HOT!!!     HOT!!!     HOT!!!    HOT!!!   HOT!!!

Not only is it hot where I live in Oregon, it is Hot most everywhere. My friends and family who live in various parts of the United States all say this is the hottest July they can remember.

What I know is true is that since late June, I’ve had one (1) day under 90 degrees and that one day was 89. I don’t know about you, but I can’t tell the difference between 89 and 90 so it all has melded together for me.

Those who know me will not be surprised to learn I’m counting the weeks and looking forward to counting the days until October.

Why October?

I’ve lived in Western Oregon most of my life and I do not remember Any 90 or 100 degree days in that month.

September?

A few.

August?

Definitely!!!

So, in 10 weeks, it’ll be October and this, for me, hellish weather, will be in my past.

I am grateful I have a heat pump so my house can be cool enough I’m not sick and in the ER (yes, I’ve been to the ER because of heat and I was drinking water to stay hydrated).

I am grateful I have family and friends who will run errands for me so I don’t have to go out in the heat.

I am hopeful that we’ll get a break and our high temperatures will be in the mid to low 80’s and our nights in the 50’s. While not my favorite temperatures, I can manage because it isn’t already hot (to me) at 9 a.m.

In my fantasy world, I spend fall, winter here and spring and summer in Australia.

Why not spend spring here? It’s not that hot…true, but there are plants that bloom in the spring that when I breathe in their pollen my lungs actually seize.

Spring and summer in Oregon would be fall and winter in Australia. It’s a great fantasy. I’ve been to Australia once and loved it. I’ve writer and Glasser friends there. It’s a great country and I could spend time traveling around. I’d love to see Perth and Melbourne and returning to the Butterfly Sanctuary would be fantastic.

Back from fantasy land…10 weeks isn’t so very long especially since I’m fairly certain there’ll be a few breaks in this on-going heat wave. And, I remind myself, it could be worse. Friends in Arizona are dealing with strings of days with temperatures over 110.

How do you deal with the heat? Or does it even affect you?

For a cool read, you can pick up books by any of the Genre-istas. I’m currently rereading (3^rd time), Eleri Grace’s “Courage to be Counted”.

The authenticity of this book is exceptional. If you have family or friends who served in the European Theater in World War II, you’ll come away from reading this book about Vivian and Jack with a new appreciation for what they survived.

You can find my books at your favorite e-book vendor as well as through my website www.JudithAshley.net and Windtree Press. Print books are available at Jan’s Paperbacks in Beaverton, OR and Arte Soleil in Portland, OR. Get the addresses from my website. And be sure to ask your library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshley.net

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2024 Judith Ashley

Thankful For So Many Things

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights and choose love and light.

I’ve so many things for which I’m thankful including being a part of Romancing The Genres, a WindtreePress author and a great grandmama. I’m celebrating all three today and a little bit more by writing this post, spending time with my great grands (so post may be shorter than usual) and introducing you to my fellow authors at Windtree Press and sharing with you links to a couple of authors I really love to read. An added bonus is talking a bit about my favorite independent book store, Jan’s Paperbacks, Beaverton, OR.

My great grands are 6 and 4 years old. Unfortunately they live 5 hours away so I do not see them as often as I’d like. When I learned I was to be a great grandmother, I thought that a bit of a mouthful. I didn’t care for Nana (reminded me of the dog in Peter Pan). I know there are other monikers for grandma, etc. but I decided I’d be Grandmama (two ma’s instead of one). I’ve no idea what we’ll do when they come visit. That’s always a surprise.

I joined Windtree Press, an author cooperative, in 2014. We now have over 20 authors and 200 titles. Check out our website and learn more about the variety of authors that make up Windtree Press. One of my favorites is Paty Jager, who published her 50^th title in May. Another one of my favorites is Maggie Lynch, one of the founders of WP. Maggie not only writes books that speak to life’s challenges, she does it in a variety of genres!

Jan’s Paperbacks has, as far as I know, always supported romance authors. Here is the link to see if an Indie Book Store in your area is involved in the Indie Bookstore Romance Day event. And those authors I love to read? While I am a longtime fan of both Paty Jager and Maggie Lynch, new on my list is Eleri Grace. 

Perhaps because I had an uncle who was a bombardier during WWII stationed in England so flying over Europe including Germany, I’ve found her books fascinating and thus another window into that part of my uncle’s life. Ms. Grace’s Red Cross Clubmobile Girls series is so well researched, I found myself slogging through the mud, ice, snow in Europe (Courage To Be Counted) and dealing with bugs, snakes and the tropical jungle in Carry a Crusading Spirit.  

I’ll be at Jan’s on Saturday, August 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I’ll have copies of my The Sacred Women’s Circle series available as well as free gift to anyone who stops by whether they purchase a book or not. Authors involved in Romance Bookstore day are donating to at least one basket.

If you are in the area, I’d love to meet you. After this past year, I’m excited to be able to reconnect in person with people. We will be outdoors and appropriately spaced.

And if you can’t stop by and are not yet on my mailing list, you can sign up for Choices here. I’ve created a new free offering that includes the novella Sarah’s Ankh along with the first chapter of Lily: The Dragon and The Great Horned Owl. I hope you enjoy them.

Look for my next non-fiction Yes, You Can Create The Life You Love this fall.

All of my books are available at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series on her website JudithAshley.net

Follow Judith on Twitter: JudithAshley19

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on Facebook!

© 2021 Judith Ashley

I’ll be Home for Christmas By Eleri Grace

Many classic Christmas songs, stories, and films date to the 1940s, to WWII in particular, and with good reason. Almost half the popular Christmas tunes performed and played today were written and originally recorded in the 1930s-40s, with the majority of the remainder dating to the 1950s-1960s.

Why such an outpouring of creativity in celebration of Christmas? Homesick American soldiers, together with their lonely sweethearts, wives and mothers on the home front, spurred a nostalgic idealization of the holiday. These Christmas tributes sound universal themes of love, fellowship, hope and resurgence, presenting a stark contrast with the harsh realities of war. Through the vehicle of popular culture, artists united Americans in common purpose and camaraderie. 

Christmas Eve will find me

Where the love-light gleams

I’ll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams.

                         

Kim Gannon, Walter Kent, and Buck Ram (1943)

This beautiful Library of Congress compilation of photographs, essays, magazine articles, journal entries and other reminiscences is the perfect way to step back in time to the bygone era of WWII this holiday season. It captures the spirit of the men and women serving overseas, as well as the hopes and fears of those who kept the home fires burning, who longed for the safe return of their loved ones.

The heroines of my Clubmobile Girls novels helped alleviate the acute homesickness experienced by so many young soldiers as Christmas neared. Suppressing their own longing for the comforts of home, the Red Cross Girls threw themselves into creating innovative holiday decorations, procuring gifts, and hosting holiday parties. Wherever possible, American soldiers were anxious to spread Christmas cheer to locals, particularly to area children. Red Cross Girls worked with the military to plan and pull off these festive celebrations that brought so much joy to the young men fighting the war so far from home.

 

In my debut novel Courage to be Counted, my heroine Vivian experiences an intense longing for her sweetheart and for home while singing “Silent Night” at a party the Red Cross and men of the 305^th Bomb Group hosted for village children in England. The party she and her friend Mabs plan would have looked something like this photograph from the 379th Bomb Group in Kimbolton, England.

379th Bomb Group (National Archives)

Photo ID: 342-FH-3A-14449-65542AC.

Meanwhile, her hero Jack wishes desperately that he could introduce her to his family as he shares what he knows will be his last Christmas dinner at home for a long while. Two years later in 1944, huddled under blankets in a freezing billet in Belgium with the Battle of the Bulge raging all around her, Vivian recalls with a pang of nostalgia the previous Christmas, when she and Jack spent holiday leave in London.

Making Christmas cards from Chinese currency in December 1944 (National Archives)

Inventive Christmas tree near Buna, Papua New Guinea, 1942

As you can see from the photos I’ve included here, the Red Cross Girls called on no small amount of ingenuity to replicate Christmas traditions for American soldiers serving all over the world. They made paper chains, used aluminum cans, cigarette cartons, and the metal strips known as chaff that the air forces released from their planes to jam radar defenses, strung popcorn, and made use of recycled Christmas cards.

The subtitle of I'll be Home for Christmas is The Library of Congress Revisits the Spirit of Christmas During World War II. The spirit of Christmas was especially strong in these tumultuous years, leaving us all with a lasting legacy of treasured Christmas music, stories and films. 

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

You can purchase my debut novel through the links below.

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon CA  ~  Amazon AU  ~  Google ~ Nook  ~ Kobo

Extraordinary in the Ordinary By Eleri Grace

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 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 on 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 yet how the war years will shape and change you profoundly, 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.

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon CA  ~  Amazon AU  ~  Google ~ Nook  ~ Kobo

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

The Devil's in the Details

Hi, I’m Eleri Grace, a new blogger at Romancing the Genres, and I’m excited to share more about me and my novels with all of you. I write WWII historical romance featuring trailblazing Red Cross Girl heroines and flyboy heroes. My novels reflect my passion for the 1940s era, and my hope is that readers will come away with an appreciation for the many couples swept up in war-time courtships forged in a time of larger-than-life uncertainties. 

 

We’ve commemorated many “75^th” anniversaries for key milestones in World War II in the last year, and recently marked the 80^th anniversary of the start to the conflict in Europe. The war years lived by the Greatest Generation seem paradoxically a bygone era and not so long ago. Many elements of our current lives were in existence and use in the 1940s. But as a historical author writing in that time period, I take special care to confirm the specifics. I know I’m not the only historical author to find that being a stickler for historical accuracy can be a slippery slope. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost hours to a research rabbit hole that ultimately didn’t perhaps merit that level of sleuthing. The trick is knowing when to stop, when you’ve hit a brick wall and need to “write around” the issue, when you’ve learned all you can via Google, or when you’ve lost sight of the bigger picture.

Some details are fun and relatively straightforward. I have always enjoyed perusing baby name books, so naming my characters is particularly rewarding.  I regularly consult the online Social Security Administration database of “Popular Names by Decade.”  My heroes and heroines were born in the 1917-1922 time period, so I browsed both the 1910s and 1920s lists and created a master list of possible character names. Now, some of the popular names in those decades don’t appeal much to modern readers. So I made a list of era-appropriate given names with modern currency. In my first Clubmobile Girls novel, Courage to be Counted, my heroine is Vivian Elaine Lambert, and the hero is John “Jack” Peter Nielsen. Both Vivian and Jack have seen a resurgence of popularity in the last few decades.

One only needs to read a few memoirs to pick up on the era’s propensity to bestow quirky nicknames. So while I’m reading memoirs and historical non-fiction for research purposes, I add to my ongoing list of unusual nicknames. While I probably won’t use those names for my hero or heroine, I do populate my cast of secondary characters with names like Ace, Tink, Duck, and Bizzy.

Some details are easy to verify. If you are writing a Christmas scene, your characters might sing songs that remind them of home, and a large number of familiar Christmas songs still enjoyed today date to the 1940s and 1950s. Most of us immediately associate Bing Crosby’s classic “White Christmas” with the WWII years, but it only takes a few seconds to confirm that it was originally performed and released in 1942. Whew, your 1943 Christmas scene can easily incorporate this well-known Christmas song. But you can’t include “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” which was first recorded in 1949.

Many common items were rationed during the war years. Internet sleuthing usually yields a quick answer to what sorts of food items were rationed in different countries, but you have to be careful here too. Even if a food wasn’t rationed, its typical packaging might have been.

WWII authors should always keep the blackout regulations in mind. Consider this scene from Courage to be Counted:

A trace of musty odor hung about the stuffy room. Vivian crossed the room and pulled on the sash to raise the window. A waft of cool, damp air left a light mist on her face. She closed her eyes in contentment.

She should move back and let the blackout drapes fall closed, but the delicate spray of mizzle continued to beckon, refreshing and relaxing.

Other regulations, such as the restriction on bath water limits, provide another opportunity to immerse one’s readers more directly in the realities of life during that time: “Did she have time to run a bath? It would only be a few inches of tepid water, but a big improvement over her toiletry for the last several days.”

Reading deeply in memoirs and narrative non-fiction can illuminate customs, patterns of behavior that weren’t dictated by regulations but were prevalent at the time. I wanted my hero’s scenes to reflect the challenges he faced in the air but also the realities of his life on a bomber base in southeastern England.

Bowie opened the door, and Jack followed him out into the night. A crisp bite of wind stung his chapped face and whooshed through his heavy clothing, chilling him deep in his bones. Darkness, dense and inky, enveloped them like a shroud. Occasional pinpricks of light marked a hut door opening and closing. They stumbled across the mucky footpaths by instinct, the huff of their breaths and the crunch of their boots on the frost-coated ground the only sounds.

No one talked. Not on their way to the mess. Not in the chow line. Not even as they ate powdered eggs and fried Spam washed down with black coffee. Apparently, they had been up too many times this week to merit the fresh eggs and bacon that would normally be served on the morning of a maximum effort mission.

These are but a few examples of the ways a historical author can weave tiny details into the story, giving it depth and color. At the same time, it’s important to use those sorts of details with a deft touch. Translating every line of dialogue into the slang of the era would be overkill. Avoiding the information dump is equally important. For all the research I do – and I do way more than I probably ought to – I only include a fraction of what I know. You have to know when to stop researching and when you’re laying it on too thick in your writing. The devil is in the details. 

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon CA  ~  Amazon AU  ~  Google ~ Nook  ~ Kobo

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

A Love Affair with WWII by Eleri Grace

Tanamera by Noel Barber

Following on from Margaret Tanner’s WWI novels and Anna Brentwood’s 1920s settings, I’m excited to share what drew me to set my novels in WWII and then tell you more about my amazing heroines.

With an undergraduate history degree concentration in 20^th century history and a life-long passion for WWII fiction, it now seems clear I was destined to write novels set during this dramatic time period. Even in elementary school, I gravitated toward historical fiction set during WWII. I still own well-worn paperback copies of Summer of My German Soldier and Farewell to Manzanar. But it was in high school, after devouring Herman Wouk’s Winds of War and War and Remembrance multiple times that I discovered author Noel Barber.  I was immediately captivated by the combination of romance and thriller-packed action in a WWII setting in his novels. If you’re now curious why I own 8 copies of Barber’s novel , Tanamera, you can discover the answer here!  

My Tanamera collection

Fast-forward several decades: I had completed a “practice novel” and was anxious to begin my writing career, preferably with a historical romance setting. Trouble was, I had no interest in Regencies or kilted highlanders (with the obvious exception of Jamie Fraser of Outlander fame). I believed the heady combination of the era’s glamour and larger-than-life stakes could provide the perfect backdrop for heart-melting and passionate romance novels.  To brainstorm what my hypothetical WWII romance heroines might have done -- and in particular what might have taken them overseas near the action (and the heroes!) -- I consulted Our Mothers’ War. Yellin profiled numerous ways that American women served overseas, but the one I’d never heard about intrigued me most: the thousands of “Red Cross Girls” who were deployed in every theater of the war.  

RECRUITING POSTER

These women who worked for the Red Cross met extraordinary qualifications for the time period. To interview, a woman needed to be aged 25-35, have earned a college degree, and have some career experience. Common character attributes paint a picture of an even more accomplished woman: poised, charming, strong conversational skills, self-assured, independent, adaptable, and possessing ingenuity, creativity and stamina. The Red Cross also wanted women who could hold their own in a male-dominated environment, women who could project a complex persona of big sister/girl-next-door with just a dollop of sex appeal. 

DEBARKING SHIP

The Red Cross Girls, as they were then known, served as recreation workers in Europe (initially England and then moving across the Channel after D-Day to follow the troops through France and into Germany (as my heroine Vivian does in Courage to be Counted.) 

 Mediterranean regions (moving from North Africa into Italy), the Pacific (initially Australia and New Zealand and then island-hopping behind the boys to New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Biak, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa), China, Burma, India, Persia, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Brazil, Panama, and Cuba.  The Red Cross Girls often served closer to the front lines than even the combat nurses.  

IN AND OUT OF THE BATTLE LINES

As George Korson’s At His Side notes, “These Red Cross clubmobile girls had one of the most extraordinary experiences of the war, performing an unprecedented service with enthusiasm and a contempt for personal danger that had the whole Army tossing its helmets into the air. They had a ringside seat at one of the greatest dramas of all time, moving with more freedom than many soldiers. Even war correspondents could not drive in and out of the battle lines as they did every day.” 

They opened and staffed recreation clubs in leave destinations and on military bases, drove Clubmobiles (converted buses, GMC trucks, Jeeps) to deliver doughnuts, coffee, cheer and conversation to small bases and behind the advancing troops in every theater of the war.

They used “duckmobiles” to serve Navy ships and other vessels in harbors around the world, met every troopship and troop train, staffed leave and rest hotels, and provided recreation services to recuperating soldiers in hospitals. 

They were courageous and extraordinary women in every way, and I hope you’ll want to read their stories in my Clubmobile Girls series. I hope to release the second book early next year.

ABOUT ELERI:  

WW2 AUTHOR ELERI GRACE

Eleri Grace writes historical romance novels featuring Red Cross Girl heroines and Flyboy heroes. She hopes her novels will reflect her passion for the 1940s era and that her readers will come away with an appreciation for the many couples who were swept up in war-time courtships forged in a time of larger-than-life uncertainties. 

Before penning her first novel, Eleri honed her writing skills as a corporate lawyer, a historical researcher, and an avid writer and reader of fan fiction.

She lives in Houston, Texas with her teenage son, her soon-to-depart-for-college daughter, and two feuding cats.

To learn more about Eleri Grace and her books, visit her at her website:

www.elerigrace.com

 She can be found on social media at:

Facebook

Twitter

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Off the Beaten Path Historical Stories

COURAGE TO BE COUNTED 

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.

https://geni.us/nrhn