Liz, I'm so glad to welcome you to The Diamond Mine. Your World War II sagas are definitely gems, and
Remember the Lillies goes to the heart of deprivation and sheer survival.
Readers, pull up a chair while Liz shares about the origin of this novel and some of her historical research. And if you'd like to qualify for her giveaway of the novel, please leave a comment and your e-mail address. I'll contact the winner by June 19. (Minimum of five commenters required.)
Please tell us about the conception of this story.
The idea for Remember
the Lilies originally came from my son. I was putting together a proposal
for my WWII Women of Courage series.
I had an idea for one book set in the Netherlands and another set in Germany.
As I told them about this, my son, a huge WWII Pacific theater enthusiast, told
me I needed one set in that part of the world. I remembered a segment I saw on
Ken Burns’s documentary War about a
civilian POW camp in Manila. And the story was born.
Many people don’t know about this part of the war. When the
Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941, they rounded up all the
Westerners living there. As the Philippines was a U.S. possession at the time,
there were many. They were herded into POW camps where they spent the duration
of the war. One of the camps was established on the grounds of Santo Tomas
University. Anywhere between 3200 and 4000 people lived in the camp at any
given time. At the start of the war, there were a total of 100 toilets. As the
war progressed, the command of the camp passed from civilians to the military.
Conditions deteriorated. Diseases such as dysentery and beriberi were common.
Forced to live on rations of 700 calories per day, starvation was becoming an
increasing problem in the closing months of their captivity.
Rumors reached General MacArthur that the Japanese planned
to massacre everyone at the camp before the Americans could liberate it.
Knowing this, MacArthur told his troops to head straight for Manila, doing
everything they could to evade the enemy. As soon as they reached the city,
they were to free everyone at Santo Tomas. The first American tanks crashed
through the gates on the evening of February 3, 1945. According to some
sources, the massacre was set for the next day.
What part of your research stands out to you? I had the privilege of spending several hours on the phone with Sascha Jansen, who survived the camp. Speaking with those who lived these events if one of my favorite parts of writing WWII. It was her interview on the documentary that sparked my interest in writing this story.
I'm glad you pursued that interview and wrote this novel. Thanks so much, Liz, for joining us here.
Liz Tolsma’s debut novella,
Under His Wings, appeared in the New
York Times bestselling collection,
A Log
Cabin Christmas. Her first novel,
Snow
on the Tulips, released in August of 2013 and was a 2014 Selah Award
finalist and a 2014 Carol Award finalist.
Daisies
Are Forever released in May 2014 and
Remember the Lilies in February 2015. Her next novella,
World’s Greatest Love, appears in the
collection
Rails to Love in October
2016. She is a popular speaker on such varied topics as writing, marriage,
family, and adoption, and living with courage. She is also an editor and the
owner of the
Write
Direction Editing. She enjoys mentoring clients and watching them learn and
grow as writers. She has lived in Wisconsin most of her life, and she now
resides next to a farm field with her husband and their two daughters. Her son
proudly serves as a U.S. Marine. They adopted all of their children
internationally, and one has special needs. When not busy putting words to
paper, she enjoys reading, walking, working in her large perennial garden,
kayaking, and camping with her family. Please visit her blog, The Story behind
the Story, at
www.liztolsma.com and follow
her on
Facebook,
Twitter (@LizTolsma), and
LinkedIn.
She is also a regular contributor to the
Pencildancer
blog.
