“I never thought it was important, best to forget and left alone. The past is the past and who wants to read, hear, and know about war and its atrocities? I certainly did not and neither did anyone else who went through it. Then in my golden years, I realized the world needs to know and hear from real people who survived wars, not history books. First, that war is terrible, secondly that those who are free need to be more grateful and realize freedom comes with a price tag, and at great cost.” –Marie Vischer Elliott

Marie, who goes by Rita in the historical novel, Under the Java Moon, was at first reluctant to have her story told in novel form by Heather B. Moore. In August 2021, Heather met Marie for the first time, where they both vetted each other. Heather wondered if she’d be able to do justice to a story that Marie had kept to herself for so many decades. Marie wondered if she was truly ready to trust such private and difficult memories to a historical fiction format.

Marie told Heather that her family never spoke of the war after it ended. Her parents had wanted to fully move on. Because of all that she had endured, Marie never watched war movies or read books about wars. She especially stayed away from stories about concentration or prison camps and their victims and survivors. Like her parents, she kept her past firmly behind her. But in recent years, as Marie watched her grandchildren grow and have children of her own, she realized she needed to share her past. Even though she feared the pain that would return by recalling her memories, she wanted her grandchildren to know the price of freedom and to find gratitude in all walks of life.

You can learn more about her on her website www.hbmoore.com and follow her on Instagram @authorhbmoore

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A little about today's host-

Shawna Rodrigues left her award-winning career in the public sector in 2019 to consult and publish her first novel Beyond the Pear Blossoms. Her desire to connect and help others led to the launch of her podcast The Grit Show shortly thereafter. When she learned women host only 27% of podcasts, her skills and passion led to the founding of the Authentic Connections Network. She now helps mission-driven entrepreneurs better connect with their audiences by providing full-service podcast production and through a community for Entrepreneurs & Podcasters – EPAC. Podcasting is her primary focus, so she continues to support the writing community through this podcast, and her writing time is mostly focused on anthologies.

She offers a free 7 Steps to Perfect Your Podcast Title to anyone interested in launching a podcast. You can also follow her on Instagram-@ShawnaPodcasts, and learn more about the network and community at https://linktr.ee/37by27.

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