While society has gotten more serious since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it has a ways to go to reach the gravity of the World War II years, said author Martha McClymonds.

"Back in that era, there seemed like there were so many things going on that people were emotionally involved in," said the native of Mount Jackson, Lawrence County. "Everybody lived for the minute."

Glued to the radio for the latest news on the war, "Everyone was very serious. It wasn't a care-free youth."

The Mohawk High School graduate, who was 18 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, had two brothers, numerous cousins and other relatives and boyfriends sent off to fight.

"The war effort was everything," she said, recalling rationing, conservation efforts, entertaining servicemen at canteens and manning a look-out tower to scan for enemy aircraft.

Mrs. McClymonds, 79, who has relatives in Mercer County, tried to give a sense of that time in her newly published novel "Tears and Rainbows."

"I really don't know any of the people in there," the New Castle resident said of the characters in her book. "It's more a character study of people at that time."

The heroine, Flame Wingate, is a rural teacher of the pre-war era who struggles to improve her school, and becomes drawn to a married man with a young son.

After the heartbreak of weathering her cousin's fall from grace in a scandal, she eventually leaves her beau behind and marries. She gives birth to a daughter, but her husband becomes an invalid.

"Tears and Rainbows," put out by PublishAmerica of Frederick, Md., evolved from the title.

"I wanted a different kind of book," the former Martha Wike explained. "I wanted something that was inspirational and something people could relate to. I needed some sinners to redeem."

"Tears and Rainbows" is available at:

www.publishamerica.com

www.amazon.com

www.barnesandnoble.com