Showing results by author "Violet Millhouse" in All Categories

West Coast, USA, late 1980s: Irina was named after her great-aunt, a Russian woman whom everyone said was eccentric, but that was okay, because her aunt was also a bit mysterious. At least, Irina thought so growing up. They were quite close then, but she hadn't seen Auntie in years, what with college and career and faulty romances taking up Irina's time. All those excuses echoed hollow now with the terrible news that her beloved great-aunt died . . . weeks ago . . . alone. She feels guilty. So, when the summons came from a law firm to come pick through the remnants of the grand lady's life,...

What happens when a favorite fairy tale gets dropped in the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Red Riding Hood . . . 1939, southern Poland, foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, where things had always been a bit magical: When Felka finished university, she landed the position as Junior Assistant Curator of the museum in her hometown. She knows the museum very well, and soon realizes that valuable items are being pilfered. She isn't sure what to do, but thinks she's being framed. Felka suspects the culprit, but needs proof. Then the world changed: The Germans invade their country, and ...

In remembrance of a Collaborator: What happens when a favorite nursery rhyme gets dropped in the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Old Mother Hubbard, for example . . . Trondheim, Nazi-occupied Norway, Autumn 1942: Women are called on to survive with their family and their homes when men are called to war. Some have to make difficult choices, especially when they have hungry children and no way to support them. Judged harshly, there are markers in the graveyard for people like them: plain stone, plainly marked too. The name, the date of death, perhaps a bit of scripture about how the ...

Once Upon A Time of War . . . What happens when a favorite fairy tale gets dropped into the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Hansel and Gretel, for example, England, 1941: She was born and raised in the UK, but with a name like Gretel Braun, when Germany started bombing their country, it was no surprise that she lost her teaching position at a posh school for girls. Gretel moved to London to live with her brother, but he neglected to tell her that he was in prison for stealing Lady So-and-So's pearls. Her brother claimed he was framed, but she has her own problems now. Gretel was ...

What happens when a favorite nursery rhyme gets dropped in the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Little Miss Muffet, for instance . . . London, England, 1939-1941: Jane Muffet grew up getting teased about that cursed rhyme. Her family moved a lot, so each spot was another round. Now she has a bad attitude and prefers to be alone most of the time. She tried a few shop positions, but none suited her. Jane moved to London and luckily found a job mending furniture—odds and ends damaged by all the bombs of the Blitz. Now she doesn’t have to interact with others all that much, and ...

What happens when favorite nursery rhymes are dropped into World War 2? When Mary had a little lamb and Old MacDonald had a farm, for example. Scotland, 1940 and the years after: When Mary Begbie married James MacDonald she thought it was happily ever after. But he went to war, and now she’s a widow, living with her father-in-law. When her father dies, his adjacent lands are annexed to the MacDonald farm as well. Now they have been called upon to increase their yield to help the war effort, but it’s difficult; they need help. After D-Day, laborers are brought in from the nearby POW camp...

What do missing members of the Romanov family—supposedly executed in 1918—have to do with Imperial Russian treasures looted by the Nazis in 1943? Rostock, Germany, 1943: For months, the Nazis have been secretly shipping treasures looted from all over Europe to black market auctions outside the Third Reich. Now someone has been stealing from the Germans—but only items looted from the Romanov palace at Livadia, on the Black Sea. Lena Schiller must find the culprits before the Gestapo finds easier prey to blame—someone like her. Her Russian mother escaped the Russian Revolution when ...

What happens when a favorite fairy tale gets dropped into the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Cinderella in France in the 1930s-1940s: Ella never got along with her stepmother. After her father died, her stepsisters grew even more horrid to her. She's the only one though who cares about the farm at all. When the Nazis invaded, her stepmother and stepsisters are enjoying the occupation, it seems. That only meant more chores for Ella, and she's weary and overworked. Accidents were bound to happen, and she's put in a prison as an arsonist. But it was only an accident . . . wasn't it? ...

What happens when a favorite fairy tale gets dropped in the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Snow White and her usual friends . . . set them in a Serbian village near Belgrade, the Capitol of Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, 1941: Lumi Valkoinen buried her parents two years ago, one right after the other. Her father was Finnish; her mother a Serbian who grew up in the forest near this town. They met as circus performers, but that was years ago now. Such frivolous days were long over: Europe was now engulfed in another massive war. Lumi has taken over the operation of her parents' apothecary ...

Also published as: Secrets in the Shoe Shop. The Netherlands, May 1940: German bombs devastated her neighborhood on the outskirts of Rotterdam. Many people had already left, but Letty Seghur left her leaving too late. After a near escape and further difficulty, she finds shelter on the high street in an old stone tower that used to be a medieval fortress near the river—strangely, both the tower and shop within remained mostly intact after the German Blitzkrieg. But the business has been abandoned, it seems, as the owner was Jewish. Letty hoped he escaped, as there were all sorts of ...

Once Upon A Time of War—what happens when a fairy tale gets dropped into the middle of Europe in World War 2? Take Beauty & the Beast, now set in a Flemish-speaking village at a crossroads in Belgium, Autumn 1940, after the Nazi invasion, and amongst the remnants of the Great War before . . . for who could ever learn to love a Beast? Like the other small lowland countries, Belgium could not long withstand the German blitzkrieg. In the Great War before, huge swaths of their countryside had become battlefields, scarred with trenches and soaked in blood. Julienne's father, a soldier then, ...

"There was an old woman, who lived in a shoe . . ." ~Mother Goose. Or in this case, in a shoe shop. So what happens when a favorite nursery rhyme gets dropped into Europe during World War 2? The Netherlands, May 1940: German bombs devastated her neighborhood on the outskirts of Rotterdam. Many people had already left, but Letty Seghur left her leaving too late. After a near escape and further difficulty, she finds shelter on the high street in an old stone tower that used to be a medieval fortress near the river—strangely, both the tower and shop within remained mostly intact after the ...

England, 1960s: Madeline Wicks was born while the world was at war. She never knew her mother. Her father, an American flyer in the RAF, became a hero back then. But peace time and grief left him with little ambition afterwards. She never went to regular school from the start, but her father insisted she learn from the books he'd pinched from the library. They took the books back, of course, because they were borrowers, not thieves. Madeline was quite partial to mathematics though and could calculate probability in her head. Useful, given her father was also quite a gambler. That was his ...

What happens when a fairy tale gets dropped into the middle of World War 2? Take Rapunzel, now intertwined with the Welsh folklore of the Gwyllion—ethereal forms (spirits, ghosts) that wander by night . . . Autumn of 1940: The War Office requisitioned this remote manor in the countryside of northern Wales. The ancient place was once a convent that miraculously escaped the ravages of Henry VIII. With towers and a courtyard and overgrown herbal gardens, now the manor has only one occupant. It's converted into a military convalescent home. Men who have been horrendously damaged by the war ...

Another fairy tales goes rogue in this eclectic series of Europe in World War 2. This time, Goldilocks has a twist in the tale, only she's not the one intruding this time . . . Golda now had to do the same as everyone else, and it wasn't sitting well with her. She was used to independence, doing just as she liked. But now stood in line like everyone else, waiting for her work papers, issued by the invaders, which she needed just to get a job. And no matter what their excuse, what their cause or their concept of what history was, that's what they were: INVADERS. She spoke German too, like ...