Diane Dean-Epps

Having embarked upon a journey to tell her father’s World War II Stalag 17-B POW story in an authentic voice Diane Dean-Epps delivers a powerful 30-years-in-the-making Father-Daughter Writing Duet.

I'm the author of 6 published books, the most recent - REMEMBER: A Father-Daughter WWII Stalag 17-B POW Story About Never Giving Up - being a departure from my usual comedic writing fare. Having said that, this story is told from the viewpoint of my extremely funny father with commentary from his sometimes-amusing daughter.

Through a series of seemingly innocuous small events occurring at the height of World War II, my 24-year-old Air Force Staff Sergeant dad, Frank D. Dean, found himself flying numerous combat missions in the European Theater as a replacement crew member for the 95th Bomb Group. His last mission was the Black Week Münster run when he was shot down on October 10, 1943. After bailing out of his burning B-17—the Fritz Blitz—he was greeted by the Gestapo as well as several crabby villagers who were waiting for him on the ground. Captured before he could even get out of his parachute harness, he spent the rest of World War II as a Nazi Germany prisoner of war held at the infamous Stalag 17-B prison camp. My dad’s story is one of many we should remember.

By way of background, early in my writing career two of my books - MATERNAL MEANDERINGS (Humor) and LAST CALL (Humorous Mystery/Fiction) were released by a small publishing house. During this time MATERNAL MEANDERINGS was touted on Dr. Laura Ingraham's show as a "must read," which contributed to excellent sales and quite a bit of positive press. That publisher is no longer in business and so—for a myriad of reasons—I decided to move forward in my publishing career as an indie author. As it turns out this has afforded me with a number of opportunities to appear at—and host—a large number of events and shows; everything from motivational speaking to author showcases to radio/TV shows to book signings to school literacy events.

My biggest challenge in writing REMEMBER was how to tell a powerful - but 78-year-old - story in a way that's engaging, positive, and true to my father's voice. The result is a book organized into sections where I introduce a story my father told me, which is followed by his actual telling of the story. Loaded with pictures and interspersed with recently declassified documents, REMEMBER is the kind of story I believe will resonate with your listeners.

Even better is the "story behind the story" that is how this 30-years-in-the-making book has come to be. I'm available to talk about REMEMBER or other (humor) books I've written. Let's chat!