Seattle, 1945. The war is ending-but for many, the hardest battles are just beginning.
In a city transformed by global conflict, four families struggle to find their place amid rising tensions, buried prejudice, and shifting identities. Victory overseas has brought hope, but at home, fear, suspicion, and inequality continue to shape everyday life.
A female defense worker, newly awakened to injustice, risks everything as she steps into the dangerous world of labor activism-threatening not only her future, but the safety of those she loves. A decorated Black war hero returns home expecting honor and opportunity, only to face a different kind of battlefield, where racism and exclusion deny him the freedoms he fought to defend. A Japanese American, released from internment, discovers that the end of war does not mean the end of hatred, and that rebuilding a life in a community that no longer trusts him may be the greatest challenge of all. A hopeful British war bride arrives chasing the promise of a new beginning, only to learn that the American dream is complicated, fragile, and not equally shared.
As labor strikes ripple through the city, racial tensions simmer, and the first shadows of Cold War hysteria begin to take hold, Seattle reveals itself as a place both beautiful and deeply divided. Old prejudices harden even as new voices rise, demanding change.
This powerful, emotionally charged novel strips away the myth of an open and enlightened city, exposing the human cost of exclusion and the quiet courage of those who refuse to accept it.
A sweeping story of resilience, identity, and the search for belonging-welcome to the City on the Sound, where no one is quite sure where they belong.
Praise for Unbelonging:
"Just a great read and anyone who picks it up is guaranteed to learn a thing or two: from Guadalcanal to local labor disputes."
David J. Jepsen is a historian, writer and educator teaching Pacific Northwest and U.S. history at Tacoma Community College. His novel about racial and labor conflicts in Seattle following WW II, titled Unbelonging, was released in April 2026.
He was lead author of Contested Boundaries: A New Pacific Northwest History (John Wiley and Sons, 2017), and he wrote and directed the award winning documentary Labor Wars of the Northwest, nominated in 2019 for Best Feature Film Made in Washington by the Gig Harbor Film Festival.
David writes a weekly post for the Washington State Historical Society titled “This Day in Washington.” He holds a master’s degree in history and a bachelor’s in communications from the University of Washington.
He lives with his wife, Jackie, in Gig Harbor, WA.
Hope, Faith and Charity: The Battle for Malta Begins
Helena P Schrader
The Battle for Malta is too often dismissed in post-war literature as an irrelevant "prestige" campaign of no real significance to the outcome of the war. Such a judgement is facile and presumptuous. Allied control of Malta was vital to control of the Mediterranean and with it the Suez Canal and access to Near Eastern oil. Had the Axis Powers seized control of the Suez Canal and the oil fields of the Middle East, they would have dealt a crippling blow to Britain and the Allied cause. The decision to defend Malta was militarily astute and the nearly three year struggle that ensued was marked by courage and audacity that earned the island the only collective George Cross in history. (Below: King George VI salutes Malta on his arrival June 20, 1943)
The history of Malta stretches back beyond the age of the Pharaohs and is characterized by layers of conquest, settlement, and control -- from Egypt, the Middle East (Phoenicia), Greece (Ancient and Byzantine), and Italy (Rome and Norman Sicily). The most recent conquerors/administrators were the Knights Hospitallers, who arrived in 1530, followed by the British, who were invited to take control of the island in 1800 in a move to expel Napoleonic France. Although the natives to this day speak a unique Arab dialect, they were profoundly Catholic by the time Napoleon arrived and so offended by his revolutionary expropriations of Church property. The British wisely left the people their language and their faith, while transforming the island into an efficient and pleasant naval base for the Royal Navy.
Malta is located roughly 1,000 miles east of Gibraltar and 1,000 miles west of Alexandria, smack in the middle of the Mediterranean. It is also just 60 miles south of Sicily and 180 miles from the North African coast. During the First World War it had become the "hospital of the Mediterranean," a secure and well-embedded part of the British overseas dominions.
Yet as tensions rose in the interwar years, the Royal Navy became increasingly nervous about whether the island could be held against an aggressive, fascist Italy which, after all, controlled both Sicily and Libya. If it were to be held, it needed effective air defences -- and that was exactly what Malta did not have. Indeed, the RAF argued that Malta, an island less than 100 square miles in size, was too small to host sufficient fighters for its defence, and too close to the prospective enemy for radar to provide adequate warning of impending attacks. In this context, it was agreed that the RAF's primary role in the Mediterranean was reconnaissance in support of naval operations, while the fate of Malta itself was left undecided.
At the outbreak of WWII, the Mediterranean initially appeared safe. Italy was officially neutral and France was a major Mediterranean power which, alongside Britain, was expected to help contain moves by Mussolini. As a precaution, the RAF developed an airfield on Malta a Luqa, complete with underground bomb and petrol storage and underground power stations and support facilities. These were to prove crucial to Malta's freedom.
Yet the actual air assets remained pitifully small: 7 Fairy Swordfish (biplane torpedo bombers) until in May 1940, when the RAF in the Mediterranean requested "loan" of six Sea Gladiators, then stored in crates somewhere on the island, from the Royal Navy. The Navy graciously handed the crates over, and four aircraft were assembled; the remaining two were not, they were used instead for spare parts. Meanwhile, six pilots with no previous fighter experience were assigned to fly them.
On 10 June 1940, with France on the brink of surrender to Germany, Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. On the morning of the very next day, 11 June, the Italian air force bombed Malta -- as if the Italians had only been waiting for the opportunity. Although the attack itself was directed at legitimate military targets (the naval base and one of the air fields), the attack killed more than twenty Maltese civilians and shattered any lingering pro-Italian sentiment among the local population. The ensuing campaign solidified Maltese support for and loyalty to Britain.
This first raid, like most subsequent raids, was accurately picked up by Malta's lone radar station and a section of three Gladiators led by Flight Lieutenant Burgess took to the air in opposition. In the ensuing weeks, the six pilots took to the air as often as possible, but at no time was there ever more than three Gladiators operational, and often it was only two or one due to repairs and maintenance being performed on the others. As a result, the people of Malta never saw more than three Gladiators at any one time, and at some point -- no one seems to know when -- they came to be referred to as "Hope," "Faith," and "Charity."
One of the pilots stationed on Malta in this period reflected that:
“During this period none of us ever heard the aircraft referred to as Faith, Hope and Charity, and I do not know who first used the description. Nevertheless, the sentiment was appropriate because the civil population certainly prayed for us and displayed such photographs as they could get hold of. There was no doubt that the Gladiators did not ‘wreck death and destruction’ to many of the enemy, but equally they had a very profound effect on the morale of everybody in the island, and most likely stopped the Italians just using the island as a practice bombing range whenever they felt like it.” [Wg/Cdr G.V.A. Collins, quoted in Ken Delve, Malta Strikes Back: The Role of Malta in the Mediterranean Theatre 1940-1942, Pen & Sword, 2017, p. 10]
While the effect on morale was real it was not a military answer to the defence of a strategically important stronghold! The Gladiators, while manoeuvrable, were slower than the Italian bombers -- much less fighters, and lacked firepower. This meant that even when the Gladiators did get the bombers in their gun sites, they could rarely due sufficient damage to bring a bomber down. In consequence, Malta's civilian governor requested Hurricanes. Although the RAF command prioritized Hurricane deliveries to Egypt, by 28 June, Malta had its first Hurricanes -- temporarily at least. Henceforth the defense of Malta would be in the hands of a growing number of Hurricane and eventually Spitfire squadrons.
Voices on the Wind (A Novel of Malta in WWII, Part I — Assault) By Helena P. Schrader
Publication Date: 11th June 2026
Publisher: Cross Seas Press
Pages: 448
Genre: Historical Fiction
Early 1942: the fate of the Suez Canal and access to Middle East oil hangs on the fate of an island just 17 miles long by 9 miles wide: Malta.
Determined to destroy the British forces threatening Rommel’s supply lines, the Axis powers drop more bombs on Malta than London endured throughout the Blitz. The population is forced underground, while the RAF struggles with inadequate resources to fend off defeat. Meanwhile, Britain’s Atlantic lifeline is fraying....
Voices on the Wind follows the fate of four of Malta’s defenders: Senior Intelligence Officer and former Battle of Britain ace, W/Cdr “Robin” Priestman; WAAF SigInt Officer Candice Weld, sent out from Bletchley Park to “man” the only X-machine outside the UK; F/O “Ned” Nettleton, a Beaufort torpedo bomber pilot engaged in suicidal attacks against enemy shipping; and Chief Officer Stevie Mackay of the British Merchant Navy, fighting to keep Britain’s own lines of supply open.
Praise
What emerges from these pages is more than a story of military operations. It is a portrait of service, endurance, and sacrifice viewed through multiple perspectives, each contributing to a richer understanding of a critical moment in history.
Yarde Book Promotions
Through a collective of narrators working in different areas of the war effort, mainly in and around Malta, "Voices on the Wind" by Helena P. Schrader explores a frequently overlooked aspect of history, delving into the defence of Malta during the Second World War.
Helena P. Schrader is the author of 21 historical novels and six non-fiction history books. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg and served as a U.S. diplomat in Europe and Africa. She has won numerous literary awards, and two of her titles—Cold Peace, the first book in the Bridge to Tomorrow series on the Berlin Airlift, and her Battle of Britain novel, Where Eagles Never Flew—achieved Amazon #1 Bestseller status in aviation and military historical fiction.
Schrader masterfully blends meticulous historical research with compelling storytelling. Her success can best be measured not by the many awards or positive reviews, but by the fact that witnesses of the history she describes praise the authenticity of her works. Battle of Britain ace, W/Cdr Bob Doe enthusiastically declared that Where Eagles Never Flew got it “smack on the way it was for us fighter pilots.” Traitors for the Sake of Humanity: A Novel of the German Resistance won recognition for its extraordinary sensitivity to a complex topic from the survivors of the military conspiracy against Hitler and the widows of some of those executed.
The dramatic siege of Malta in WWII attracted Schrader’s attention years ago, and she has visited the island several times to conduct research, visit the important sites, and gain a greater understanding of the people. As she became drawn deeper into the material, the temptation to combine a novel about the siege of Malta with another of her lifelong loves, the British Merchant Navy, became irresistible. Schrader has been an avid sailor all her life and served as a petty officer in the British Merchant Navy on sail training ships in her youth.
Based on a true story, this is not the enlightened Rome of myth. This is a city choking on fear, where blood flows on both the battlefield and altar, and where generals and politicians alike are desperate to appease rageful gods.
When 50,000 Romans fall in a single day at the Battle of Cannae, priests claim there can be only one reason the gods abandoned Rome: a Vestal Virgin has broken her vow of chastity. And they accuse Opimia (Mia), the strongest, most defiant of the six sacred Vestal priestesses.
Forced as a child into serving Vesta, the goddess of fire, Mia has always chafed against Rome’s control of her every move—especially after being separated from her childhood love, Attius. Now, accused of a crime she did not commit, she must defend herself in a hostile court to avoid being buried alive for her “crime.”
Betrayed by the high priestess, hunted by Rome’s political and religious elite, Mia must either accept her fate — or join with the Sybil of Cumae to expose the truth behind a world built on superstition, fear, and lies.
A story of personal awakening amid public catastrophe, The Cleansing is a haunting journey through a city at war with itself — and a woman who risks everything to survive it.
Praise for The Cleansing:
"Original, deftly crafted...[and a] historical thriller with an impressive level of literary excellence."
Victoria Alvear has written multiple books and novels set in the ancient world, including A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii, A Song of War: A Novel of Troy, Cleopatra’s Moon, and others.
She is known as Vicky Alvear Shecter for her children’s books, which include Warrior Queens, Anubis Speaks!, Hades Speaks!, and Thor Speaks!.
Victoria has served as a docent at the museum of antiquities at Emory University for nearly twenty years.
