Mary Cronk Farrell's Blog, page 19

Remembering Pearl Harbor

What About the Women? Nine hours after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor they attacked American Bases in the Philippines.  Japanese pilots expected fierce fighting when they cleared the mountains north of Manila with their sights on Clark Air Field. 

Instead, they found U.S. B-17 bombers and P-40 fighter planes lined up on the runway like knives in a box. American flight crews were eating lunch.

Less than an hour later, nearly half of the U.S. Air Forces in the Far East were destroyed.

PURE GRIT tells the amazing story of 100 American Military woman stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked.

Click here to see book trailer...

Breaking Stalin's Nose

If you have a minute—1:23 to be exact—watch this video of Eugene Yelchin talking about growing up in the Soviet Union and the tough choice he had to make.  Yelchin’s 2012 Newbery Honor novel BREAKING STALIN’S NOSE is partially based on his own childhood.  The book begins with a boy’s letter to Comrade Stalin telling the Soviet leader his greatest dream--to join the Young Soviet Pioneers.

Of course, as seems to happen to main characters, the boy Sasha runs into trouble reaching his dream. He comes face to face with a hard, life-altering choice and in that choice defines himself.
Hard choices come with a cost. And though our own may not be as pricey as Sasha’s or Eugene Yelchin’s, they still demand courage. 

I think of my daughter making the choice to pursue a career in screenwriting.  

As she was going off to college to major in film, I remember speaking with the mother of one of her friends. The friend had also considered majoring in the arts, but her mother told me she had convinced the girl to major in business.

Perhaps that girl now has a good paying job and flew home for Thanksgiving with her family, while my daughter is twelve-hundred miles away in Los Angeles, working the holiday at a restaurant, sharing a bedroom with a friend to save on rent, and living daily in uncertainty about her future as a screenwriter. Sure, people all over the world are facing decisions that will cost them much more. But I am inspired by my daughter’s courage and willingness to bear the cost of following her heart.

What about you?  Share whose courage fills your heart and makes you want to live with more authenticity, or tell me about a life-altering choice you’ve made.

A Whale of a Story

Today welcome Middle Grade Author Rosanne Parry to the blog. Her new book WRITTEN IN STONE has been shortlisted for the Pacific NW Booksellers Association 2014 Book Awards. 

Take it away, Rosanne! When I very first started writing WRITTEN IN STONE more than 15 years ago I thought I would write a contemporary piece about the Makah's resumption of whale hunting in 1999. Self-determination of natural resources is an important part of the American civil rights story and one I seldom see in books. But as I researched the story and talked with people in the tribe about whaling and what it meant to them, I realized that the more interesting story was not that they eventually reclaimed their whale hunting practices but that they voluntarily gave them up. 

When the Makah signed their treaty with the US they gave up 300,000 acres of timber in order to secure the right to hunt whales in their accustomed waters. But following the First World War, industrial whaling decimated gray and humpbacked whales all along the Pacific coast.  The Makah will not hunt an endangered resource, so even though the whaling was their entire economy and the cornerstone of their spiritual life, they gave it up. They story of how you go on being the people you are when the thing that so defines you is gone, is a cultural survival story that I think will speak to many people beyond Native American communities. 

Beyond that I chose the year 1923 because it is a year before Native Americans were given American citizenship. Even after thousands of Indians from nearly every tribe fought in World War I, they were not allowed to vote. Everyone knows women gained the vote in 1920, but most people don't know that Indian's were denied the vote until 1924.

By great coincidence, three other authors from Portland also have books out this year set in the 1920s. If you enjoy this era you might also enjoy:

Whistle in the Dark by Susan Hill Long
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown 
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Thank you, Rosanne. The Makah tribe regained their whaling rights in 1999 when numbers of gray whales increased in Pacific Coastal waters.

On a related subject, did you see the photos of the world’s rarest whale sighted several weeks ago near Victoria, B.C.? Scientists believe only 500 right whales remain and the last confirmed sighting of one in Pacific Canadian waters was in 1951. Check out the photos and story here, and let me know what you think.

I Want You to Meet This Guy...

Click image to play video On day one of WWII for the United States Harold Anthony Bergbower was injured when the Japanese bombed Clark Field in the Philippines. Mistaken for dead, he was delivered to the morgue and his family notified by telegram.

The young Air Corps mechanic awoke, took the tag off his toe, put on his boots and went back to his unit. In May 1942, he was captured by the Japanese and held prisoner until the end of the war. In captivity he suffered beatings and starvation in four POW camps in the Philippines and a hell ship voyage to Japan where he worked in a slave labor camp. Not until September 1945 did his family discover Harold had been alive the whole time. 

Writing and researching PURE GRIT: HOW AMERICAN WORLD WAR II NURSES SURVIVED BATTLE AND PRISON CAMP IN THE PACIFIC, I reflected many times on the resilience of the human spirit. Seeing how others undergo great suffering and keep a sense of humor and compassion has been a great inspiration to me.

Has some part of history inspired you? What historical person do you admire? And why?

The “Risk-taker’s Advantage”—Do You Have It?

Last week I promised interviews with these WWII POWs, but the learning curve on the video editing program was too great. 
Do you ever get really revved about starting something new, and it turns out to be much harder than you thought? You start wondering if it's just a waste of time. That was me this week.


I had this idea that I could produce short videos about history that people might want to watch. I believe history matters. I believe that we learn from the past, and I’m fascinated when I discover some new vantage on an event I thought I understood.

I started off with high hopes, but ended up feeling defeated by technology. It would be easy to listen to that voice telling me this is a fruitless use of my time. But I want to live a little. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. What’s the cost of a few days learning something new? A few days. Maybe a week. Now that’s living on the edge. :)
Photo thanks to Hannah Fizell - Shark Girl http://sharkgirlblog.blogspot.com/ I feel silly when I realize I’ve become so entrenched that a project like this feels like a risk. But different things are risky for different people. Some people skydive or swim with sharks, but fear intimate relationships. 
Others live openhearted, creative lives, but don’t chance commitment.

What I fear is failure, or looking foolish. Or both. If I stick to things I already know how to do, there’s less chance I’ll look silly and I won’t have frittered away my time. 

Advances in brain imaging technology show that human beings are wired to play it safe. But deep down, I know that moving out of my comfort zone is good for me. Looking back, it’s when I’ve taken a chance and had that difficult conversation that a relationship has grown.

Last week when I dropped everything for an impromptu trip to Oregon to attend a Living History event featuring WWII veterans, I opened myself to the painful truth of how inhumane we humans can be. The result—I was deeply moved by the strength of the human mind, body and spirit to endure extreme hardship and brutality.  

And I had the chance to enjoy Multnomah Falls.
Click here for sounds and video of the falls.

Michael Ungar, Ph.D., a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia says there is evidence that doing things that make us uncomfortable offers a cluster of psychological benefits. He calls it "the risk-taker's advantage." People who dare calculated risks are healthier, happier, and emotionally resilient.

Here’s a great article on the topic: 10 Risks Happy People Take Every Day

So stay tuned. Technology will not defeat me. I will have interviews with the ex-POWs I met and with Jan Thompson who produced the documentary Never the Same about the soldiers surrendered on Bataan & Corregidor who survived “hell ships” and slave labor camps. Her father was one of them.

My new video project is called History Matters. It’s my little experiment with living on the edge.


What about you? Did you do one thing today that scared you?  That's advice from  Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sneak Peek! New Book on American Women POWs

In anticipation of Veteran’s Day, here’s a sneak peek of my upcoming book, including photos! Remember this is from an uncorrected proof, so the color is off and the quality isn’t perfect. But you’ll meet a couple of the nurses featured, and see a bit of how the story begins. Click below where it says Download File.
PURE GRIT: HOW AMERICAN WWII NURSES SURVIVED BATTLE AND PRISON CAMP IN THE PACIFIC. pure_grit_excerpt_p24-25_p34-35.pdfFile Size: 1294 kbFile Type: pdfDownload File This week I attended a Living History celebration in McMinnville, Oregon, honoring American veteran’s. This is the second year the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum has invited hundreds of students to come and hear first hand the stories of vets from WWII right up to the present.

This year the program featured Ex-POWs from Bataan and Corregidor, as well as Tuskegee Airmen whose story was told in COURAGE HAS NOT COLOR by Tanya Lee Stone.  
Also saw the documentary NEVER THE SAME – THE PRISONER OF WAR EXPERIENCE and met the film’s Emmy® Award-winning director Jan Thompson. Jan’s father was a POW captured by the Japanese after the surrender of Corregidor Island May 6, 1942. See the trailer here-> http://www.tragedyofbataan.com/ Next week I’ll post my interview with Jan about why she made the film talk to one ex-POW who knew two of the nurses in my book PURE GRIT. 


Any veterans in your family tree? Go ahead and name them in the comments.  Veteran's Day is a holiday to honor all who have served our country.


My father-in-law landed at Normandy one month after D-Day and fought in WWII in the Battle of the Bulge. My mother-in-law also wore army boots! Seriously, she was a 1st Lieutenant. My father and a brother also served. And okay, this is going way back, but my a relative served in the Civil War and another in the American Revolution.

The Necessary Ingredient-- For a Quarterback, A Writer & You

Monday morning my husband had the radio on ESPN and Colin Cowherd was ranting about some quarterback who had a poor game. 

I'm not a sports fan, so I didn’t care a great deal,  But I started listening because the guy makes a lot of sense.

Cowherd says a quarterback needs consistency, and before he can be consistent he needs to know who he is and what kind of game he’s playing. Sounds a lot like being a writer. And a winning game plan for life, too.

Take Matt de la Peña, a young adult writer I heard speak at a writing conference this summer. Matt says writers must have their own voice, which I took to mean, they have to know who they are, where they’re coming from. 
Matt came from poverty in a California border town. His strong authorial voice gains his novels critical acclaim.  At the heart of Matt’s work is young people’s desire to be seen.

“I’ve always wanted to write about the other side of the tracks, the have-nots,” he says, “maybe because that’s who I was. I’ve always thought it was super important, out of respect, that I show the forgotten kids, the group with ‘less potential.’ Because I really think there is beauty there, too. And grace. And dignity.

Cowherd talks about a player or a team knowing what they do best and consistently doing that no matter what opponent they’re facing. But even hard-working, talented people don’t have an easy time discovering what it is they do best. Or believing in their own grace and dignity.

Matt didn’t always see himself as a writer. Winning a big writing contest in college helped. 

“That validation, those professors picking me, it completely changed the way I viewed myself. For the first time in my life I thought, man, maybe I am smart.” Still, when it came time for grad school, his professors applied for Matt behind his back because he didn’t identify as grad school material.
In an interview on Blogtalk Radio, Matt spoke of the struggles of his main character in the book MEXICAN WHITE BOY.

“I think Danny was the hardest character I’ve written so far for one simple reason, and that is, he’s probably the closest to me in terms of the stuff he’s dealing with. I was a biracial kid—father Mexican, mom white, just like Danny.”

Writers have the advantage of digging deeply into the question of self-identity in their daily process. I’m guessing athletes work at this daily, too, practicing their sport. Maybe some of their biggest discoveries come on Sunday in front of a million people.

What about you? What is it that you’re best at and how consistent are you? Digging deeper, do you know who you really are? How do you continue that journey of self-discovery? Go ahead, leave a comment.

PS Matt de la Peña is teaching a intensive for writers in Spokane, WA November 16th. He’ll talk about how characters reveal who they are through dialogue. It’ll be a chance to workshop your work-in-progress.  
Sign up here.

Junior Library Guild Selection: What's It Mean For a Book?

My agent and editor were excited about PURE GRIT being chosen by JLG, so I knew it was good news.

But being the investigative reporter I am–I wanted details.

So I googled it.

Here’s what I uncovered.
"We read thousands of books every year and select only the best."

"The JLG editorial team reviews more than 3,000 new titles each year, in manuscript or prepublication stage. We've developed a keen sense for finding the best of the best. Nearly 95 percent of our selections go on to receive awards and/or favorable reviews."�

Next, I googled symptoms of a heart attack.
Shortness of breath–check. Pressure in the chest–check. Dizziness, light-headed–check. Overwhelming feelings of...Whew! It's a gratitude attack!

While writing Pure Grit, carefully sifting through details of the nurses’ work in jungle field hospitals, their life burrowed underground while bombs pounded Corregidor, their days of captivity turning into weeks, months and years–I became haunted by the fear that I would not do these women justice. Would my writing skills and passion convey the story well enough to catch people’s interest when so many words and pictures flash past our eyes every day?

PURE GRIT’S selection by the JLG indicates the story of these brave WWII women will get read by kids. In libraries all across America, girls will have the opportunity to see photographs of heroic women before their grandmother’s time, working side-by-side with men in combat. They’ll learn how courage can be found in the darkest circumstances.

In my search for information on the Junior Library Guild, I discovered my friend Patricia Newman's book was also selected.

Patricia worked with three scientists and a photographer on her book PLASTIC, AHOY! INVESTIGATING THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH. “I’m happy to see that their work has been recognized by a major force in the children’s book community,” she said.
"I’m thrilled that JLG singled out PLASTIC, AHOY!, and I hope the JLG seal of approval will help spread the book’s message. The issue of plastic in our oceans has reached a dangerous level and our best hope for a solution is to change our single-use plastic habits.”

Here's what I'm curious about. When you go to work in the morning, what kind of change do you hope your efforts will make? Who takes notice of your work and helps toward your goals like JLG helps authors?

A Young Man, An Old Soldier, and a Fight to the Death

Pre-order book now Today I introduce you to Christine Kohler, author of NO SURRENDER SOLDIER due out Jan.18. Christine’s experience as a journalist gave her instant credibility in my eyes. Her YA novel is set in Guam and connects two wars–Vietnam and WWII.
Publisher's Weekly recently mentioned NO SURRENDER SOLDIER as a book helping teens make sense of war. Important for kids, whose country has been at war since they were born.

Welcome, Christine.

"War is a terrible thing, and many return with wounds invisible to the eye." -- Terry Pratchett, DODGER

This is true of all my characters in NO SURRENDER SOLDIER. The after-effects of war on people's lives are like contracting a genetic disease, even passing it down to future generations.

People often ask how I got interested in writing about war. I usually tell them about my experiences as a reporter living in Pacific-Asian nations. My heartstrings tugged when I heard the stories of refugees. So for decades I wrote about war refugees.

My first article in the mid-1980s was about Laotians who came to Hawaii to start new lives. My last news article on the topic was in the mid-90s when Russian Jews relocated to the United States.
Author Christine Kohler On Guam's annual Liberation Day I interviewed Guamanians who had been subjugated by the Japanese during World War II. It was out of these stories while I lived on Guam, Japan, and Hawaii, plus my travels to the Philippines, Saipan, and Korea that led me to write about war in Pacific–Asia in NO SURRENDER SOLDIER.

Even though NO SURRENDER SOLDIER takes place in 1972 at the end of the Vietnam civil war and revolves around events from World War II, I don't think of my book so much as being about war as dealing with the after-effects of war on the individual.

As General Sherman said, "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell."

And, regarding the survivors, he said, "Courage--a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it."

It is my hope that NO SURRENDER SOLDIER honors those-- on all sides of the battle lines-- who endured, survived, and rose above the pain of war.

Read more in-depth on this subject at Christine Kohler’s blog READ LIKE A WRITER.
Do you know someone who has survived war? Does anything in this article ring true for you? Please share your thoughts.

Check out these Children's Authors

A month ago when Non-fiction for kids writer Kelly Milner Halls invited me to join in the Children’s Author’s Blog Hop, I happily told her I would love to. Then writing deadlines and prep for our Inland NW Regional Conference hit me head on. So here I am a month late.  Which worked out okay because since Kelly tagged me, she started a new venture– video episodes on MSN.  She’s written and filmed ten 3-minute videos, each exploring something odd and amazing. She’s perfect for this gig because she has written lots of books about odd and amazing things. Like     ALIEN INVESTIGATION and IN SEARCH OF SASQUATCH. Click here to see her newest video Lulu the Hero Pig. And find out more about Kelly’s books and videos at www.WondersOfWeird.com.

So what this blog hop is all about is authors answering four questions about their current project.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I am working on a YA historical novel set in 1660 Boston about Mary Dyer, a woman who challenged the towns religious persecution of Quakers. Some Quakers suffered whippings, had their ears cut off and were dragged out of town behind a horse and cart. But others, like Mary who would not stay away from Boston and refused to refused to renounce their faith, went to the gallows. Before her hanging, Mary said, “My live not availeth me in comparison to the liberty of the truth.”   

How does it differ from other works in it’s genre?

My novel will differ from other YA fiction based on American history because the main character actually lives in present-day Boston. Her witnessing the hanging of Mary Dyer is not magic, this book isn’t fantasy, but it is mysterious. Religion becomes a place of exploration for many teens. Sometimes what they have taken for granted all their lives, suddenly doesn’t make sense. This book delves into that religious space that is very difficult to quantify.

Why do you write what you do?

I have a passion for stories about people facing great adversity with courage. Writing  stories like the one about Mary Dyer and my upcoming book PURE GRIT: HOW AMERICAN WWII NURSES SURVIVED BATTLE AND PRISON CAMP IN THE PACIFIC has been my way of exploring courage. What it is, and where it comes from. One thing I see again and again is that in their darkest moments people have the opportunity to discover their true identity, and that gives them the courage to follow an inner compass toward some good greater than themselves.

What’s the hardest part about writing?

For me, the hardest part about writing for kids is the integrity it demands. I want to tell kids the truth, whether it’s the true story of American women in WWII, or a novel composed of events I’ve imagined. Writing the truth about war means you have to get very close to war. If you don’t experience it yourself, you listen to other people’s accounts of it, and you don’t turn away from the ugliness, the horrific loss of life. You let it move through you onto the page. Writing fiction, requires an honesty about your own life experience. What moves through you onto the page of a novel is the emotional truth of living in this world. I find the honesty of the writing process to be very difficult at times. 

Now if I’ve taken you down a path that is too serious and dark, I urge you to check out Author Stacy McAnulty.
She writes funny books for children, books that usually star dinosaurs or dragons or dogs. DEAR SANTASAURUS, published by Boyds Mills Press 2013, is her debut picture book. She has two additional picture book deals in the works. When she’s not writing, she’s reading. And when she’s not reading, she’s tweeting or playing around online. (She tells her family it’s “marketing.”) Stacy lives in a cluttered house in Kernersville, NC with her 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 1 husband. www.stacymcanulty.com I’m also tagging a friend who works with my same editor at Abrams/ Amulet--fantasy, steam-punk novelist Maureen McQuerry. Maureen’s published works include THE PECULIARS, a YASLA, Bank Street, Horn Book and Westchester YA best  book;  NUCLEAR LEGACY, an Independent Publisher’s Award winner and numerous poems in literary journals. In the tradition of the Dark Is Rising books, fantasy and myth come to life in Maureen’s forthcoming middle-grade duet. BEYOND THE DOOR and THE TELLING STONE are due out in spring and fall 2014. Connect with Maureen at www.maureenmcquerry.com. Lastly, I’m tagging Nancy I. Sanders, who I first introduced on this blog when she published FREDERICK DOUGLASS FOR KIDS: HIS LIFE AND TIMES. Nancy is the bestselling and award-winning children's author of  D IS FOR DRINKING GOURD: AN AFRICAN AMERICAN ALPHABET. Further, she has written more than 80 books for children, teachers and writers. Her favorite topics to write about are God, Bible stories, educational subjects, and African American history. Find out more about Nancy here http://nancyisanders.wordpress.com.
With these authors, I'm giving you a little of everything to choose from, funny picture books, fantasy YA & middle grade adventure, plus more non-fiction. Check 'em out!