The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Monday, August 3, 2020

A Pony for Quarantine by Clare O'Beara Book Review

A Pony for Quarantine by Clare O'Beara Book Review

Title A Pony For Quarantine
Author Clare O’Beara
Publisher Nielsen
Publisher Website Address
http://www.clareobeara.ie/
Publisher Email Address
author@clareobeara.ie
ISBN-10: 1910544116 

ISBN-13: 978-1910544112

ASIN: B08B1KYKBN

Price $6.99 paperback, $2.99 Kindle
Page Count 198 pages
Formats (PB, Kindle)

Carolyn Wilhelm
Reviewer

Setting: Ireland, March 2020

Life was changing fast. Thirteen-year-old Moya didn’t understand at first when her parents were worried the supermarkets would close. Shops were only letting a certain number of people inside at a time. Her parents might not be able to buy exactly what they wanted, but they would be able to get food. Moya started helping by watching her six-year-old autistic brother, Michael, who was missing school and his usual routine.

Scared, Moya wondered about the symptoms of Covid-19. The World Health Organization had just declared a Pandemic. Biking to visit and care for her pony, Celidh, she began talking as she arrived so her pony would know where she was. Luckily, she didn’t live far away. Now she had to decide about grass livery or DIY stabling. Several ponies were already in the field with the donkeys. She brushed the pony who still had winter hair on its tummy, pondering the situation.

So begins the story of Moya, who is a lovely big sister to Michael. The book details how the family deals with an autistic child (no sweets in the house for one thing), and how they work together. Non-fiction information about donkey sanctuaries, pony care, Brexit, facts about the quarantine, how online instruction was handled in Ireland is included in the book. It is an informative and wholesome read. Mother and daughter have several talks that explain the feelings the situation brings out in everyone.

Photos of empty store shelves, social distancing, housing, ponies, donkeys, closed playgrounds, shopping with masks are sprinkled throughout the book. At the end is a tasty recipe you will want to try.

Clare O’Beara has written other horse books I have previously reviewed: ShowJumping Team and Rodeo Finn. Free teaching supplements for both books are available on the Wise Owl Factory site. 


A Pony for Quarantine by Clare O'Beara Book Review



Review by Carolyn Wilhelm
Carolyn Wilhelm is the author of The Wise Owl Factory site and blog. She has an MS in Gifted Education, an MA in Curriculum and Instruction K-12, and has completed the KHT Montessori 12 month program. She makes mostly free resources for teachers and parents. Her children's books are available on Amazon. She wishes for world peace, international courts instead of wars, and a world with more compassion and less greed. 

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page and in a tab at the top of this blog's home page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites so it may be used a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Mary Treadwell Review A Five-Star Cozy Mystery

Title: A Place With A Past
Author: Marlene Ratledge Buchanan 
ISBN:  978-1950308224
ASIN: B08CCLSKCM
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Reviewed by  Mary Treadwell 
5 star

Reviewed by Mary Treadwell originally for Amazon, Goodreads, and IndieAuthorBookReviews
Some secrets stay dead and buried. Some come back to haunt you.

Patty was mourning the death of her beloved Great Aunt Belle, or “Ring a Ding, as she called her. As the only living family member, she became the heir to the family farm and the surprising contents. Patty never expected to inherit two ghosts, and family secrets that had long been buried. In a town where everyone knows everything about their neighbors, murder, moonshine, and mystery threatens her happiness with William. Will Patty and William be able to solve the mystery and put the spirits to rest or will Clarisse and Morton drive them away? This cozy mystery will have you thinking twice about opening closed doors.

Southern Humorist, Marlene Ratledge Buchanan debuts her cozy mystery, A Place With A Past. The story, set in her beloved South, has mystery, romance, and her trademark humor. It’s a great book to grab a glass of sweet tea and escape with.  I look forward to more books by this gem of an author. 

About the Author:

Southern Humorist, Marlene Ratledge Buchanan has been entertaining readers with her observations about life through her column, Hey Y'all, published in the Gwinnett Citizen. The subject matter for her columns primarily center around life events she has experienced, but no topic  or any person is off limits. After 34 Years in public education she retired and a few years later began writing for the local newspaper. 


Marlene lives with her husband of over 40 years and her adult son on a little patch of heaven outside of Atlanta. You can often find her on the bush hog or accidentally losing a rubber boot in the pond.  Marlene loves history, jewelry, antiques and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. One thing you won’t find her doing is cooking. Her husband and son are quite happy about that. 
 You can connect with Marlene on her FB page @marleneratledgebuchanan
  
Her books are available at the following retailers




About the Reviewer


Mary Treadwell like most book lovers began her love for books at an early age.  She devoured all the books in her school library that interested her by the 6th grade. Her accomplishment gained her permission to check books from the high school library.
She has put two successful careers behind her as a Social Worker and 911 Communication Officer and returned to her true passions: books., cooking, and being a savvy shopper.  
Mary lives in Metro Atlanta with her husband of over 30 years and her two rescue pups. When not enjoying the four children and three grandchildren, Mary and her husband love to travel. In her spare time she runs Creative Indie Author Services and helps her longtime friend with her bookshop that carries only indie authors. She is also the co-host of Between The Pages Live with The Southern Pen Bookshop.  She also reviews only indie authors on her website Indie Author Book Reviews.
Mary Treadwell Review A Five-Star Cozy Mystery

MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!
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Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Dr. Wesley Britton Reviews: Root and Branch by Preston Fleming

Title: Root and Branch
Author: Preston Fleming
Genre: Fiction / Thriller
Publisher: PF Press (June 9, 2020)
Purchase on Amazon
ASIN: B089B63L32

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton originally for BookPleasures.com
                                

I've been a fan of Preston Fleming thrillers for years. I have reviewed all of them for BookPleasures.com including Star Chamber Brotherhood (2010),   Forty Days at Kamas (2010--one of my favorites), Bride of a Bygone War (2011, another personal favorite), Dynamite Fishermen (2011), Exile Hunter (2013), and Maid of Baikal (2017). So I think it safe to say I am pretty familiar with the Preston Fleming catalogue.

Characteristics you can see in all his works include extremely believable situations and topical storylines, vivid characters, detailed descriptions, and an obvious familiarity with the workings of power brokers and international relations at the highest levels.    

You will find all these attributes in Root and Branch,  a novel opening after several electromagnetic pulse nuclear bombs from Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea have been detonated along the east and west coasts of the U.S., destroying much of our electronic infrastructure. After this setup, Root and Branch is all about our responses to this Intifada, a cultural clash that continues to escalate and escalate into chilling choices that might not have been plausible a few years ago, but are frighteningly possible now.

Choices include an American government willing to suspend civil rights for all Muslims and anyone, including American citizens,  who might be deemed sympathetic to the Jihad; a government willing to  perpetrate horrifying scenes of outright murder of both criminals and suspects; a government  willing to create international rendition camps far beyond the scope of the 9/11 aftermath; and, well, I don't want to provide spoilers here. Suffice it to say, you'll have a hard time forgetting what Fleming proposes we'd be capable of in revenge for any Intifada.

The principal protagonist is former CIA operative Roger Zorn, a French/American executive who runs a global security company his father founded. It covertly protects government and corporate assets and provides air freight operations and security all over the globe. His company developed a sophisticated “triage” algorithm that can determine whether or not individuals are likely to commit violent acts.  The U.S. government wants to use his algorithm in its war against the Jihad. But Zorn slowly comes to learn about the moral consequences of his company's product being used in deadly and illegal actions by the American government.     The main dilemma of the book is Zorn's inner turmoil over what to do once he learns what his technology is resulting in. What is his responsibility for what he discovers, even if what he sees is classified and therefor he can say nothing in public? What about the economic impact he might face if he pulls out of the lucrative contracts keeping his company afloat? 

In short, the principal conflict we witness in Root and Branch is internal, moral and cerebral.   Which results in a very talky book where we watch Zorn wrestle and wrestle with trying to come to the decisions tearing up his soul. 

I understand why so many fellow readers, especially fellow Fleming fans, find Root and Branch a tale that isn't ranked as highly as some of Fleming's other efforts.  There are long sections of Zorn trapped in his internal inactivity, long sections where events seem drawn out and the reader may start crying out, "Do something already!" 

But I found the book a worthwhile read precisely because of the questions it raises--what would we be willing to accept, what would we take as necessary actions when fighting a deadly Intifada? What rights would we give up? What liberties would we sacrifice in the name of security? Uncomfortable as these questions might be, we do live in a world where we do wrestle with such concerns on nearly a daily basis. So I not only recommend this book, I encourage it as important reading for those watching our world that's been dealing with these questions since 9/11.

Dr. Wesley Britton Reviews: Root and Branch by Preston Fleming


MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!
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Saturday, July 25, 2020

Chelsea Falin Reviews Karen A. Wyle's Second in Cowbird Series



--Title: What Frees the Heart 
--Series: Second in Cowbird Creek
--Author: Karen A. Wyle
--Author's website: Karen A. Wyle Author Website 
--Genre/category: Western historical romance
--ISBN: 978-0-9980604-7-7
--Publisher: Oblique Angles Press

Reviewed by Chelsea Falin, originally for Goodreads and Pen Possessed 
Five Star on Goodreads

THE REVIEW

I was so excited for this book to come out. I read and fell in love with “What Heals the Heart” and was excited for another Cowbird Creek title to come out. Wyle did NOT disappoint. This story may have been even more gripping than the first, and I absolutely loved to see yet another “not so
common” romance bloom.

One of the things I love best about this book is that it takes two flawed people and puts them together. Anyone who has read my reviews knows I love flawed characters because it creates a more realistic story for me. Perfect heroes and heroines are so hard to relate to. But I also love the combination of old fashioned and female empowerment Wyle uses in her stories. The females aren’t helpless, but they do need help. They can do much of everything on their own, but the few things they can’t, the hero can – while the heroine can do what he can’t. It’s less a damsel in distress and more a real union of meeting the other’s needs.

I highly recommend this title to anyone who wants a realistic yet swoon-worthy romance that will leave you begging for more. I also recommend it to anyone who enjoys westerns, historicals, or mostly clean romance.

The cover is engaging and offers an accurate depiction of what readers should expect inside the story.
----------

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved every few years throughout her childhood and adolescence.  After college in California, law school in Massachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San Francisco law firm, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her now-husband, who hates L.A.  They eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. They have two wildly creative daughters.

Wyle's voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction.  It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice.  Whether writing science fiction, afterlife fantasy, or historical romance, she tends to focus on the often-intertwined themes of individual identity, liberty, family, communication, unintended consequences, and the persistence of unfinished business. She has also published one nonfiction book, a resource for authors, law students, or anyone else interested in understanding more about American law.
---------

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Chelsea Falin is a multi-genre author of 35+ books, including The Growing Roots Series, Taming the Dragon Clan Chronicles, and Think You Know Your States? series. Learn more about her at https://cfalinhammond.wordpress.com/

Chelsea Falin Reviews Karen A. Wyle's Second in Cowbird Series


MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!
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Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Love to Own the Books You Read, Finally a Place You Can Get Keepers For Free.~ Plus Hint # Nineteen


WANT TO READ MORE BOOKS  BUT CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY THEM?

Hint # 19
"Did you know that potential reader/reviewers, if members of Amazon Prime, can download e-books through Amazon's lending program at no cost to them (if the author has agreed to participate in Kindle Select)?"

How to Get Great Book Reviews
by Carolyn Howard-Johnson - Page 157
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WATCH FOR MORE GREAT HINTS ON WRITING TIME SAVING REVIEWS - FRUGALLY AND ETHICALLY.

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CLICK TO READ THE DESCRIPTION OF EACH OF THE BOOKS 
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CONTACT THAT AUTHOR FOR A FREE COPY OF THEIR BOOK.

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More About Your Review Coordinator, Lois W. Stern


Tales2inspire® was a kernel of an idea I initiated in 2012, growing in proportions even I didn’t dare to envision. My innate curiosity about potentially fascinating human interest stories was the spark that ignited this idea, but there was something more  propelling me forward - my belief in the power of stories to shape our thinking. Famed biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin has repeatedly written about this theme in relation to some of our greatest presidents, who recognized the power of stories and used their storytelling abilities to reach the people they were chosen to govern. Each of the non-fiction stories published in one of the Tales2inspire® books was selected similarly - not only for its artful writing, but for its skill in delivering an underlying message to inspire each of us to reach for the best within us. Try us out. You can get a FREE sampler filled with six published T2I stories at: www.tales2inspire.com/gifts

Learn more about me and the Tales2Inspire® project at: 
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Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Children 8 to 10 Will Love Linda Wilson's Debut Novel Secret in the Stars

Title: Secret in the Stars
Author: Linda Wilson - https://www.lindawilsonauthor.com
ISBN: 978-1-7351310-0-9
ASIN: B08C51J8NK
Genre: Children's mystery chapter book (8 to 10-year-old)
Reviewed by: Karen Cioffi - http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com


Reviewed by Karen Cioffi, originally for Amazon

Linda Wilson's Secret in the Stars grabbed my attention immediately. If you like ghost stories and mysteries, you're going to love this spooky-great chapter book.

Abi Wunder is a budding artist who is looking forward to meeting her newborn baby brother and going to art camp. Not necessarily in that order.

On their way home from a week-long camping trip, her grandfather's car breaks down, leaving them stranded and having to spend the night at the haunted Hilltop Inn.

It's there that Abi meets Herbert the ghost and learns of the danger the owner of the inn is facing. With the demolition of the inn imminent and the owner facing possible murder charges, Abi works feverishly to figure out ghostly clues that will help her save the owner and the inn.

I highly recommend Secret in the Stars and am looking forward to more from Linda Wilson and the Abi Wunder Mystery series.

About the Author: Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and Institute of Children’s Literature graduate, has published over 150 articles for children and adults, several short stories for children, and now her first book, Secret in the Stars: An Abi Wunder Mystery is available on Amazon.

About the ReviewerKaren Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, successful children’s ghostwriter, and author/writer online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing. You can learn more about Karen at: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/ and tweet with her @KarenCV. 

Secret-Stars-Abi-Wunder-Mystery


MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG


 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too!
 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Friday, July 10, 2020

Carol Smallwood Interviews Poet Denise David

Title: Against Forgetting
Subtitle: War, Love, and After War
Author: Denise Davide
Paperback: 78 pages; $15.95
Publisher: Shanti Arts, LLC (May 5, 2020) 
ISBN-10: 1951651316

Interview by Carol Smallwood


The year 2020 marks seventy-five years since the end of World War II;

Against Forgetting: War, Love, and After War is a poetry collection about people living the war—a legacy of first-hand memories preserved by a researcher scholar, the daughter of a war bride. 

Smallwood: What is your literary background, and education?

David: I am a teacher and a writer. I taught writing and literature for over twenty-five years at a community college in upstate New York. As meaning-making creatures, our stories help us understand who we are and allow us to make sense of the world. My formal education includes earning a Ph.D., but I have never stopped learning from my students and from my own writing. I have published a number of academic articles as well as poetry and narrative non-fiction.

Smallwood: Your preface shared you did research and interviews about World War II war brides. How did you get in touch with them?

David: since I was a child, I have been fascinated with people whose mothers were war brides. My mother had several friends from England, women who had married soldiers during the war, but when I was a child, it did not occur to me that it was strange that all of these English women were living in a small town in upstate New York.  As I grew older I was more and more fascinated with the experience of war brides. The estimates, while hard to verify, suggest that more than a million women married soldiers and left their homelands after World War II.  As I began writing and researching the history of the times as well as my mother’s experiences, I wanted to understand the fuller context of the experience for other war brides as well. I read anything related to the subject—history books, stories about war brides, accounts written by war brides, old newspaper articles. I drove to meet war brides or their children whenever I could to speak with them about their experiences. But the most important connection I made was when I discovered a national
organization, the World War II War Brides Association, a group consisting of war brides from over fifty countries. My mother and I began attending the annual reunions held in a different American city each year.

Smallwood: Your forty-nine poems are divided into War: Love, After War. Please comment about the role of women then and now that you’ve observed:

David: role of women during the war years is fascinating. It differed for women living in different countries, and I have tried to capture some of that in the poems, but since my grandmother and my mother lived in England during the war, I will speak a little about their experience. The war was fought in their back garden in a sense. My mother grew up in a large industrial city, Birmingham, England, which suffered nearly as much bombing as London, an enormous amount in other words. When we think of the Battle of Britain, we do not think of the women working in the factories that ran twenty-four hours a day building Spitfires, Hurricanes and bombs. So many of the men were away fighting overseas so it was left in large part to the women. I don’t think we fully understand the tremendous burden on the women to hunker down in shelters with their children through long nights of bombing and then get up and go to work in the morning. When we speak of the home front, women were a huge part of that. And then, of course, for the war brides there was the issue of falling in love with a man from a foreign country and giving up all that was dear to them--country, family and friends to take a chance on the future. The war brides, women now in their eighties and nineties, were in so many ways creators of the peace after a devastating war.

Smallwood: Your poems includes such fascinating bits such as in “Tea Time” is noted: “In 1942, the British government purchased in order of weight: bullets, tea, artillery shells, bombs, and explosives.” Please share with readers another:

David:, my research has led me to all sorts of little stories, the smaller details that make history fascinating. For example, after the final bombing that demolished the British Museum, there were stories of ancient seeds stored inside the museum that sprouted into life after they were drenched with water used to put out the fires. 

Smallwood: The era becomes so real by including such details as the wearing of lipstick (when available) in defiance of Hitler, and bombs in back gardens on Sunday dinnertime “against an azure sky.” How were you able to select them?

The story of the plane in the back garden was told to me first by my grandmother and later by her son, my uncle. Neither of them ever forgot that story, and neither have I. My mother has talked often of how they all wore red lipstick to keep their spirits up in those days. To this day, my ninety-three year old mother does not go out without “a bit of lipstick.” She is strong and resilient and carrying on.

Smallwood: In “Seeing the Same Place for the First Time” as a nine year old, you “see the enormity of my mother’s decision.” Please share with readers what you realized:

David: that moment, I had not realized how hard it must have been for my mother to choose between the love of her family, with whom she was very close and the love of a man, my father, an American soldier. When I saw my grandmother crying I understood a mother’s sadness in a way I never had before. I knew this grief was something my mother always carried with her. In those days, America was a world away. It was not easy to get back to England, although in my mother’s case, she was able to get back after about eighteen months when I was born, but many war brides reported that it was many, many years before they could return “home” for a visit, frequently as many as ten years. Air travel was very expensive and travel by ship was not cheap either and it took nearly a week one way. Phone calls were rare if people even had a phone. For so many years, my mother stayed in touch with her family through letters, which she often cried when she received. Now, all these years later, my mother has managed to remain close to her family, with weekly phone calls and daily emails, but she still remembers her devastating homesickness at first.

Smallwood: What are you working on now?

David:, I am working on my mother’s story, the life of a girl who grew up in the midst of a war and married a man from across the sea. Life would not be as she expected it, but she, like all of us, had to find her own strength. My book pieces together the shards of experience that connect to form a life. When I began the book, my question was whether or not my mother had made the right decision, but I have come to realize that the real story is who we become because of the decisions we make.

MORE ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER

Carol Smallwood, MLS, MA, Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, is a literary literary judge, editor, and interviewer. Her 13th collection is Thread, Forms, and Other Enclosures (Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2020). The Michigan resident’s over five dozen edited books include Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching, on Poets & Writers Magazine list of Best Books for Writers.

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