Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Eve

I want to wish all a wonderful and blessed Christmas. It the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season, take a moment to think about the holiday were are celebrating--Jesus birthday. Let the quietness and peace of that event rest in your heart.

If your heart is in pain, rest in His peace.
If you heart is rejoicing, feel Him smile with you.
Above all, have a wonderful Christmas.

Monday, December 8, 2014

December 7

Yesterday went unnoticed by many Americans and I didn't see it mention on the news, but for many in the Greatest Generation, my parents generation, they knew what yesterday was. It was the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US was plunged into WWII. I read in the newspaper in Japan Dec7 isn't considered a memorable date. Just one more date in their struggled to become a super power. They wanted to capture countries that had oil and other natural resources, so they could emerge as a super power. But for my parents generation it is the defining moment, where America turned outward and instead of following isolationist policy, they all pulled together to support the war.

Since I just put out a book set during WWII, I researched the times, The Last Truth. My heroine, Linette Van Linder is Dutch. Her parents and good friends are taken  away to different concentration camps since her parents hid their best friends and business partners, who were Jewish, from the Nazis. Linette sees her fiance standing in front of her house, dressed in a Waffen SS uniform, laughing and joking with the other SS soldiers. She's spotted and runs away. In her desperation, she runs into an American reporter who helps her escape Amsterdam. A marriage of convenience--no a marriage of desperation was born.

As the story progressed, I learned about things that happened during the war that I wish I didn't know, but I had to know the ugly reality to write the book. But my admiration for the men and women who stepped up to the plate grew. They did what they had to do. I've never heard anyone from that generation complain. They did what they needed to do, and came home to create a new America. That is greatness.