UNTIL THEN - Gail Kittleson - One Free Book or Ebook

BIO: Dare To Bloom became my website’s title for a reason. I’m a late bloomer, and so grateful to be blooming! My background in Teaching English as a Second Language, college expository writing, and other courses colors my fiction, as does my rural upbringing. Honoring the heroines and heroes of the Greatest Generation motivates me, while editing and facilitating writing workshops is the frosting on my proverbial cake, although I’m gluten and sugar free.

Welcome back, Gail. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

The World War II bug bit me HARD right after my memoir was published. I can’t explain it, but my first character taught me so much about what I’m to write. At the time, I didn’t realize my genre was Women’s Fiction, but that understanding dawned on me over time.

My heroines (and heroes, for that matter) travel an uphill road toward claiming their voices and their God-given dignity. The obstacles they face come in many forms, but they always do their best with what they’ve been given. They don’t necessarily see what holds them back, because it’s often an inner belief that’s false and emotionally debilitating. But they strive on!

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

Hmm…that’s a draw between our wedding day and the births of our two children. But I couldn’t choose between these three with integrity, because I always felt no one would ever be interested in me. So to have the joy of marriage really surprised me, and then to bring delightful human beings into the world—well, it just didn’t get any better than this.

How has being published changed your life?

The journey to publication has increased my confidence. The poor self-concept with which I entered adulthood took decades to shed. It’s tough to put your work out there for all to see when you think deep down that you have nothing worth saying. So it took quite a while to build the confidence that I had something to offer readers—that’s why I call my website DARE TO BLOOM. There’s a lot of excitement in blooming, but for some of us, also a tremendous amount of trepidation.

What are you reading right now?

I’m always reading something World War II-ish. Right now it’s Coffin Corner Boys, but I’m also into an Old West resource book.

Most of the non-fiction I read is research, too. What is your current work in progress?

Another author and I are compiling two non-fiction World War II books about food and about celebrating Christmas. Also, I’m working on an 1860’s story that I started about ten years ago. It’s set in Arizona Territory and becomes richer every time I plunge back into it.

I’m interested in both of those books. Let me know when they are published. What would be your dream vacation?

This one is on my bucket list. I’d like to follow the route the American troops took through Sicily, up the boot of Italy, north through France and into Belgium to the Battle of the Bulge. And I’d like to have some serious readers with me, so we could discuss the fateful World War II battles along the way.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

The historical settings choose me. If my heroine leaves the United States on a ship and crosses the Atlantic in a zigzag to avoid torpedoes, lands at Casablanca and heads out in the back of an Army truck across the wilds of North Africa, the setting changes with her activity, and I have to do more research. If she spends much of her time in evacuation hospital tents tending the wounded, and for a treat, takes a dip in the Mediterranean when the Allies drive Rommel back in Tunesia, I have more to learn about both settings. This may be a way of saying that the setting becomes almost a character. For example, if the weather is terrible, everything can turn upside down in short order.

I love books where the setting is such an integral part of the story. What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I love learning and miss teaching, so something comes alive in me when I get to facilitate a workshop. Connecting with people and encouraging them in their writing is pure joy. I wanted to be a cheerleader in high school but didn’t get elected, so this is my chance—LOL. I love to walk and spend time with our grandchildren, too. They’re getting older, so that doesn’t happen so often any more, but usually baking takes place when it does. I also enjoy watching British history and detective dramas on PBS with my husband of 42 years, and we like to haunt historical sites together.

All of our grandchildren are in their late 20s and early 30s. Thankfully, they live close. We enjoy our time with them and the 7, soon to be 8, great-grands. What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

I’m too verbose. This winter I re-edited my very first book that found a publisher. Would you believe that minus 40,000 words, it emerged a much more powerful story? I think we have to learn to trust our readers to figure things out—we don’t need to repeat the same info three different ways for them to “get it.” I’m also a great one for using two actions instead of one, when one would do just fine.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Edit. Edit again. Then let your work rest a few weeks or months before re-editing. After that, find a really good editor to edit your manuscript. Throw away your pride. Incorporate the suggestions and keep going down into each scene until the very best story you can possibly write shines through. Be aware that this will take a long time!

Tell us about the featured book.

Look out world, here come Dorothy Woebbeking! A real-life WWII nurse from Iowa, Dorothy seems “bigger than life.” Her story gripped me, even though it challenged me to write about someone with a real family waiting in the wings. How would they feel about my treatment of her incredible service as a surgical nurse during some of the war’s worst battles?

I shouldn’t have worried about that—from the very first pages, Dorothy’s story took on a life of its own, and her exploits taught me so much! How do you improve on a gutsy young woman who took flying lessons in a C-47 cargo plane during her off-duty hours? Can a person get more “make-do” than stitching a swimming suit by hand from a parachute silk she found in the desert? And above all, how could anyone survive the daily gruesome work these nurses performed…caring for the dying and severely wounded, making life-and-death decisions, enduring thirty-six hour stretches without a break? I stand in awe of them and their vital contribution to the war effort.

At the same time I learned about Dorothy, another World War II situation came to my attention, and simply would not let me go. This was the worst civilian disaster of the entire war that took place in London’s East end. I couldn’t get the terrible tragedy out of my mind and realized how during this horrible time of death and destruction, it was the constables, the police, and the clergy that held communities together. Then a question occurred to me: could I possibly tell both stories in the same novel?

The short answer is that I took on this task, and what all-consuming work it became! Learning how to mesh the two tales with a single thread connecting them presented a huge challenge, but was so satisfying. Hearing readers testify that it worked brings all the satisfaction I need.

Please give us the first page of the book.

March 1943 French Morocco

“Sent Jerry packin’, didn’t we?” Still focused on the battle, a burly sergeant ignored his wounds.

“You showed 'em what we’re made of today.” Dorothy slipped the doctor’s order of meperidine solution into the sergeant’s mouth when he opened it again.

He sputtered, “Yeah. The Kasserine Pass taught us a couple things. Next time, we’ll—”

“You’ll soon be back in the thick of it, but this shrapnel has to come out first. Open your mouth, Sarge.” She stuck a thermometer in and he closed his eyes.

The GI on the next litter mumbled, “No use fightin’ her. She’s the one those pilots took to...”

Dorothy checked the sergeant’s pupils and dabbed grit from his face as the other soldier continued, despite his severe shoulder injury.

“I hear she even navigated a C-47.”
The sergeant fought to maintain control as Dorothy checked his temperature. Here in the Eleventh Evacuation Hospital, tough guys rarely went down easily.

“You...you’re...” The medication took hold, and Dorothy moved to the next casualty.

“She’s cute too, and man, is she ever stacked.” She had half a notion to scold the mouthy GI, but her training took over. Deep down, he was scared to death.

I love your writing, Gail. How can readers find you on the Internet?

http://www.gailkittleson.com/
www.facebook.com/GailKittlesonAuthor

http://amazon.com/author/gailkittleson

www.twitter.com/GailGkittleson @GailGkittleson

@gailkittlesonauthor (Instagram)

Thank you, Gail, for sharing this book with my blog readers and me. After that first page, I’m sure most of them will want to read it.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Until Then - Paperback
Until Then (Women of the Heartland Book 5) - Kindle

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