Suzanne
It is hard to revisit the person I was when Loretta and I were writing these letters to each other. I was unhappy, lost and desperate for something I couldn’t put my finger on. The only thing that took my mind off myself during those years, besides my beautiful daughters, was the words that floated out from my fingertips onto the serene white pages waiting for me late at night. I was very alone and the friendship I was forging with Rita through Glory was incredibly real and life affirming.
Six years and five more books have passed since this labor of love was first published. Two of those years were very dark. Like Glory, I was running against time. Trying to hold on to all the romantic notions of what I’d thought my life would look like when I was young. I thought that becoming an author would mend some existential tear in my life. I didn’t have any idea of what I wanted, or who I was. Beyond being a mother (again, much like Glory), I didn’t know a thing about myself.
I had to face losing everything in order to make things right. Over the summer of 2015 I was confronted with two life events that forced me to look inward. My grandmother died, and after years of disquiet, I thought my marriage was over. Faced with this new reality and scared beyond reason, I reached out for anything stable to lean on. It was then that I realized, almost too late, that everything I’d ever needed or wanted was right there in front of me. A cliché, to be sure. But the absolute truth.
Looking back, and reading through the pages of this book, I’m astounded at the parallels in our journeys. Glory and I grew up together, it seems. And I’m so grateful for it.
Today I live in a place of love and light and peace. I found it by reinvesting in my family, my career as an educator and in a renewed devotion to my faith. I haven’t written much in the past few years, but I think I will again someday. Maybe Loretta will have a go at it again. What say you, L?
Home Front Girls
Suzanne Hayes & Loretta Nyhan
Reader’s Guide
Questions for Discussion
Rita and Glory’s friendship was born of intimacy, even though they don’t know each other before they begin writing. The definition of intimacy is “shared fear.” How does this explain the depth of their friendship? Have you ever had a close friend with whom you shared fear? If so, how is that friendship different from others you have?
Rita and Glory are very different people. They are from different parts of the country, they are not the same age and they come from different social classes. They also share similarities with each other: motherhood, community, a strong sense of women’s rights. Did you identify with one or the other character because of their similarities, or because of their differences? Which one, and why?
Glory and Rita spend a lot of time in their letters talking about their victory gardens. The gardens become a metaphor in the novel. What are some of the things the gardens represent? Was anyone inspired to plant their very own victory garden?
The romance between Levi and Glory is complicated. They were friends, childhood sweethearts, and then they were both left behind when Robert went to war. Why do you think Glory let the romance go as far as it did? How did she show her remorse? Can you sympathize with her actions? Do you forgive her? How do you feel about how the love triangle was ultimately resolved?
Home Front Girls explores the many types of sacrifices people make during wartime. What did the characters in this novel sacrifice? How did they feel about their personal sacrifices? About the sacrifices of others? Would you have made the same sacrifices under the circumstances in the book? Why?
Social historians have often noted the importance of the women who went to work during wartime, seeing them as the root of the women’s equal rights movement later in the twentieth century. How do the female characters in Home Front Girls illustrate this? In what ways is it similar or different today?
The recipes in the book are real wartime recipes. Did you try making any of the dishes? If so, do you have a favorite? (We hope you brought them to your book club meetings!)
To a certain extent, most of the characters are waiting for something (oftentimes, multiple things). Besides waiting for their men to come home, what else are Glory and Rita waiting for? How about some of the other characters? Do you feel the wait is worth it?
A few of the letters are marked Unsent. Why do you think the women decided not to send these particular letters? How would their stories change if they had? What do the unsent letters reveal about Glory and Rita’s characters?
In Rita’s final letter to Sal, she writes that Glory taught her “how to take the past and press it carefully onto the present.” Discuss the importance of memories in the novel and how memories of the past impact the present action. How do they shape the characters and their actions, the decisions they make?
A Conversation with Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan
Is it really true that, as of the date of this interview, you’ve never met each other in person? How did you connect initially, and how did you come to write a novel together? What has that experience been like for each of you?
Yes! It’s true. We haven’t met yet. Sometimes this surprises us. It feels like we have, but we only know each other through phone calls and email conversations.
Suzy: I was blogging and connecting with other writers online. I remember the day that Loretta launched her blog. It was announced over a set of other writer blogs. I clicked on over...and there she was! Writing about organic food and the Beatles. I commented on her posts, and she started commenting on mine. A friendship was born. I think it took us about a year to shift over to phone conversations, and it was during one of those conversations that we expressed our desire to write something completely for ourselves, for fun. I suggested letters back and forth via email. We agreed on setting the letters in WWII, and then I sent off the first email, in character, and hoped for the best. When I got the first email back, I was elated. Soon the letters were flying between us. A story was forming as a friendship was growing. It was a very exciting time.
Loretta: The way this novel came together is a classic example of the “happy accident,” which, of course, means it was meant to be. When the first letter came it was like a shock to my system. I was consumed with the need to write back, and that feeling never changed throughout the whole process. This experience has been one lovely surprise after another.
What was your inspiration for Home Front Girls? How, if at all, have your own personalities and experiences informed the characters of Glory and Rita?
With both of us trying to get writing careers off the ground, we were spending a lot of time thinking about what it means to wait. We were talking to each other almost daily. It was the support that we needed, someone else going through the same experience. It seemed only natural that we would write about two women who were in a stressful situation and leaning on each other for support. I don’t really think we discussed that part of it, though... I think we stumbled into it. We both share a passion for similar historical eras, and we both like the research part of the writing.
Suzy: Glory is younger than I am, but she looks at life the same way. Her idealism, her sometimes selfish-without-knowing-it behavior is a lot like my own. The part of her character that is most related to me is the house and town where she lives. I grew up visiting Rockport, Massachusetts, every summer. It lives inside my heart. When I was thinking about where I wanted to spend my time in these letters, there simply was no other choice.
Loretta: Rita is bolder and more outwardly opinionated than I am; however, I do love to give advice (sometimes when I probably shouldn’t). I also have a husband and two sons, and though it was disturbing, I forced myself to imagine what I would feel if I had to send them off to war. It certainly wasn’t fun, but it helped give those letters a necessary emotional depth. There were tears, though, lots and lots of tears!
You’ve created such a rich and memo
rable cast of characters in this novel—particularly Glory and Rita, but also Levi, Robert, Roylene and even the incomparable Mrs. K.! When you started the book, did you have all of the characters and their journeys mapped out in your heads, or did they reveal themselves to you as you wrote? In what ways did the characters surprise you along the way? What was the greatest character morph as you wrote and revised the novel?
Suzy: I didn’t have anything planned. I wrote a letter (the first in the book) and sent it off. When I received Rita’s first letter, and real characters were starting to emerge, I responded to her in character. Soon, my own cast of characters came through the keyboard. They surprised me as they showed up. They had so much to say! For me, the character that changed the most was Glory. She grew up during the revision process. It was an amazing experience, helping her grow from spoiled child to wise adult. (Well...maybe not always so wise...)
Loretta: When I got Suzy’s wonderful first letter, Rita appeared and just started talking. I know how that sounds, but sometimes characters show up with fully formed lives. I knew Rita would have a crazy neighbor. I knew she would be overprotective of her only son. I knew her husband would be a real sweetie, and I knew what would happen to him. Her story was there; I just discovered more and more of it as time went on. The only real surprise for me was Roylene. Just like Rita, I didn’t expect her to become so dear to me.
Home Front Girls is, above all else, a novel about the triumphant powers of friendship. How did your unconventional friendship with each other influence Rita and Glory’s story, and vice versa: how did Glory and Rita’s friendship influence your own?
We grew closer as Rita and Glory did. For the first ten letters or so, we didn’t talk about our project at all. We let the friendship unfold naturally, for Rita and Glory, and for us. When we did finally decide to negotiate plot points and discuss character arcs, we took our relationship to a deeper level. How would we deal with the division of labor? What happens when we disagree? Working through difficulties strengthened our friendship, just as it did for Rita and Glory in the novel.
In Home Front Girls, you explore what it meant to be a woman during a specific time in U.S. history. What drew you to this time period, what kind of research did you do and what do you want readers to take from Glory, Rita and Roylene’s experiences?
We have quite a collection of WWII-era women’s magazines—so much can be learned about women’s lives during wartime by thumbing through an issue of Woman’s Day circa 1943. We watched interviews with women who served in the WAVES and WACs, and listened to Roosevelt’s D-Day speech countless times. Since You Went Away: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front by Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith was invaluable. It’s a collection of letters women sent to their men overseas. The letters offered more than a wealth of period details; underneath the sometimes mundane details of family life, you can see the worry, the strain, the desire to keep their husbands and sons connected to their lives at home through words. There’s an admirable nobility in that.
We thought it was important to underscore that all women (whether they label themselves feminists or not) share the same reality in our culture. And because of that, we struggle for the same rights. We wanted readers to see the independence and power that Rita, Glory and Roylene shared—a fearless determination to give back to their communities, their families and their country. Not for any other reason than it was the right thing to do. Women are a community, and there’s a lot of untapped power there. Not divisive power, inclusive power. We hope readers can feel that, and we hope our characters inspire our readers to want to go out and make new connections with people (other women, organizations, etc.) that might need them.
Can you describe the process of writing a novel as a team? Does each of you write your own cast of characters (and if so, who wrote which characters in Home Front Girls)? Do you each take turns with the manuscript, passing it back and forth to each other, or is one of you the organizer (if so, who)?
Suzy writes from Glory’s perspective; Loretta writes Rita’s letters and those from the Iowa City characters. The only exception is Toby’s poetry—those are all Suzy’s.
We sent letters back and forth to each other via email. In the beginning we didn’t know when a letter would come—we wanted to experience the anticipation, just as Rita and Glory would. Loretta compiled all the letters into one continuous document.
ISBN-13: 9781488058042
Home Front Girls
Copyright © 2013 by Suzanne Palmieri and Loretta Nyhan
First published as I’ll Be Seeing You by MIRA Books in 2013.
This edition published by Park Row Books in 2019.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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