R.V. Doon's Blog, page 5
March 21, 2014
Double Blind: In Paperback
I’ve been writing the sequel to my cozy series, called Body Aches, while trying to get Double Blind into paperback. Finally, I finished Body Aches, and coincidentally I got the paperback done. Okay, don’t try to use your psych skills on me! Won’t work. I’ve ordered the proof copy so it won’t go up for sale until April 1. Appropriate date, isn’t it? Here’s the cover: Let me know what you think.
March 12, 2014
Do You Know This British WWII Spy?
Do you know this British spy?
I bet you don’t. Her name was Nancy Wake aka The White Mouse.
She’s killed a man with her bare hands when she was behind the lines.
I first became interested in female spies during WWII after watching the movie, Charlotte Gray. It’s a good movie if you like WWII films. The movie’s main character, Charlotte Gray, is played by the feisty Cate Blanchett and is based on the real life exploits of Nancy Wake. Like Claire Phillips in the Philippines, Nancy Wake risked her life and in the process saved lives. It’s a true gift for an ordinary person to save a life and Nancy certainly did. A male comrade-in-arms in the French Resistance summed her up as: ‘The most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. And then she is like five men.’ A stunning compliment, wouldn’t you say?
Nancy’s most famous name was given to her by the Gestapo when they put her on their most wanted list. The Nazis put a bounty of five million franc on her head and called her the White Mouse because she always escaped their traps. Like Claire Phillips, Nancy Wake wrote a book. 
Sadly, Nancy Wake died at the age of 98 in 2011. This woman was awarded five medals for her exploits, and believe me, you need to read about them in this UK article from the Daily Mail.
Related articles
Resistance heroine who led 7,000 men against the Nazis – Europe – World – The Independent
Remembering Real Heroines of World War 2- Nancy Wake Who Died in 2011
Nancy Wake
Charlotte Gray
“Nancy Wake, who has died in London just before her 99th birthday, was a New Zealander brought up in…”
February 27, 2014
WOMEN SPIES: The Real Deal In WWII
When I started writing THE WAR NURSE
as historical fiction, I had to find a real American woman in the Philippines who avoided internment for several years. Obviously, she had to be smart, savvy, and a really great actress. Most of all she had to be a person the men who were POWs remembered. I found my true life American spy and her name was Claire Phillips. She was born in Michigan but grew up in Portland. She was a night club singer when the war began. The name she used to send money, food, and medicines to POWs was delivered with a note and signed High Pockets. This woman is a true American hero and for her service she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor.
Claire Phillips
American Hero
While Katarina Stahl’s Manila story line doesn’t follow Claire’s true life story it was important to find a woman who defied expectations. Claire Phillips endured the same experience that is described in my book at Bilibid prison. Claire is imprisoned after being tortured, but she never gave up a soul to the Japanese interrogators. By the time she was liberated she’d lost over 50 pounds. She wrote a book of her experience and a movie was made. This is a good article on her called Manila Mata Hari from Portland Monthly Magazine.
Like the POWs she suffered medical problems from her spying stint and imprisonment, but she wasn’t eligible for medical care. I don’t know why her name isn’t in the history books, and I sincerely hope it isn’t because she was a woman. Stay tuned for more stories on Women Spies in WW II.
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Resource for WWII buffs!
The War Nurse
Meeting A Veteran – By John Henry Phillips
The War Nurse Book Launch 1-14-14
February 21, 2014
Book Review: Body Wave
It’s my pleasure to share a book review of Body Wave (A Text-A-Nurse Mystery) from the book blog Community Bookstop. It’s a great site for readers to visit. So, please check out Body Wave’s review and the other great posts and topics that are available.
This review by Paula Ratcliff comes at a really good time because I’m less than a week a way from finishing the sequel, Body Aches.
January 31, 2014
The War Nurse on Tour!
Hey everyone! Some exciting news today. The War Nurse is being hosted at the fabulous book blog All Things Bookie. Julie Ryan, the historical writer and book blogger, has put up an excerpt and interviewed me.
Please check out her blog and other author interviews or book reviews she’s posted. My thanks to All Things Bookie for giving The War Nurse her first trip away from home. It’s great to be included with so many great authors.
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Pictures of Manila in 1945
U.S.S. Canopus: Not Forgotten
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The War Nurse
January 28, 2014
Interview of R.V. Doon
My thanks to Vinny and the other nice people who run the website Awesome Gang. Today they posted my interview for those interested.
January 26, 2014
U.S.S. Canopus: Not Forgotten
The USS Canopus, was an aging naval submarine tender, stationed at Cavite Navy Yard during the outbreak of World War II. The crew admitted she “waddled like a duck” but most called her “The Old Lady.” This ship popped up frequently while I was conducting research for THE WAR NURSE. Even Juanita Redmond, A U.S. Army Nurse and Angel of Bataan, mentioned the USS Canopus in her 1943 book, I Served on Bataan. Basically, because the Canopus was an aging submarine tender it wasn’t high on the Japanese target list. She was bombed for the first time on December 29, 1941 and six crew members lost their lives.
On January 1st, 1942 she got hit a second time, and the men disguised her as a bombed out listing hulk, and even used smoke pots to make their effects look real. By day her crew tended the smaller ships and submarines that stayed with them, and they turned her own launches (boats) into miniature gunboats. The submarines had left the Canopus soon after the New Year, but not before restocking her food stores. The spunky ship served as a restaurant and social site for people who got a few hours of leave. When Bataan surrendered most of the crew went to Corregidor and served with the Marines on beach defense. However, a small unit of the crew, formed a naval battalion and they fought with the Army on Bataan. Captain Sackett left Corregidor with MacArthur, but the crew that survived war on Bataan and Corregidor became POWs.
In the first third of my book, Katarina Stahl, follows Jack Gallagher to Bataan after they both experienced the bombing of Clark Air Field and then Jack enlists. The heart of the story is the love between Katarina and Jack while war explodes around them, but also Katarina holds a dark secret inside her, and it takes the brutality of war to cough it up. Jack, being the great guy he is, dubs the USS Canopus–the sugar puss because it offered hot showers, coffee, and ice cream to its guests. The following two paragraphs are excerpted from Captain Sackett’s account of what happened. Sackett wrote a short excerpt of what happened to the ship for the families of the crew members. His report is online here.
Nearly every evening, Army officers and nurses who were able to snatch a few hours leave from their duties, gathered on board the Canopus. We had refrigeration, excellent cooking facilities, and decent living quarters, which seemed heaven to them compared to their hardships in the field. To enjoy a real shower bath, cold drinking water, well-cooked meals served on white linen with civilized table ware, and greatest luxury of all, real butter, seemed almost too much for them to believe. When these favored ones returned to their primitive surroundings and described these “feasts topped off with ice cream and chocolate sauce, they were often put in the same “dog house” as the optimists who claimed to have seen a fleet of transports steaming in.
Our visitors repaid us in full for any hospitality with tales of their own adventures. Captain Wermuth, the famous “one man army” often regaled us with graphic, even grewsome accounts of his many encounters. General Casey, Major Wade Cochrane, Major Kircher, Major Lauman and many others kept up in touch with affairs at USAFFE headquarters and the front lines. Occasionally Marine officers from Corregidor would manufacture reasons for visiting Bataan so that they could visit the Canopus and refresh their memories of better days. Bulkeley and other torpedo boat officers in particular enjoyed our ice cream desserts. We were only sorry when our supplies began to fail toward the end, and we could no longer maintain quite as good hotel service for our friends.
The following are also great resources if you want to read more about the USS Canopus.
U.S.S. Canopus by Everett Perry, On Eternal Patrol, Tender Tale by the US Navy, USS Canopus by Naval History and Heritage, Wreck of the USS Canopus (AS-9)
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Corregidor Island
Pictures of Manila in 1945
January 20, 2014
Pictures of Manila in 1945
After I hit publish, on THE WAR NURSE, I promised historical articles from that time period. I’ve been feeling under the weather, so I discovered this group of pictures on Flickr posted by John T. Pilot. Thanks for posting your fabulous collection, Mr. Pilot, because it inspired me to post.
Basically, from every account Manila was a beautiful place. For those who’ve forgotten their history, America “liberated” the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. The Philippines is an archipelago as you can see on this map. While we’re all taught that America isn’t into empire building, I submit we did with the Philippines.
To everyone in the American military it was a fabulous post, and even Elizabeth Norman mentioned how the nurses wished and hoped for the Philippine posting in her fabulous book, We Band of Angels.
Even in the ruins after the war in 1945 traces of its beauty remains.
I saw one picture of Santo Tomas University still standing in Mr. Pilot’s collection. One of the reasons it stood was because the many liberated American families were kept there until the month-long battle ended. Sure, the POWs and the US Army nurses were flown out, but the civilians had to wait for safe passage to Honolulu, and for most, on to San Francisco because their homes and businesses were destroyed.
For the Filipinos let me say this first. They stood beside the POWs and interned Americans at great personal risk to themselves and their families. They were very brave. But when the military came back to free its citizens, the fight between the Japanese and Americans was shockingly brutal. Bombs rained down on civilian homes and churches. The battle for Manila was epic. The proof is in the pictures. Check them out.
Next post is on the USS Canopus, a naval submarine tender.
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Touring Corregidor, one of the country’s last military bastions
Japan’s last imperial soldier dies
January 14, 2014
The War Nurse Debut
The War Nurse is now available on Amazon!
I’m launching it at a sale price of 99 cents to say thanks to the many readers and subscribers reading my books. If you like historical family sagas, tossed in with an epic romance then this book is for you. Warning! This book takes place during World War II in the Philippines. This is where US troops surrendered and then Japan occupied the country. The story is character driven but the war and it’s surrounding angst creeps into the lives of the characters. The war isn’t the catalyst of the story, it’s Katarina’s haunting mistake, or should I call it her second haunting mistake? Basically, at its core, The War Nurse is about impulsive mistakes and how they come back to haunt, especially during desperate times.
Here’s the book description:
A historical family saga and epic romance set during World War II.
The War Nurse is a heart-rending story of two Americans, Katarina Stahl, a civilian nurse, and Jack Gallagher, a surgeon, caught in the Philippines on a goodwill medical mission, when war interrupts their newfound love. As the situation becomes dire, Katarina in an impulsive move frees a German doctor accused of spying; a haunting mistake, that sets off a chain of tragic events for her German-born parents in New York.
Now, pregnant with Jack’s child, Katarina begins a journey into depraved darkness as Manila descends into occupation and chaos. The horrific choices she has to make to avoid internment and starvation distances her from Jack. Three years of hell pass, and she has earned her nickname, war nurse, but can she regain the love of her life?
January 13, 2014
The War Nurse Book Launch 1-14-14
Thought I’d share the second photo used to make the cover for The War Nurse. For those of you thinking about self publishing your book, you may have to pick out photos you like for your cover. The artist then blends and spins the photos into your cover. As I mentioned, I wanted a From Here to Eternity, war, and a tropical theme. Tomorrow is the final cover reveal!
While The War Nurse is a historical family saga set during WWII, it does exist on the two main character’s keeping their romance alive through the war. Katarina Stahl is a civilian nurse, but Jack Gallagher, the man she’s in love with enlists as a doctor/surgeon in the army. For those not familiar with what happened in the Philippines, the war began Dec 7th when Pearl Harbor was attacked. In the second wave the Philippines was attacked on the same day, but due to the International Date Line, it’s listed as December 8. The American troops experienced a last stand, kind of like in the movie “300.” In fact Jack Gallagher in the story calls it America’s Thermopylae. It was the first time American troops had ever been surrendered to another country in such massive numbers. I suspect that’s why we hear more about Pearl Harbor than the last stand on Bataan.
After the surrender on Bataan, Americans, civilians, and natives flee to join the military forces that refused to surrender on Corregidor. That sail was horrific and was one of my favorite scenes in the book. Of course that outpost surrendered about two months later. At that point American men are either POWs, detained in internment camps, or they’re guerilla fighters. Naturally, my character goes to great lengths to avoid internment, but she doesn’t avoid it without serious repercussions. It’s a life and death struggle to live free in an occupied city. I bet you’re thinking how does she do that? Well, Katarina has a unique story line but there were women who did it, and I’ll share their true stories as well.
In any case, I’ll be blogging about the historical setting while The War Nurse is launched on Amazon Select. If you like family sagas in a historical setting, characters that grab you by the throat and won’t let go, then please check out The War Nurse on 1-14-14. How far would you go to save the people you love?
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The War Nurse
