration" actually means. You have no crystal ball that shows a return to normalcy by 1946. You don't know how the war years will shape and change you profoundly forevermore, how those years more than any others will stand out as having been the most meaningful of your entire life. But you know one thing for certain: you wouldn't trade this opportunity to serve your country with courage for anything.

You can buy my books on Amazon, learn more about me and my writing on my website, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

Don't Fence Me In by Eleri Grace

Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In" is seemingly about physical freedom in a wide-open landscape, and the recording by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in late 1944 was not inspiration to the women who answered the call to duty after Pearl Harbor. But the phrase "Don't Fence Me In" is in some ways a very accurate reflection of the attitude many of the Red Cross Girls held. They were trailblazers, independent thinkers, and pushed up against and beyond barriers on many levels in their lives -- both before, during, and after the war. Freedom undergirded it all. 

Camouflaging the Clubmobile - Normandy 1944

All the women the Red Cross selected through a rigorous interview process for overseas service were resilient and fiercely independent self-starters. Many were single and had been working in a professional capacity for several years (which was one of the Red Cross requirements). Most craved even more freedom and autonomy -- perhaps escaping family members who were pressuring them to settle down into domesticity or seeking the lure of adventure and duty in the thick of the action. And as the war wore on and the Red Cross Girls increasingly recognized their own worth, many dreaded returning home, fearing that they would face pressure to give up their careers or that the opportunities in post-war America would go mostly to the returning male soldiers. One Red Cross Girl wrote her boyfriend that he should understand that she could no longer see herself ever being happy as a housewife and that he should be prepared to carry some of the domestic load because she intended to continue her career. 

Florence, Italy 1944

They experienced unprecedented responsibility and freedom during the war, and many were concerned about adjusting to post-war realities. Based on the numerous memoirs and oral history interviews I used in my research, many of them refused to scale back their aspirations or relinquish the additional freedom they experienced during the war years. Many of these women went on to resume their careers or pursue a new profession, learning how to balance their professional and home lives. I like to think that the daughters of these trailblazing WWII heroines led the charge for women's rights in the 1960s. But the Red Cross Girls (and many other women in the era) played a large role in pushing boundaries and resetting expectations. 

I have a new release coming out this month -- a Clubmobile Girls "short" for your holiday reading. This is the first of a planned anthology of stories set in the Arctic locales of Iceland, Greenland, Alaskan Territory, and the Aleutian Islands. In At His Side for Christmas, Elise Macalester, serving as a Red Cross Girl in Iceland, puts aside her shyness to help reconnect two brothers torn apart by combat. Can she overcome self-doubt and tragic circumstances to find her way to love and happiness? 

You can learn more about me on my website or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

You can find my Clubmobile Girls series on Amazon. At His Side for Christmas is available for pre-order now! 

The Gift of Normalcy by Eleri Grace

Like so many others, I'm thankful for good health - both my own and those I love. I have not lost anyone in this pandemic, and I pray that will continue to be the case as the Delta variant surges throughout our country. As the largest school district in the state (and one of the largest in the country) kicks off the school year in two weeks, I am so very thankful that Houston ISD has chosen to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its 250,000 students and personnel and that I can send my son back to high school, secure in the knowledge that masks will help continue to keep him safe and healthy. 

In addition to their good health, I remain thankful each and every day that my two children are able to pursue their passions. The pandemic has been disruptive to them both, but they have now each begun to see improvement in opportunities once again. My daughter received an offer for a fall internship in D.C. that is exactly on point for her interests in counter-terrorism and countering domestic extremism. I'm visiting her this weekend in D.C., and she is so obviously thrilled to be back in the city she loves so much. Her campus will return to in-person learning this fall, and even though masks will be required, it's going to be a dramatic improvement over virtual learning. Her weeks will be full again. Between her internship, her campus tour guide job, her classwork, her involvement in her sorority and her time with friends, it's hard to imagine she won't be over-stretched. Because she missed an entire year of being on campus, she must now weigh whether it's worth being away from DC for another semester to do a study abroad program, which we always assumed would be part of her college experience. Despite the need to pack in as much as she can and the challenge of possibly foregoing experiences she might have done, she and I are both thankful she now has the ability to return to normalcy again. 

After 8 months of enduring one medical exam after another and submitting endless piles of paper, the FAA finally cleared my son for the medical certificate he needed in order to continue on toward earning his private pilot license. He's now done his first solo flight and is on his way again. I'm thankful for the huge hug he gave me when I handed him his first class medical certificate from the FAA in June. I'm thankful I was able to see his exhilarated face when he climbed out of the plane after his first solo flight the next month. And I'm thankful for the clarity I experienced about his plans to pursue a career in aviation despite not having a pristine bill of health. Hearing the compliments of his instructor, listening in on the flight school radio to him communicating with the tower, watching his pure happiness at being able to fly -- that all helped me realize how important it is for him to pursue his dreams, challenges notwithstanding. I'm thankful for that realization and insight and so very thankful that he too can return to normalcy. 

My hope is that normalcy is already making a reappearance in your lives too and that our country will meet the moment to truly restore normalcy and good health for all. 

You can read more about me and my writing on my website. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. And you can find my Clubmobile Girls series novels on Amazon. 

As Time Goes By - Eleri Grace

Congratulations to the Genre-istas of Romancing the Genres on their 10 years of providing fabulous content for romance readers the world over!

As all of you now know, I like to tie my blogs in with my WW2-era writing, so for this month's #10 theme, I thought it might be fun to visit some Top 10 lists for songs, books, and films of the era when my heroes and heroines were dancing cheek to cheek. 

TOP 10 SONGS

There are many "top songs" lists, but the following are both indisputably popular and on my personal Top 10 Songs of WW2 list.

1. Bugle Call Rag -- love the upbeat, fast tempo, particularly the Glenn Miller version

2. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy -- Andrews Sisters classic

3. Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer -- the lyrics to this song are so on target for my books where my heroes are often struggling to bring a plane safely home

4. In the Mood -- iconic Glenn Miller

5. Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey -- bluesy Doris Day version is my favorite

6. Accentuate the Positive -- I've always loved these optimistic lyrics

7. We'll Meet Again -- Vera Lynn was known as the "Forces Sweetheart" in Britain 

8. The White Cliffs of Dover -- another Vera Lynn classic

9. Straighten Up and Fly Right -- Andrews Sisters

10. G.I. Jive -- who can resist this one?

TOP 10 BOOKS

Rather than books published during the 1940s (of which I'm sad to say, I have read very few), I am sharing some of my personal favorite books set during WW2. 

1. Tanamera by Noel Barber -- Noel Barber's novels, written later in his life after a long career as a foreign war correspondent, inspired my desire to write WW2-era romances. This one is set in pre-war and WW2 Singapore and is a book I re-read every few years. 

2. A Farewell to France by Noel Barber - Barber takes readers to WW2 Europe in this one

3. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -- the biting satire and dark humor, along with the historical accuracy, make this one a stand-out among WW2 novels

4. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkins -- painstakingly detailed and accurate research and memorable characters

5. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein -- strong characters and a gripping plotline that will stick with readers long after they've closed the book

6. The Winds of War/War and Remembrance -- a two-volume multi-generational saga, Wouk's work was among the first novels set in the era that I recall reading in high school

7. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah -- the story of the two sisters is breathtaking and heartbreaking

8. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn -- though not set directly in WW2, one of the storylines connects to events in war-time France

9. Goodbye Mickey Mouse by Len Deighton -- fabulous look at the experiences on an American bomber base in England during the war 

10. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn -- brilliant interwoven stories of three very unique young women thrown together at Bletchley Park during the war and the secrets that continue to affect their lives in the years following the war

TOP 10 FILMS

I again went with films set during WW2 rather than released during the war.

1. Band of Brothers -- HBO mini-series

2. Saving Private Ryan

3. Jewel in the Crown mini-series

4. Twelve O'Clock High

5. Darkest Hour

6. Dunkirk (2017 version)

7. The Pacific -- HBO mini-series

8. Schindler's List

9. U-571

10. Atonement

I hope you've enjoyed a brief tour of some of my favorites of the era! Enjoy the rest of this month's celebration of 10 years of Romancing the Genres!

You can learn more about me 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. 

Laugh in the Face of Danger by Eleri Grace

 I was a little stumped by this month's prompt for a bit. I love novels that can inspire a range of emotions in a reader, including side-splitting laughter, but I would probably have a hard time hitting that humorous tone even if I weren't writing in the WW2 genre. Yet, while many of my favorite authors who write humor very effectively include romance authors Kristan Higgins, Tracy Brogan, and Josie Silver, one of the funniest books I've ever read was the improbably humorous WW2 classic, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. 

Of course, many would deem it dark humor. But Heller's mastery of satire is unparalleled. Though many of the compiled "funniest lines" you might see online are humorous on their own, context adds immeasurably. So I do highly recommend reading the entire novel to get the full effect of Heller's genius. 

“You have a morbid aversion to dying. You probably resent the fact that you're at war and might get your head blown off any second."

"I more than resent it, sir. I'm absolutely incensed."

"You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don't like bigots, bullies, snobs, or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate."

"Consciously, sir, consciously," Yossarian corrected in an effort to help. "I hate them consciously."

"You're antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated, or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if you're a manic-depressive!"

"Yes, sir. Perhaps I am."

"Don't try to deny it."

"I'm not denying it, sir," said Yossarian, pleased with the miraculous rapport that finally existed between them. "I agree with all you've said.”

Catch 22, Joseph Heller 

I am in the midst of writing my third Clubmobile Girls novel, set in India and Burma, and my hero will find himself recruited into dangerous search-and-rescue work in the Burma jungles. I've found a memoir titled "Hell is So Green" by William Diebold to be particularly helpful in my quest to provide my hero with plenty of challenges. Diebold jumped into the jungles and mountains of Burma a number of times to help lead downed airmen back to an American base --- a serious business. Yet, his memoir crackles with dry and self-deprecating wit, and consistently humorous exchanges with the pilots who maintained communication with him after his jumps and during his treks through dangerous countryside. In this instance, Diebold's parachute hung up in a tree, and a native boy helped cut the lines so he could reach the ground. When he made it back to the supplies the pilot had dropped, Diebold got on the radio: "Just once, old man, just once I wish one of you jokers would drop me on the ground. I've been in trees so much lately I feel like a bird." 

Humor can be found in the darkest and lowest of times, and yes, as Lion King's Simba confidently declared, in the face of danger. As we navigate our way back to more normalcy in the coming months, I hope you all find more and more occasion for laughter and humor. 

You can learn more about me 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. 

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.