Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 64

Five Surprising Things about Author Patti Stockdale

Patti Stockdale’s surprising answers:

1.      I temped as a receptionist for a professional football team. On day one, I answered the phone with the wrong team name. The caller, the general manager, said, “You’re lucky it’s me.”  Excellent point!

2.      I’m obsessed with tea. Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter.

3.      The sweetest rejection notice I ever received was from Frances Foster, the editor for a Newberry Medal award-winning book. Her letter still hangs on my bulletin board and still makes me smile.

4.      I love karaoke. My go-to song: Build Me Up Buttercup.

5.      Eli Whitney, the person who invented the cotton gin, is my relative. I still remember my great-grandma, who was a Whitney. Weirdly, my daughter married a man with the last name – wait for it, Whitney.

—–

This karaoke gal’s first historical novel is the delightful Three Little Things.

Debbie Macomber’s endorsement: “I fell in love with Aron and Hattie.”

One forbidden love. Two broken hearts. Three little things.

“A well-drawn cast of supporting characters creates a strong sense of community, and colorful colloquialisms (“whip-thin and homely as a cow pie”) add flavor. Lovers of G-rated historical romance will be charmed by this earnest, emotionally vulnerable connection between these young lovers.” – Publisher’s Weekly

Hattie Waltz should forget the troubled neighbor leaving for boot camp in 1917. He forgot about her ages ago. It had always been the Waltzs verses the Kregers, his family pitted against hers. When she hands him a farewell gift, a chemistry lesson unfolds. The good kind.

Arno Kreger can’t leave Iowa or his old man fast enough. He’s eager to prove his worth on the battlefield and stop blaming himself for his brother’s death. Before entering the train, he bumps into Hattie. He’s loved her forever, always from the sidelines, because nobody crosses Hattie’s pa.

One innocent letter soon morphs into many. Arno and Hattie share three little secrets in each letter and grow closer together. But he’s on his way to a war across the ocean, and she’s still in her father’s house. Their newfound love will need to survive dangers on both fronts.

Three Little Things is a delightful story set during World War I. Filled with a fetching cast of characters and borne along by Patti’s entertaining sense of humor, this is an engaging historical novel on many levels.

I look forward to more of Patti Stockdale’s terrific stories, which are in the publishing process.

Check out her winsome website called “Hope, History, and Happily Ever After.”

Five Things You May Not Know about Author Patti Stockdale

Patti Stockdale’s surprising answers:

1.      I temped as a receptionist for a professional football team. On day one, I answered the phone with the wrong team name. The caller, the general manager, said, “You’re lucky it’s me.”  Excellent point!

2.      I’m obsessed with tea. Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter.

3.      The sweetest rejection notice I ever received was from Frances Foster, the editor for a Newberry Medal award-winning book. Her letter still hangs on my bulletin board and still makes me smile.

4.      I love karaoke. My go-to song: Build Me Up Buttercup.

5.      Eli Whitney, the person who invented the cotton gin, is my relative. I still remember my great-grandma, who was a Whitney. Weirdly, my daughter married a man with the last name – wait for it, Whitney.

—–

This karaoke gal’s first historical novel is the delightful Three Little Things.

Debbie Macomber’s endorsement: “I fell in love with Aron and Hattie.”

One forbidden love. Two broken hearts. Three little things.

“A well-drawn cast of supporting characters creates a strong sense of community, and colorful colloquialisms (“whip-thin and homely as a cow pie”) add flavor. Lovers of G-rated historical romance will be charmed by this earnest, emotionally vulnerable connection between these young lovers.” – Publisher’s Weekly

Hattie Waltz should forget the troubled neighbor leaving for boot camp in 1917. He forgot about her ages ago. It had always been the Waltzs verses the Kregers, his family pitted against hers. When she hands him a farewell gift, a chemistry lesson unfolds. The good kind.

Arno Kreger can’t leave Iowa or his old man fast enough. He’s eager to prove his worth on the battlefield and stop blaming himself for his brother’s death. Before entering the train, he bumps into Hattie. He’s loved her forever, always from the sidelines, because nobody crosses Hattie’s pa.

One innocent letter soon morphs into many. Arno and Hattie share three little secrets in each letter and grow closer together. But he’s on his way to a war across the ocean, and she’s still in her father’s house. Their newfound love will need to survive dangers on both fronts.

Three Little Things is a delightful story set during World War I. Filled with a fetching cast of characters and borne along by Patti’s entertaining sense of humor, this is an engaging historical novel on many levels.

I look forward to more of Patti Stockdale’s terrific stories, which are in the publishing process.

Check out her winsome website called “Hope, History, and Happily Ever After.”

My five best books on surprising and compelling WWII stories

Shepherd.com is a fairly new website and an exciting new way to share books–for readers as well as for a way for authors to share their own books.

The concept is for an author to feature his/her book, and also recommend five related books. Since I featured Leora’s Letters, I chose books of surprising and compelling WWII stories.

Here are the ones I recommended:

U-505: The Lone Wolf of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry by James E. Wise, Jr.

Typhoon: The Other Enemy: The Third Fleet and the Pacific Storm of December 1944 by Captain C. Raymond Calhoun

Crosses in the Wind: Graves Registration Service in the Second World War by Joseph James Shomon

LST 388: A World War II Journal by Robert William Von Der Osten, Barbara Von Der Osten

Soldiers’ Stories: A Collection of WWII Memories, Volume II by The Miller Family

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Here’s the link to the post on Shepherd.com, where I explain why I chose those specific books.

As a reader, as an author, you’ll want to check out their website.

 

 

John Busbee, The Culture Buzz

Being interviewed by John Busbee is such a delight. You can tell that John loves what he does, sharing and encouraging authors, musicians, actors, film-makers anything cultural.

He is a writer, director, musician, actor, radio host (Culture Buzz, KFMG-FM), has a weekly newsletter about anything cultural, and a monthly column in Cityview.

John has such a wide range of interests. Two surprising ones were introduced to me in Iowa History Journal. Instrumental in preserving the history of the six Littleton brothers who lost their lives as a result of service in the Civil War, he was very involved with the Littleton Brothers Legacy Project, which culminated in a monument to their memories. He also wrote a story about them for Iowa History Journal and is working on a novel about them.

More recently, I was intrigued to find John’s story about crinoids, in which he makes a case that the prehistoric “sea lily” should be Iowa’s official fossil. Crinoids have been a hobby since his youth.

—–

John Busbee and other man gave a program about the Littleton brothers at a local library. Afterwards I met John and asked when his book about the brothers would be available. During the conversation, I mentioned that I had a book in the publication process. He handed me his business card, asking me to let him know when it was available. He wanted  to do an interview about it!

Here’s the interview (14 minutes) at Mainframe Studios:

https://ia803408.us.archive.org/25/items/joy-neal-kidney-aut.-dec-2019-leoras-letters...-online-audio-converter.com/JOY%20NEAL%20KIDNEY%20aut.Dec2019%20_Leora%27s%20Letters..._%20%28online-audio-converter.com%29.mp3He even has my website pulled up on the right screen.

John Busbee wrote the Foreword for Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression and also edited it. (Since his name is on the cover, he wanted a copy for his mother. He also hoped it would stimulate family stories of her own.)

 

 

Delbert, Donald, Dale, Danny, and Junior: You’ll Never be Forgotten

If Cousin Bob has anything to do with it, our Grandma Leora’s family will never be forgotten.

I didn’t know he’d ordered so many copies until much later! He’d been sending a copy to about everyone he could think of.

Our mothers are the sisters of the five Wilson brothers. His mother, Darlene Wilson Scar, was Dale Wilson’s twin. Dale was one of the three who never came home. The copilot of a B-25, he was lost off New Guinea on a mission, along with the rest of the crew. Only God knows where their remains lie today.

Bob was born in May 1945, two months after they’d learned that Danny Wilson, a P-38 pilot, was MIA in Europe. Aunt Darlene said that Bob’s babyhood was hazy for her because of those two brothers missing in action.

When I transcribed the letters, during the late 1980s, I noticed that some of the stamps had fallen off. I didn’t think anything about it until Bob told that when they’d visit Grandma Leora in Guthrie Center, that after dinner, especially if one of her brothers was also visiting from Omaha, they’d argue politics.

Bob admitted that he would slip downstairs and read the old letters! He’d read them before I did.

It’s been so encouraging to have a cousin also working to make sure the sacrifice of the Wilson family during WWII is never forgotten.

Bob Scar was a Marine pilot during Vietnam, and enjoyed an aviation career with Delta.

Compelling Poems from Jenny Hykes Jiang

Jenny Hykes Jiang grew up in rural Iowa, taught English as a second language in Asia and in the U.S.A., and is now raising children in Northern California. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Arts & Letters, Tule Review, Caesura, The Chestnut Review, Little Patuxent Review, and The Cider Press Review.

Two of her compelling poems have been recently published. She said I could share them with you.

Jenny’s poignant “Bathe All This in Light” was published in Palette Poetry.

Her winsome ode on “Rhubarb” is on pages 2-3 of Chestnut Review.

This is a Chuck Offenburger story about Jenny’s dad, then 34 and manager of the Dallas County State Bank’s office in Dexter.

He promised his wife (Jenny’s mom) that the bank would try to win the first-place pie at the Dexter Fall Festival. Yes, rhubarb. It cost him $50!

(Another year, his wife’s peach pie cost him $62.50.)

Near Disaster for a One-Egg Cake Headed to the County Fair

My 4-H years were from 1955-1962. Although you could still record activities that overapped, there were three main focuses, one per year: Clothing, Food and Nutrition, and Home Furnishings.

Clothing included choosing items, taking care of them, and sewing new ones. Food and Nutrition focused on making good choices, cooking and canning, gardening, serving, and setting an attractive table. Home Furnishings taught choosing fabrics and colors, designs, refinishing furniture, even repurposing it.

The highlight of each 4-H year was the Madison County Fair. Members of the Penn Gwens lived in Penn Township, which is in the far northwest corner of the county. Our moms were busy farmwives so one would volunteer to take neighbor girls’ fair entries so the others could stay busy with their work.

Penn Gwens 4-H Club, Madison County, Iowa, July 1957 Standing: Judy Moore, Mary Nevitt, Connie Piatt, Marilyn Lawson, Ruby Ralston, Judy Neal, Janice Lorimor, Susan Shepherd, Gretchen Godby, Shirley Schafer, Joy Neal, Linda Lenocker Seated: Sandra Blohmquist, Jane, Neal, Pat Willrich, Jane Morford, Gloria Neal, Jayne Nevitt

Mom volunteered the summer of 1957, Food and Nutrition year. A popular entry was a One-Egg Cake. Every girl had to follow the same recipe. I baked one to enter that year. So did my younger cousin Jane Neal. (Her sister Judy is in the front row in the photo.)

The moms brought over their daughters’ entries, which we assembled in the back seat of the two-tone Chevy. When we got ready to drive to Winterset, we discovered our cat Minnie in the back seat with white crumbs on her sweet face. She’d enjoyed some of Jane’s cake.

What to do? Did Mom call the County Extension Office? I don’t remember. But she carefully trimmed where Minnie had sampled, and the people checking in the entries probably said things like this happened all the time. I wish I knew what the judge wrote!

Mine earned a blue ribbon and was chosen to go to the Iowa State Fair. I baked another one for it. In those days, everyone got a blue, red, or white ribbon. A white meant that the judge wasn’t impressed at all. A red ribbon meant mediocre work. We all aimed for blue ribbons. My cake got a red ribbon at the Iowa State Fair that year, but what fun to get to enter.

We learned to keep an eye on Minnie, even around desserts.

Lee Habeeb, Founder of Our American Stories, in Iowa

God and Country

Last weekend’s God and Country event was the 15th for Monty and Becky Button of rural Adel. They are fans of Our American Stories and had arranged for a producer to interview their friend Ron Mason, a WWII veteran who was over 100 years old.

Producer Joey Cortes brought up the idea of coming to Iowa with Monty, who suggested they come for their annual God and Country event.

Our American Stories founder, Lee Habeeb, and two producers were here for two events. One was the Our Iowa Stories contest at the Machine Shed Restaurant.

The other was an outdoor Sunday morning service, complete with patriotic hymns. Lee Habeeb was the main speaker. He has such a heart for telling America’s best stories, reminding us of our positive heritage. His stories were powerful.

This man of Lebanese and Italian descent began with a quote from President Ronald Reagan’s farewell address, “If we forget what we did, we’ll forget who we are.”

He reminded us that the song “God Bless America,” which he led us in singing (then sang a stanza for us), was written by a Russian Jew, Irving Berlin. And that Berlin donated the money the song earned to the Boy Scouts of America.

I’d noticed the OAS story about Dr. Benjamin Rush, but hadn’t listened to it yet. After hearing Lee’s rendition of it, I listened to it again via their website after we got home. What an amazing story.

Habeeb also talked about the last speech Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was given just the night before he was killed.

And he told the story of Master Sgt. Roddy Edmonds‘ leadership and quiet courage after his unit had been captured. Compelling history from the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

I love hearing America’s stories through Lee Habeeb’s heart for them. I’m still amazed that Our American Stories came to “flyover country,” but so thankful they did. All started with the interview Monty Button set up with them for WWII veteran, Ron Mason.

At the end of the incredible service, Monty was sad to announce that Mr. Mason had died just the evening before.

Becky and Monty Button

At the last, he played part of the interview with Ron Mason that Joey Cortes had produced, first aired last April.

 

Bridges & Angels: The Story of Ruth

The Book

David LaBelle’s first novel Bridges and Angels: The Story of Ruth blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he rewrites the ending to his own childhood tragedy. The Story of Ruth explores what could have happened when the author’s mother disappeared in a California flood during his senior year, in 1969.

The Author

Dave LaBelle is a photojournalist and has worked for 20 newspapers and magazines in nine states. In 1989 while at Western Kentucky University, he published the first edition of The Great Picture Hunt. He’s the author of Lessons in Death and Life, about the ethics of photographing grief. In 1991, the NPPA honored LaBelle with the Robin F. Garland Award for photojournalism education.  

In 2009, he published I Don’t Want to Know All That Technical Stuff, I Just Want to Shoot Pictures, an easy-to-read book about basic photography skills designed for beginners. Most recently, David published his first novel, Bridges and Angels: The Story of Ruth, in 2019.

He teaches and directs the photojournalism program at Kent State University in Ohio.

My Thoughts

Haunting and even tormenting at times, this story, which has at it core a real nightmare from the author’s past, also carries with it a redemptive beauty. The author’s gift of photography shows up in compelling similes, giving the reader the experiences right along with the characters.

Unforgettable images and drama. The nursing home scenes are so tastefully wrought.

“Soldiers’ Stories” Volume 2–guest post by Pacific Paratrooper, G. P. Cox

Soldiers’ Stories, Vol. II

After reading the Miller Family’s first volume OF SOLDIERS’ STORIES, I was excited to receive Volume # 2.  I was not disappointed.

Not only was I, as usual, proud to see 4 pages of my own Father’s stories in print, but even discovered another member of the 11th Airborne Division represented among the other memoirs.

 

Most of my readers tell me that they find the personal stories and letters from my father and other veterans to be their favorite posts.  In this book, readers are privileged to have over 300 pages of such tales.

The many photographs give you a personal perspective, both humorous and educational, of a time that dramatically altered the entire world.  Men and women alike are included in this well constructed journal for the generation we are so quickly losing.

Every branch of service, in each theater of operation, is represented along with the invaluable contributions of the home front military, women, civilians and our British Allies.

 

Modern day honoring of those buried in foreign lands and innumerable photos of the people who fought for us and the treasures they left behind.  Even fellow blogger and author, Joy Neal Kidney, has the Wilson Family included.

You can hear in their words the eagerness to serve their country, their laughter and the camaraderie of close unit ties.  You might even feel their pain.

Inspired by the Miller Family’s, SSgt. Myron Miller, of the 83rd Infantry, I can unquestionably recommend both Volume  # 1 and # 2 of SOLDIERS’ STORIES!

For Myra Miller’s blog, click HERE! You may order autographed copies from them.

Pacific Paratrooper website.

Here is my own review of Volume II of Soldiers’ Stories.