In The Shadow of War - historical fiction
From the desk of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy, writing romance that lives and breathes the power of love - now from the pages of the past!
Beetle Bailey. World War II. The Andrews Sisters. News Reels. Camp Crowder. Army. Soldiers. I grew up reading Mort Walker's classic Beetle Bailey comic strip, hearing about World War II, listening to The Andrews Sisters and other Forties tunes (which I still love), moved to southern Missouri near Camp Crowder, I'm the daughter of an Army sergaent, and I love a good romance.
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So many elements go into the story
behind the inspiration of any of my novels it’s like a recipe, one with
multiple ingredients. In The Shadow of
War, my first full length historical romance, isn’t any different. To understand how I conceived the idea, first
you’d need to climb through the branches of my tangled family tree.
The two sides of my family are
different generations. On my dad’s side,
my grandfather served in World War I and my uncles served in World War II. In my mom’s family, my grandpa served in the
Philippines during the Second World War and so did all of my grandmother’s
cousins including Neal, who died in battle. So I grew up on stories.
Then I moved to the other end of the
state and spent my first two years of college at Crowder College, a community
college housed in old Army buildings on the site of Camp Crowder. It’s better known to people around the world
by its’ old nickname thanks to Mort Walker who was stationed there during WWII,
Camp Swampy. Walker drew the Beetle Bailey comic strip.
As a student, I was fascinated by
the past merging into the present and wrote a series of articles for the campus
paper about Camp Crowder. And I decided
one day I’d write a novel about those years.
In The Shadow of War is the
novel.
It contains little bits from those
stories, historical facts from both the war and the local Army camp and of
course a lot of imagination.
Here's the blurb and an excerpt:
In The Shadow of War by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Rebel Ink Press May 17 2012
$5.99
206 pages
ISBN # RIP0004104
ISBN # RIP0004104
Blurb:
Her great-granddaughter wants to know if Bette remembers World War
II for a school project and her questions revive old memories….
Small town school teacher Bette Sullivan's life was interrupted
when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 but her world changed forever when she met
Private Benny Levy, a soldier from the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York stationed at Camp
Crowder, the local Army base.
Their attraction is immediate and mutual but as their relationship
grows their love and lives are shadowed by World War II. As the future looms
uncertain the couple comes together with almost desperate need and a powerful
love they hope can weather anything, including the war.
Excerpt:
“I missed you, doll,” he said
afterward. “God, I missed you.”
Warmth blossomed within her chest and she
smiled at him. “I missed you too, Benny. Saturday seemed so long and I didn’t
know if you could come this morning. I worried you might not make it.”
“Me, too,” he said. “I almost missed
the bus anyhow because the company sergeant griped us out because the barracks
weren’t neat enough to suit him.
Yesterday turned out lousy, all day.”
“Why?” she asked. “What happened?”
“What didn’t?” he said. “Jeez, they
made us go on a long hike through the back country, for hours in the heat. I picked up every tick and chigger in the
world, I think, got mosquito bit, and worn out.
Two of the guys fell out with heat exhaustion and ended up at the post
hospital. My feet and ankles itched me
like crazy. Even the darn Army boots didn’t help me from getting eaten by the
insects. I swear the buggers crawled
into my boots.”
“Aw, honey, I’m sorry,” Bette said,
using the endearment for the first time. “Do the bites still itch?”
“Not so bad,” he said. “Back in
barracks, some of the guys said to soak my feet in bleach water so we begged
some from the laundry. It helped. Then after dinner they called me over to the
motor pool to fix a jeep and I got to bed late just before final lights
out. I’m beat and that’s a fact.”
Bette paused and faced him. “Would
you rather go rest or something?”
“Naw, sugar, I’m fine. I need some Joe and I’m hungry, too. I just got a couple of hours so let’s go eat
and spend a little time together, okay?”
“It’s fine with me,” she said.
They ate at a different café and she
introduced him to biscuits and gravy, something he vowed he’d never eaten
before but said he liked. Afterward,
with time passing too fast, he suggested they walk down to Big Spring Park
again but she had another idea.
“You look so tired,” Bette
said. He did with dark smudges beneath
both eyes. “If you want we can go sit in the porch swing at Aunt Virgie’s or in
the front room.”
Benny shook his head. “I’ll catch a
nap later this afternoon, if I’m lucky.
I’d like a few more kisses and I doubt your parents would like us
spooning out on the porch.”
“I forgot they’re there,” she
replied. “So, okay, let’s go to the park.”
Another couple beat them to the
grotto, so they wandered around the park until they found a vacant bench in the
shade. A few kids played on the
teeter-totter and swings, their happy babble setting a bright mood. Benny put his arm around her and Bette
snuggled against him with a contented sigh.
For a few minutes they sat, comfortable with the pose and content with
each other. She’d already come to
associate his scent with security and she inhaled it, saving it up for when
she’d be alone. As they rested in easy
silence she savored the harmony and as they lingered Bette noticed their breath
came in tandem, in and out with the same rhythm as if they were one, not two.
Just as she opened her mouth to
remark on it Benny took her face and turned it toward him. With slow deliberation he kissed her,
unhurried with such sweetness she forgot to breathe for a few seconds. His lips caressed her mouth with a fine light
touch, as soft as hair blown across her face with a gentle breeze. Such tenderness evoked the same within and
yet triggered desire, too. Benny
cherished her mouth with his, his lips sending shivers through her body despite
the hot day, little spirals of chill strong enough to make goose pimples erupt
on her flesh.
Bette responded with her mouth, a
hankering for something deeper and more intimate rising in her with the force
of a rising wind. She sensed how great
it would be to lose her consciousness by drowning in her senses, by molding her
body into his. Bette, virgin as the
mother of God, ached now for the pleasures of the flesh. Every old wives tale ever heard about sex
being dirty or painful or nasty evaporated faster than snow in March and for
the first time in her life, she decided sex could be wonderful.
His kisses stirred Bette’s body even
as they induced emotion, too sweet to be sinful. Her body responded to his mouth the way a
good corn crop ripened beneath the sun’s warmth. As her limbs relaxed she leaned into him, one
hand holding tight to his arm so she wouldn’t lose balance to tumble from the
park bench onto the grass. The kiss
lasted forever, but not quite long enough when Benny paused so they could both
breathe again.
“Oh,” she said with wonder. “Benny,
that’s nice.”
“Nice, she says,” he responded with
mock outrage. “Just nice? I call it splendid, fantastic, superb, supreme…”
Book Trailer here:
Definitely on my to read list.
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