Talkshow Thursday:
Welcome Back, Terri Wangard
It’s wide open. After eighteen years of writing in a cramped bedroom, I’ve taken over office space from our now defunct family business, along with one of the computers. I can spread notes out and leave them there. The computer works as it should, unlike my laptop that moves the cursor around without my knowing it until I have a huge mess.
How do you deal with the pressure of deadlines?
By avoiding them. I’m not a procrastinator by nature and have always avoided having to complete something at the last minute. My first series of three books was already complete when I signed the contract. This latest book wasn’t started when I received the contract and I knew a moment of panic when I realized my original story plan wasn’t going to work and I had to come up with an alternate in a hurry. Fortunately, it came together quickly and I’m so happy with it.
How do you develop your characters? (e.g. decide on their vocation, names, etc.)?
My characters are how I’d like to be. Seamstress, artist, plant whisperer, musician; those are not my
Tell us about your road to publication.
In the early 2000s, I wrote a short novel that I submitted to a line of Christian romances. They had the manuscript for a year before rejecting it. Meanwhile, I’d written another one, but then put writing aside. In 2008, I read Debbie Macomber’s Twenty Wishes, about a group of women fulfilling wishes they’d always wanted to do but never did. I decided to write again. My first writers’ conference was in 2010 and I had appointments with agents and editors for the next several years. A friend had her YA series published by a small publishing house, and I submitted my proposal. Friends & Enemies was published in 2016.
If your book is part of a series: Did you set out to write a series? Why did you decide to write a series?
My debut novel was meant to be a stand-alone, but an editor told me I’d likely need a series to land a contract. Fortunately, I had so much material from researching B-17s that writing two more books was no problem. For the current series, it seemed like the expected thing to do.
How has your series changed since your original plan?
This series was originally planned as war brides from unusual places. In other words, not from England or France. That’s what Seashells in My Pocket was, set in Brazil. Iceland was the planned setting for book two, No Leaves in Autumn, but finding the bride turned out to be a hassle. In the initial planning, I’d read that a Canadian unit was in Iceland, including women. That doesn’t seem to be the case and the rule of thumb in writing historicals is, if you can’t verify something in three sources, forget it. I had to sneak a French Canadian woman into the American Red Cross. The new book was the real problem. Today is the 84th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin, Australia. That event was supposed to kickstart the book, but it didn’t take me long to realize I didn’t have a full-length novel there. When I hit on the idea of Gloria being John’s bride, it was “Hallelujah!”
What writers or books have influenced you?
What books are on your nightstand right now?
I’m reading the print copy of Elizabeth Camden’s Beyond the Clouds and on my Kindle, I’m reading an ARC of Jen Dodrill’s No Egrets, to be followed by an ARC of Linda Matchett’s Shetland Sunset.
What is your next project?
I’ve submitted a proposal for a collection of three pre-WWII novellas featuring Americans heading for home before war engulfs them. My current work in progress is contemporary with a WWII tie-in.
Listen for the Chickadees
December 7, 1941 shatters the illusion that anyone is safe.
Navy nurse Gloria Bloch wakes to the thunder of enemy planes over Pearl Harbor, certain of only one thing: John Walsh, the boy she has loved since childhood, is far from danger aboard an aircraft carrier. Or so she believes.
When panicked American gunfire brings John down over the harbor, their reunion is brief and breathtaking, forged in chaos neither can escape.
As the Second World War drives the United States into the Pacific conflict, Gloria and John are swept onto separate paths of duty. Gloria serves aboard the hospital ship USS Serenity, tending shattered bodies and wounded souls. John flies combat missions as a Navy fighter pilot and combat photographer, risking everything to document a war that refuses to leave him untouched.
Their paths cross again and again in fleeting moments between air raids and surgeries, courage and fear, longing and loss. With every meeting, the feelings they have buried deepen. But war demands more than love. It demands sacrifice, tests faith, and steals time without warning.
When separation stretches into silence, Gloria must face the terrifying possibility that hope itself has become another casualty of war.
As war and distance threaten to pull them apart, only the smallest signs remain: a whistle, a painted bird, and a promise worth holding onto.
Listen for the Chickadees is a Christian World War II historical romance set against the backdrop of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy, and the Pacific War. It is a story of steadfast love, quiet faith, and the courage it takes to trust God when tomorrow is uncertain.
Buy link: https://amzn.to/4aGFBKT
Connect with Terri:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorTerriWangard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terriwangard/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/terriwangard/
Website: http://www.terriwangard.com
Photo credits:
Author photo and book image: Courtesy Terri Wangard
Space: Pixabay/Mattia Verga
Chickadee: Pixabay/Veronika Andrews
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