I had only written “historical letters” with some friends before I started my first book, and so that was the format I started with.

During the time of writing, I did so much research, read newspaper articles from those years, found so many stories that I didn’t get to add, and many that I did add. I read book after book after book about the Great War, and practically lived with the families from my story.

My Grandpa even took me on a day trip to visit Codell, KS. It was a hot summer day, and when we arrived we didn’t see a single person. It was almost like a ghost town. I got to visit the school, and see the main street. We stopped in Plainville but the museum was closed. Oh, well.

When I reached the end of writing my book, I cried. It was hard to say goodbye to the characters that I had spend 6 years getting to know and write about. I felt like they were dear friends.

A few months later, while working at a homeschool convention with my brother’s Light of Faith booth, I got to talking to someone who had recently self-published their book. He told me what he’d done and what it had cost. This place was called CreateSpace, and he had a course that walked you though publishing your own book.

Well, to make a long story short, I bought the course, published The Unexpected Request that fall, and then the following spring I republished Home Fires.

My best friend and I had a cover design time and while she did the actual computer part (I didn’t know how to use Photoshop then), I helped with ideas and layout.