Showing results for "Through the Storm" in Historical Fiction

January '42. LA reels behind the shock of Pearl Harbor. Local Japanese are rounded up and slammed behind bars. Massive thunderstorms hit the city. A body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops tag it as a routine dead-man job. They’re wrong. It’s an early warning signal of chaos. There’s a murderous fire and a gold heist. There’s Fifth Column treason on American soil. There are homegrown Nazis, commies and race racketeers. There’s two dead cops in a dive off the jazz-club strip. And three men and one woman have a hot date with history.

Nineteen-year-old April Wilton has just enlisted in the WRENs in Portsmouth, where she works servicing engines on ships. She finds herself immersed in dockyard life and surrounded by soldiers - from England and America. The atmosphere is one of spontaneity and impulsiveness, brought on by the...

When they realize the danger of remaining under the rule of the Nazi occupation, Dr. Leon Schmelzer, his wife Donya, and their baby daughter attempt to flee Romania under the cover of darkness. Joining a dozen other brave souls, they hastily board a small ship, leaving behind family, friends, and the only life they ever knew—for a slim chance at survival. But their path to freedom does not sail over smooth waters.

I have been fascinated by the backlash from Hurricane Camille in Nelson County ever since it happened August 19th, 1969. How could 29 inches of rain fall in five hours, which NOAA says is close to both the physical and theoretical limit of the possible. In the heart of the county I care deeply about, lives were eclipsed and landscapes devastated in the blink of an eye. So a combination of fascination, love and a too-vivid imagination pulled me into writing a novel set during the backlash of Hurricane Camille.