Indie Spotlight: November 2020
Our monthly Indie Spotlight feature is a roundup of self-published books united by thematic content. Stay tuned for more chances to participate!
Edward H. Franc et al.
ISBN 978-0-9984542-1-4
About the book: This volume features the stories of 14 Long Island veterans.
Author statement: “This book started out as a way of assisting one WWII veteran in sharing his story but became an entire volume celebrating those veterans who proudly served.”
Douglas Veverka
ASIN B08JF17RRR
About the book: Veverka writes about the impact of war on three generations of his family.
Author statement: “This book has been a lifetime in the making, and I hope it is worthy of my family’s sacrifice for the luxury of freedom.”
Mary Jo Brill and Geri Magnuson
ISBN 978-0-578-54066-5
About the book: Told through archival letters and photos, this story reconstructs the life of an American WWII soldier and Bronze Star recipient.
Author statement: “Our journey as authors began when we opened the old blue suitcase full of photos and letters that our cousin Joe had written during WWII.”
Abraham Rabinovich
ASIN B00CJC77SA
About the book: Israeli journalist Rabinovich writes about the theft of French missile boats by Israeli sailors in 1969 and how the caper ushered in a new naval era.
Author statement: “I was working as a reporter for the Jerusalem Post when, on New Year’s Eve 1970, I heard on the radio of the boats’ arrival in Haifa and thought, what a story."
Kevin M. Callahan
ISBN 978-0-578-46885-3
About the book: Callahan tells the stories of brothers buried side by side in American WWII cemeteries, with more than 700 original photographs and other artifacts.
Author statement: “My book was born when I visited the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery with my wife and three young sons. Walking through the gravestones, we came across two brothers from Iowa buried side by side. I was moved by the image of the siblings resting forever together.”
Conversations and Soliloquies: A Window on South Africa
Maurice Hommel
ISBN 978-1-4620-8406-7
About the book: This collection of essays and articles documents and analyzes events across South Africa during and after apartheid.
Author statement: “As a writer and political scientist of South African descent, I witnessed and experienced many of the occurrences in the book firsthand. South Africa in large part influenced and informed the path that I took in life.”
A Destiny of Undying Greatness: Kiffin Rockwell and the Boys Who Remembered Lafayette
Mark M. Trapp
ISBN 978-1-73317-122-9
About the book: Trapp focuses on aviator Kiffin Rockwell as he enlists in the French Foreign Legion at the onset of WWI.
Author statement: “I wrote the book on nights and weekends, during my daily commute to downtown Chicago, and published it on my son’s fifth birthday.”
Compiled by Robert Fischer
ISBN 978-1-950647-49-8
About the book: Ten authors share personal narratives of their combat experiences.
Author statement: “The title evokes the notion of a reflection. An echo is a reflection. An echo can also be a haunting sound, a response, a result, or a vestige from times past.”
Barbara Sorensen Fallick
ISBN 978-0-9997020-6-2
About the book: Fallick’s historical novel focuses on the experiences of two Russians in Europe and the U.S. during WWII.
Author statement: “I did not know about this history when I started writing the book. The story grew through my extensive research.”
Heather Allen
ISBN 978-1-64339-955-3
About the book: Allen tells the true story of a young pharmacy student imprisoned in a work camp in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.
Author statement: “In 1982, I vividly remember hearing tales of my Aunt Siv Eng’s escape from the Khmer Rouge and of her survival in the killing fields. I knew this was a story that must be told.”
K. Lang-Slattery
ISBN 978-0-9906742-3-8
About the book: The true experiences of a refugee from Nazi Germany unfold in this biographical work.
Author statement: “When I learned of my uncle’s role as an interrogator of German prisoners and his later work as an investigator for the Nuremberg Trials, I knew I had to tell his story.”
Neil M. Fletcher
ISBN 978-1-5255-5716-3
About the book: Fletcher recounts his experiences as a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Author statement: “It is often said that perception and reality are rarely aligned, and that the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives. For those dedicated to the process of converting information into intelligence, those aspects of life are fundamental truths.”
William L. with Sandra V. McGee
ISBN 978-0-9701678-5-9
About the book: The McGees provide an eyewitness account of the 1946 tests of the atomic bomb.
Author statement: “I wrote this book to help preserve a part of history few know about today. We have to learn from history, lest we forget.”
Charles Causey
ISBN 978-1-4003-3009-6
About the book: Causey’s book is based on the true stories of six revolt organizers in a Nazi death camp.
Author statement: “By traveling across Europe, working with Holocaust museums, and examining original source material, I discovered an astonishing array of eyewitness testimony regarding Adolf Hitler’s extermination centers."
Darrel J. Aherns
ISBN 978-1-62967-188-8
About the book: Aherns describes his 24-year career as a fighter pilot.
Author statement: “My pride in being part of the fighter pilot community can be summed up by the final phrase of a poem by an unknown author that goes, ‘Because we flew, we envy no man on Earth.’”
