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One of the quiet joys of sending a book out into the world is discovering where it travels. Over the past few weeks I've had the privilege of sitting with three different groups who welcomed More to This Life into their gatherings—one, a book club of friends from church; another, a book club of friends from my years in healthcare; and the third, a "Meet the Author" afternoon hosted by dear friends from St. Maurice, a church I attended over twenty years ago. Some of the face

WWII through the eyes of a seven year old American boy. A family friend —now gone— was just a little boy during World War II. He was seven, living here in America, when he drew this picture in 1944. It stops me every time I look at it. A child that young, with crayons in hand, already knew about planes in the sky… bombs dropping… explosions… men drifting down in parachutes. He had a relative serving in the military, and I imagine his awareness of the conversations, the wor

Finding the Place In 2017, after what we thought was pretty exhaustive research, we set out for the UK with one goal: to find that place in Wales where our relative—and nineteen others—lost their lives on the way home after the war. After journeying around England, we made our way to Wales and checked into a tiny bed and breakfast. During a chance conversation with the manager, we explained the reason for our visit. She listened with great interest and kindly offered to do a

It was quietly displayed on my friend’s shelf, this weather-softened pouch of brown leather — the kind that remembers the shape of hands long gone. Inside lay pieces of America’s home-front story: a child’s ration book, a slip denying the family’s request for gasoline, and a scattering of red OPA tokens that once clinked like tiny promises. During the war, even the youngest had ration books. The name of my friend’s brother, three-year-old Marshall C. Kline, was written in

The 351st Bomb Group Association is comprised of retired 351st veterans, their families, and anyone interested in the Bomb Group and preserving its history for future generations. It's readily accessible online ( http://www.351st.org) and contains links to the group's history, a crew member database, and a mission database that allows users to search the load lists for every mission (there were 320) to find out which men and which planes flew on which mission. There's also a

When my husband's mother passed away in 2015, we discovered a collection of letters from his uncle, written while he served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II. As we read them, my husband reflected on how his father had always desired to visit the site in Wales where their plane had crashed on the way back to the United States, carrying his uncle and nineteen other servicemen. This sparked a journey that led us from the US to Wales, and eventually on a virtual jour

Welcome! I'm P.J. Marks . At long last, my book, More to This Life: The Story of the Boys Across the Pond , is in the hands of an editor, and I'm getting ready to delve into the world of publishing. Wish me luck!! How did I embark on writing a historical fiction book? While history never really grabbed me before, my curiosity was sparked when my husband shared a riveting family tale about his uncle, Mendy. Mendy, whom my husband never met, joined the US Army Air Force in the