Blog Archives
Backstories
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down follows American and German families across two world wars as their children inherit dreams, prejudices, loyalties, and choices that eventually place them on opposite sides of an altered World War II. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Several.
First, not all Germans were Nazis, just as not all Japanese Americans were loyal to Japan. (See my novel The Two Terrors of Tulelake)
Second, I wanted to explore the backstories, the local stories, of those who fought on both sides of that conflict.
Third, how would the war have changed if certain key historical events had failed?
What interested you about exploring not simply whether history could have happened differently, but what those changes might have cost?
I wanted to examine what those changes might have cost, both physically and mentally, to individuals, groups of people, and nations. My own family had several veterans of World War II, and they were not comfortable in sharing their stories. The History Channel‘s World War II with Tom Hanks had two interesting questions from survivors and participants alike: “Who could do such a thing?” “How can one people do this to another people?” I wanted to share with a younger generation the horrors of concentration camps. Also, the 1846 translation of Eugène Sue’s novel Memoirs of Matilda included a famous quote — “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” This quote served as a connection to the second book in the trilogy, The Spies From Camp X.
What did you want to explore about humanity’s relationship with increasingly powerful weapons?
Someone can always create a bigger gun, a faster bullet, or a higher platform from which to destroy mankind. J. Robert Oppenheimer once said, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Albert Einstein once said, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
T.S. Elliott wrote, “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” I ask, “Where will it end?”
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Two families, one American and one German, collide across World War I, the Great Depression, and a radically altered World War II, shaped by hatred, sacrifice, and forces that feel uncomfortably divine. As twin brothers choose opposing paths within Nazi Germany and a Texas farm boy takes to the skies, history veers off course. D-Day collapses in disaster. Britain faces annihilation. Volunteer pilots launch desperate missions, and a single flight toward Berlin carries the weight of ending the war at an unimaginable cost. Biblical echoes of Jericho haunt every turning point, raising unsettling questions about destiny, justice, and intervention.
Blending military history, family saga, and psychological tension, this gripping alternative history challenges readers to ask what if history changed, and what the cost of that change would be.
The Comet Line
The Belgian Girls follows two young women resisting German occupation in Belgium, one during World War I as an intelligence agent, and the other during World War II involved in resistance efforts. What interested you about portraying courage as something that can look different from one person to another?
My first book, Women Heroes of World War II, includes the most heroic stories of Second World War resistance that I could find at the time, including the one that inspired me as a young adult: Corrie ten Boom, the devout Dutch resister who was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for hiding Jewish people from the Nazis. I always wondered if I would have the guts to do what she did, to put my own life on the line for the sake of conviction. And as I saw Women Heroes of WWII gain a fairly large audience, I thought that perhaps some young readers, when encountering the book’s stories of remarkable courage, might entertain the same self-doubt I had. That’s why, while writing The Belgian Girls, I deliberately gave the fictional Julienne a quiet, reserved disposition, to illustrate that courage is a choice, not a personality type.
Gabrielle Petit’s personality was basically how she is portrayed in the novel!
Family history becomes an important bridge between the two timelines. What interested you about exploring the ways one generation’s experiences can shape another?
When one of my sons dressed up as WWI American hero, Sergeant Alvin York, I asked my WWII vet father to identify which historical character he was trying to portray. He guessed immediately. That was the first time I realized part of the Greatest Generation’s alacrity in signing up for the military after Pearl Harbor was that they had been raised on stories of the previous war’s heroes. Then, while writing my books on the two world wars, I discovered a generational inspiration factor among Europeans. For instance, WWII special agent Pearl Witherington, who led an enormous team of French fighters against the Nazis, was inspired by Louise de Bettignies, the French First World War spy Kate Quinn wrote about in The Alice Network. And as I point out in The Belgian Girls, Andree de Jongh, founder of the Comet Line, was inspired by Gabrielle Petit and Edith Cavell, both of whom worked against the German occupation of Belgium during World War I.
What challenges come with placing fictional characters alongside people who actually lived through these events?
Actually, it was great fun. An author of nonfiction has to make certain that every sentence is absolutely factual. For once, I was free to make things up, to fill in the blanks of what I already knew about Gabrielle’s life and work and everything I already knew about the young women who worked on the Comet Line.
Why do you think stories about women’s roles in wartime resistance continue to resonate so strongly with readers?
Everyone loves a good underdog story, and it can be stated that women in the first half of the 20th century were underdogs, often considered less valuable, less qualified, and less capable than men. But because of the strange reality created by war, women rose to challenges not normally afforded to them. And those who prospered in those unusual circumstances continue to inspire us today.
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When the Germans overrun Brussels during the First World War, Gabrielle is infuriated to see her newfound happiness shattered. It isn’t long before she is faced with an impossible choice. Three decades later, shy and bookish Julienne moves to Brussels with her widowed father at the height of the Nazi occupation and is horrified to witness the city’s callous treatment of Jews.
In this dual timeline novel inspired by the life of Belgian spy Gabrielle Petit, two very different young women must discover their inner strength to become the heroes their city needs. And when loyalties are tested and decades-old secrets are revealed, their legacies will become entwined forever.
Written by historian and storyteller Kathryn J. Atwood, The Belgian Girls is a tale of hope, forgiveness, and the healing power of friendship.
Military History
The 20th PID Book combines original photographs, reports, maps, and memories with modern context to illuminate the vital work of WWII photo interpreters. What did the original 1945 volume mean to your father, Lt. William J. Snodden, and to your family?
I can’t remember my dad ever talking about his experiences during the war when I was growing up. It was only when he was in his late 80s, and I asked him specifically about those years, that he pulled out his military papers and this commemorative album. That day was the first time I heard about his work as a photo interpreter. Dad was never one to show his feelings, but as I watched him reverently page through the book, I could tell how meaningful that time was for him. My mom was a master declutterer, and as they moved from their family home to increasingly smaller senior apartments, she was ruthless. The fact that the album and his military records survived those repeated purges testifies to how important they were to him.
In 2019, a few months before he died, we donated the album to the Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Arizona. It was hard for him to give it up, but he was clearly glad to see it in a place where it would be preserved for future generations. I know he’d be pleased that I’m now making its contents available to people outside the museum.
What was the role of the 20th Photo Intelligence Detachment during World War II, and why do you think the work of photo interpreters remained relatively unfamiliar compared with other forms of wartime intelligence?
When I’d mention the book to friends as I was working on it, their first question was always, “Oh, was your dad a pilot?” The pilots who took the aerial photos have received a lot of well-deserved attention in history, but without the men developing and interpreting those photos, all of that information would have been for naught.
With each sortie, the reconnaissance pilots came back with hundreds of images. The PIs often worked throughout the night, first developing the photos and then, hunched over tables and peering through stereoscopes at minute images, identifying potential bombing targets, assessing whether attacks had successfully destroyed those targets, and annotating photographs before summarizing their findings in typed reports. As many as a hundred copies of a report could then be produced for distribution to commanders. During the height of the war, all of this was accomplished in less than twelve hours!
On the surface, the work of the PIs might appear dull and isn’t likely to attract the attention of a major motion picture studio. Their success wasn’t dramatic or especially visible—their product was intelligence. Pilots flew dangerous missions in recognizable aircraft; PIs worked behind tables with stereoscopes, pencils, photographs, and typewriters. One photographs beautifully. The other doesn’t. Yet both were part of the same intelligence chain. Accurate and timely tactical intelligence allowed commanders to make the best use of their resources, disrupt German activity, and ultimately save resources and lives.
The original book contains humor, cartoons, personal memories, and photographs alongside technical intelligence. Why was preserving their personalities and everyday experiences as important as documenting their military work?
This album was created just before the men were released from duty. It was created by the men of the unit, for the men of the unit. It shows us how they chose to remember that time in their lives and could also serve as a way to share their wartime experiences with family and friends. By adding humor and cartoons, they turned their work into stories.
The route map, in particular, contains more than 30 vignettes of locations and events throughout Europe. Some pertain to large-scale wartime events, like the liberation of Paris, while others show experiences specific to the 20th PID, like their crossing of the English Channel in a small boat stuffed to the gills with soldiers, a jeep precariously balanced on the bow, and a nearby periscope watching from the deep.
An ex-soldier could use that tiny drawing as a prompt: “Oh, let me tell you about THAT day!”
Eighty years after the original book was created, what do you hope publishing this restored edition preserves for the next eighty years?
Most, if not all, of the men in the 20th PID are now gone. This book is a uniquely creative artifact documenting firsthand their work and experiences during the war. I would like future generations to know of their contributions through the men of the unit themselves.
The book also has a place in military history. Although aerial photo interpretation had been used before WWII, during the war it became increasingly sophisticated and systematic and was integrated into fast-moving tactical operations.
What makes this book unusual is that we don’t have to reconstruct that process eighty years later. The men themselves left us the photographs they examined, the reports they produced, the maps they used, the cartoons they drew, and their own explanation of what they did.
My hope is that eighty years from now, another reader can open this book and still hear their voices.
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The 20th PID Book: A Rare Look at a WWII Photo Intelligence Detachment
Nancy Finston’s The 20th PID Book is both a restored wartime artifact and an accessible account of a specialized intelligence unit whose work helped guide Allied air operations in Europe. The volume is based on a commemorative book created in 1945 by members of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 20th Photo Intelligence Detachment, then expanded by Finston with explanatory notes, enlargements, historical context, and material from the military archive of her father, Lt. William J. Snodden. The result has an unusual immediacy. Readers encounter the original photographs, cartoons, reports, maps, and recollections while also receiving enough explanation to understand the technical language and procedures behind them. As the introduction puts it, the book functions as “both a historical artifact and a working record,” a description that accurately captures its distinctive character.
The book is strongest when it shows photo intelligence as a process. Its detailed “Life Story of a Sortie” follows reconnaissance photographs from the aircraft through film processing, mapping, stereoscopic interpretation, reporting, bombing, damage assessment, and archival preservation. That structure makes the work of the detachment tangible. Aerial images were compared with earlier photographs, matched to coordinates, examined for minute physical changes, and annotated so that commanders could act on the findings. In some cases, the entire process from receiving developed photographs and a pilot’s trace report to distributing intelligence to headquarters took “LESS THAN 12 HOURS!” Later chapters reinforce that sense of precision by showing bomb damage reports, target studies, pre-strike and post-strike photographs, and ground photographs that confirmed the interpreters’ assessments. The accumulated evidence gives the reader a clear understanding of how observation became actionable military intelligence.
Finston also succeeds in preserving the human character of the original keepsake. The technical material is balanced by cartoons, personal recollections, photographs, a humorous route map, commendations, and the commanding officer’s farewell letter. These elements show the detachment as a community of young servicemen as well as an intelligence organization. The route map is particularly effective because it transforms the unit’s movements from England through France, Belgium, and Germany into a visual diary filled with mud, restricted cities, makeshift quarters, danger, and moments of relief. The closing material deepens that personal dimension. Major Frederick Ahlson’s 1945 letter recalls the men who had “lived, worked, wined and dined together” and expresses the hope that their wartime friendships would survive their dispersal. Because these voices and images come from the unit itself, the book conveys memory at a scale that conventional operational histories rarely capture.
The 20th PID Book is a carefully assembled archival history of the people, methods, and wartime responsibilities of the 20th Photo Intelligence Detachment. Its value lies in the way it connects technical intelligence work to specific military consequences, from identifying hidden landing grounds and supply dumps to assessing damaged bridges and transportation networks during the Allied advance. At the same time, the restored keepsake preserves how the men chose to remember their own service after the fighting ended. Finston’s editorial additions generally serve that original material well by explaining unfamiliar practices without overwhelming the firsthand record. The book should appeal to readers interested in World War II, military intelligence, aerial reconnaissance, archival history, and the less visible forms of expertise that shaped battlefield decisions. It preserves a specialized chapter of the war with clarity, documentary richness, and a strong sense of the individuals behind the reports.
Pages: 140
A Place to Relax
OFF THE GRID follows a World War I veteran, journalist, skilled sailor, and boat builder who leaves New York in search of a quieter life aboard his cutter but finds himself working as an off-the-record agent. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I found when I started writing novels that after you are inspired with this wonderful fantasy you created, what really makes it work becomes autobiographic. I found that with my first two novels, “Forgery by Deception,” and Everything We Try to Hold.” So, for “OFF THE GRID,” I am a WWII history buff. I read accounts of German submarines operating in the Florida Keys during WWII, as well as WWI. I have been sailing alone since the early 80’s, enjoying that quieter life. Started scuba diving in 1970, and became a diver master in 1984. I live 20minutes from the Florida Keys, and have been sailing, diving, and kayaking there for many years. I am also a veteran, who during my service was a radio telegraph, telephone, with a secret clearance.
What makes Frank different from the traditional fictional spy?
By making Frank an ordinary WWI vet, and not a trained intelligence operative, he is tasked with solving finding and exposing a Nazi spy ring, without specialized training. Every situation he encounters has to be delt with his own intelligence, and more importantly, his own emotions.
What challenges did you face in balancing historical accuracy with the demands of fiction?
A great deal. There was a tremendous amount of research involved. First, you had the war history, from WWI, and WWII. Then I had to merge that with the history of the keys in 1935 to 1941. When I was writing the introductory part of the book, about one quarter, and realized, how I wanted the story to finish, was not going to work the way I had envisioned because of the actual dates. So, I went back to beginning, and revised what I had written. It took time to sort all that out.
If you could spend one day aboard the Frieda-Ann with Frank, where would you want him to take you—and why?
The place is the Dry Tortugas, where the book finally ends. Fort Jefferson, a Civil War Fort that is 70 miles west, from Key West. Isolated from humanity, the only way to visit now is by seaplane, or boat. A perfect place to relax, dive, write, and drink rum.
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OFF THE GRID
Gene Piotrowsky’s Off the Grid is a historical espionage novel set primarily in the Florida Keys during the tense period before the United States entered World War II. Its central character, Frank Smith, is a World War I veteran, journalist, skilled sailor, and boat builder who leaves New York hoping to begin a quiet life aboard his cutter, the Frieda-Ann. That plan takes a sharp turn when his former commanding officer recruits him as an unofficial intelligence agent, telling him, “I would like you to be my off-the-record agent.” From there, Frank’s journey becomes a mixture of maritime adventure, undercover investigation, and wartime suspense.
Much of the book’s appeal comes from its unusual setting. Piotrowsky spends considerable time describing sailing routes, reefs, mangrove passages, isolated anchorages, local businesses, and communities still recovering from the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane. These details give the novel the feeling of a personal logbook and place the reader directly aboard the Frieda-Ann. Frank’s routines, from checking his rigging to preparing meals and communicating through Morse code, make his secret life feel practical and lived-in. The Florida Keys aren’t simply scenery here. Their remoteness and scattered population make them a believable hiding place for spies, submarines, and people trying to disappear.
Frank is an engaging lead because he approaches espionage as a problem solver rather than as a glamorous action hero. He gathers gossip, studies accents, builds relationships with veterans, and carefully develops explanations for his movements. His background as a writer helps him ask questions without immediately attracting suspicion, while his knowledge of German gives him access to conversations others can’t understand. The story also gives him a dry, occasionally self-aware sense of humor. After accepting the assignment and considering its danger, he concludes, “This was not going to be an easy task. Time for another large rum.” That line captures Frank nicely. He’s thoughtful and capable, but he’s also a man who regularly processes danger over coffee, dinner, or a strong drink.
The novel unfolds patiently, following Frank as small observations grow into evidence of a larger Nazi network. Conversations at marinas, churches, taverns, and beach gatherings gradually connect suspicious veterans, German-speaking laborers, hidden operatives, and submarine landings. As the plot intensifies, Frank moves from gathering intelligence to conducting dangerous underwater surveillance and staging elaborate operations against enemy agents. The procedural detail gives these missions a distinctive texture. Readers see Frank plan routes, test equipment, create alibis, consider possible failures, and think through the consequences. His friendships with Stu, Selma, Carl, and the struggling veterans also give the story a community at its center, so the threat feels personal rather than abstract.
Off the Grid is a broad, detail-rich adventure about an ordinary-looking man quietly fighting a hidden war. It combines regional history, sailing knowledge, military intrigue, and the story of the Florida Keys’ transformation during World War II. By the epilogue, Frank’s active mission has evolved into journalism and informal intelligence work, allowing him to remain useful while building a life within the community he helped protect. The book’s strongest identity comes from that combination of secrecy and daily life. Frank may be hunting enemy agents, but he’s also repairing his boat, sharing rum with veterans, listening to local gossip, and learning to call the Keys home.
Pages: 170
Intergenerational Memory
Echoes of Memory is a personal work of public history that traces the Japanese occupation of Sanzao Island during World War II through forced labor and cultural suppression. At what point did you realize these memories needed to be preserved in book form?
Growing up in the United States with Chinese diasporic roots, I knew about the Sino-Japanese War in broad historical terms, but there was still a certain emotional distance between history and lived experience. That changed as I began learning more about Sanzao Island and hearing personal stories connected to relatives and members of the local community who had lived through the Japanese occupation during World War II.
Reading about war in textbooks is one thing, but hearing how occupation shaped the daily lives of real people connected to your own family and community is something entirely different. Stories about fear, survival, forced labor, and cultural suppression suddenly became deeply personal. I also realized that many of these memories existed primarily through oral histories carried by elders whose experiences had never been fully documented.
At that point, I felt a responsibility to preserve these stories before they disappeared. I wanted the book to serve not only as a historical record but also as a way of honoring the resilience and humanity of smaller communities whose experiences are often overlooked in larger wartime narratives.
Were there stories you grew up hearing that took on new meaning during the research process?
Yes, absolutely. As a young adult, I would occasionally hear fragments of stories about hardship during the war years, but I did not fully understand the scale of what people had endured until being immersed in the research process for the book. Some stories were told casually, while others were surrounded by silence. In many diaspora families, memories of war are not always passed down in formal ways; they often survive through small comments, family habits, emotional undercurrents, or brief recollections shared over time.
Much of this work also grew from the decades of oral history collection and archival preservation my father began within our family and the Sanzao community. Over time, those testimonies, photographs, and conversations became part of a larger intergenerational archive that shaped the foundation of this book.
During the research process, those fragments began to take on much deeper meaning. I started to understand that behind many everyday stories were experiences of occupation, fear, displacement, and survival. Hearing personal accounts from relatives and community members made the history feel immediate and human in a way archival research alone never could.
The process also changed how I understood memory itself. I realized that silence can sometimes reflect trauma just as much as storytelling does, and that preserving these histories is important not only for historical scholarship but for intergenerational understanding and healing.
Why do you think the experiences of smaller communities are often overlooked in broader wartime narratives?
Smaller communities are often pushed to the margins of history, yet they carry some of war’s deepest emotional and cultural scars. Broader wartime narratives often focus on major political leaders, military campaigns, or large urban centers because those stories are more visible within official archives and national histories. As a result, communities like Sanzao are frequently treated as footnotes despite experiencing profound forms of suffering, displacement, and disruption.
At the same time, there has been a growing effort to preserve these local histories through museums, archives, oral history projects, and community preservation work. Over the past two decades, institutions such as the Zhuhai Museum have actively worked to document and preserve regional memories connected to the Japanese occupation and the Sino-Japanese War. That experience reinforced for me how important this work is, especially as many firsthand witnesses and elders continue to pass away.
I believe these histories matter because they show how global conflicts reshape everyday life at the local level. They remind us that war is not only experienced on battlefields, but also in homes, villages, schools, and families. Preserving these stories helps create a more complete and compassionate understanding of history.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from Echoes of Memory?
One of the most important things readers can take away from Echoes of Memory is a greater awareness of how personal, family, and community histories are deeply connected to broader global histories. Many people think of history as something distant or abstract, but oral histories remind us that large historical events are experienced through individual lives, families, and local communities.
The book also encourages readers to speak with elders, preserve family stories, and recognize the importance of intergenerational memory before those histories are lost. When we begin documenting oral histories within our own families and communities, we often discover that our personal stories are deeply intertwined with larger histories of war, displacement, survival, and resilience.
At the same time, the project contributes to broader conversations about memory, wartime trauma, and civilian suffering during World War II. While many important discussions of war memory and mass trauma focus on Europe and Africa, the histories connected to the Sino-Japanese War and the experiences of Chinese communities during occupation are still less visible in many international conversations. Preserving and sharing these stories helps create a more complete understanding of how global conflict affected ordinary people across different parts of the world.
Ultimately, Echoes of Memory is about preservation, remembrance, and the responsibility we all share in documenting the stories that shape our communities and collective histories.
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When war silences a community, memory becomes resistance. Echoes of Memory is a decolonial work of public history centered on Sanzao Island during the Japanese occupation of China (1937-1945). Blending oral history, archival research, poetry, and visual narrative, the book reconstructs silenced histories of war, survival, and intergenerational memory. Through the collaborative research of Robert and Lani Cupchoy, a father-daughter team dedicated to preserving their ancestral legacy, the book foregrounds lived experience and community testimony often absent from traditional military historiography. Echoes of Memory restores humanity to the historical record and honors the descendants who continue to carry ancestral memory.
Exiles and Survivors
In When the World Dies, you track how high hopes at the beginning of the 20th century disappeared with the appearance of world wars, genocide, and the nuclear age. Was there a particular historical event that compelled you to write this book?
The genocide of the Jews in World War II: My father’s Jewish family remained in Europe and was lost in the genocide. On his father’s side, they had already emigrated to the U.S. But on his mother’s side, they remained in Budapest with the exception of an uncle who left for Australia. That uncle, my great uncle, visited us and told of his harrowing escape. My mother was Protestant and of Dutch-German lineage.
Can you share with us a little about the research that went into putting this book together?
My research started about 5 or 6 years ago. I was fascinated by Stefan Zweig, an Austrian writer, forced to leave Salzburg after his home was ransacked and then sold for pennies. He ended in Petropolis, Brazil, where he and his wife were granted asylum. By 1942, distraught, he and his second wife committed suicide. That sent me to both places and prompted me to examine his situation and widen my research to all exiles and survivors. So, I read the secondary and primary sources and went to two archives: the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA, and the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland.
What gives you hope in a period you describe as so dangerous?
My thesis is simple: D.E. Davis has a new book, When the World Dies: Life and Death in an Age of Infamy. He calls the 20th century “infamous” because of its two world wars, totalitarianism, and the “button,” the one used in Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer to explode the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, NM. We have arrived in 2026, he insists, like the year 800 CE, when Charlemagne saved civilization from the barbarians. Either a new Charlemagne comes along and saves us from modern barbarians, or civilization goes down.
If readers remember only one message from When the World Dies, what would you want it to be?
Maybe, it is thought, there is a parallel between 1945 and the nuclear bombings of Japan and 2026 with the Iran war: gain a quick victory by astonishing means, nuclear; silence the opposition at home and abroad; and cower potential enemies. After all, senior Iranian officials have suggested its use against Israel. Some even say we are already in World War III. Recently, I gave a slide lecture about my book, everything from Kenneth Clark showing us what civilization looks like to Major T.J. “King” Kong riding the A-bomb to civilization’s destruction in Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove. As this lecture neared an ending, I played Vera Lynn singing, “We’ll Meet [that bomb] Again Some Sunny Day.” (My book’s cover design is from the International Radiation Symbol’s designer, Cyrill Orly, 1946, University of California, Berkeley, Radiation Laboratory.)
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Step into a vividly illustrated confrontation with history— where the darkness of the 20th century looms large. Drawing on pivotal moments and influential figures, from the chaos of World War I to the rise of totalitarian regimes, Davis compellingly tells how humanity found itself teetering on the brink of nuclear annihilation. With insights gained from the likes of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hannah Arendt, and George Orwell, When the World Dies examines the philosophical underpinnings of evil and the moral obligations of the living.
This timely look at what led civilization to the brink of nuclear war and the societal steps required to back away from that ledge asks readers to consider the Age of Infamy from a perspective informed by history. Join Davis on this eye-opening journey as he challenges us to reflect on our past in order to confront our present and cultivate a future of possibility.
