October 10, 2023 • 18 mins
Heather Moore is the USA Bestselling author of more than 100 books. We welcome her to The Book Drop Mic to talk about her brand new World War II novel Under the Java Moon.
Buy Heather's new book:
https://shadowmountain.com/product/under-the-java-moon
Learn more about Heather:
https://hbmoore.com
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
About the book:
Based on a true story, this gripping WWII novel captures the resilience, hope, and courage of a Dutch family who is separated during the war when the Japanese occupy the Dutch East Indies.
Java Island, 1941
Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java—living with other Dutch families—had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.
Mary Vischer is three months pregnant when she enters the Tjideng women’s camp with thousands of other women and children. Her husband, George, is somewhere on the Java Sea with the Dutch Navy, so she must care alone for her young children, Rita and Georgie, and her frail mother-in-law. The brutal conditions of the overcrowded camp make starvation, malaria, and dysentery a grim reality. Mary must do everything she can to keep her family alive.
George Vischer survives the bombing of his minesweeper but feels little hope floating on a small dinghy in the Java Sea. Reaching the northern tip of the Thousand Islands would be a miracle. Focusing on of the love of his life, Mary, and his two children, he battles against the sea and merciless sun. He’ll do whatever it takes to close the divide between him and his family, even if it means risking being captured by the Japanese.
Under the Java Moon highlights a little-known part of WWII history and the impact of war on Indonesia, its people, and the more than 100,000 Dutch men, women, and children who were funneled into prison camps and faced with the ultimate fight for survival.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, welcome folks to the book Drop Mike brought to
you by Ink Veins, your sourcefor book publicity, promo and
press releases.
And of course this is your host, jason Wright.
And this week I bring to theshow more than a fellow writer,
whom I admire, but a dear, dearfriend.
Her name is Heather Moore.
(00:22):
Welcome to the Mike Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks, jason, I'm excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, no, no, no, thank you for hopping on.
I know you got a lot going on.
Right now.
You are one of the busiest,most prolific, I think, writers,
creators, forces of nature thatI know, and if you have, if you
followed previously, rightwhere you are.
We had a great discussion aboutone of Heather's titles two
(00:47):
years ago, so I will put that inthe show notes so people can go
back and listen to that,because that was a fantastic
discussion.
But today we're here to talkabout a brand new book.
Before we dive into the newbook, heather, there might be
people listening who have notheard of you.
I know that that is unlikely,shocking even that there might
be a listener out there that isnot familiar with your work.
(01:08):
Shame on them, right, heather?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh, definitely.
I mean, everybody should hearof me, right.
Well, I just this is a quickintroduction.
I write under Heather beingMoore, which is my real name,
but there are a lot of otherHeather Moores in the world and
I write mostly historicalfiction.
I actually started writing myfirst book when I was 30.
I didn't mean it to be a book,I was writing a short story that
turned into a full manuscriptand I had no idea what to do
(01:32):
with it.
Of course it's still notpublished, but you can all thank
me for that.
But it started me on thejourney of just becoming fine
and low with writing and theprocess of creating, and I guess
I've always just been a hugereader and it sort of just
morphed into that that otherlove of mine.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So how many books have you published now, Heather?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I think it's just over a hundred.
That also includes some shorternovellas as well.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I think those count.
Heather Moore, I think thosecount.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, and don't ask me to name them or to remember
the character's names.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, you ever have someone walk up to you, like at
a signing, and just ask youabout like some plot point or
some character or something froma decade ago and you're like,
hmm, oh wait, hmm, remind meagain what was happening.
What's the context?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I once was invited to speak at a book club
and it was close to myneighborhood, so I went in
person and I just assumed theywere reading my latest book and
they said, oh, we're readingthis other book and I was, oh my
gosh.
So I hurried into, I said oh, Ineed to use a restroom or
whatever.
So I went in there, Idownloaded the book onto Candle
and I quickly scanned mycharacter chart so when I was
(02:50):
answering questions I couldspeak intelligently about it.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Oh my goodness, that's hilarious.
So I did a book club duringCOVID where I zoomed in and I
thought we were talking aboutone book and they were talking
about a much older book and noone had ever clarified that at
any point.
And so I actually got a coupleof answers in before it was
(03:14):
pretty clear that my answerswere not matching their
questions and I went, you knowwhat, and I just I totally came
clean.
In this case I had no choice.
I was like yeah, I think Ithought we were talking about A
and you're talking about B, andso we kind of, we kind of yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, that's very helpful to know which book
they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it is helpful, but I do not have more than a
hundred titles.
You are, as I said, you areprolific.
So the purpose of this podcast,heather, as you know, is we're
trying to highlight books eitherthe day they come out or as
soon as possible to their dropdate, right Hence the name.
(03:54):
So let's talk about under theJava moon.
What is this new project about?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure.
So this is my first World WarII novel that I've had published
and is based on a true story.
The woman who is a heroine ofthe story she's still alive.
Her name is Marie FisherElliott and she goes by Rita and
the book is a nickname.
As a kid she was she's Dutch,she's from a Dutch family and
her family was living inIndonesia.
(04:22):
During World War II, and whenJapan bombed Pearl Harbor,
everyone was declaring war inJapan.
All the allies were declaringwar and Japan of course,
declared war.
Right back and close to themwere the Indonesian islands,
which were called the Dutch EastIndies back then, because
Poland had colonized them, andso Japan invaded, and Java and
(04:48):
all the surrounding islands arevery rich with minerals and oil,
and of course the Dutch werenot really prepared and so they
soon surrendered, and all of theDutch people and any other
Europeans are all sent tointernment camps for the next
three and a half years.
And this story is about onefamily, the Vischer family, and
their experiences.
In fact, the women were allseparated from the men, they had
(05:11):
men's camps and they had womenand children, and when a boy
turned about 11, he was thensent to the men's camp and
separated from his mom andyounger siblings.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Hmm, my heavens, and how did this land in your lap
this story?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was actually my publisher had a connection with
her and thought it would make agreat historical novel.
Marie was was very reluctant atfirst because she in her mind
she said this is a true story.
This really happened to me.
If you turn it to a historicalnovel, it makes me nervous to
know what are you going to addto it and how are you going to
create this book?
And so I met with her a coupleof times, in person first, and
(05:50):
she read one of my books as welland her one stipulation was
don't put romance in it.
This is not a romance novel,because I think she must have
read.
I write a little bit of sweetromance as well.
And I said well, I would loveto have your parent story in
there, even if it's kind of as aflashback, because the current
(06:11):
story they're already marriedwith a couple of children, and I
said because it's sointeresting while they got
married is they're married byproxy, so it's very kind of an
interesting story for them.
So I wanted to make sure toinclude it, but she was OK with
that, that much.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
No, that's so.
So why and I know I've askedyou this before, but why this
genre?
Why are you drawn to, to startfiction like this?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I think it's my favorite thing to read, and I
think mostly because I love tolearn in story form and I just
love history and I'm interestedin learning about the past, and
so it goes with what I love toread.
Because, as you know, when youwrite a book, it's not just
having this passion for creatinga story.
It has to go through editorialand production and you have to
market it and then, three orfour years later, you're doing
(07:03):
you're still doing book clubswith it, and so it has to be a
story that you really love andyou're willing to really stick
with for many years.
So I like to read other othergenres as well, but historical
fiction is definitely myfavorite genre to dive into.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So, of those 100 plus titles, what's the breakdown?
Do you know roughly whatpercentage falls into your
romance, or to some of yourreligious fiction, or into this
show?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so I do write religious fiction that we just
call biblical fiction.
That is also historical, Iwould say almost.
I would probably say like 85 to90 percent of my writing is
historical.
When I'm writing historicalromance I would say the setting
is historical, but I'm notwriting historical characters
per se.
But when I'm writing historicalfiction it's usually crafted
(07:55):
around real people and realevents.
So it's a lot.
It's less of a fiction and moreof a historical side.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right Interesting.
So you know, you and I, andprobably many of our listeners
today, come from a faithbackground where we sort of
accept that historical fictionis a historical fiction.
That historical fiction, couldyou know, come from the New
Testament, for example, butbookstores don't necessarily
always feel that way.
Are you saying, then, thatbookstores and distributors do
(08:26):
classify your what I would havethought of biblical or religious
fiction also as historicalfiction?
Is that how it's how it'sworking?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, so historical fiction would just be its
broader category and thesubgenre would be biblical
fiction.
And there's also Old Testament.
I don't know so.
Biblical includes New Testamentand Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But then I kind of refrain from calling it
Christian fiction because I feellike maybe New Testament would
be a mortal toward Christianity,but biblical fiction,
especially Old Testament fiction, that would be include more
faith than just Christianity.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Sure, yeah, interesting, that is super
interesting.
I have never, I've never reallythought through that, what that
definition of historicalfiction might actually include
and realize the breadth oftitles that you have written.
I mean, I thought I knew yourbacklist.
(09:25):
I'm looking here on Amazon,holy moly.
And of course my wife Cody, whoyou know, and she's great.
She's a huge, huge fan ofeverything you've done.
In fact, I think she may havebeen the first one to utter your
, your sacred name in our home,heather Moore, was Cody, because
she's been following you for along, long time.
So, all right, I'm going to askyou a question that I get asked
(09:47):
all the time, and I know a lotof authors detest this question,
but I've just decided over thelast several years, I'm just
going to answer it.
So you've got to pick one ofthese books as your, as your
favorite.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh, that's really tough.
I would I would say I wouldlabel a book I actually indie
published about seven years agois called condemning not, and
the reason I would say it was myfavorite is because it's
actually part of my familyhistory and so it was a passion
project, and it was about my10th great grandmother, who was
accused of witchcraft during thesame and witch trials.
(10:27):
Oh my and her trial.
She was 71 years old and shehad lived a full life.
It had nine children and hadgrandchildren and was a widow at
the time, and it was just afascinating study on just human,
the human mindset of panic andfear and how we can turn on each
other, which you see in any warthat goes on in the world.
You see it today, of course,but I was.
(10:49):
I was contacted about fiveyears ago by the Salem Witch
Museum in Salem, massachusetts,and they started carrying my
book in this summer.
In June I was able to go thereand do a big signing.
So it's kind of the wholeproject kind of came full circle
for me but that one book.
I still get emails all the timefrom my cousins because we all
(11:11):
consider ourselves descendantsand cousins of each other and
there's been some really greatrelationships formed that way.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's cool.
I love that.
That's a good answer.
Thank you for actuallyanswering honestly.
It's funny.
Everyone I've heard authorsanswer this a thousand times and
I have answered a thousandtimes.
Generally, we always say well,I think I'm obligated to say
it's my newest book, becausethat's the book that we're
promoting and that ourpublishers and marketing teams
(11:38):
want us to talk about, I think,because they are fresh in our
minds.
That's probably true.
That it's the most recent thingwe've written, probably is the
most important thing to us inthat moment, but it's not always
the thing that we'll probablymost remember in 10 years or
whatever.
I appreciate the candor on that.
(12:00):
I'll throw a little twist on it.
I have books where I love thestory more than the writing and
I have books where I love mywriting more than the story.
So for the sheer craft of justwriting, just turning a
beautiful phrase over and overand over again, which of your
books do you read and go?
(12:20):
Oh, I'm actually a little bitproud of how I crafted that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah.
I think that's a good questionbecause, like you said, there's
some books that I'm writing thatjust fit like more of a genre
book and other books I am tryingto dive in to more, where the
actual world becomes its owncharacter.
I would say I don't know,honestly.
So so, writing under the joband moon, it wasn't an easy book
(12:50):
to write, right because of thetopic.
But I felt like every time Isat down, you know you have the
days where they're writing flowsand then other days you're just
, you're watching the clock andyou're thinking of anything you
could do besides right, I feltlike most of my writing days
with the end of the job of moonwere flowing days.
And I once asked Marie who'sthe main character.
She's, she's 86.
(13:12):
Now I said, are you praying forme?
Because I feel like this is,this is like an easier way.
So I I feel like that.
So that was kind of a differentexperience, but as far as like
being maybe really really proudof of working on something that
was really hard and feeling likeI achieved.
So I had a book that came out ayear ago is called In the Shadow
(13:34):
of a Queen and it's about QueenVictoria and Princess Louise,
and that took me.
That was the longest I everspent writing a book.
So I'm a full time writer butthis was six full months full
time, not working on anythingelse and not editing anything
else.
You know that was coming acrossmy desk and the whole book was
in one point of view and I hadread like nine different
(13:57):
biographies on different membersof the Royal Family and I just
felt, when that book was finallyaccepted it was like this huge,
like mountain.
I hadn't realized I wascarrying it.
So I felt so proud to get thatbook and to then have reviews,
respect the work that I did andand the writing and I did.
I did go through the book overand over, trying to get rid of
(14:19):
extra or duplicate words.
You know you say like part 450times in a book and you're like,
okay, let's just do it 200times.
You know I was.
I spent a lot more timecrafting the, the prose as well,
and I remember when I wasactually in a publisher's
meeting pitching my next book,the publisher was saying, well,
(14:39):
what about this?
Queen Victoria had ninechildren.
What about another sibling book?
And I said, well, I'm going toneed a couple years off If I'm
going to tackle because, knowinggoing into a book like that,
you just know you're justimmersed in that world full time
for so long.
So well, I feel like I feel likethat's a little badgid honor.
I don't know if that book willbe my best seller ever, because
(15:01):
it's, I would consider, abiographical novel which is very
close to nonfiction, like if Ishow you my manuscript I would
say every other paragraph I havea reference or resource there.
So as follows, almost exactlywhat I was researching.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, well, well, and I mean six months full time is
that is a lot of time.
You have to draw 24 hours.
That's pretty impressive.
I mean, I'm looking at theAmazon page and anytime
publishers weekly says we're theportrait of a woman divided by
duty and self-determination,among many, many, many other
(15:40):
glowing reviews.
That's pretty significant.
Well, congrats on that and onagain answering what can often,
for writers, be a really trickyquestion.
So I appreciate that, All right.
What's next then?
What's coming down the pipelinefrom Heather Moore?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So I have a book that is just recently turned in.
It's another World War II novel.
So my second one, and it is setin the United States, it's
about the women aviators whotrained and flew the bomber
planes that were coming off themanufacturing floor and
transferring them with theircomb, the faring squad, so
(16:18):
they're ferrying them to the airbases so the men could train on
these planes and then go fly incombat.
So the women, by the womenbeing able to do that, they
saved thousands and thousands ofhours that then the male pilots
could then benefit from andthen go fly on their missions.
So it's a novel.
I call it another biographicalnovel.
(16:40):
It's about women named NancyHarkness Love, and she is the
one that was constantly pushingand pushing Back then it's
called the Army Air Corps itwasn't quite the Air Force yet
to allow the women to fly theseplanes, and she's the first
woman to ever fly planes likethe P-51 Mustang, and so she was
really kind of like this go gether trans set her person.
(17:01):
But ironically she was not arisk taker, she didn't consider
herself a risk taker.
She would do her inspectionsfor like sometimes two hours on
a plane before she flew anything.
So she's very methodical thatway.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Interesting and that will hit bookshelves next fall,
late summer.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, it should be next fall.
It's still in the submissionprocess, so we're just waiting
to hear back on that.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, you're Heather Moore, so they're going to
publish it.
That's my guess, heather,you're the best.
I've got so much work to do.
I'm going to pause the podcastfor today and maybe the next six
months, so that I can just donothing but write and try to
catch up, even in the fall awaywith the volume of just as we
close.
There are a lot of writers thatwrite a lot.
(17:51):
There are not a lot of writersthat write a lot well, and so
kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, thank you, and I appreciate being on this
podcast and I appreciate allyour books.
I have ever seen one of yourbooks sometimes multiple copies
because they're all.
My family gets them as gifts aswell.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Well, I feel guilty.
I don't have all your books,but that's because I don't have
a storage unit near my home,which is what I would need, or
some kind of addition, a motherin law apartment, something?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'll send you a Kindle with them all on.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah Well, that is true, you got me there.
You got me there.
All right, heather, we will putlinks to all the good things
you're doing, of course, in theshow notes, and we thank you for
coming and joining us at themic.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
All right, thanks so much.
Hello, welcome folks to the book Drop Mike brought to
you by Ink Veins, your sourcefor book publicity, promo and
press releases.
And of course this is your host, jason Wright.
And this week I bring to theshow more than a fellow writer,
whom I admire, but a dear, dearfriend.
Her name is Heather Moore.
(00:22):
Welcome to the Mike Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks, jason, I'm excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, no, no, no, thank you for hopping on.
I know you got a lot going on.
Right now.
You are one of the busiest,most prolific, I think, writers,
creators, forces of nature thatI know, and if you have, if you
followed previously, rightwhere you are.
We had a great discussion aboutone of Heather's titles two
(00:47):
years ago, so I will put that inthe show notes so people can go
back and listen to that,because that was a fantastic
discussion.
But today we're here to talkabout a brand new book.
Before we dive into the newbook, heather, there might be
people listening who have notheard of you.
I know that that is unlikely,shocking even that there might
be a listener out there that isnot familiar with your work.
(01:08):
Shame on them, right, heather?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh, definitely.
I mean, everybody should hearof me, right.
Well, I just this is a quickintroduction.
I write under Heather beingMoore, which is my real name,
but there are a lot of otherHeather Moores in the world and
I write mostly historicalfiction.
I actually started writing myfirst book when I was 30.
I didn't mean it to be a book,I was writing a short story that
turned into a full manuscriptand I had no idea what to do
(01:32):
with it.
Of course it's still notpublished, but you can all thank
me for that.
But it started me on thejourney of just becoming fine
and low with writing and theprocess of creating, and I guess
I've always just been a hugereader and it sort of just
morphed into that that otherlove of mine.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So how many books have you published now, Heather?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I think it's just over a hundred.
That also includes some shorternovellas as well.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I think those count.
Heather Moore, I think thosecount.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, and don't ask me to name them or to remember
the character's names.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, you ever have someone walk up to you, like at
a signing, and just ask youabout like some plot point or
some character or something froma decade ago and you're like,
hmm, oh wait, hmm, remind meagain what was happening.
What's the context?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I once was invited to speak at a book club
and it was close to myneighborhood, so I went in
person and I just assumed theywere reading my latest book and
they said, oh, we're readingthis other book and I was, oh my
gosh.
So I hurried into, I said oh, Ineed to use a restroom or
whatever.
So I went in there, Idownloaded the book onto Candle
and I quickly scanned mycharacter chart so when I was
(02:50):
answering questions I couldspeak intelligently about it.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Oh my goodness, that's hilarious.
So I did a book club duringCOVID where I zoomed in and I
thought we were talking aboutone book and they were talking
about a much older book and noone had ever clarified that at
any point.
And so I actually got a coupleof answers in before it was
(03:14):
pretty clear that my answerswere not matching their
questions and I went, you knowwhat, and I just I totally came
clean.
In this case I had no choice.
I was like yeah, I think Ithought we were talking about A
and you're talking about B, andso we kind of, we kind of yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, that's very helpful to know which book
they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, it is helpful, but I do not have more than a
hundred titles.
You are, as I said, you areprolific.
So the purpose of this podcast,heather, as you know, is we're
trying to highlight books eitherthe day they come out or as
soon as possible to their dropdate, right Hence the name.
(03:54):
So let's talk about under theJava moon.
What is this new project about?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure.
So this is my first World WarII novel that I've had published
and is based on a true story.
The woman who is a heroine ofthe story she's still alive.
Her name is Marie FisherElliott and she goes by Rita and
the book is a nickname.
As a kid she was she's Dutch,she's from a Dutch family and
her family was living inIndonesia.
(04:22):
During World War II, and whenJapan bombed Pearl Harbor,
everyone was declaring war inJapan.
All the allies were declaringwar and Japan of course,
declared war.
Right back and close to themwere the Indonesian islands,
which were called the Dutch EastIndies back then, because
Poland had colonized them, andso Japan invaded, and Java and
(04:48):
all the surrounding islands arevery rich with minerals and oil,
and of course the Dutch werenot really prepared and so they
soon surrendered, and all of theDutch people and any other
Europeans are all sent tointernment camps for the next
three and a half years.
And this story is about onefamily, the Vischer family, and
their experiences.
In fact, the women were allseparated from the men, they had
(05:11):
men's camps and they had womenand children, and when a boy
turned about 11, he was thensent to the men's camp and
separated from his mom andyounger siblings.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Hmm, my heavens, and how did this land in your lap
this story?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was actually my publisher had a connection with
her and thought it would make agreat historical novel.
Marie was was very reluctant atfirst because she in her mind
she said this is a true story.
This really happened to me.
If you turn it to a historicalnovel, it makes me nervous to
know what are you going to addto it and how are you going to
create this book?
And so I met with her a coupleof times, in person first, and
(05:50):
she read one of my books as welland her one stipulation was
don't put romance in it.
This is not a romance novel,because I think she must have
read.
I write a little bit of sweetromance as well.
And I said well, I would loveto have your parent story in
there, even if it's kind of as aflashback, because the current
(06:11):
story they're already marriedwith a couple of children, and I
said because it's sointeresting while they got
married is they're married byproxy, so it's very kind of an
interesting story for them.
So I wanted to make sure toinclude it, but she was OK with
that, that much.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
No, that's so.
So why and I know I've askedyou this before, but why this
genre?
Why are you drawn to, to startfiction like this?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I think it's my favorite thing to read, and I
think mostly because I love tolearn in story form and I just
love history and I'm interestedin learning about the past, and
so it goes with what I love toread.
Because, as you know, when youwrite a book, it's not just
having this passion for creatinga story.
It has to go through editorialand production and you have to
market it and then, three orfour years later, you're doing
(07:03):
you're still doing book clubswith it, and so it has to be a
story that you really love andyou're willing to really stick
with for many years.
So I like to read other othergenres as well, but historical
fiction is definitely myfavorite genre to dive into.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So, of those 100 plus titles, what's the breakdown?
Do you know roughly whatpercentage falls into your
romance, or to some of yourreligious fiction, or into this
show?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, so I do write religious fiction that we just
call biblical fiction.
That is also historical, Iwould say almost.
I would probably say like 85 to90 percent of my writing is
historical.
When I'm writing historicalromance I would say the setting
is historical, but I'm notwriting historical characters
per se.
But when I'm writing historicalfiction it's usually crafted
(07:55):
around real people and realevents.
So it's a lot.
It's less of a fiction and moreof a historical side.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Right Interesting.
So you know, you and I, andprobably many of our listeners
today, come from a faithbackground where we sort of
accept that historical fictionis a historical fiction.
That historical fiction, couldyou know, come from the New
Testament, for example, butbookstores don't necessarily
always feel that way.
Are you saying, then, thatbookstores and distributors do
(08:26):
classify your what I would havethought of biblical or religious
fiction also as historicalfiction?
Is that how it's how it'sworking?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, so historical fiction would just be its
broader category and thesubgenre would be biblical
fiction.
And there's also Old Testament.
I don't know so.
Biblical includes New Testamentand Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But then I kind of refrain from calling it
Christian fiction because I feellike maybe New Testament would
be a mortal toward Christianity,but biblical fiction,
especially Old Testament fiction, that would be include more
faith than just Christianity.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Sure, yeah, interesting, that is super
interesting.
I have never, I've never reallythought through that, what that
definition of historicalfiction might actually include
and realize the breadth oftitles that you have written.
I mean, I thought I knew yourbacklist.
(09:25):
I'm looking here on Amazon,holy moly.
And of course my wife Cody, whoyou know, and she's great.
She's a huge, huge fan ofeverything you've done.
In fact, I think she may havebeen the first one to utter your
, your sacred name in our home,heather Moore, was Cody, because
she's been following you for along, long time.
So, all right, I'm going to askyou a question that I get asked
(09:47):
all the time, and I know a lotof authors detest this question,
but I've just decided over thelast several years, I'm just
going to answer it.
So you've got to pick one ofthese books as your, as your
favorite.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh, that's really tough.
I would I would say I wouldlabel a book I actually indie
published about seven years agois called condemning not, and
the reason I would say it was myfavorite is because it's
actually part of my familyhistory and so it was a passion
project, and it was about my10th great grandmother, who was
accused of witchcraft during thesame and witch trials.
(10:27):
Oh my and her trial.
She was 71 years old and shehad lived a full life.
It had nine children and hadgrandchildren and was a widow at
the time, and it was just afascinating study on just human,
the human mindset of panic andfear and how we can turn on each
other, which you see in any warthat goes on in the world.
You see it today, of course,but I was.
(10:49):
I was contacted about fiveyears ago by the Salem Witch
Museum in Salem, massachusetts,and they started carrying my
book in this summer.
In June I was able to go thereand do a big signing.
So it's kind of the wholeproject kind of came full circle
for me but that one book.
I still get emails all the timefrom my cousins because we all
(11:11):
consider ourselves descendantsand cousins of each other and
there's been some really greatrelationships formed that way.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's cool.
I love that.
That's a good answer.
Thank you for actuallyanswering honestly.
It's funny.
Everyone I've heard authorsanswer this a thousand times and
I have answered a thousandtimes.
Generally, we always say well,I think I'm obligated to say
it's my newest book, becausethat's the book that we're
promoting and that ourpublishers and marketing teams
(11:38):
want us to talk about, I think,because they are fresh in our
minds.
That's probably true.
That it's the most recent thingwe've written, probably is the
most important thing to us inthat moment, but it's not always
the thing that we'll probablymost remember in 10 years or
whatever.
I appreciate the candor on that.
(12:00):
I'll throw a little twist on it.
I have books where I love thestory more than the writing and
I have books where I love mywriting more than the story.
So for the sheer craft of justwriting, just turning a
beautiful phrase over and overand over again, which of your
books do you read and go?
(12:20):
Oh, I'm actually a little bitproud of how I crafted that.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah.
I think that's a good questionbecause, like you said, there's
some books that I'm writing thatjust fit like more of a genre
book and other books I am tryingto dive in to more, where the
actual world becomes its owncharacter.
I would say I don't know,honestly.
So so, writing under the joband moon, it wasn't an easy book
(12:50):
to write, right because of thetopic.
But I felt like every time Isat down, you know you have the
days where they're writing flowsand then other days you're just
, you're watching the clock andyou're thinking of anything you
could do besides right, I feltlike most of my writing days
with the end of the job of moonwere flowing days.
And I once asked Marie who'sthe main character.
She's, she's 86.
(13:12):
Now I said, are you praying forme?
Because I feel like this is,this is like an easier way.
So I I feel like that.
So that was kind of a differentexperience, but as far as like
being maybe really really proudof of working on something that
was really hard and feeling likeI achieved.
So I had a book that came out ayear ago is called In the Shadow
(13:34):
of a Queen and it's about QueenVictoria and Princess Louise,
and that took me.
That was the longest I everspent writing a book.
So I'm a full time writer butthis was six full months full
time, not working on anythingelse and not editing anything
else.
You know that was coming acrossmy desk and the whole book was
in one point of view and I hadread like nine different
(13:57):
biographies on different membersof the Royal Family and I just
felt, when that book was finallyaccepted it was like this huge,
like mountain.
I hadn't realized I wascarrying it.
So I felt so proud to get thatbook and to then have reviews,
respect the work that I did andand the writing and I did.
I did go through the book overand over, trying to get rid of
(14:19):
extra or duplicate words.
You know you say like part 450times in a book and you're like,
okay, let's just do it 200times.
You know I was.
I spent a lot more timecrafting the, the prose as well,
and I remember when I wasactually in a publisher's
meeting pitching my next book,the publisher was saying, well,
(14:39):
what about this?
Queen Victoria had ninechildren.
What about another sibling book?
And I said, well, I'm going toneed a couple years off If I'm
going to tackle because, knowinggoing into a book like that,
you just know you're justimmersed in that world full time
for so long.
So well, I feel like I feel likethat's a little badgid honor.
I don't know if that book willbe my best seller ever, because
(15:01):
it's, I would consider, abiographical novel which is very
close to nonfiction, like if Ishow you my manuscript I would
say every other paragraph I havea reference or resource there.
So as follows, almost exactlywhat I was researching.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, well, well, and I mean six months full time is
that is a lot of time.
You have to draw 24 hours.
That's pretty impressive.
I mean, I'm looking at theAmazon page and anytime
publishers weekly says we're theportrait of a woman divided by
duty and self-determination,among many, many, many other
(15:40):
glowing reviews.
That's pretty significant.
Well, congrats on that and onagain answering what can often,
for writers, be a really trickyquestion.
So I appreciate that, All right.
What's next then?
What's coming down the pipelinefrom Heather Moore?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So I have a book that is just recently turned in.
It's another World War II novel.
So my second one, and it is setin the United States, it's
about the women aviators whotrained and flew the bomber
planes that were coming off themanufacturing floor and
transferring them with theircomb, the faring squad, so
(16:18):
they're ferrying them to the airbases so the men could train on
these planes and then go fly incombat.
So the women, by the womenbeing able to do that, they
saved thousands and thousands ofhours that then the male pilots
could then benefit from andthen go fly on their missions.
So it's a novel.
I call it another biographicalnovel.
(16:40):
It's about women named NancyHarkness Love, and she is the
one that was constantly pushingand pushing Back then it's
called the Army Air Corps itwasn't quite the Air Force yet
to allow the women to fly theseplanes, and she's the first
woman to ever fly planes likethe P-51 Mustang, and so she was
really kind of like this go gether trans set her person.
(17:01):
But ironically she was not arisk taker, she didn't consider
herself a risk taker.
She would do her inspectionsfor like sometimes two hours on
a plane before she flew anything.
So she's very methodical thatway.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Interesting and that will hit bookshelves next fall,
late summer.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, it should be next fall.
It's still in the submissionprocess, so we're just waiting
to hear back on that.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, you're Heather Moore, so they're going to
publish it.
That's my guess, heather,you're the best.
I've got so much work to do.
I'm going to pause the podcastfor today and maybe the next six
months, so that I can just donothing but write and try to
catch up, even in the fall awaywith the volume of just as we
close.
There are a lot of writers thatwrite a lot.
(17:51):
There are not a lot of writersthat write a lot well, and so
kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, thank you, and I appreciate being on this
podcast and I appreciate allyour books.
I have ever seen one of yourbooks sometimes multiple copies
because they're all.
My family gets them as gifts aswell.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Well, I feel guilty.
I don't have all your books,but that's because I don't have
a storage unit near my home,which is what I would need, or
some kind of addition, a motherin law apartment, something?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'll send you a Kindle with them all on.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah Well, that is true, you got me there.
You got me there.
All right, heather, we will putlinks to all the good things
you're doing, of course, in theshow notes, and we thank you for
coming and joining us at themic.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
All right, thanks so much.
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