Linda Shenton Matchett writes stories about “ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by.” Her primary interest is World War II history, but she also writes novels set in other eras. I’m just a teensy bit jealous of Linda’s work as a volunteer docent and archivist for the Wright Museum of World War II, located in her New Hampshire hometown.

Linda says she doesn’t know what she loves more–being a docent or an archivist. As a docent, she has the opportunity to talk to the many tourists that visit the museum. As an archivist, she has access to amazing resources such as personal letters and journals.

In one of my favorite Novelists Unwind moments ever, Linda shows us a notebook her parents gave her when she was eight or nine years old with instructions to write stories and amuse herself. They considered Linda an “active child”–perhaps code for mischievous?? Regardless, this was Linda’s first step on her writing journey.

Connect with Linda on Facebook and on her website.

Purchase Links: Spies & Sweethearts and The Mechanic & the MD

Spies & Sweethearts

According to the OSS training manual, the life expectancy of a radio operator in Nazi-occupied France is six weeks. Partnered with one of the agency’s top spies, Gerard Lucas, newly-minted agent Emily Strealer plans to beat those odds. Then their cover is blown and all bets are off.

The border to neutral Switzerland is three hundred miles away—a long way to run with SS soldiers on their heels.

Will Emily and Gerard survive the journey?

And what about their hearts? Nothing in the manual prepared them for falling in love.

The Mechanic & the MD

High school and college were a nightmare for Doris Strealer and being an adult isn’t much better. Men won’t date a woman of her height, and they don’t understand her desire to repair car engines rather than work as a nurse or a teacher. When her father’s garage closes, and no one will hire a female mechanic, she joins the Red Cross Motor Corps, finally feeling at home. Until she comes face to face with her past in the form of Ronald McCann, the most popular boy in school.

On the brink of a successful career as a surgeon, Ron’s plans crumble when he’s drafted and assigned to an evacuation hospital in England, the last place he expects to run into a former schoolmate. The gangly tomboy who was four years behind him in high school has transformed into a statuesque beauty, but a broken engagement in college leaves him with no desire to risk his heart ever again.

Will the hazards of war make or break a romance between this unlikely couple?