Not only that; this book makes me feel as if there is so much to write about. So many ways this story can be told. So many ways it NEEDS to be told. Through so many eyes. I feel totally inadequate!
The problem is that during this part of history, the very best and the very worst of mankind's nature came forth. How do you put that in words so that the reader really feels as if he is there? That's what I like to do; that's what I feel is the only way to do it; to put the reader INTO the story. To have them experience the story so that when they come back to reality, they look around and feel as if they have been away from this world and have gone someplace else.
Another problem is that this is not history way back yonder in the old days. People who are alive today actually were there, fighting those battles at the front and the battles at home. I want to do them justice, all of them. These people made such sacrifices.
Men didn't see their families for years and years. They went from safety and familiarity of home, to see and feel and hear things that no one should ever see or feel. They were forced to kill people. They saw their friends die in dreadful ways. They were in the constant reality that they could die or be wounded any minute. They saw civilians, little children, even animals hurt and wounded and killed. All the time. Every day. For years.
The ones left at home lived with the knowledge that things were happening to their men that they couldn't imagine. They knew that any time word could come that the worst had happened. Their neighbors and relatives were getting that dreaded news every day. Families lost members of their close family, extended family, kids that they had known all their lives.
And they all knew that they had to fight and to keep fighting until they won. Losing was not an option. There was no declared peace and everything would go back to the way it had always been, just their collective pride damaged. If they lost this war, their whole way of life would come to an end, because this enemy was intent on taking over the world. Period. They had to win, no matter what.
I want to do them right. I want to do this book right. I want to do the next book...which will still be about WWII...right. So, I wander around war museums and interview people and collect data from EVERYWHERE, trying to somehow have it jell into something in my mind. I have a book written already and it's actually pretty good. But I feel like there's more to be done. More to be told. More to be learned.
This is going to take awhile. I have over 100,000 words already and have scarcely scratched the surface. People will be waiting for this one for awhile, I'm afraid.
Because I want to do it right. All I can do, I have decided, is to say to God: You write it. Because it's way too big for me.
And whatever comes out, will be what He wants it to be. So, bear with me! Lord willing, it will tell the tale.