I am excited to tell you about the next book I am writing, and I need your assistance. This book is to honor to the men and women who grew up during the Great Depression and served our country during WWII. These men and women may be those who fought in the military, worked in the factories at home supporting the production of equipment needed for the war efforts, or who remained on the home front taking care of their families so their loved ones could fight. The WWII generation has been called “The Greatest Generation” and they truly were. They had values and character that we do not see as prevalent today. We can learn so much from them, but there are so few still remaining. My goal is to capture their stories to still learn what we can from them. The world is in need of their wisdom at this moment in time. My book is called “What The Greatest Generation Knew – That We Don’t.”
My Dad was a WWII Vet who lived with me during the latter part of his life. When he passed, I was filled with an emptiness. I also was sad that I would no longer hear of his early life and war stories. He did leave some of them and I began to write about the things he told me. I realized that there are so many stories out there from these honorable men and women and we need to capture them now. They have great wisdom to share about their WWII experiences and they can still mentor the people of today and leave a legacy.
I am still searching for stories to put in my upcoming book. I am looking for:
- WWII veterans and other members of the Greatest Generation who are willing to let me interview them or have their families help them write their own stories
- Family members whose siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles served in WWII, and you have information that you are willing to share with me. This information could be in the form of things they wrote, books that were published about their military units, and stories they told you or wrote down.
Possible things to discuss in the stories:
- Growing up as a child during the Great Depression
- How you decided to fight for world freedom in WWII
- What you did during WWII or what experiences you had
- The most important thing you learned from living through and serving in WWII
- What words of wisdom you would like to leave the world today as a legacy
I am looking to write one chapter for each person. I can interview you and help putting this information into a story format unless you would like to write the story yourself.
I am looking to start each chapter with a quote of theirs or something they would still say if they could. The body of the information is all about their experiences. I want to end each chapter with the things they learned from WWII and their words of wisdom to leave as a legacy to society today.
Please share this request with family and friends who may be interested in sharing their WWII stories for this book. If you are the WWII Vet who wants to submit your story, please ask your family and friends to help you document this, or I can interview you and write the story. I live in the Chicago area but can talk over the phone (including a Face Time call), or a Zoom call.
All stories will be subject to the approval of the Vet and/or the family prior to publishing. Stories should be about 2-3 type-written pages or up to 1500 words in length. (As an example, this blog is about 800 words so it could be up to 3 times as long). That will retain chapter size consistency. You may submit photos (up to 3 per story). I am in process of talking to my book publisher regarding the number of photos I may use for the entire book.
There is another benefit for writing these stories. The written story (even if you decide not to submit it to me), becomes a family legacy. The world is a better place because of those who served our country and the world during WWII. I want the world to hear their words of wisdom.
Thank you for being willing to read this and blessings if are willing and able to assist.
The best way to contact me is via email at:
chris@drchris.co (not .com)
I have published 6 other books, so I am an experienced author. If you want to see the other books I have written, please check out my website at:
www.drchris.co (not .com)
Thank you –
Dr. Christine Van Horn