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.
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.
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.
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.
Speaker 1:
Hello, welcome folks to the book Drop Mike brought to you by Ink Veins, your source for book publicity, promo and press releases. And of course this is your host, jason Wright. And this week I bring to the show more than a fellow writer, whom I admire, but a dear, dear friend. Her name is Heather Moore. Welcome to the Mike Heather.
Speaker 2:
Thanks, jason, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
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 that I know, and if you have, if you followed previously, right where you are. We had a great discussion about one of Heather's titles two years ago, so I will put that in the show notes so people can go back and listen to that, because that was a fantastic discussion. But today we're here to talk about a brand new book. Before we dive into the new book, heather, there might be people listening who have not heard of you. I know that that is unlikely, shocking even that there might be a listener out there that is not familiar with your work. Shame on them, right, heather?
Speaker 2:
Oh, definitely. I mean, everybody should hear of me, right.
Speaker 2:
Well, I just this is a quick introduction. I write under Heather being Moore, which is my real name, but there are a lot of other Heather Moores in the world and I write mostly historical fiction. I actually started writing my first 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 manuscript and I had no idea what to do with it. Of course it's still not published, but you can all thank me for that. But it started me on the journey of just becoming fine and low with writing and the process of creating, and I guess I've always just been a huge reader and it sort of just morphed into that that other love of mine.
Speaker 1:
So how many books have you published now, Heather?
Speaker 2:
I think it's just over a hundred. That also includes some shorter novellas as well.
Speaker 1:
I think those count. Heather Moore, I think those count.
Speaker 2:
Well, and don't ask me to name them or to remember the character's names.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you ever have someone walk up to you, like at a signing, and just ask you about like some plot point or some character or something from a decade ago and you're like, hmm, oh wait, hmm, remind me again what was happening. What's the context?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I once was invited to speak at a book club and it was close to my neighborhood, so I went in person and I just assumed they were reading my latest book and they said, oh, we're reading this other book and I was, oh my gosh. So I hurried into, I said oh, I need to use a restroom or whatever. So I went in there, I downloaded the book onto Candle and I quickly scanned my character chart so when I was answering questions I could speak intelligently about it.
Speaker 1:
Oh my goodness, that's hilarious. So I did a book club during COVID where I zoomed in and I thought we were talking about one book and they were talking about a much older book and no one had ever clarified that at any point. And so I actually got a couple of answers in before it was pretty clear that my answers were not matching their questions and I went, you know what, and I just I totally came clean. In this case I had no choice. I was like yeah, I think I thought we were talking about A and you're talking about B, and so we kind of, we kind of yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's very helpful to know which book they're talking about.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it is helpful, but I do not have more than a hundred titles. You are, as I said, you are prolific. So the purpose of this podcast, heather, as you know, is we're trying to highlight books either the day they come out or as soon as possible to their drop date, right Hence the name. So let's talk about under the Java moon. What is this new project about?
Speaker 2:
Sure. So this is my first World War II novel that I've had published and is based on a true story. The woman who is a heroine of the story she's still alive. Her name is Marie Fisher Elliott 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 in Indonesia.
Speaker 2:
During World War II, and when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, everyone was declaring war in Japan. All the allies were declaring war and Japan of course, declared war. Right back and close to them were the Indonesian islands, which were called the Dutch East Indies back then, because Poland had colonized them, and so Japan invaded, and Java and all the surrounding islands are very rich with minerals and oil, and of course the Dutch were not really prepared and so they soon surrendered, and all of the Dutch people and any other Europeans are all sent to internment camps for the next three and a half years. And this story is about one family, the Vischer family, and their experiences. In fact, the women were all separated from the men, they had men's camps and they had women and children, and when a boy turned about 11, he was then sent to the men's camp and separated from his mom and younger siblings.
Speaker 1:
Hmm, my heavens, and how did this land in your lap this story?
Speaker 2:
It was actually my publisher had a connection with her and thought it would make a great historical novel. Marie was was very reluctant at first because she in her mind she said this is a true story. This really happened to me. If you turn it to a historical novel, it makes me nervous to know what are you going to add to it and how are you going to create this book? And so I met with her a couple of times, in person first, and she read one of my books as well and her one stipulation was don't put romance in it.
Speaker 2:
This is not a romance novel, because I think she must have read. I write a little bit of sweet romance as well. And I said well, I would love to have your parent story in there, even if it's kind of as a flashback, because the current story they're already married with a couple of children, and I said because it's so interesting while they got married is they're married by proxy, so it's very kind of an interesting story for them. So I wanted to make sure to include it, but she was OK with that, that much.
Speaker 1:
No, that's so. So why and I know I've asked you this before, but why this genre? Why are you drawn to, to start fiction like this?
Speaker 2:
I think it's my favorite thing to read, and I think mostly because I love to learn in story form and I just love history and I'm interested in learning about the past, and so it goes with what I love to read. Because, as you know, when you write a book, it's not just having this passion for creating a story. It has to go through editorial and production and you have to market it and then, three or four years later, you're doing you're still doing book clubs with it, and so it has to be a story that you really love and you're willing to really stick with for many years. So I like to read other other genres as well, but historical fiction is definitely my favorite genre to dive into.
Speaker 1:
So, of those 100 plus titles, what's the breakdown? Do you know roughly what percentage falls into your romance, or to some of your religious fiction, or into this show?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I do write religious fiction that we just call biblical fiction. That is also historical, I would say almost. I would probably say like 85 to 90 percent of my writing is historical. When I'm writing historical romance I would say the setting is historical, but I'm not writing historical characters per se. But when I'm writing historical fiction it's usually crafted around real people and real events. So it's a lot. It's less of a fiction and more of a historical side.
Speaker 1:
Right Interesting. So you know, you and I, and probably many of our listeners today, come from a faith background where we sort of accept that historical fiction is a historical fiction. That historical fiction, could you know, come from the New Testament, for example, but bookstores don't necessarily always feel that way. Are you saying, then, that bookstores and distributors do classify your what I would have thought of biblical or religious fiction also as historical fiction? Is that how it's how it's working?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so historical fiction would just be its broader category and the subgenre would be biblical fiction. And there's also Old Testament. I don't know so. Biblical includes New Testament and Old Testament.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 2:
But then I kind of refrain from calling it Christian fiction because I feel like 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:
Sure, yeah, interesting, that is super interesting. I have never, I've never really thought through that, what that definition of historical fiction might actually include and realize the breadth of titles that you have written. I mean, I thought I knew your backlist. I'm looking here on Amazon, holy moly. And of course my wife Cody, who you know, and she's great.
Speaker 1:
She's a huge, huge fan of everything you've done. In fact, I think she may have been the first one to utter your, your sacred name in our home, heather Moore, was Cody, because she's been following you for a long, long time. So, all right, I'm going to ask you a question that I get asked all the time, and I know a lot of authors detest this question, but I've just decided over the last several years, I'm just going to answer it. So you've got to pick one of these books as your, as your favorite. What is it?
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's really tough. I would I would say I would label a book I actually indie published about seven years ago is called condemning not, and the reason I would say it was my favorite is because it's actually part of my family history and so it was a passion project, and it was about my 10th great grandmother, who was accused of witchcraft during the same and witch trials.
Speaker 2:
Oh my and her trial. She was 71 years old and she had lived a full life. It had nine children and had grandchildren and was a widow at the time, and it was just a fascinating study on just human, the human mindset of panic and fear and how we can turn on each other, which you see in any war that goes on in the world. You see it today, of course, but I was. I was contacted about five years 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 there and do a big signing. So it's kind of the whole project kind of came full circle for me but that one book. I still get emails all the time from my cousins because we all consider ourselves descendants and cousins of each other and there's been some really great relationships formed that way.
Speaker 1:
That's cool. I love that. That's a good answer. Thank you for actually answering honestly. It's funny. Everyone I've heard authors answer this a thousand times and I have answered a thousand times. Generally, we always say well, I think I'm obligated to say it's my newest book, because that's the book that we're promoting and that our publishers and marketing teams want us to talk about, I think, because they are fresh in our minds. That's probably true. That it's the most recent thing we've written, probably is the most important thing to us in that moment, but it's not always the thing that we'll probably most remember in 10 years or whatever. I appreciate the candor on that. I'll throw a little twist on it. I have books where I love the story more than the writing and I have books where I love my writing more than the story. So for the sheer craft of just writing, just turning a beautiful phrase over and over and over again, which of your books do you read and go? Oh, I'm actually a little bit proud of how I crafted that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I think that's a good question because, like you said, there's some books that I'm writing that just fit like more of a genre book and other books I am trying to dive in to more, where the actual world becomes its own character. I would say I don't know, honestly. So so, writing under the job and moon, it wasn't an easy book to write, right because of the topic. But I felt like every time I sat down, you know you have the days where they're writing flows and then other days you're just, you're watching the clock and you're thinking of anything you could do besides right, I felt like most of my writing days with the end of the job of moon were flowing days. And I once asked Marie who's the main character. She's, she's 86. Now I said, are you praying for me? Because I feel like this is, this is like an easier way. So I I feel like that. So that was kind of a different experience, but as far as like being maybe really really proud of of working on something that was really hard and feeling like I achieved.
Speaker 2:
So I had a book that came out a year ago is called In the Shadow of a Queen and it's about Queen Victoria and Princess Louise, and that took me. That was the longest I ever spent writing a book. So I'm a full time writer but this was six full months full time, not working on anything else and not editing anything else. You know that was coming across my desk and the whole book was in one point of view and I had read like nine different biographies on different members of the Royal Family and I just felt, when that book was finally accepted it was like this huge, like mountain. I hadn't realized I was carrying it. So I felt so proud to get that book and to then have reviews, respect the work that I did and and the writing and I did.
Speaker 2:
I did go through the book over and over, trying to get rid of extra or duplicate words. You know you say like part 450 times in a book and you're like, okay, let's just do it 200 times. You know I was. I spent a lot more time crafting the, the prose as well, and I remember when I was actually in a publisher's meeting pitching my next book, the publisher was saying, well, what about this? Queen Victoria had nine children. What about another sibling book? And I said, well, I'm going to need a couple years off If I'm going to tackle because, knowing going into a book like that, you just know you're just immersed in that world full time for so long.
Speaker 2:
So well, I feel like I feel like that's a little badgid honor. I don't know if that book will be my best seller ever, because it's, I would consider, a biographical novel which is very close to nonfiction, like if I show you my manuscript I would say every other paragraph I have a reference or resource there. So as follows, almost exactly what I was researching.
Speaker 1:
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 the Amazon page and anytime publishers weekly says we're the portrait of a woman divided by duty and self-determination, among many, many, many other glowing reviews. That's pretty significant. Well, congrats on that and on again answering what can often, for writers, be a really tricky question. So I appreciate that, All right. What's next then? What's coming down the pipeline from Heather Moore?
Speaker 2:
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 set in the United States, it's about the women aviators who trained and flew the bomber planes that were coming off the manufacturing floor and transferring them with their comb, the faring squad, so they're ferrying them to the air bases so the men could train on these planes and then go fly in combat. So the women, by the women being able to do that, they saved thousands and thousands of hours that then the male pilots could then benefit from and then go fly on their missions. So it's a novel.
Speaker 2:
I call it another biographical novel. It's about women named Nancy Harkness Love, and she is the one that was constantly pushing and pushing Back then it's called the Army Air Corps it wasn't quite the Air Force yet to allow the women to fly these planes, and she's the first woman to ever fly planes like the P-51 Mustang, and so she was really kind of like this go get her trans set her person. But ironically she was not a risk taker, she didn't consider herself a risk taker. She would do her inspections for like sometimes two hours on a plane before she flew anything. So she's very methodical that way.
Speaker 1:
Interesting and that will hit bookshelves next fall, late summer.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it should be next fall. It's still in the submission process, so we're just waiting to hear back on that.
Speaker 1:
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 podcast for today and maybe the next six months, so that I can just do nothing but write and try to catch up, even in the fall away with the volume of just as we close. There are a lot of writers that write a lot. There are not a lot of writers that write a lot well, and so kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you, and I appreciate being on this podcast and I appreciate all your books. I have ever seen one of your books sometimes multiple copies because they're all. My family gets them as gifts as well.
Speaker 1:
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 mother in law apartment, something?
Speaker 2:
I'll send you a Kindle with them all on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah Well, that is true, you got me there. You got me there. All right, heather, we will put links to all the good things you're doing, of course, in the show notes, and we thank you for coming and joining us at the mic.