Today I'd like a writing friend, Terri Wangard to share about her new book releasing next week.
Writing historicals allows me to include famous people. During World War II, celebrities traveled to war zones to entertain the troops. Politicians traveled on fact-finding missions. The top brass weren’t that hard to find for personnel based in the right places.
Navy nurse Ensign Gloria Bloch is on a Honolulu street with Lieutenant John Walsh, whom she’s loved since she was a little girl. John tells her about short-snorters, dollar bills used to collect autographs.
“Whose autograph would I get?” she asks.
John shrugged. “Friends. Celebrities? Entertainment tours are planned. I’ll bet some of them visit the hospital ship.”
“Hmm. How about Admiral Nimitz?”
“Yeah, I’d love to get his.”
“Okay.” Gloria scurried across the street.
Too late, John spotted the admiral’s car. Right on a Honolulu public street, Gloria planned on accosting the admiral?
Did the fortuitous meeting have something to do with John receiving photography assignments? Gloria had informed the admiral that John was a squadron photographer.
Gloria serves on a hospital ship in the Pacific. As the daughter of a WWI Medal of Honor recipient, she’s asked to give First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt a tour of the USS Serenity. You may not agree with all of her views, but she did champion the underdog. And speaking with her can be intimidating.
As they made their way to the surgery, Mrs. Roosevelt asked her about her dad. Upon learning Peter Bloch had served in the Wisconsin National Guard, she asked, “How does he feel about you being in the Navy Nurse Corps rather than the army?”
“Dad found it easier to accept my decision to serve in the military, knowing I’d be in a clean environment rather than living in mud with bugs, snakes, rats, and other creepy crawlers.”
Creepy crawlers? Really, Gloria?
The First Lady chuckled. “I’ve seen the mud and bugs. No snakes, I’m glad to say.”
Most fun though? Meeting someone you admire.
Gloria pulled out her dollar. “Would you mind signing this?”
Frances [Langford] accepted the bill. “Oh, is that Eleanor Roosevelt? And Admiral Nimitz. I’m in good company.” After signing her name, she asked, “Shall I call Bob over?”
Relief surged through Gloria and she nodded. She may have the nerve to accost Admiral Nimitz on the street but this was Bob Hope. She may not want to dance with him like she did with Fred Astaire, but Bob was way up there in the pantheon of stars.
It’s strange to think of war being the catalyst for meeting the rich and famous, but in a time of emergency, folks pulled together to win the victory. Who would you have liked to meet?
She’s loved him forever.
He’s never seen her as more than a memory from home.
Then Pearl Harbor changes everything.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GLJ34YBT
Terri Wangard grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, during the Lombardi Glory Years. Her first Girl Scout badge was the Writer. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science, she is back in Wisconsin after several years in Michigan, Utah, and California. Her WWII research included going for a ride in a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and serves as the Carol contest coordinator and is secretary of the Wisconsin Southeast ACFW chapter.