Elaine Aucoin Schroller | Updates

Celebrate Texas Writers Month

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Fri, 1 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I joined up with a group of nine amazing Texas writers whose genres are as broad as the Texas sky—from historical fiction to medical and legal thrillers, memoir, women’s fiction, and historical romance.

See all nine books from Jann Alexander, Gary Keith, Gary Gerlacher, Marie Watts, Leslie Schover, Linda Paul, Kimberly Packard, Chick Morgan, and me at https://www.jannalexander.com/texas-writers

In other news, I'm writing The Last Post, the third book in my Immense Sky series, and I finished editing and writing for Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews, all of which I'll share in an upcoming blog post. Until then, happy reading!

#TexasWritersMonth

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My favorite WWI novels - Part 2

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It turns out I have more favorite WWI novels that will comfortably fit in a second blog post, I'll eventually do a Part 3. But until then, the books I've listed here had just as big an effect on my research and writing as those in My favorite WWI novels - Part 1.

Wherever possible, I've linked to the book on the author's web page so you can choose from multiple retailer options.

Psychological aftermath on those who fought

Thirty-plus years ago I idly watched TO SERVE THEM ALL MY DAYS on PBS’ Masterpiece Theater through the lens of a former student at an English boarding school, albeit an all-girls school, and with no idea I’d ever come back to it for more pressing reasons.

LIES TOLD IN SILENCE by M.K. Tod (examines love and loss, duty and sacrifice, and the unexpected consequences of lies. When I read this book, I had only a passing knowledge of the battle of Vimy Ridge, which is considered a defining moment in Canadian military history, like Gallipoli for the Australians, Passchendaele for the British, and the Argonne for the Americans. Edward and Helene’s story is heartbreaking—and it continues in Tod’s UNRAVELLED. Suffice it to say, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed M.K. Tod’s work.

THE TIN TRIANGLE by Linda Abbott was recommended to me by a dear friend and colleague who just happens to be from St. John’s and whose great-grandfather was one of only 68 survivors of the Battle of Beaumont Hamel. THE TIN TRIANGLE is based on Abbott’s grandfather’s experience in WWI. Of the 800 who went over the top at Beaumont Hamel, only 68 survived and they were all taken prisoner by the Germans. My friend’s great-grandfather was one of the 68.

TIDES OF HONOUR by Genevieve Graham is a novel of love and second chances set against Halifax, Nova Scotia’s most devastating moment of the First World War. I have a special interest in all things Nova Scotian since the British kicked my long-ago French ancestors out of Acadia. However, this book is about Danny, who fought and was wounded at the Somme, and French émigré Audrey, making their way in Halifax when a devasting explosion tore the port city apart physically and emotionally.

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For Armistice Day: My favorite WWI novels - Part 1

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Sat, 8 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some truly wonderful WWI novels inspired me before and during my own writing, with DARE NOT TELL as the result. These fabulous books range from dual timelines, twists and turns, stories set in Egypt, Canada, cemeteries, and, my favorites, stories that deal with wartime trauma and facing its aftermath.

Since it turns out I have many favorites, I'll split this post into two posts. Wherever possible, I've linked to the book on the author's web page so you can choose from multiple retailer options.

Dual Timeline

I love a well-done dual timeline novel. Here are three that knock the genre out of the proverbial park. They are definitely influencing how I tell the story in Book 3 in the Immense Sky series.

SILENT PARTS by John Charalambous. When you live in Australia, twelve thousand miles away from your soldier in France, it’s highly unlikely it will be simple to figure out what happened to him when he seems to disappear from the face of the earth. This story is rather slow placed and deliberate, just like missing digger Harry. There could be so many answers to what happened to him. Which is the correct one?

PAGAN by W.F. Morris. Originally written in 1931 by an English novelist who was also a Major in the Norfolk Regiment and recipient of the Military Cross. As the saying goes, Morris knew whereof he spoke, or in this case wrote. PAGAN is set in the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France, which originally piqued my interest because 1.) action in the Vosges is not nearly as well known as the Somme and Flanders and 2.) it was written relatively soon after the war ended about two men who wanted to revisit where they’d fought. It will leave you wondering how many soldiers chose the path the titular character Pagan chose.

THE VISITORS by Caroline Scott. Yes, this author is one of my favorites. She does exemplary work portraying the women who were left behind and who had to pick up all the pieces of broken lives afterwards. Like SILENT PARTS, THE VISITORS is slower-paced as Esme unfurls layers of hopes, fears, and deception. Caroline Scott's mastery of the personalities of the era, the trauma borne by those who served and those they left behind, plus her evocative senses of place are extraordinary. Her books aren't just for reading, they're experiences.

More to come on Armistice Day November 11...

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Need something new to read? You're in the right place!

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I've joined together with a few of my author friends to offer our readers the chance to win a bundle of 7 novels set in France, each one signed by the author.

Good luck—or, more appropriately—Bonne chance!

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Why write about Australians and Americans and the Pacific War?

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I'd already dreamed up an American nurse and an Australian soldier for Dare Not Tell. Why not continue their story? And because the writing and research gods smiled on me with these photos. I mention in the Afterword of The Bravest Soldiers that the Australian War Memorial is a literal trove of visual treasures. Their collections of art and photographs have been pure inspiration for both books.

Americans and Australians have a long history together. After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, hundreds of thousands of US personnel were sent to Australia first before they went on to the many battles against the Japanese in the Pacific. US General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, had his headquarters in Brisbane.

In Dare Not Tell, the American student who climbed Mont Blanc with Australian soldiers during WWI writes “Instructions for American Servicemen in Australia” during WWII.

Just like in England, the Yanks were overpaid, oversexed, and over here. So the opportunity for tension between American and Australian men bubbling over into brawls and fights definitely existed. On the other hand, over 10,000 young Australian women married American servicemen and emigrated to the US at the end of the war.

The Bravest Soldiers begins a few weeks after Dare Not Tell ends, with the Parkers returning home to Sydney from France (with Marianne Ryan and Sophie’s mother Lily) two days before WWII is declared. Their sons Sam and Jean-Luc enlist – Sam in the RAAF and Jean-Luc in the Australian army. Given that Sophie and Joe have only just laid their own ghosts from WWI to rest, their sons going to war will stir up every emotion and fear known to parents.

Here's Sam Parker... Sam joins the RAAF in May 1940, and will eventually fly an Australian-built Boomerang aircraft like this one. For what it’s worth, the young man on the left looks pretty much exactly as I’ve imagined Sam looks.

I interviewed an Australian lady who was a teenager in Sydney at the time of the attacks. She recalled a souvenir (like the one in the photo) owned by her family that sat on her mother’s sideboard for years. Unfortunately, she had no idea what happened to the little lead submarine.

Postcards and souvenirs of the salvaged subs, such as the small lead models in the photo, and envelopes containing bits of insulation from the subs, toured Australia to raise money for the war effort and the Royal Australian Navy.

Photo and description from https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1202363: Small lead model of a Japanese midget submarine made from the ballast of the two submarines sunk during the raid on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. It features the wording, 'MADE FROM BALLAST JAP MIDGET SUB.' on one side, and 'SUNK IN SYDNEY HARBOUR MAY 31 1942' on the other.

There's more, but that's a story for another day.

What inspires you? I'd love to know!

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Inspiration: Masks for wounded WWI soldiers

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I learned so much on the subject of facial wounds, reconstructive surgery, and masks during the course of writing Dare Not Tell, that I was compelled to explore the repercussions on Sophie Parker's (a major character in both my novels) life and psyche in “Ripples in a Pond,” my short story in the anthology Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women.

Toby’s Room, Book 2 in the Life Class Trilogy by Pat Barker. Featuring supporting character Henry Tonks, surgeon turned artist, at the Slade School of Art.

Broken Faces: A romantic story of secrets, love, friendship and survival in the First World War by Deborah Carr. An aristocratic young woman’s journey to driving ambulances in France and a dear friend’s recovery from a disfiguring facial wound. This is my second favorite novel from Deborah Carr (the first is Field of Poppies).

Jennifer Robson’s short story "All For the Love of You" featuring a young American woman working in Anna Ladd Coleman’s mask studio and the soldier who gets his life back. I loved this story and Jennifer Robson’s novel Somewhere in France.

Bottom Row:

The Tin Nose Shop: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Recommended Read inspired by one of the last great untold stories of WW1 by Don J Snyder. Instead of facing a firing squad, a disgraced British soldier is sent to Northern Ireland help create the first tin masks. Thought-provoking and an unusual setting.

The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris. Pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care. Non-fiction but riveting.

Pagan: A Novel by W.F. Morris. In the 1930s, two WWI veterans return to France as tourists, not soldiers, and discover a shocking secret hidden in the Vosges mountains. Atmospheric and suspenseful.

Photo credits:

Pastel portrait by Eugene Burnand of Harriet Woods Eoff, an American Red Cross nurse during WWI. She served at the American Expeditionary Force Base Hospital 57 in Paris. https://www.eugene-burnand.com/pastel 75 Miss Harriet Woods Eoff (nurse).htm. The original portrait is at the Museum of the Legion of Honor in Paris.

Mask photos https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c37181/ and
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/faces-of-war-145799854/

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Peek into Dare Not Tell on Bastille Day, 1939

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In France, Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille Prison in 1789 by a mob of Parisians in the opening stages of the French revolution. Since then, the day is a national holiday of celebration, including dancing in the streets, as Joe and Sophie Parker experienced it on July 14, 1939 in this excerpt from Chapter 23 of Dare Not Tell:

***

Joe and Sophie arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris on July 14.

The wrought iron rafters and dusty glass roof spanning a multitude of tracks were the same. The crush of arriving and departing passengers was the same. Joe blinked, and brightly dressed women, over-excited children, and linen-suited men swarmed the platform, not khaki-clad soldiers. Sophie was by his side. Fred, Sid, Davy, and Geordie were nowhere to be seen.

The masses jostling to get to a good spot to watch pomp of the Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysée were overwhelming. Sophie tugged his hand, and he willingly followed her away from the crowds and toward the River Seine instead.

Music and laughter beckoned from around corners along their way. They found parties where everyone in the neighborhood was out, dressed in their best. Old couples, young couples, and every age in between danced in the street and toasted the day, France, and Paris.

At Sophie’s urging, Joe stuffed a generous number of francs in the barrel placed outside a pompier station and they shook hands with the firefighters. At another party, they were invited, “Venez, Madame! Asseyez-vous, Monsieur!” to share a communal dinner at tables lining the length of the street.

Sophie sang the Marseillaise, danced with him and anyone else who asked, and kissed cheeks with complete strangers whose normal reserve was put aside on this special day, the anniversary of French independence from the monarchy.

Her French was almost as fluent as it had been when she left France in 1918. His was nearly non-existent – he had studied Latin in school – but his wartime French came back in snippets throughout the day. Merci and s’il vous plaît and bon jour and pardonnez-moi were the first to bubble up in his memory.

Once twilight fell and the streetlights flickered on, Joe was pleasantly full and a little tipsy and he discovered he understood far more French than he thought he did. An ancient veteran, medals crowded and clicking on his dusty black coat, hobbled over and pumped their hands when he discovered they were Australian and American.

He listened with amusement when the old man told Sophie she was très belle and asked her for a Bastille Day kiss. She pecked him on both grizzled cheeks and said, “Et maintenant, mon mari, qui est très beau et qui j’adore, m’attende.”

“You have a husband who’s very handsome?” he asked when she sidled up to him. “And you adore him?”

“Absolument!” she exclaimed, linking her arm with his as they headed to the Pont Neuf bridge to watch the fireworks over the river.

Whiffs of cordite drifted on the evening breeze. Explosions percussed the air. Firecrackers staccatoed below the bridge.

Long-buried memories – Fromelles, Bullecourt, Polygon Wood, Villers-Bret, Saint Quentin Canal – surged into his consciousness.

Joe reacted instinctively, pulling Sophie close, gauging which weapon – pistol, grenade, knife – he could reach to protect her.

Then appreciative oohs and ahhs, not pained groans, filtered through his scrambled thoughts.

Dozens of affectionate couples, not uniformed soldiers, surrounded them on the bridge. Fireworks, not shell bursts, bathed faces lifted to the glowing sky.

Then Sophie leaned over the railing to wave at a passing barge crammed with boisterous revelers, her movement and scent grounding him firmly in the present. Again he reacted instinctively, nuzzling her neck, holding her even more closely – things he would never do in public at home.

***

To read the rest of the story, see https://elaineschroller.com/books/dare-not-tell-a-wwi-historical-novel-of-romance-secrets-and-redemption

The painting is 'Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878' by Claude Monet.

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Welcome to my updated website!

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! For those of you who've followed me for a while, I'm the same me with a fresh new look and feel to my website. I'll be adding weekly blog posts about favorite books from other authors, inspiration for my own books, and info about the work I do to format other authors' books.

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How a technical writer became a historical fiction novelist

Elaine Aucoin Schroller — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Or, what the heck was I thinking? There are no numbered steps or bullet points in novels!

I devoured historical fiction and historical mysteries on nights and weekends as a way to escape from writing about computer software during the workday.

In all that time, it never occurred to me that I could write a novel. And then another one. Until...

The first glimmers of inspiration came from Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, an Australian TV series set in 1929 that often includes WWI-related characters and storylines in the episodes.

The lady private investigator was an ambulance driver for the Belgians in WWI.

All of the supporting male characters fought in WWI.

Despite being a History major in college, I had only a fuzzy knowledge of US participation in WWI, and no idea the Australians fought anywhere except Gallipoli in WWI.

I would discover Americans and Australians have a long history together.

The first thing I learned was Americans fought with Australians in two pivotal battles during WWI.

US General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing reluctantly allowed two divisions of US troops to fight with Commonwealth soldiers.

The first time Americans fought in WWI was with the Australians at the Battle of Hamel on July 4, 1917. The battle lasted 93 minutes. The Australian general, John Monash, commanding the July 4 battle purposely chose that date to encourage the inexperienced Americans.

As horrifying as the battles were, there are so many stories of redemption and love that I wanted to write one of my own with the characters I’d dreamt up.

And that's how a technical writer started thinking she could write historical fiction. There's more, but that's for another post.

*All AWM photos and the Burnand illustration are in the public domain.

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