My novella Violet’s Present is a time travel piece about a modern Californian who makes a connection with a distant relative who died on June 6, 1944: D-Day. This is the photo that inspired the story:
I don’t know anything about this young man who died that day. But he must have had a family, and I kept thinking about how, as he lay dead on that beach, his loved ones were going about their lives in Michigan or Tennessee or Idaho, not knowing. And I also thought about the sorrow of a young man traveling so far from home, only to end up alone and face down on Omaha Beach. It’s still painful for me just to look at.
My story was also inspired by photos of the survivors. Look into the faces of these men and imagine how war changed them forever.
For more WWII heartbreak, read this letter.
Violet’s Present includes a scene that was extremely difficult to write. But one of the benefits of being a writer is that a writer can change history, at least within the confines of her story. So that’s what I did.
Next week: The asylum