After almost a year of writing and editing, the first book of the Johnson Family Chronicles series is set to hit Amazon and bookstores. Little did I know when I started writing this novel in May of 2016 that it would take this long to make all of the necessary edits, corrections, and other refinements to hopefully make it a successful first novel.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am a World War II historian and I have studied not only the military campaigns that won the war but also the home front where the morale of the fighting was maintained and people contributed mightily to the war effort through victory gardens, scrap metal drives, working in defense industries, and the million and one other ways people of the United States helped the Allied cause. This is the fictional account of one of those small town American families and how they coped with World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
As a good friend of mine, John Bailey, wrote in the Foreword to the first book:
Stan Cromlish has done a magnificent job of taking his readers into the lives of one American family which could resemble a million other American families. The series tells the story of the Johnson family from Montcross, North Carolina; but it could be the Smiths from Eureka, Missouri, or the Taylors from Augusta, Georgia. You are taken into the lives of this middle class family to see their struggles, because war changes everything. How do they get to work; how will they find manpower to accomplish tasks at work; what to do about school; and how do they cope with the separation from family members who enlisted to fight the long war ahead?
There are many people to thank for helping make this book a reality; first and foremost, there is my mother, Sandra Cromlish, who without her teacher’s eye for editing and the patience of Job this book would not have been as good as it could be. Bobby Brown, my good friend, I know you’ve been under the weather lately, but you and Gail are some of my biggest cheerleaders and without you, my dream would have died on the vine. When words wouldn’t come, both you and Gail told me to be patient that the story will come and it did. To those friends who have encouraged my writing and encouraged my dream, thank you. I can’t name everyone who made this project special, but you know who you are and I want you to know that you are appreciated.
I hope you enjoy the book.
Stan Cromlish
Belmont, North Carolina
February 27, 2017