WITH LOVE

During the month of May, my novel, the story of my parents in WW2, sells for $1.99 in e-book. It only took me a lifetime to write this book, pieced together from stories I grew up on, research, and over 600 letters my parents wrote to each other as they served overseas–in different countries. They met in training camp, married a couple of weeks later, were together for a few days, then were shipped to different parts of the war. But they wrote each other, sometimes 3 times a day, for the duration of the war, describing in detail what it was like to care for wounded Allies, German prisoners, and survivors of the camps.

Somehow, the sacrifice of so many in that war speaks to us today, as we fight the “invisible war.” I hope you’re staying safe. God bless! Dandi

http://www.dandibooks.com

TOUGH TIMES & BOOKS

Tough Times: I’ve been a rotten blogger lately, and I apologize. Personally, it’s been a rough few months. Our one-year-old granddaughter, Harper, has been in the hospital, fighting infant leukemia since October, with intense chemotherapy 28 days a month. Meanwhile, our special needs, delightful daughter Katy, who will always live with us, is waiting on a kidney transplant. Not sure how people get through these things without God, who is our only hope and peace.

Books: I’m so grateful I get to write them. I can disappear into a world without hospitals, office visits, worries, or bills–and write. These are my three new books that release tomorrow, and they have rescued me all year as I dug deeper into the Psalms, keeping each rhyming, fun, kid-friendly version as close as I could to the actual lines and heart of the real Psalms.

PSALMS FOR LITTLE HEARTS contains 25 psalms. The first one is Psalm 4, and my favorite line has always been: “Let your face smile on us, LORD.” So, here’s a bit of “God Smiles at Me”: There’s a kid who calls me names,/Leaves me out of fun and games./ I’m the one that big kid blames./ Lord, are you smiling at me?  Then later: But I’ll come to you in prayer./ Nice to know you’re always there./ Great to feel your loving care/ And know you are smiling at me.  It ends: Feel that laughter in the rain?/ See my moon-striped windowpane?/ In the distance . . . hear that train?/ And you’re still smiling at me.

I don’t usually do this, but this hasn’t been a usual season of life. Will you please pray for sweet little Harper, and for Katy too? Thanks so much! Dandi

WINNIE BARN Sale!

Tomorrow is the release day for the WINNIE THE HORSE GENTLER collector’s barn! I’ve never had anything like this, and I’m so grateful Tyndale House Publishers figured out how to do it. Plus, the original price is a great deal: For the price of 5 books ($30), you get 8 books and a barn. But I just checked, and right now, prices from online stores range from $26 to $19. I don’t know how long stores will keep that price, but I thought it was worth letting you guys know, even though I’m never comfortable with self-promotions & advertising (sorry!) I just know there are some wonderful Winnie readers who would love the collection and the sale price.

A Sale–WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Since my publisher, Tyndale House, selected WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE as their August promotional, I’ve been posting about this novel, the story of my parents, who served overseas in WW2 as Army Dr. and Army nurse. They met in training, fell in love, and married after a couple of weeks. For the remainder of the war, with Mom in England, then France and Dad ending up in a mobile unit pushing into Germany, they wrote each other 2-3 times a day. Those letters (over 600 of them preserved in an Army trunk, unknown to me), along with their stories, formed the basis for my novel. Tomorrow is the last day of the promo, the last chance to get the e-book of WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE, for $2.99. Sept. 1, the price goes back to $9.99.

Thanks for reminiscing with me!

 

SOLDIERS–WITH LOVE, WHEREVER THEY WERE

Helen and Frank – with heavy loads

March

Life got rougher once my mom (Helen) and my dad (Frank) reached their first overseas assignments–Helen starting in Liverpool in England; Frank through England to France in the beginning. They joined other nurses and doctors and soldiers in guarded hospitals, bombed-out factories-turned-hospitals, and battlefield tent-surgeries, but they were always stationed far from each other. Not only did they have to do their best to care for patients suffering from every kind of malady and injury, but they worried about each other. I hope the letters I was able to include in With Love, Wherever You Are revealed their character. Even as they wrote 2-3 letters or V-mails a day, Frank’s thoughts were on Helen, and hers on him. Through those letters, which I never knew existed until Dad told me right before he died, I got to know my parents as young lovers, newlyweds. Eventually, after reading and re-reading over 600 letters, I began to detect the depth of the worry and strain they tried to conceal. But I think their love and hope and faith shine through (most of the time…), along with their avid desire to see each other, if only for a day or two.

Please remember to share with friends who might be interested in With Love, Wherever You Are. The e-book is on sale everywhere for $2.99 for the rest of this month (Aug., in case you’ve lost track).

WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE (Signed: Frankie or “Tiny”/Helen)

I did warn you that I’d be sending pictures and writing about Helen and Frank and their WW2 experiences during the August sale of WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE. I believe these pictures were taken shortly after their marriage (which came quite shortly after their meeting in the Army hospital, Percy Jones) during WW2. Helen is in the nurses’ dorm in Battle Creek, MI, awaiting her overseas assignment. Frank is either in a staging area, waiting for a ship to England and beyond, or already in  Europe. I like to think that Helen is writing her first letter to her new husband, and he is reading it.

WITH LOVE–IN WARTIME MARSEILLES

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad, Lt. Nurse Helen Eberhart Daley, and Captain Dr. Frank R. Daley. If you’ve read WITH LOVE WHEREVER YOU ARE, maybe you remember their rare and romantic getaway in Marseilles, underneath the barn of a French Resistance farmer. Some days young Frank and Helen believed the war would end that very week, and other days they wrote that it felt like the war would never end.

I’m so thankful for the emails and letters I’ve received from sons and daughters of WW2 parents. We all honor our heroes in different ways and still feel a connection.

This month, the e-book of WITH LOVE is on sale everywhere for $2.99. I’m using the sale as an excuse to reminisce.

WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Believe it or not, this wedding-cake topper dates back to August 4, 1944, the anniversary of Helen and Frank Daley, my parents. Actually, the wedding dress should be an Army uniform too. I’ll be posting (and re-posting) a few pictures in August because my publisher has selected WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE for their August promotional, offering the e-book version for $2.99.

I’ve written a lot of books, and I’ve been grateful for each opportunity to tell or create stories. But in the back of my mind was this story of my parents’ experiences as Army doctor and nurse in WW2. For a couple of decades, I’d been writing down stories I grew up on, amazing stories full of details of the war and how my parents met in boot camp, married, then had nothing to keep them together but their letters, since they both served overseas in different countries. Until my dad died, I had no idea that they’d managed to keep every one of those 600+ letters. I inherited that treasure, packed inside an old Army trunk in the attic. Eventually, I was able to blend the letters, stories, and research into WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE.

 

A Sale: WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Tyndale House, my publisher, has selected my novel, WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE, for their August promotional, which I think is pretty cool. That means if you’re into e-books, starting today you pay $2.99 instead of $9.99 for an electronic version (if you get it before Sept.1). Plus, it gives me an excuse to post and re-post some of the WW2 pictures of my parents, (seen above on the book cover), Dr. Frank Daley and Nurse Helen Eberhart Daley, who served in the Army during the war. They met in training, fell in love, married, and were shipped to different countries, with only their letters to keep them together. So they wrote 2-3 times a day, and many of their detailed letters are part of the book. Helen worked in France in a bombed-out factory/makeshift hospital, where she cared for Allied soldiers, concentration camp survivors, and German prisoners of war. Frank worked in Alsace-Lorraine, then joined a mobile unit (MASH unit) that pressed into Germany. He performed surgeries he hadn’t trained for on soldiers carried from the battlefield to small tents with mud floors, like the ones pictured on the book cover.   (Sale works at any bookstore or outlet, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., and at Tyndale’s ebookdeals.net.)

 

READER’S CHOICE AWARD

WITH LOVE, WHEREVER YOU ARE just won the Faith, Hope Love READER’S CHOICE AWARD for historical fiction! Normally, I wouldn’t toot my own horn like this (and I still feel a bit weird to be writing this). But it doesn’t feel like my award at all. This is my parents’ story, built on over 600 letters they left me in an old Army trunk in their attic, letters they’d written as newlyweds serving as Dr. and nurse overseas, in different countries, during WW2. The book contains stories my sister, Maureen, and I grew up hearing in detail from two great storytellers. I’m honored for our parents’ sake, Lt./Nurse Helen Eberhart Daley and Captain/Dr. Frank R. Daley. How cool to think of readers choosing With Love, Wherever You Are and that maybe more readers will be reading about Mom and Dad.