Thanks Rachel so much for having me on your
blog again for Saga Saturday! I’m thrilled to be back.
People ask why sagas and I think stories, especially historical
fiction, set through the lens of a family allow people to experience that time
and place in a way that we can all relate to.
I’m highly honored and thrilled to be part
of a fantastic collection of novels and novellas called The Road to Liberation:
Trials and Triumphs of World War II. I was approached to be part of a
collection that would mark the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII.
When I thought of the theme of liberation, I immediately thought of my time
living in Hawaii in a town with a huge
Filipino community. Thus, I knew I wanted to tell a story that focuses on what
the Filipino people went through during the war. Reading more on the Battle of
Manila firmed my idea of setting it during the height of that terrible battle,
and Liberation Street, my novella in the collection, was born.
I came across survivor memoirs thanks to
historians and the Memorare Manila 1945 Foundation, and the story of a family
forced to risk their lives and flee to safety resonated with me. The main
characters, Ida and Ramon, have to make split-second decisions in order to
survive. One of those includes abandoning their plan to seek refuge at De La
Salle College, where Ida’s sister and her family already are.
We are all forced to make choices, and
sometimes those haunt us. In the case of Ida, not being able to join her sister
will haunt her. I had to imagine that when she finally got a moment to collect
herself, and wanted to find out if her sister was all right, it would weigh on
her heavily. The chaos after the battle and long after the war would make it
difficult to locate any surviving family members.
The other thing that struck me about Manila
was that everyone that wasn’t Japanese was a target.
They were all deemed
guerilla fighters and therefore the enemy. The horror that happened was
unspeakable, but if we don’t tell these stories, people will never know they
happened, and thus it could happen again. The men, women, and children who
survived those perilous days deserve to be remembered, and the ones who lost
their lives are never to be forgotten.
Blurb for Liberation Street:
Manila, 1945. When Ida and Ramon Gomez are
ordered to leave their home or be killed, they flee their home with their two
young sons Rafael, 14, and Juan, 10, risking their lives as they search for a
safe place to land during the Battle of Manila.
Ida had planned to evacuate to De La Salle
College, one of the safest refuges in the city, to meet up with her sister
Helena, her husband Don Enrique, and their four sons. When told crossing Taft
Avenue to get to the college meant certain death, she’s forced to make a
decision that will haunt her.
As she and her family head from one shelter
to another across the city, her sister is never far from her thoughts. When
Helena’s youngest son, Frederico, is the only one found months later, it leaves
her searching for the truth of what happened to her sister.
Inspired by a true story, Liberation Street
is a tale of courage, loss, faith, and hope, and the bitter choices we must
make to survive.
To pre-order The Road to Liberation
collection, click here: https://books2read.com/RoadtoLiberation
About Kellie:
Kellie Butler is the author of Beneath
a Moonless Sky, Before the Flood, The Broken Tree, and the
upcoming Out of Night, all part of the bestselling The Laurelhurst
Chronicles series. Born in the deep south and educated at Mississippi State
University and Louisiana State University, she has travelled and lived around
the globe. Besides writing books, she enjoys knitting, yoga, cooking, hiking,
classical film, her MSU Bulldogs, and her dog, Chippy. She lives in Arizona
with her family.
To learn more about Kellie, visit her
website at www.kellierbutler.com,
where you can follow her on social media, read news/articles, and follow her
blog.
Social Media Links:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kellierbutler
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kellierbutler
Instagram: @kellierbutler
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/kellierbutler
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