International Child Abduction: A child victim's story - another work in progress

The world is a difficult and scary place when children of a multi-national marriage are taken by one parent to a country where the other parent loses de facto custody, or loses the ability to visit the child, or cannot even enter the country or contact the child. If you think it's bad for the losing parent, think how bad it must be for the children.

My new work in progress, as yet unnamed, is based upon this subject. Although fiction, it is inspired by a true story and told from the child's point of view, it describes many years of separation between a father and child, where the child was removed from their home county with no warning.

Now, as strange as this may seem, there are many countries of the world where there is no legal recourse for the losing parent. None at all. (The non-blue countries, below.)

In some cases, the practices of the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction apply. And, even those countries, the return of an abducted child is not at all certain and can take countless years, often with child aging out (at age 16) of the provisions of the Hague Convention.

If I paint a dark picture, where many children never see the losing parent again, this is the reality. My work will try and humanize international child abduction, with a rarely viewed children's perception of this terrible kind of event.

In the meantime, I hope you keep reading my other books.

Wil

humanizing the tragedy of International Child Abduction - another work in progress

The world is a difficult and scary place when children of a multi-national marriage are taken by one parent to a country where the other parent loses de facto custody, or loses the ability to visit the child, or cannot even enter the country or contact the child. If you think it's bad for the losing parent, think how bad it must be for the children.

My new work in progress, as yet unnamed, is based upon this subject. Although fiction, it is inspired by a true story and told from the child's point of view, it described many years of separation between a father and child, where the child was removed from their home county with no warning.

Now, as strange as this may seem, there are many countries of the world where there is no legal recourse for the losing parent. None at all. (The non-blue countries, below.)

In some cases, the practices of the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction apply. And, even those countries, the return of an abducted child is not at all certain and can take countless years, often with child aging out (at age 16) of the provisions of the Hague Convention.

If I paint a dark picture, where many children never see the losing parent again, this is the reality. My work will try and humanize international child abduction, with a rarely viewed children's perception of this terrible kind of event.

In the meantime, I hope you keep reading my other books.

Wil

Zac and the Reluctant Prince, Book 1 of the Prince David series

It's here! Yes! The brand new Young Adult fiction title Zac and the Reluctant Prince, Book 1 of the Prince David series is now available in multiple eBooks formats on Smashwords.  This is my first new book in more than a year, and I'm very happy with it. It will be available for Free during Read an eBook Week, March 4-11, on Smashwords.

Zac and the Reluctant Prince, Book 1 of the Prince David series, introduces David and the Bolithos, an unlikely but effective combination of young men and women who desire to do right, but who also want to be normal teenagers.  Is that even remotely possible?  Will they find the courage to succeed in spite of being nervous and scared of what lies ahead?

     David has unexpectedly become the royal heir. David has also become an orphan. Those two overwhelming problems confront teenager Zach and his family, who simply want to protect David and help the younger boy deal with his destiny.  A contemporary story about keeping friendships, seeking adventure, overcoming challenges and making history.

70th Anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

In a few hours, it will be exactly 70 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This is a significant date in American and world history, and well worth my noting for important reasons.  Just looking at the reality of 70 years makes a person realize that there are now dramatically fewer living survivors of that day, December 7^th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States consequently went to war. For example, the Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Association, founded in 1958, will be disbanded at the end of this month because there are so few survivors left.

The War in Europe started more than two years prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor

Of course, for those in Europe, the Second World War started in September 1939, and many Americans quietly or more actively supported the allied effort.

For well over a year, I have been actively researching that interval of September 1939 to December 1941. The reason? Why else does an author do research? For a book, of course. Perhaps even a series of books.

Courage in Combat:Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters

This new fiction book, very much a departure from my previous efforts and current-day genre, will introduce some characters that I will follow from 1938 to 1941. In possible further books in the series, I hope and intend to follow the characters from 1941 right through to the end of the war in 1945, and perhaps beyond. The book(s), while fiction, will be based on historical fact, and I hope to introduce readers to some lesser known facts, situations, and locations that formed part of the overall fighting in WWII.  The book is intended for a Young Adult audience, and is initially about teenagers who signed up to be Air Force pilots.

Some of the characters will accurately portray Americans who traveled to Canada and to England, to join up with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force in order to get into the war and fight. After the US went to war in December 1941, many of them returned home to join the US Army Air Corps, but many stayed with the RCAF and RAF until 1945.

I hope I will be able to bring that dramatic period of history to life for my readers.

An excerpt of the book can be found on this website.  At this time, I do not have a planned release date for the first book in the series, Courage in Combat: Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters, but given the significance of today’s date, I wanted to write about the book, post the short excerpt, and comment about the 70^th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wil

Prince David, Book 2: High Adventure (the NaNoWriMo novel for 2011)

I've been very actively engaged in writing the second book of the Prince David series, as part of NaNoWriMo for 2011.  The first two-thirds of the month went quite well.  I wrote a lot, I became one of seven writers profiled on The Huffington Post, and I believed I was on track to hit the 50,000 word goal by November 30.  

However, things don't always go according to plan.  For the last ten days of November, I had to travel unexpectedly for work, and although I managed a good 90 minutes of writing on the first plane, it went downhill after that.  The travel and work have been just too intense, and I simply have not been able to get my mind in the right creative mode to write.  

This book, Prince David, Book 2: High Adventure, is an important book for me, as it is the first time I've actually worked at a sequel.  In this case, this is a sequel to Prince David, Book 1: Enter the Heir.  I have even planned a series and have written the final 6,000 words of Book 5.  In any event, I want to make sure I get Book 2 right, and I'm not about to write words just to achieve the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words.  In fact, Book 2 is about 75% written, and I will complete it, but at a slightly slower pace.  With some extra time looking to be available in the next month, I hope to complete the initial draft of the book by the end of December.

By the way, Prince David, Book 1: Enter the Heir, is being edited, and I hope to publish it early in 2012.

Thanks for reading,

Wil

69th Anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

I am posting this almost exactly to the hour of the 69^th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Just looking at the reality of 69 years makes a person realize that there are now dramatically fewer living survivors of that day, December 7^th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States consequently went to war. Of course, for those in Europe, the Second World War started in September 1939, and many Americans actively or more quietly supported the allied effort.

I have recently been actively researching that interval of September 1939 to December 1941. The reason? Why else does an author do research? For a book, of course. Perhaps even a series of books.

The Courage of Combat: Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters

This new fiction book, very much a departure from my previous efforts and genre, will introduce some characters that I will follow from 1938 to 1941. In possible further books in the series, I hope and intend to follow the characters from 1941 right through to the end of the war in 1945, and perhaps beyond. The book(s), while fiction, will be based on historical fact, and I hope to introduce readers to some lesser known facts, situations, and locations that formed part of the overall fighting in WWII.

Some of the characters will include accurately portray Americans who traveled to Canada and to England, to join up with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force in order to get into the war and fight. After the US went to war in December 1941, many of them returned home to join the US Army Air Corps, but many stayed with the RCAF and RAF until 1945.

I hope I will be able to bring that dramatic period of history to life for my readers.

The planned release date for the first book in the series, The Courage of Combat: Volume 1 – The Flying Fighters, will be December 7^th, 2011. Of course, that date will also be very significant; the 70^th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Happy Reading,

Wil

Aiden's Arrival

Here it is! As promised, the first four chapters of AIDEN'S ARRIVAL are now posted as a sneak preview. The book will be published on Smashwords near the end of December.

Please have a look, and enjoy. As always, feedback is welcome.

Wil

AIDEN'S ARRIVAL - new release in December

I'm working towards getting Aiden's Arrival ready for release by the end of the year. The story has the Winter Games as a backdrop, and I hope that it will be released about the time people start thinking about skiing this winter. The way things are going, it might just be released on Smashwords just about the time Smashwords hits the one-billion word mark.

I plan to post the first four chapters on this blog around the end of October, so stay tuned!

Wil

I review "Kendall's Storm" - great new book

For only the second time, I am going to blog about a book that I did not write. I'd seen the book on Smashwords, and I finally found some time to read it.

It was a good thing I started reading this book on a Sunday morning, because once I started I could not stop. This narrative absolutely kept me riveted right to the end. Kendall’s Storm was truly a great read, even as it kept me on the edge of my seat and took me places I didn’t always want to go.

This book may be fiction, but it has a sincerity and ring of truth throughout. Through the characters’ eyes and personal experiences, one learns (again) just how badly we, as a society, treat our youngest and weakest members. Through the empathetic storytelling of Janet Muirhead Hill, we also experience a coming of age with the certainty that love, affection and attention can make a profound and positive difference in a child’s life.

This is a companion book to Kyleah's Tree, and I understand that the author is currently writing the third book in this series that will bring the two young protagonists together. I can't wait.

Kendall's Storm was a wonderful, thought-provoking, and intense book, and I sincerely recommend it.

Happy Reading,

Wil