Liberation (War Shadows: Book 2)

Forward: War Shadows

I'm sure that those of you that haven't read anything from the War Shadows series might be a little confused as to why in the world I would put a song from a rap musical about the founding fathers at the beginning of a book about Spain in World War Two. And, I'm sure that some of you that have read "Prosper" might still be a little confused as to why I keep talking about this song in these author's notes. Well, I'm here to tell you.

So, yes: this forward will be a little different from the one I did for "Prosper", and I invite those of you that have read my other author's notes to still read this one.

Before I'd ever listened to Hamilton, I was a history lover. I grew up in a family filled with history geeks, all of them having their own little "specialties", as it were: my uncle was big into the Civil War, my grandmother into the antebellum era; however, all of us had an interest in World War Two, and that was a love that you could find on both sides of my family. Both sides had family members who fought in the war: on my mom's side, there was my great grandpa Vear, who was a bomber navigator who flew missions during D-Day, was shot down at one point, and was helped back to Britain by the resistance members that found him; and on my dad's side, there was my great-uncle (is that what it's called?) Mel, who operated a flamethrower in the Pacific theater. Those of you that have read "Prosper", I don't think, have ever heard of Mel from me, mostly because I'm just starting to hear stories from him, myself. He operated a flamethrower during the battle of Okinawa, and was injured when a grenade blew up close to him, sending shrapnel through his body. They took him to a field hospital, and the rest of his troop went to keep fighting. About half of the people in his group ended up getting killed in that battle, at least, that's how the story goes. 

What does any of that have to do with Hamilton? Well, when I finally listened to the musical for the first time, I was about halfway through writing the final re-write of "Prosper". I'd already known for a long while that the purpose of the book was to keep the memories of the people I was writing about alive. And then, I heard the final song of the musical, the one that I have at the beginning of this chapter. 

It was amazing to me. I'd never had a song so perfectly describe something I was doing. Those lyrics - when you're gone, who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame, who tells your story? - and all the things Eliza does to tell the stories of her husband after his death really got me thinking: who was telling these people's stories? 

And that's when it hit me: that's our job. And I've decided to really, truly take that on. I'm here to tell the stories of the amazing people that I've learned about over the years. And, hopefully, I'll be able to inspire more people to start telling these stories, and together, we'll be able to keep the memories of these heroes alive.

This book will be following the fictional character Jacqueline "Jackie" Ramirez, who is loosely based off of the real-life woman Virginia Hall. Through this book, I hope to bring more attention to the amazing story of this woman that many have forgotten.