Love, War and Writing

At Writer’s Critique Group, Marilyn brought a synopsis of Arleta’s novel on Manzanar.

Manzanar, located in Owens Valley, California, is where Americans of Japanese descent were taken during WWII. Arleta, a senior member of our writing group was shopping her novel for publication when she passed away. The novel fell into the hands of her former student, Marilyn, who will be taking the novel up to the Mt. Hermon Writing conference to see if there is any editor interest.

So, at Friday’s critique meeting, we went over the synopsis and discussed the novel’s marketability.

Speaking of WWII, Arleta has quite a story of her own. When Arleta was young she was engaged to a soldier who was stationed on a battleship in Hawaii. When the news of Pearl Harbor blared through the radios on the mainland, Arleta was crushed. She knew her fiancé was gone. But little did she know, that his battleship was out in the Pacific on that day, and had not been hit. Then…two days later, it was hit, and her dear future husband perished. Arleta never married.

She spent her life as a college professor, a librarian and an elementary school teacher. At about the age of 50 she decided to leave her teaching job and try her hand at writing. She started small, writing articles for a Sunday School take-home papers. Eventually she wrote the Grandma’s Attic Series (of books) and they have sold millions of copies. And recently Grandma’s Attic has been published in Japan! The series is based on her memories with her grandmother.

I wonder if Marilyn will find editor interest in Arleta’s novel on Manzanar? I’ll keep you posted!

Gotta go! Tonight my friend and I are going to see the movie “Amazing Grace”.

News flash: Cody is moving home this weekend!

Manzanar
WWII Manzanar
Arleta Richardson