I've had some readers ask me where my ideas for The Decoration Day Committee came from. As noted, the book is dedicated to the women of my mother's generation who lived through WWII as young adults. Some ideas came from her stories and from other women relatives and acquaintances who had experienced those times first hand. Other ideas came from my own observations and experiences growing up in rural WI. The book is fiction. Many of the events were germinated by real events and memories. But I took those stories one step further and asked, "What if?" to add conflict and drama. For example, I remember my mother tell how she accompanied her father, the town's police/fire chief to a fire at the excelsior (a product made from wood) factory. I took that story and made the location a lumber mill and added the element of Eddie believing the fire may have been started by Nazi spies. Another example is the Little Savoy dance hall. Dance halls were prevalent social locations and one near my home had a rather exotic wall painting that I reference in a description in the book as well. Asking "What if?" generates a lot of ideas. The trick is weaving them together for plot and character development.