Welcome back to Day 2 of the Victory Celebration Blog Party! Today Savannah is posting Part One of a super fun Character Chat in which we're interviewing her characters and mine!

If you've been around for awhile, you may already know the story behind We Gave Our Tomorrows (I posted it on the WGOT website quite a while back). But for the folks who don't know, or those who want more information, I thought now would be a good time to explain the whys and wherefores behind WGOT.

First of all, it was based on a board game. My dad and brother voluntold me for a campaign game where we took an American squad through WWII in Europe. I was a little skeptical at first, because I didn't think we'd get very far (I had just started college and was under a lot of stress from various factors) but I joined them anyway. After playing out just one battle, I loved it! I started keeping a record of everything that happened to our squad - both on and off the battlefield - and used that as the base outline for the book's plot. Fortunately my MC didn't die (obviously, lol)! 😅

Everything fell into place. I had to figure out which division the squad was in, and the 4th Infantry was a nearly perfect fit! I had to change a few things from the game, but it worked out really well! I also found research materials that were exactly what I needed, and some amazing reenactors who were kind enough to answer questions and even beta read for accuracy.

WWII is popular. I know a lot of people are interested in the time era; when I'd mention that I was working on a WWII book they'd be like "oh that's cool! I wanna read it!" WWII fiction is almost its own genre, but unfortunately most of it is romance-based - which leads us to our next (and most important) point:

There's a need for books like WGOT. Think about it for a minute: how many WWII books do you know of that aren't a romance, and are about average soldiers but don't have all the nasty gore, language, and other content? Boys especially (and girls like me, hehe) have a really hard time finding good war stories. It's the same problem with trying to find a good war movie: there just aren't many out there. And there are even fewer that have a Christian message! That's why I'm so thankful for people like Savannah and our other two giveaway authors, who are trying to provide good books for all the WWII junkies like yours truly. 😁

Don't forget to enter the Victory Celebration Giveaway!

Also make sure to check out Savannah's blog and the other bloggers participating!

• L.E. Levens
• Addison Crissone
• Sophia McCrary
• Journey Bloomfield
• Emily Brown
• Katja Labonté
• H.C. Kingsley

And, for your song today: a medley of "Bless 'Em All/We're Gonna Hang Out the Washing/Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant Major" sung by the lovely D-Day Darlings!

I'm not going to be posting tomorrow, since it's Sunday, but come back Monday for Part Two of the Character Chat, in which we find out what the squad thinks of me and why Gerrit wants to move to Montana. 🫡✌️🪖