Remember Wake

2003 EVVY Award winner for Historical Fiction
"A Book Club Must"
Based on a true story from The Pacific. . . December, 1941—While the world focuses on the carnage at Pearl Harbor, tiny Wake Island 2,300 miles west is also under attack. On it are 1,200 civilians and a small detachment of Marines. This frightened, under-equipped band of Americans will hold the mighty Japanese navy at bay for sixteen days before succumbing to a sweeping invasion. "Remember Wake" becomes a battle cry for a nation marching to war. Now prisoners of the Emperor, Colin Finnely and the others are crowded aboard a notorious Japanese hell ship bound for Asia, where they will suffer four long years in disease-infested prison camps, while forced to work as slave laborers. They will die by the hundreds. With only one reason to live—his love for his fiancée, Maggie Braun—Colin struggles to survive torture and inhuman conditions. And on the home front, Maggie, unsure if Colin is even alive, faces agonizing decisions that may alter both their lives.

Author's Note
This book is based on interviews I did with thirteen men and women who actually lived the experiences depicted in Remember Wake. So virtually everything you read in my book actually happened to at least one of my interviewees. That's what lends this book the authenticity so important to good historical novels. It took me ten years to research and write this book and then get it published. I was often interrupted by other writing projects and the needs of three small children, but during those long years I never once stopped believing in the power of this story. It continues to inspire me, as do the men and women on whom the characters are based. This is their story. I've been lucky to tell it.