Sarah Sundin: WWII fiction, storytelling as coping, plus going from SAHM to author

Author Sarah Sundin shares about her latest WWII novel, "Mists Over the Channel Islands" - plus, how her grandfather and great-uncle used storytelling to cope after the war, and how she went from full-time mom to full-time author. 

• Order Sarah Sundin’s “Mists Over the Channel Islands”: https://www.sarahsundin.com/books/mists-over-the-channel-islands/ 
• Connect with Sarah on Facebook @SarahSundinAuthor
• Connect with Sarah on Instagram @sarahsundinauthor 

Other books mentioned on this episode: 

• The Hunted Children by Donald Lowrie

Transcript

 Hey everybody. Welcome to Oh My Word with Katie. I just got done interviewing Sarah Sundin, and I'm so excited for y'all to hear this interview. We talked about her World War II novels and just what a wealth of stories comes out of that era. Her grandfather and great-uncle both served in the war, and she talked about how they actually coped with their experiences by sharing them.

They were both born storytellers and they used a lot of humor in their stories, but then they also shared the hard stuff, the harrowing stories, and I just thought, what a lesson for all of us that sometimes sharing our story with trusted people can really help us. It can be therapeutic. Um, so I thought that was really cool.

I haven't shared much about what I've been reading lately. By the time this airs, by the time this episode airs, I'll probably post a full book review, but I've been reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, all 497 pages of it. And you know what? It's actually been really good, so. You'll probably hear about that before this episode airs.

But in the meantime, without any further ado, please enjoy my interview with Sarah Sundin. 

 Hey everybody and welcome to Oh My Word with Katie, the show where we hear from Christian authors, give you amazing book recommendations, and marvel at all the ways that God shows up in words and stories. I'm your host, Katie Ginn, and today's guest is Sarah Sundin. Am I saying that right? 

Sarah - That's correct.

Katie - Okay. Um, Sarah writes World War II novels, including the, I can't remember if this will have just released or if it's about to release when this episode comes out - Mists Over the Channel Islands - gorgeous cover here, and we're gonna get into that later in the show.

Um, very excited to talk about this book. Um, but Sarah, thanks so much for being on the show today. 

S - Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for having me.  

K - And you're based on the West Coast, correct? 

S - Yes. I'm in Southern California. 

K - Southern California. And I was looking on your website and, you know, you're, you're basically, World War II is your genre.

S - That is it, yes. 

K - Which is sort of a never-ending story well, and we'll get into that later, but, um, 
I noticed, and I was curious, it said that you didn't really, seriously start to become a writer or try to become a serious writer until you were already a mother. Um, so in the meantime, you've got a chemistry degree and a doctor of pharmacy and, uh, so two very different things. Uh, how did all that come about? 

S - Uh, well that wasn't my plan. Um, I loved pharmacy. It was a, I loved science, and pharmacy was a great way to use science to help people. And those were my, my two great loves at that time. And, um, the other nice thing about pharmacy was it allowed me to work on call. I worked one day a week, so when my kids were little, I was able to be basically a full-time stay-at-home mom, but also work, you know, use my brain one day a week.

And it was really just about, I thought I had the perfect life. It worked really well for our family and, um, I had no plans to do anything else. I enjoyed my job. The hospital I worked at was five minutes from my house. I basically rolled downhill in the car and I was there. It was perfect. Um. Um, my plan was as the children got older, I would increase my hours in pharmacy and have the glittering pharmacy career that I had educated myself for.

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - And then God had other ideas, as He often does. And I woke up one morning and my youngest was a year and a half old, and I had this story idea, and it would not leave me. Um, and I was washing diapers and running the carpool and, um, you know, sitting in soccer practice with my three kids. And this story idea would not leave my head.

It was almost an obsession. My husband said it was an obsession, so maybe it was, but it would not leave my head. And I had to write this story. And so I was writing it everywhere. I was writing it on the soccer field. I was writing it during nap time. I was writing, I wrote a scene on a napkin in line at Disneyland.

I mean it, it just would not leave me alone. And, um, then I just fell in love with writing, and I had another story idea and another, and started going to a writers' group, attending writers' conferences, slowly working up the nerve to submit to agents and editors. Um, then I had lots of rejection letters, so I had, it was 10 years until my first novel released, 10 years. So there was a lot that happened in those 10 years, um, including my children getting older. So by the time I got my first contract, that 1-year-old was now 11, and, you know, he could make his own sandwich and there were no diapers. And my oldest had his driver's license, so it was just, I was in a very different space and I was, um, able to devote more time to writing.

So it was God's perfect timing. But yeah, that was not my plan. Um, I continued working in pharmacy one day a week. Just kept that up. The money was really good, way better than writing. And um, so I kept that up until 2019. And my, our daughter graduated from college, and our youngest son was in the Navy, so he, you know, he had the GI Bill if he wanted to go to college.

And I looked at my husband and said, do I need to do this job? Because it's killing me. I'm full-time writing. Plus one day a week in pharmacy, and it was getting more and more stressful. And I just said, that's it. So that's when I quit. Not knowing that there was a pandemic coming, of course, but it was, it was good timing.

K - Hmm. 

S - So, yeah, so now I'm a full-time writer. 

K - That is so much fun. So, alright. How, how long has it been since the first novel was published, and how many, how many have you written? 

S - Um, 15 years, um, now since my first book came out and, um, Mists Over the Channel Islands will be my 18th book.

So basically a book a year. There were two one year, the very beginning, 'cause I had, it had taken me so long to get published. I had two of them completely ready to go. So they said, great, let's publish these within six months of each other to kind of build some momentum. Um, but then I've settled into one book a year and that's a, that's a good pace for me.

K - Okay. Yeah, that's, that's a, that's a good little clip. Um, yeah, so I know, like I said, World War II, it feels like it, it'll never get old in terms of just the being such a wealth of stories. But for you especially, uh, you had two family members who served in the war, your grandfather and your great-uncle, were they brothers? Same side of the family?

S - They were brothers, yes. 

K - Okay. And then this is, I got this from your website too. Your grandfather in uniform. I mean, he, he looks like a baby. He looks like he's 15 years old. 

S - He was 28, 29. He was married. And my father, he had my father, he had a 2-year-old, a 1-year-old boy, 2-year-old boy at the time. So yeah, he looked a lot younger than he really was. 

K - Okay. Wow. 

S - But yeah, he was, but he was still, you know, I mean now I look at 29, that's my daughter's age. Like that's a baby. 

K - Yeah. Yeah. And today's 29-year-olds just, they're not equipped for, for the things that, that the Greatest Generation went through. So he and your great-grandfather, two brothers, both enlisted, what kind of experiences did they have in the war?

S - Oh, very different. But, um, they're both my heroes. And so my great-uncle, um, was already in the, it was the Army Air Corps at the time. It became the US Army Air Forces in 1941 I think it was. Um, but he was, um, training to be a B 17, um, crew member. And, um, he was, on December 6th, 1941, he and a squadron of twelve B 17s, he was a navigator on one of those B 17s. Um, took off en route for the Philippines. And that was a very long leg for the B 17. So they carried as much fuel as they could. They didn't have the guns with them. We were at peace. And they had to stop at a little island on the way there to, to refuel, a place called Oahu,  Pearl Harbor.

So, um, they literally flew into Pearl Harbor during the attack. Um, they took off, America was at peace, and they landed, they were getting shot at by everybody. So, um, it was pretty miraculous that, um, of the - oh, let's see, there were about 10 men on each plane, so 120 men - only one was killed, and he was killed on the ground.

So they, they basically survived. Um, most of the planes were, were destroyed, but, um, a lot of crash landings and stuff. But, um, yeah, so he went on and he flew a combat tour from Australia and then another. He became a pilot and then flew another tour from England. So he, you know, he is the traditional hero.

Um, my grandfather was, um, drafted. Um, he was taking on the family business while his brother was gone and had a wife and child and, um. But eventually the draft got him. Um, he was in the Navy, he became a pharmacist mate, um, which was a medic at the time. And, um, he served in a naval hospital on Guam, and he was a storyteller.

Now, both boys, both of these boys were storytellers. And realizing later, as, especially after my first book came out and people started contacting me and saying, my grandfather never told his stories, my father never told his stories, my uncle never told his stories - and I realized that was how most of the men coped. They came home and they did not talk about it. They moved on with their lives. That was how they coped with the horrors that they'd seen. 

But my grandfather, my great-uncle, coped by telling stories. So I was blessed to grow up in an environment where I had heard their stories. So that definitely informed my, um, my writing.

K - Wow, that's so cool. Because yeah, you, most men who come home from war, they're, they're not just real eager to share about all of that. Were they sharing the, the, I mean the grit and the grime and the gore and all of that? 

S - Pretty much. A lot of humor, though. They're both, they were both natural storytellers.

My, my grandfather, um, he was a redhead. And so when he told a joke his, his face just got bright red and he'd be, you know, they say don't laugh at your own jokes. Well, he laughed at his own jokes and he'd have the whole room laughing even before he got to the punchline 'cause he was just having so much fun giggling and no one could help but giggle along with him.

And he got to the punchline. So, um, they both, they used humor to, um, to cope. But they both told the harrowing stories too. And I, I'd heard the harrowing stories, and, um, my grandfather treated casualties from Okinawa, and he was on a psych ward. So these were men with, um, severe, we call it PTSD now, at the time they called it combat fatigue, but they would come in catatonic.

Like they couldn't move, they couldn't talk. They were just in complete shock. Um, and he said the worst part was when they came out of it and they would, um, pretty much go wild, and then they'd have to restrain them. So yeah, he told some pretty harrowing stories too, and as well as my, um, great-uncle who had, you know, a copilot shot dead right beside him. And he said one time he leaned forward to check on something and a bullet went past his head, and he leaned back and a bullet went back in front of him. So, uh, yeah, he told some stories too, but, um, I'm just, I'm thankful they both survived for purely selfish reasons, but also they were just, they were outstanding men who, um, really contributed to their communities after they, um, came home.

K - So the first story that wouldn't let you go was a World War II story, of course?

S - It wasn't. Nope. My first two books were actually contemporary. It was like a contemporary, like a, not romcom, it was more just contemporary romance.

Um, and they were kind of, I'm looking back at them, there wasn't much to them. Um, there was something about them that grabbed me, the characters grabbed me. But looking back, like, I wouldn't try to publish those. They weren't, they weren't very good, but they got me falling in love with story, realizing I could write a novel.

So they definitely, they served a huge purpose. And the third book I started writing was Distant Melody, which became my first published book. And that one was inspired by my great-uncle because, um, I had this idea for, and I realized it had to be historical, and I thought maybe World War II because of my family history.

And then we were watching a History Channel special on the B 17s. And I remember, oh yeah, Uncle Rod was a B 17 pilot. I thought, huh, and I'm watching these stories like, oh my goodness. And I, I had an idea that my hero was gonna be a pilot. Like, what if I made him a B 17 pilot? 'Cause then I could incorporate my stories and they were based in England.

Everybody loves England. So I've got a good setting. And it was just, um, it just kind of, it was that aha moment. And that's when that story really came to life. And as I said, it was, well that was 2001. I started writing that one. I didn't start submitting until 2003. It took me five years to get a contract.

But um, but that was the idea. Since then it's been all World War II, but not at the beginning. Not the beginning. 

K - Okay. So those first two that were contemporary romances, were they published as well? 

S - Thank goodness, no. Really, I'm, I'm very thankful they weren't published because if Amazon, um, self-publishing had been available in 2000, I thought those stories were the best, and I would've published them 'cause they were amazing. And all my friends thought they were amazing, and I would've put them up there, and they would still be up there with my name on them. And, um, they aren't any good. The first one, to give you an idea how bad it was, it was 750 pages. Oh yeah. Basically every conversation I imagined between the hero and the heroine, I put on paper. It was completely disjointed.

And it really, there really wasn't much substance to it. It was, it was delightful. You know, the characters were delightful, but there just wasn't much of a story there. And that's, as I said, that's okay. The whole point of that book was to get me to fall in love with writing and just say, yes, you can complete a novel.

Because before that, it seemed like running a marathon, and I'm not a runner, so I was like, yeah, I can never do that. Um, so you are like, oh, I can finish a novel. And then after that, the second one I think was better, but definitely not publishable. I explored some topics I just don't think would fly.

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - But then the third one came along and I just knew, and by then I was in a writers' group and they said, Sarah, this is the one. I'm like, okay. So yeah, looked at it. 

K - So after that, were you pretty much hooked on World War II? Was that a conscious decision to stay in that vein? 

S - Yeah, and I, you know, it's funny now because World War II is such a hot genre, but when I was trying to get published, um, in the mid 2000s, no one wanted it. No one wanted historical fiction at all. And if they did, they would often say, we don't want historical fiction and we definitely don't want World War II. And you'd see all the editors, I'd be at a conference and all the editors and agents are, nope, nope, nope. They don't want World War II. And um, I had people saying they love my writing, they love my characters, they love the story, but they could not sell a World War II novel. And I had just heard that over and over and over again, and it was very discouraging. 

And I kept having conversations with the Lord, informing Him about the status of the market and that, uh, World War II was not selling. And, you know, He needed to get with the times and give me an idea for a genre that was popular. And He just kept saying, finish the trilogy. I'm like, Lord, I kind of know better than You. In my arrogance. So, um, anyway, I just, I obeyed, I just kept writing that trilogy. Um, and it wasn't till, oh, I would say, oh, you know, the first 3, 6, 8, 9 books, I don't know, World War II wasn't, still wasn't popular, but I was getting myself established. Getting a readership. 

And then, you know, if you watch the mainstream market, the Christian market tends to be behind about five years. So the, the, the genres that are popular in the mainstream market, it takes about five years for them to pick up in the Christian market. And, um, I started seeing it taking off in the mainstream market and my agent and editor saw that too.

And like, yeah, you're really well positioned. Because at that point I had been building up this reputation as a World War II writer. And so that when the, the trend hit, um, the Christian market, I was in a really good position. 

K - Yeah, that's great. 

S - God's timing. 

K - Yeah. Was there a, was there like a mainstream World War II book that just like catapulted that, do you think, or? 

S - Um, I think it was like All the Light We Cannot See, and then Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale. I think those were the two big ones that kind of, um, set it off. Um. I'm sure there were others, but those were the two, you know, mega bestsellers that really made World War II huge. And then that trickled over into, 'cause the, then the, the readers were like, well, I would like this, but without, you know, the content that you would get in a mainstream novel.

And it was like, well, here you go. I have a few of them. And of course there are a lot of other authors at that point too. So I, I'm not alone writing World War II and definitely not now. Um, I can't keep up with the endorsement requests now 'cause, um, there's just so, there's so many people writing World War II now, but at the beginning it was kind of lonely. There were a few of us, we, we clung together.

K - So, similar question, uh, talking about the Christian market versus the mainstream market, was that a deliberate decision for you to, I'm, I'm gonna write for the Christian market? 

S - It was, it was more of, that was the story. Um, I just knew it was gonna be, you know, my, my characters, at the beginning, they were Christians or were becoming Christians, and, um, I knew I wouldn't be able to write about faith in a, in a mainstream novel. And I knew that I would be probably pressured to add, um, language and stuff that I didn't want to write. Um, less so now. There are a lot of, um, a lot of Christian authors who, um, crossed over to the mainstream market and they're still writing, um, very Christian novels, really. And, um, they're not getting pressure to change. So I think, think the market's changed a bit too. 

K - Hmm. 

S - But, um, I've just, every time I try to, I think, well, maybe I'll make this a little bit less Christian, the problem is, my, my spiritual gift, my top spiritual gift is teaching, so it just flows over. I'm like, oh, oh, here's a verse they need to hear.

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - So it just kind of, it just, it flows out of who I am and how I see the world and it just, it comes into my writing. So, um, I just kind of let the story guide it. Um, I tend to, as I'm editing, tone it down a bit. Um. But it just, it's just there. So, and my editor's fine with it, so my readers seem to be fine with it. And my, um, non-believing readers are fine with it too, so. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - Um, in general, they seem to think that, um, they're, they don't feel preached at by my novels. I don't want to preach at somebody. I, I hope to shine the light. So, attract, but not, you know, pop people over the head.

But I, I prefer to see like, oh, these, these characters, um, when they were in a really bad situation, their faith really helped them. Or I can see how their faith changed them. It made them better people. Um, I like to see that, you know, the light shining in, um, people's lives as it does in the real world.

And that's the, the best way to evangelize is by being the light in a dark world, and I think it's the same way with novels or if we're shining the light, it will be attractive. 

K - Yeah, for sure. Okay. I had a question in my head and I just lost it. Of course. My question is, what attracted you to this particular bit of World War II history that you discuss in Mists Over the Channel Islands, with the, the occupation of the, the Channel Islands? What attracted you to that? 

S - Oh, um, I've always been fascinated by that, long before Guernsey Literary, um, I had heard that they were occupied. Um, this was even before I was writing. I think I read Guernsey before I was published. Even before I was writing, um, I can't remember when I read it. Um, anyway, I'd known about it and it just always fascinated me, you know, a piece of British territory was occupied by the Germans, and that just fascinated me.

And then I read, um, Guernsey and just loved it. And that, I think I must've been writing at that time. I thought to myself, well, this is such a big book that that's a topic that's kind of, you know, been taken off the table. Um. But you know, enough time has passed and the story ideas just won't leave me alone.

Like I really, really want to write about what happened. And that's one of the reasons I picked Jersey for this story was because Guernsey felt, um, taken, if you will. 

K - Yeah. 

S - And I was glad I took, I chose Jersey. 'Cause Jersey has some amazing stories, very different from Guernsey, um, which is interesting. There are four main islands in the Channel Island group. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - And all four had completely different experiences. Completely different. And you could write four completely different novels and you'd think, oh, these take place in different countries. So, um, yeah. Anyway. Oh, I couldn't write about Albany necessarily, because it was completely evacuated and the Germans used it as a massive prison, you know, a slave worker campus. Horrific, horrific. 

But anyway, um, very different stories. So, which is one of the challenges I had writing this book because, you know, I knew people were going to say, well, where's the potato peel pie? Everybody knows they ate potato peel pie on the Channel Islands. It's like, well, they didn't in Jersey, because in Jersey that was one thing they never really ran low on was potatoes, because that's where the potatoes were grown.

Um, they, they were rationed because they were sending them to Guernsey, and they were sending them to France, um, for the Germans, of course, but they still had a plentiful, you know, fairly decent supply of potatoes. So they were never, um, they were never quite at the starvation levels that, that Guernsey was.

They also had more cows, so they had more dairy and meat and milk. Um, so they were, they were in bad straits, but not nearly as bad as they were on Guernsey. 

K - Yeah. 

S - So anyway, so that's why I like, I really want to write this, a story set there. So I kind of had to do some sleuthing to find a story that was, um, different and felt exciting for me. 

K - Mm-hmm. Well, I feel like you didn't have to look too far because as you described, your grandfather keeping the family business going and then getting drafted, and you have Dr. Ivy Pico in the novel, keeping the family business going. The pharmacist that she's working with, you have some of that background as well. 

S - Um, yeah, that was fun. 

K - Yeah. Did you, was there a character you related to most in this story? 

S - Um, you know, no. Um, I relate to all of them, and that's - when I'm writing, I really kind of become the character. I'm really trying to feel like they are feeling, so I relate really well to all of them, um, in different ways.

So, so for, for Ivy, yes, there was definitely that connection with the medicine, um, and she's very much a, she's a people pleaser, and I'm very much that way too. But I definitely had a lot in common with Garrett too. Um, he's, he's a person who wants, he does the right thing and, um, he wants to see some results, and I can relate to that.

So, and he's also, he's an engineer, and my father's an engineer, and my son's an, my oldest son is an engineer. So it, it's always, I have a lot of engineers in my stories. I just, I just love them. I think they're just, I think they're just like one of the sweetest, you know, you think that they're so left-brained, and they are, but they're like the kindest, most loyal people, and I just, I just love them. So I, so it was fine to write Garrett as a, as an engineer. 

K - Yeah. My dad has a mechanical engineering degree, so I can, I can vouch for it. 

S - Yes. 

K - The other thing about your characters. Now this is the only book of yours I've read, so I don't know if this is true for the rest of your books, but, um, in this one I was like, man, they're - first of all, they're faced with all these difficult decisions.
Not just one, but like one right after the other, you know? 

S - Mm-hmm. 

K - Does Fern stay or does she go, and, and does Charlie, you know, get involved in the, the spying, or does he not? And does Garrett get back in the Resistance stuff, or does he not? 

S - Yeah. 

K - And then further things, further decisions beyond that. And Garrett in particular, but you know, all of 'em, they just seem to, they just, they make the right decision, and sometimes they do it pretty quickly and they're just like, well, you know, I could die, but this is the right thing to do. I'm gonna do it. 

And I'm like, so sometimes they seem "unrealistically" good, I'm putting "unrealistic" in air quotes. But then on the other hand, you know, not everybody gets a happy ending. You know, there are a couple of deaths. Um. Not everybody has a full redemption arc, you know? So it's not a Hallmark card.

How do you try to keep that balance, like, like between being again, quote unquote "realistic" and, you know, wholesome and, and in the Christian market?

S - Yeah. And I think that's interesting, and I find it interesting that you, you thought, um, Garrett made quick decisions, 'cause he, he really balks, and he, uh - when he made that initial choice to join Organization Todt, um, I had originally written that like over a couple chapters, but I had to tighten the timeline. So he made it fairly quickly. Um, but later on, every time Bernard is trying to get him to do something, Garrett's like, nope, nope, nope. And Bernard is pushing and pushing him. Charlie's pushing and pushing him. So he is, he is actually kind of slow to make those decisions because he really wants to see, he doesn't want to make a decision unless he believes that something will come out of it.

Um, when Ivy decides to help the slave workers, um, I started to have her deliberate, and realized that wasn't true to her character. 'Cause she's all about helping people, and compassion, and she has already seen these slave workers, and they were just horribly treated. So when she has a chance, she's like, why, how would I not treat them? That's who I am. I'm a physician. I'm, I'm a healer. Um, how could I not treat the suffering? So for her, it just, it just wasn't a decision. I mean, yeah. The fact that they consider what she's doing illegal, that's what strikes her as odd. The, the helping the suffering is just like, why would I not help the suffering?
How could I not help them? 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - Um, to save my own life. And at that time, she didn't think she was, her life was at risk, but she knew that prison was a chance, but they didn't really realize how bad the concentration camps were at the time, which is probably good. Um, but, you know, she knew there was a risk of prison. But you know, like how could she not risk that? 

K - Yeah. 

S - If she could save the lives of people who are being horribly mistreated. So, um, yeah. 

Charlie, I think is the, Charlie and Bernardis are the, the quick risk. That's their personalities. They're impulsive people. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - Um, they see something, they do it. And that's actually, obviously that got Bernardis in trouble and got Charlie in trouble.

And, um, but of course Garrett's heel dragging gets him in trouble too. So there's pluses and minuses to both. Yeah. And I, I try to show that in my stories that, that, um, you know, each personality type has its own strengths and weaknesses. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - And, um, and oftentimes they're flipped. So, you know, somebody who's really strong in something that they're gonna be weak in something else, but the other person's gonna be strong there.

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - It is a challenge because if your character is not flawed enough, people can't relate to them because, just like in real life, if I meet somebody who looks like Barbie has a PhD and has a black belt in karate, I don't like her. That's not fair. It's not nice, but I don't like her.

And then if I talk to her and realize that she has a really hard time keeping her house clean, I'm like, you're my new best friend, because she has a flaw. And now I like her because I can relate to her. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - So my characters need to have flaws so we can relate to them. However, just like in real life, if we meet somebody who is just piled up with faults and flaws and despair and angst, we kind of keep our distance, you know, we'll help them, but uh, maybe that's the person you see across the room, like, hi, sorry, I'm gonna hurry, I gotta go. Also not something we are proud of in ourselves, but if we're reading a book and we have to be in the shoes of somebody who's just, everything's wrong with this person, we don't want to be there. So it is that balance between relatability and likability and trying to get that balance right.

It's very difficult. I'm always very conscious of like, which, what flaws do my characters have? How do they need to grow? And um, I then challenge them in situations that will make them grow. Um, Ivy has never learned to stand on her own two feet. She's, um, dependent on her father. She looks up to her sister, and it isn't until she has her father taken away from her, 'cause her father leaves to go with the army and now she's leaning on her sister and learns that Fern is not a good person to lean on, and so she's, so she then, she's really very disoriented. Like I can't lean on anyone. I've always leaned on someone. 

And her family's saying lean on the Lord. Lean on the Lord. And she's trying to figure out, what does that look like? What does it look like to lean on the Lord? And so she's very wobbly, if you will. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - And she has to learn too that she can stand on her own with the Lord beside her. And, um, she's also blind when it comes to Fern because she's looked up to her so much. And Fern has so much that seems positive to the world. And honestly, Fern is a narcissist. And narcissists tend to be very appealing people. 

K - Hmm. 

S - And, um, and Ivy as the younger sister has just been, you know, enthralled with her all her life. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - And has to come out of that and see Fern as she is. And that's a horrifying experience for her. To see somebody you've always admired, just realizing there, there's something seriously wrong with this person. And um, that was a very, that was very difficult on her too. So yeah, those are, it was difficult. 

K - Yeah, I've been reading like four books over the last eight weeks to try to prepare for some of these interviews. And there's another book where there's a difficult sibling relationship, and man, some of these siblings are so mean! I just, I want to jump in the page and smack 'em around. 

S - And the irony is, I have a sister and she is absolutely wonderful. I can't remember if I put in the acknowledgements that my sister's wonderful, but I felt like, I felt like I needed to say something.

Like, people want to think, oh, I heard she has a sister. Like, no, my sister's wonderful. You know, if we have to rate, rate like goodness, like my sister's way up here. She's a wonderful person, and I love her very dearly. And I feel I could rely on her, and I'm the oldest one, but I feel I could totally lean on her if I wanted to - but I know she's leaning in the right place. Um, she's leaning on the Lord. 

So that was, that was what Ivy was going through. Oh, and then I made her have problems with punctuality. And for some people that is a, that's a serious, you know, for somebody who's punctual, that is a sin. So, yeah. 

K - Yeah. And, uh, and she's an artist, so some of that kind of goes along with the artistic temperament in many ways, or what we think of as the artistic temperament.  

S - Yeah, exactly. Just kind of the daydreamy, getting lost in your, and that's who I am. I was the daydreamer and - Sarah, snap out of it. Come on, we've got things to do. Um, and always, you know, up until, oh, probably my 30s, I was always behind, always late, turning things in late, couldn't meet any deadlines. Um, I have a very punctual husband, um, who -

K - Well, but you're, you're turning in a book a year, so how are you doing now? 

S - Yeah. But I've trained myself, I've learned, um, kind of like Ivy's journey to learn how to train herself to be more disciplined and organized. And some of that is a little bit reflecting of what I was, I gave her a kitchen timer to help her. And honestly, I have timers set all the time to the point where my family's like, kitchen timer went off. Sarah, what's it for? Like, oh, that's for the laundry. Just don't let it keep ringing. 'Cause I need to get up and change the laundry. And oh, there goes my watch because I need, it is time to get ready for such and such. So I've just learned, I set timers all the time because I get, especially when I'm writing, I get lost in my world and I don't - I'm on Jersey in 1943. I am not in Temecula, California in 2025.

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - Um, I have to, I have to have external things to snap me out of it. Um, I just have lots of, lots of systems in place to keep me on track, and so I don't miss my deadlines. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - I've come to realize, well, like Ivy did, like, um, being punctual is a form of compassion, because the other people are depending on you. So if you're, you're taking, like, she's taking extra time with one patient, but it makes her late for the next one. So that's not fair to the second person. It's not kind to the second person to be late. So I've really trained myself to do things on time, to be on time, just out of courtesy and kindness.

K - Yeah, that's good. I definitely have alarms set. You know, at first it was just the little calendar alerts on the phone, and then it was like, no, if I don't have an alarm blaring, I'm not going to change the laundry over. I'm not going to get up and do the thing. So yeah, I totally, totally get that. 

Um, all right, let's go into, uh, a little pop quiz. Let people get to know your reading life a little more. Um, do you remember, what was one of the first either books or authors or stories that kind of captured your heart as a, as a young reader? 

S - Oh, and that is so hard to say because, um, I was blessed with parents who read to me and um, my sister and I were both early readers. My sister says I taught her to read. We were only 15 months apart. So basically I was sitting beside her with the book, sounding the words out, and she's super smart. So she's, as I'm going, "Go, dog, go," pointing to it, she's like, "Go, dog, go." And so we kind of learned to read at the same time. And, um, so, and honestly, "Go, Dog. Go!" was, was huge for me.

'Cause it was the first, you know, that's, that's not a very thin book. There was about 50 pages in there, and that was the first book I read completely independently on my own, and I was just so proud of myself. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - But there were so many that captured me. I, um, because my parents are readers, um, I went to the library all the time, and we had a children's librarian. Oh, she was so delightful. And she, you know, she just loved my sister and me and just took us under her wing because she saw us as readers and we were all bright-eyed and eager to read. And so she'd take us through her favorite books. And so we read, you know, the Betsy-Tacy and TIB books and the Little House books.

And my mother had a, a series that she'd loved with a heroine named Betsy. And I just, I just basically read my way through the children's library, and the same with the school library. Um, so really, really blessed to have that. It was just a delightful childhood for me. 

K - Do you have a favorite Bible story?

S - Oh, that depends on the day. Uh, and it's fun 'cause right now my, um, our pastor is doing a series on the life of David. So it's just really interesting to see. And he's, and David is just like such a very human, human hero. Um, and, you know, we're at the point right now and he makes all these stupid mistakes, and when he trusted himself, and then he, on the other hand, he'll turn around and just make these incredibly godly decisions. And, um, so I think he's, his life is just such an example to us of the good and the bad. And I, and I'm so glad the authors of the Bible didn't sanitize those stories. 

And most histories of the time were very sanitized. If you told the story of the leader, it was their great exploits and aren't they wonderful, heroic people. And with David it's like, yeah, he feigned insanity and let spit dribble down his beard. It's just all these stories like, wow. Um, but it's such, it's so important for us because we can can see these examples. Like here, he made a really good decision, and here he turned around and made a really bad decision. And what was the difference? And you can always see, like this time he inquired of the Lord. 

K - Mm-hmm. 

S - This time he's like, yeah, I'm just gonna go in guns blazing. And um, we saw what happened. It never works out. So yeah, it really would depend on the day, like what the story is. I mean, it's very up and down. 

So yeah, we just got through the when, um, right now going through where, um, Saul and Jonathan were killed and David becomes king. And just talking about how he reacted rightly to that. He wasn't gloating, his enemy died and his enemy was trying to kill him, and instead of gloating over it, um, like so many people do - yeah, my enemy's, he's going down, yeah, I own him - he was like, mourning. He was literally mourning because, um, the, the Lord's anointed had fallen, and he was praising Saul for his, for the good things that he had done and how he had united Israel and how he had, um, fought for Israel.

And so he was praising Saul for the good things he'd done. Of course, he had more praise for Jonathan because Jonathan was an amazing man, um, and his dear, dear friend. But just seeing that example in our culture where, you know, if our enemy goes down, we're laughing and posting it on, on social media about how awful they are.

And David's like, no, no. Um, we need to celebrate the good that this person has done and mourn for them 'cause this is a human being who died. And, um, I just thought it is a really, um, beautiful and timely story. 

K - So timely. That's what I was just thinking. If we could see some of that from our political leaders on both sides, wouldn't that just be amazing?

S - I know, yeah. It's heartbreaking to watch.

K - Yeah. Do you have a favorite book outside of the World War II genre? 

S - Oh goodness. I, and this is the question that always stumps me because I just have too many. Once again, it depends on what I'm reading. Um, it's usually whatever I'm reading is usually my favorite.

K - Well, whatcha reading? 

S - Um, well, right now for fiction, I'm reading an endorsed copy of, um, The Spy Keeper of Marseille, by Roseanna White. And, um, I love her writing and, and she started writing some World War II stuff. So it's fun because it's fun for me because the book I'm researching right now that I'm writing right now is set in unoccupied France, in southern France.

And so this story is also set in southern France. So it's, it's kind of fun. I'm comparing notes. Um, and for nonfiction, these are the books I can't stop talking about. And um, the one I'm reading right now is called The Hunted Children. And um, it was written in 1963 by Donald Lowry, who was an American working with the YMCA in, um, unoccupied France, desperately trying to save the refugees and the, um, the, and the Jewish children.

Just having read this is, I'm like kind of late in the game researching for this book. Um, but seeing how all these organizations worked together, Americans, French international groups working together, um, Protestant groups, Catholic groups, Jewish groups, secular groups working together because they're like, this is important. These, there are people dying, there are people being deported, and we have to save them, and we will work together because we're all working for the cause of human beings. And it doesn't matter that they're foreigners, it doesn't matter that they're of another religion. They're human beings, and they are worthy of, um, dignity and being treated with kindness and compassion.

And they worked hard and furiously and they saved as many as they could. Um, and their work just, and the people, the ordinary French people, just all throughout southern France. Yeah, we'll take a family into our house, we'll take a family into our house. All these farms scattered and villages scattered throughout southern France, concentrated in certain areas like the mountains.

Um, and the, the area especially, there was a lot of them, um, a little village called, I don't speak French, but they saved about 5,000 people. The village itself had a population of 2,000 and they saved 5,000 people. 

K - Wow. 

S - Uh, so the stories that come out of that era, just ordinary people saying, yes, we will let a family live with us. Yes, we'll take in two children. Yes, we will let this man stay here for a few weeks until they can find a way to get to Switzerland. Just ordinary people saying this is the right thing to do. These are human beings. We don't speak the same language. We don't worship God the same way. They have different customs, but I'm going to honor them and, and help them survive. And it happened. Um, it was just phenomenal how many people were saved. 

Um, it's also sad how many people perished. There were 75,000 Jews either from France or who had taken refuge in France who were deported and killed. So there were 75,000 who weren't safe, but there were ten, 20,000 who were saved, maybe more. I may have my numbers off on that one. 

Um, but there were many, many who were saved because of ordinary people and because of organizations working together and just saying, we will not do this. We will not let this happen. There was a cardinal, um, in Lyon, um, who was quoted as saying, "You will not have the children."

And, um, just great stories like, no, we, you can't do this. And, um, I'm just, yeah. I, as you can tell, I'm very excited about this, you know, these stories, and I'm really excited about being able to tell a story of one man and one woman who are doing something to, to try to help themselves.

K - Very cool. All right. When and where can people buy, I'm going to show the book jacket again, Mists Over the Channel Islands?

S - Well, hopefully everywhere. Um, it is available in bookstores. If your local bookstore doesn't have it, you can ask them to order it for you. And it is available, um, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, through Baker Book House, which offers, um, really great deals and free shipping, and, um, basically everywhere books are sold. And it's also available as an ebook and an audiobook. 

K - Okay. And it's February 3rd. Is that the release date? 

S - February 3rd, yes. 

K - Okay. So very soon after this episode releases, um, it will be available, yes. Uh, well, to wrap up, do you have a scripture that, um, maybe relates to the book or just, uh, something that's been on your heart lately that you'd like to end with?

S - I think the theme verse for Mists Over the Channel Islands is Hebrews 11:1. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen." And both of them are struggling to see God when they can't see Him in action and just having faith in what they can't see and trusting that God is who He said He is, that He is good, that He is just, that He's faithful even when they can't see it.

And um, I think it's, it's something I'm always learning. And I think, um, those people of faith always struggle with, we want to see results. We want to see something in front of us, and God is too mysterious, and His ways aren't ours. And, um, having faith in that and faith in who He is, um, despite what we see.

K - Yeah. That's so good. Well Sarah, thanks so much for being on the show. This was so much fun, and I'm excited to dig through your catalog and probably read some more of these stories 'cause they're so amazing. 

Um, and y'all, if you enjoy Oh My Word with Katie, you'll probably enjoy what we do at Mississippi Christian Living magazine. You can find us at mschristianliving.com. Subscribe, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and I will talk to y'all soon.  

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