The Stuff of Nightmares - A Blast from the Past

This post was first published on October 13, 2020. WW2 Romance Author Eleri Grace can be counted on to write thrilling romantic stories that immerse her readers in the realities of llfe during WW2.

By Eleri Grace

I too don’t write horror, suspense, paranormal or another genre that might have a classic “scary scene.” I write WWII historical novels – what’s scary about that?

            Well, more than might be readily apparent. As Judith noted, real life presents plenty of scary situations, and war certainly amplifies dangerous situations.

            One of the scariest scenes I’ve written tracks along with what is a fairly common nightmare for many people. How many times have you jerked awake, heart pounding, with the sense that you are free falling? Probably at least a few times in your life, I would wager.

            Fairly early in my drafting process for my debut novel, I realized that my hero Jack Nielsen was afraid of heights. A common fear, sure, but Jack is a pilot. How can a pilot cope with a fear of heights? It seems counter-intuitive, and I was initially intrigued with whether that was too outlandish. So I googled “pilots fear of heights,” and it turns out that research shows that acrophobia is markedly, dramatically higher in the pilot population than among non-pilots. Some studies indicate up to 90% of pilots have a fear of heights. So I asked my teenage son, an avid flight simulator who wants to be a pilot and spends quite a bit of time with like-minded young adults: “Yes,” he nodded. “Most of us are afraid of heights.” It turns out that, as my son indicated, most pilots feel very in control in the cockpit, thus keeping their natural acrophobia at bay.

            But in combat? No, in combat, a pilot faces far more threats than usual to his or her ability to feel – and be -- in control of the plane. And that was the stuff of nightmares – both for Jack and for ME.

           

I read so many non-fiction accounts of WW2 bailout scenes that I woke up with that free fall sensation far more in that one year than at any other time in my life. But I knew that Jack would have to jump eventually, and I forced myself to write it, knowing his experience might yank me from sleep for many months or years to come.

 

    “No more time! Out!” Hank pushed him closer to the hatch.

    Jack froze. His stomach lurched and dropped to his ankles, and his heart thrumped in his throat like a staccato fusillade of artillery. He swayed and gripped a handle on the hatch door with his good hand. “Go ahead,” he yelled.

    Hank shook his head violently. “You gotta jump!” he screamed in Jack’s ear.

    Waves of dizziness roiled him. Jack’s legs were as numb as his injured hand. No. No way. There was absolutely no way he could jump out into the clouds.

    Hank pried at Jack’s fingers, locked around the hatch handle in a death grip. “Damn it, let go!” He pulled hard on Jack’s waist, and they stumbled back to the narrow catwalk of the bomb bay.

    Before Jack could clamp his hand around the handle again, Hank put the chute rip cord into Jack’s uninjured hand and closed his fingers around it. Then he shoved hard with both hands in the middle of Jack’s back.

    Jack was out, free-falling in the icy slipstream, tumbling end over end. Out of control, exactly as he had always dreaded in his imagination.

    The ground rushed toward him. Slow down, slow down, slow down!

    The ring. The ripcord D-ring. Hank had put it in his hand. Jack jerked his hand downward.

    The parachute burst out of the chest pack and opened above him with a resounding crack. His body jerked upward.

    A loud, sustained bang sounded behind him. Jack turned his head, horrified to see his trusty, much-loved ship exploding in mid-air, engulfed in fiery flames.

 

Being the hero, Jack does land safely. But does he connect up with Allied troops or the German forces who imprison him in a wretched POW camp? Does he encounter German civilians who might decide to exact vigilante justice against him as another terror flieger?

You can read more of his experiences and his love story with Red Cross Girl Vivian in my debut novel, Courage to be Counted.

As the bombs fall on Europe, their love affair must survive a deadly war…

Vivian Lambert wants to do her part. When she wins a coveted overseas post with the Red Cross, she focuses on her war service. Falling hard for a sexy pilot wasn't part of her plan.

Jack Nielsen has a mission. Motivated by patriotic duty and desire to avenge the death of his best friend, Jack commands a ten-man B-17 crew. Keeping himself and his men alive in the fire-filled skies over Europe will require Jack's full focus. Romancing a headstrong Red Cross Girl is a distraction he knows he shouldn't indulge.

While Vivian's work takes her across France and into the heart of Nazi Germany, mounting casualties drive Jack to confront his dwindling odds of survival. As Allied forces converge on all fronts, can Vivian and Jack's relationship withstand an excruciating battle between love and duty?

Courage to be Counted is the first book in the Clubmobile Girls series of sizzling hot historical romances. If you like brave military heroes, trailblazing heroines, and romance under fire, then you'll love Eleri Grace's page-turning tale.

 

 

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

New Year, New Covers by Eleri Grace

Yes, despite the title of my post, I do realize we're now in February!  I just couldn't come up with a catchy title that conveys the content of this blog, and I couldn't think of a great way to relate it to our prompt this month. Going rogue!  

On January 26th, the new blockbuster WWII mini-series "Masters of the Air" premiered on AppleTV+ -- and because Donald Miller's book of the same title influenced my own series so very much, I launched new cover-art for my series, and revitalized my author blog with a promise to my readers that I would blog about each week's episode of "Masters of the Air" and share some additional tidbits in my author newsletter. 

So without further adieu, let me introduce you to the stunning new covers I've launched for my novels:

For this one, I love the backdrop of the old Norman English church, which looks so very like the one where Vivian often visited the pastor in the village of Chelveston. Vivian's gaze is turned slightly upward to the bomber formation soaring overhead amidst the perpetually gray English sky, perhaps they are returning from a mission, and she is watching for some sign that one of the B-17s is Jack returning safely back to base. 

I absolutely love the lushness of this cover design, a clear signal that this novel takes place in the Pacific Theater. The distant mountain ranges represent New Guinea's coastal topography. Hadley has her musette bag slung over her shoulder and is wearing the less formal Tropical Red Cross Girl uniform (the formal one was a seersucker suit). She too is watching a distant B-25 bomber, likely hoping that it's Skip returning safely from that day's mission. 

Again, I'm also so excited to share here a link to my blog where you too can follow along as I describe for readers what we're seeing in the depiction of the Red Cross Girls in "Masters of the Air" (and what is not conveyed on the screen but is happening behind-the-scenes). I hope you'll check out my ongoing blogs here -- the first 3-4 blogs are spoiler-free for the series, though my latest blog for Episode 4 does include some mild spoilers. 

I've focused my blogs on the portrayal of the Red Cross Girls in "Masters of the Air." I'm delighted that they are featured in several episodes -- they absolutely should/could have been included in "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific."  I participated in a "Masters of the Air" tour of the East Anglia bomber bases and other related UK sites, led by Dr. Donald Miller, author of "Masters of the Air," in 2016. The tour was hosted by the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans and was an exceptional all-around experience. Dr. Miller was a wealth of resources and would often respond to my many emailed follow-up questions within hours. He was not, however, familiar with the Red Cross Girls really at all, and I spent the entirety of the tour advocating for their inclusion in the mini-series, which was already underway at that time. I'd like to think I played some small part in their inclusion in the series and am honored to share my thoughts about what the series is getting absolutely right about the service of these remarkable women (and what could have perhaps been handled better in some cases). 

I also plan to continue blogging regularly to share tidbits from my "Masters of the Air" tour with Dr. Miller and other historical details relating to the Red Cross Girls and their WW2 service. 

I hope you'll enjoy those blogs and the extraordinary series, with new episodes being released each week through mid-March.  

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

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. 

Google your Way to Genuineness by Eleri Grace

Setting plays an important role in my novels, but I mostly make do with experiencing the setting from afar. Much as I would love to travel and do first-hand research, some of my settings are simply too far-flung or currently dangerous for that to be a viable option! For those novels, Google has become my best friend, and I'm grateful to have so many resources at my fingertips. It's hard for me to imagine how I might have created the level of detail that I do in my novels without the internet and all its fabulous resources. 

Restored control tower and base of 100th Bomber Group, Thorpe Abbotts, England (2016)

For my first novel, set primarily on a US bomber base in southeastern England, it was easy to draw on my experiences from having lived in that very area while studying abroad in 1989 and from a more recent research trip led by the National WWII Museum. That tour allowed me the opportunity to not only visit two of the restored air bases but also to chat with some of the locals who were children during the war and have vivid memories of those years with all the American airmen who served there. While we did not visit the base that I had already chosen as the focal setting for Courage to be Counted, it was still incredibly helpful to see these bases and imagine how similar they were to what my characters experienced at Chelveston. 

Historical re-enactors: 95th Bomber Group, Horham, England (2016)

St Andrews Church, Quidenham, England, stained glass window in honor of USAAF 96th Bomber Group

Red Cross Girls doing laundry in a river in New Guinea, circa 1943

My second novel Carry a Crusading Spirit followed my heroine from Australia (that would have been a great trip if I could have managed it!) to New Guinea and then to Tinian Island in the Northern Marianas. Time and finances didn't allow me to visit these places in person (and New Guinea is not particulary safe either), but I made great use of online sources. Google Earth is an extraordinary resource for authors looking to get a better feel for the topography, and I used it often for my hero's New Guinea flight scenes. In addition to photos, maps, and Google Earth, I have had great luck with videos -- not only current ones that show a general idea of the lay of the land, but many historical videos are available online. 

My latest novel in progress is set in India and Burma (now Myanmar). Obviously Myanmar is not a safe destination at the moment. I found quite a few travel blogs -- most of which relate to trips taken prior to the last couple of years -- with great photos and details. One travel blogger drove the old Ledo Road, and he included some incredible photos that show how arduous the construction must have been. Speaking of video research, just this past weekend, I found myself wondering if it was possible to kill a tiger with a bow and arrow, and lo and behold if I don't find a video (circa 1963 no less) that literally shows a skilled archer bringing down a tiger in India. 

Red Cross Girl in India, circa 1944

So even though I don't have personal photos in my collection from these Asian locales, I've been intrepid enough to locate some pretty amazing sources that have added depth and variety in bringing the settings of my novels to life. 

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. 

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. 

It Might as Well be Spring by Eleri Grace

As we round the corner on another spring, having cycled now fully through all the seasons under pandemic conditions, I'm reminded of the hopeful 1945 song "It Might as Well be Spring." The hit song from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical film "State Fair" really didn't have much to do with the impending end of WWII -- in fact the war was over by the time it was recorded and released as a single in the fall of 1945. Yet to my mind it is symbolic of the fresh new springtime start that the end of the war would bring for so many and could be equally meaningful in current times as we begin to climb out of the pandemic slowly but surely. 

I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams

I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing

I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud or a robin on the wing

But I feel so gay in a melancholy way

That it might as well be Spring

One of the things I always keep in the forefront of my mind when writing my WWII era novels is that no one had a crystal ball. My Red Cross Girl heroines faced the prospect of "for the duration" along with the servicemen. When they were packing up at home and in Washington after completing their training, they had no idea how many seasons would come and go before they experienced the familiarity of a hometown seasonal change once again. Many served in a climate quite unlike what they had experienced in their lifetime up to that point.

The holidays that mark the passage of the seasons were something our forces overseas observed however possible. The Red Cross Girls quashed their own homesickness in order to put on a happy face for holiday parties and dances. They knew it was important that these seasonal rituals carry on -- it was a spot of normalcy in what were extraordinary times. 

And so it goes with us. I know we're not there yet. That was true for the men and women serving overseas in 1945 -- feeling happy and hopeful "in a melancholy way," for by then everyone knew it was a matter of time. It's a matter of time on this pandemic too. Spring is in the air -- let's remain vigilant but hopeful!

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