Free book - Our Father's War - from the air in WWII

[juliet1959]

I have just uploaded a book I compiled of my Dad's letters home and articles he wrote since the war.

He was a Spitfire pilot in WWII, a foundation member of 485 NZ Spitfire Squadron and he also was a member of 123 Squadron in the Middle East. He was a brilliant writer and he wrote about what he saw and felt, from the air and on the ground. But he had to be careful what he wrote so that his letters would make it home. Many years later he wrote about night fighting in Spitfires, the first sweep over France and watching his best friend die before being shot up himself and just making it back to England and many other things.

This is free, I have done it to honour my Dad and to leave a memory for those younger members of our family who didn't know him.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93757

Feel free and I hope you enjoy it.

*********** Addition: See last post, it is now Free at Amazon too:

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Fathers-Wa...36632&sr=1-1#_


Cheers

Julie Thomas

[xg4bx]

thats very sweet of you. unfortunately my grandfather died long before i was old enough to ask him about his own service in the war so i love being able to read the words of those who were there.

[JeremyR]

This is very nice. I was just barely old enough to have my grandfather talk about his time in WW2 (he was a captain of a sub) but he died when I was still pretty young (10) - this sort of thing is really a fitting tribute.

[juliet1959]

Thanks Guys
The book has had 206 downloads from Smashwords and sold a few copies on Amazon. It has been accepted for the Smashwords Premiere Catalogue.
I am offering PDF of the family version (with photos) by email to anyone who does a review/rating for me on either Smashwords or Amazon.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93757


http://www.amazon.com/Our-Fathers-Wa...36632&sr=1-1#_

Cheers

Julie
http://thomasbrowne.wordpress.com/

[sabredog]

Many thanks and I will certainly read your book.

My great uncle was a pathfinder and later Catalina pilot in the RAAF during WW2. He used to tell some very interesting and harrowing stories about his service during those times.

[juliet1959]

Thank you guys for your responses, I have been really humbled by the people who have shared their family history and said they think this was a good thing to do, on WWII forums and ebook forums etc. I feel it has honoured his memory.

Just an Update:

Amazon discounted this book to Free in late November and it has now had 2300 downloads. It is #1 in the Kindle non-fiction, biography and memoir, military.
It has one five star review and people have said very nice things about it in forums.

So if you know anyone who likes military history, flying (especially one of the greatest planes ever invented), memoirs and an insight into WWII from the air...then you can get them a FREE present for Christmas, right here!

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Fathers-Wa...36632&sr=1-1#_

Or, if all of the above is true but you don't have a Kindle or/and would rather not use Amazon, you can get it for Free at Smashwords too:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93757

Thanks
Julie Thomas

[banjobama]

I downloaded it, and can't wait to check it out. Thanks!

[Guns4Hire]

Hi Julie. Thanks you for the time you took to put this into a book. Its quite the honor to read about your father. I just wanted to point out that the epub version from smashwords is jacked up. The HTML version is just fine. Not sure about any of the other versions.

The epub's TOC and chapters were messed up by the smashwords meatgrinder. I was able to correct them using Sigil. But if someone didn't have a working knowledge of Sigil they would be out of luck. I used the HTML version of chapter 1 and 2 to see fix the epub. Anyway just wanted to point that out to you.

If for any reason you would like to see what I corrected. I can email you the corrected version of the epub then you can go and see smashwords version. Then you could correct the smashwords version or whatever.

Cheers. Thanks again.

[juliet1959]

Thanks for the message.
When I put the books onto Smashwords they were accepted without any need for changes. They were pending for the Premiere Catalogue and then accepted. I had followed the formatting guide step by step. I don't have an epub reader but I do have Adobe. It will not open or read any of my three books in epub format.

However, I was assured that the books had passed the epub check for Apple and that everything was fine with them. They passed a visual check by Smashwords staff.
This book has had over 300 Smashwords downloads and been discussed on many forums and this has never been mentioned before by anyone and some I know had epub readers. Could it be that it is a problem that happened on your reader only?
Smashwords have assured me that the books are fine, I don't have the ability to check.

Sorry it was messed up for you. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Cheers
Julie

[carpetmojo]

Many thanks Juliet - a lovely idea, and am passing link on to to son and friends - my father was on ground crew for Spit's, he'd have loved this....

[Guns4Hire]

Originally Posted by juliet1959

Could it be that it is a problem that happened on your reader only?
Smashwords have assured me that the books are fine, I don't have the ability to check.

Sorry it was messed up for you. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Cheers
Julie

Couldn't of been my ereader because it hasn't been loaded on my ereader as of yet. First thing I did after downloading it was load it into Calibre and then I opened it up in Calibre. The TOC was a little off and some of the chapter headings (1 and 2) were messed up. I then opened it in Sigil to correct the problem. I viewed the HTML version at smashwords to verify that I was correcting the epub properly.

No worries on it being messed up. I get plenty of ebooks that are which is why I have a working knowledge of Sigil.

Thanks again for the story. And I will enjoy it anyway.