Talkshow Thursday: Welcome back Judy DuCharme

 Talkshow Thursday: Welcome back Judy DuCharme

Linda: Welcome back! Thanks for joining me today. Congratulations on your latest release Lainey of the Door Islands. What was your inspiration for the plot of this book? 

 

JUDY: Thank you for having me. I live in Door County, a peninsula that extends into Lake Michigan in NE Wisconsin. It’s a huge tourist area and people love all things Door County. I’d wanted to write a book set here for a long time. I thought of several scenarios and genre, and I prayed about it. Then one day, it just dropped in and I sat down and wrote the first 5000 words in one setting. I said to my husband, “I’m writing, and I can’t stop.” The story unfolded from there. 

LM: Are any of your characters based on you or people you know? How do you come up with ideas for your characters? 

JUDY: I think I combine qualities of people I know, including myself, stories I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, but I love to see how a personality unfolds. I love to have characters with a great sense of humor. Plot is usually what comes to me first and then the characters. I often have to go back and fill in their personality a bit. 

 

LM: Research is an important part of writing any book. What did you do to research your story, and did you find any especially intriguing tidbits you knew you had to include? 

JUDY: Yes, I took the boat tour out to Pilot Island where the story begins. You can’t go on the island

now as the buildings are in disrepair. But the tour guides provided a lot of history of life in the lighthouse and the shipwrecks that occurred. I certainly took notes. One great tidbit was that when the foghorn sounded the chickens wouldn’t lay eggs, the dishes broke, and the milk curdled – it was the loudest foghorn on the Great Lakes. I also visited the lighthouse on Rock Island and walked the five-mile perimeter. My friend’s mother was the archivist on Washington Island and she provided some of the history. I went through books about that time in history, the shipwrecks, and lighthouses. Internet searches provided material and added background. I also visited all the lighthouses in the area and listened to the stories and incorporated as much as I could into the book. 

LM: What is one thing you wish you knew how to do? 

JUDY: Write a good mystery. Or transport myself to see my 2-year-old grandson who lives 1000 miles away rather than having to fly or drive. 

LM: Who was your favorite author as a young adult? 

JUDY: As a kid, I really enjoyed biographies, and as a teen, I enjoyed time travel and science fiction. I don’t recall a particular author. In recent years I’ve loved Bodie Thoene and Joel Rosenburg. I also enjoy Lynn Austin and Colleen Coble. 

 

LM: Here are some quickies: 

JUDY: 

Coffee or tea? Coffee 

Walking, biking, or driving? Walking

Ocean or mountains? Ocean 

LM: What’s your next project? 

 

JUDY: I recently signed a contract with Ambassador International (they published Lainey and my novel Blood Moon Redemption) for my children’s book, I Want a Water Buffalo for Christmas (ages 7-11). It will release next year. I’ve also started a sequel to Lainey of the Door Islands. Similarly, it dropped into me and I wrote a lot of the beginning in one sitting. I’m also working on a timeslip novel that I started years ago. 

LM: Where can folks find you on the web? 

JUDY: 

Website: https://judithducharme.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judy.ducharme.18

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/Judy-DuCharme-Author-1360359084069983

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PackerJudy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leejudyducharme/

And, all my books are on Amazon. 

About Lainey of the Door Islands: 

Walk with Lainey into the world of Door County and its islands in the late 1800s, a time of shipwrecks, lighthouses, and strong individuals who never gave up. Lainey becomes one of those rugged individuals as she faces tragedy and hardship. Her aunt and uncle, the lighthouse keepers on tiny Pilot Island, demonstrate the toughness needed to survive, but Lainey takes it a step further with her spunk and grace and becomes a shining light to all those around her. With humor, faith, close friendships and the young man who interferes with her ability to function, Lainey of the Door Islands will capture your heart, and she’ll inspire you to know that no matter what happens, God has a plan to prosper and not to harm. Lainey of the Door Islands is a bit of an Anne of Green Gables set in the islands of NE Wisconsin.

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/33n4R5S

Wisconsin and WWII

Wisconsin and WWII

Bordered by two of the Great Lakes and four states, Wisconsin is about twenty-five percent larger than England. Having been impacted by the Glacier Age, the state’s geography is highly diverse from its Western Upland to its Great Plain. Second only to Michigan in Great Lakes’ coastline, Wisconsin has plenty of “waterfront property.”

The state saw heavy immigration during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and by World War II, over one-third of Wisconsin’s population was German, many of whom who continued to speak their native language at home. Was the high number of Germans the reason the U.S. Government chose to locate thirty-eight (!) POW camps that housed more than 22,000 prisoners within the state?

Possibly, but with over 325,000 Wisconsinites going off to war, the fields were in desperate need of planting, maintaining, and harvesting. Gas and tire rationing put a halt to the use of migrant workers creating a void in the industry. Working side-by-side with their hosts, German prisoners are credited with saving the 1944 and 1945 crops. Many captives fell in love with the country and returned to live after the war.

In addition to housing prisoners, Wisconsin increased its food production and earmarked a large percentage of it for the military. By 1943, over 55% of all cheese was sent to the troops, and Borden received the Army-Navy E award for its exception record of producing cheese. Powdered Milk in J-rations (Jungle) was from Wisconsin as were the beef and pork in C-rations. K-rations contained tins of Wisconsin cheese. All told the agricultural industry filled nearly five billion dollars in orders during the course of the war.

Wisconsin also did its bit in the defense industry and converted the majority of its factories to war materiel. As men left for combat, women filled their shoes. Manitowoc, Sturgeon Bay, and Superior became the centers of shipbuilding as they built submarines and chips. Badger Ordinance Company grew into one of the largest manufacturers of ammunition in the world.

In addition to working in the fields and industry, over 9,000 Wisconsin women donned uniforms and served in every branch of the armed forces. Many were involved in healthcare, but other served as parachute riggers, cryptographers, weather observers and ferry pilots.

The military set up several air bases used to train pilots and crews for Army Air Force fighter planes and bombers. Some of the bases were retained by the military after the war, but many were converted to municipal airports. Others were dismantled so the fields could be returned to agricultural use.

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Now available: Love’s Belief, Book 3 Wartime Brides series

Midwife Pia Hertz and her mother Sabine have been delivering babies long before the Nazis came to power. Now, the Third Reich has implemented mandates that require Jewish babies and other “undesirables” to be killed as part of The Final Solution. Is Pia’s new faith in Christ strong enough to defy the laws of man?

Despite the agony of the injury at the Battle of Drøbak Sound that took his arm, Dieter Fertig is relieved he’s no longer part of Hitler’s army. He returns to Berlin and discovers Jews are being deported by the thousands. When he realizes the Nuremburg Laws require his best friend’s baby girl to be killed, he must find a way to spirit the child out of Germany before the Nazis discover her existence. 

Inspired by the biblical story of Shiprah and Puah, the midwives who saved Jewish babies during Pharaoh’s reign, Love’s Belief shows how one person’s actions can change the world.

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/2QgO8tm