Sunday afternoon, friends and readers and writers and various Scandihooligans gathered to launch SILENCES: A NOVEL OF THE 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR, by Roy Blomstrom.
At the event, Roy talked about his reasons for writing this novel. Look for more of his "about this novel" thoughts in the coming year.
For now, just know that it started with a question to his father about fighting in a war, and his mother's warning to not ask him about it. Here's the conclusion:
If my father were alive, however, I would not ask him about it--because it might upset him. That's how silences work, how they erase the past and one generation's best-forgotten memories of it.
The second generation, however, doesn't have those memories. It's one generation removed from the experience. But it's their--our--job to tell the larger story, to paint a bigger picture, to look for what it meant, to seek an overview. Because they--we--are distant from it.
And that's why I wrote the book.
Although the launch for SILENCES is also in our rear-view window now, the relevance of books about this and all wars, will never fade. We look forward to telling more stories about SILENCES in 2018. And releasing another title or two. And, someday, sharing a companion novel--or two--to SILENCES.