FREE Today: Library Blitz Seven—Sheet Music
Halfway through writing the first draft of the Library Blitz stories, I found myself in a place every author hates.
No, I don’t mean the nursery of a strange church in the middle of a heat wave—although it’s true that’s where I was, in a physical sense.
Physically, I was at an annual weeklong music camp hosted by a local congregation. Emotionally, I was in the exasperating position of a writer whose project is finally on a roll—momentum, inspiration, enthusiasm, all the intangibles that are so illusively not at most authors’ beck and call—and I was committed to a week of singing instead of writing, smack in the middle of these “perfect” conditions.
Perfect, except that I hadn’t yet heard about Myra Hess: concert pianist—World War Two heroine—and, as it turned out, the piece of living history that I was going to need to craft the seventh episode of Library Blitz.
Sheet Music—Library Blitz Seven
She asked for music. If only life was that simple!
Nora has settled into her role as a wartime librarian, but it still has a way of bringing her face to face with unsettling realities. A battered violin, a mysterious portfolio, and a disturbingly German accent—no amount of past experience could have prepared Nora for the traumatized teenager who is about to show up on her library steps.
Frank isn’t used to playing the bad cop role—but as Nora opens her arms to this unexplained visitor, he finds suspicions coming more easily than trust. The strange young violinist is hiding something. That much is certain. The question is what? And why?
When Nora innocently pulls out one of Beethoven’s sonatas, the teen’s reaction is an astonishment to both of them. But as a glimpse of a silver necklace provides an unexpected clue to the musician’s identity, are either Frank or Nora prepared to answer the questions that come in its wake? Even more importantly, can either of them reach into the chasm of bitterness and heartbreak with a melody of hope?
If you love WWII fiction, heartwarming characters, inspirational lessons, and a tiny thread of squeaky-clean romance, then Library Blitz is the newest series you don’t want to miss!
Library Blitz Research Files
Despite the crazy hectic music camp week mentioned at the beginning of this post, I did manage to squeeze some Library Blitz writing in. (Mostly in the aforesaid church nursery!)
But far more importantly, my crazy hectic music camp performed the useful function of dragging me out of bed (far too) early every morning to attend chapel. And it was at chapel that a speaker introduced me to Myra Hess—whose story of wartime resilience and innovation formed the foundation of the Library Blitz episode I’m excited to share with you today.
Naturally, it involved research!
Here are a few of the links I unearthed in the process of writing Library Blitz Seven:
The Myra Hess Concerts—The National Gallery website provides a comprehensive collection of webpages exploring Myra Hess and her impact on music during the Second World War.
The Pianist Who Lifted Britain’s Mood During Its Darkest Hour—This Classical Music article not only gives the story of the National Gallery’s famous concerts, it also includes two recordings of Myra Hess herself, performing Beethoven’s Appassionata and Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, respectively.
Myra Hess—A succinct outline of Myra Hess’s life and wartime contribution from Music and the Holocaust.
Bloomsbury House—An introduction to the role of both Bloomsbury House and Woburn House in the story of the WWII refugee experience.
A Treatise on Finger Control: With Calisthenic and Practical Drills for Violin—As usual, you know I didn’t just invent the library book! Here’s your link to a digital copy of the book Frank rather ridiculously recommends to Nora’s musical library patron.
Jewish Refugees from German-Occupied Europe in the United Kingdom—Got to love a title that tells you exactly what the article is about. This Wikipedia page offers a surprisingly detailed overview of the background, challenges, and future of the 80,000 Jewish refugees who found themselves in Britian during WWII.
Grab Your FREE Episode of Library Blitz today!
On a whim this morning, I googled “library blitz.”
You can all go and try it too, to check whether my computer is giving me some kind of author’s bias, but I was tickled to discover that at least on my browser, Nora and Frank are not just the first search result—they’re the first four search results!
Back when I started this series, I remember googling the same term—“library blitz”—to verify it wasn’t already a series title. I remember retrieving articles about libraries during the blitz. I think there may have been a few from libraries curating materials about the blitz. Even a copy of Dutch Blitz (the card game)—presumably available through a public library. In short, google was bringing up results that contained “library” and “blitz”—two separate concepts.
In the last seven months, you guys have changed all that. You have been an incredibly enthusiastic, supportive fan club all the way through. And together, we’ve taken those two search terms and turned them into a single concept: “library blitz.”
You have also, admittedly, been a very patient fan club.
The gap between Library Blitz Six and Library Blitz Seven has been about a month longer than I wanted it to be. But here we are—finally—and I’m excited to be introducing you to the next episode of Nora and Frank’s story today.
If you missed the last episode of Library Blitz you can grab it right here:
How far are you willing to go—to protect a book you don’t even like? When the chairman of the library board comes up with a project that leaves her trapped between conflicting claims, does Nora have a chance at an obvious answer?
Thank you so much, Court!! 😀 I’m so glad to see this next instalment!
Aw! Thanks so much!
I googled library blitz on two different usernames, and it didn’t come up as the top search, but it definitely came up all over the place! I absolutely love this series. 🤗
Good to know! And thanks for the enthusiasm and encouragement!