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Award winning multi-genre author Becky Van Vleet is a retired teacher and principal. A member of ACFW, Allauthor, and Colorado Writers, her devotions have been published in Guideposts, and two of her children’s books have received Purple Dragonfly Awards. She and her husband make their home in Colorado Springs, where Becky enjoys oil painting, gardening, and hiking and biking in the great outdoors. Becky relishes spending time with her family and especially reading books to her grandchildren. Passionate about patriotism, WWII, and stories from the Greatest Generation, Becky enjoys visiting schools to speak with middle and high schoolers about lessons learned from history and how we can walk out patriotism today. Her website is devoted to creating and preserving family memories while connecting generations.
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What first sparked your passion for storytelling, and how did that evolve into your writing career?
To be honest, writing and I were never friends. Not in high school, not in college. But as a sixth-grade teacher, naturally I had to teach writing. I plowed through it as best I could! Then retirement arrived a decade ago, and something unexpected happened. A family heirloom, a small skirt passed down through three generations in my family, sparked something in me. I felt compelled to capture its journey. My first children’s book, Talitha, the Traveling Skirt, was born from my first musings of this little skirt. I absolutely loved the process of writing the story, finding an illustrator, and seeking publication. Little did I know this first book would jumpstart a children’s picture book series of other traveling objects in my family.
Suddenly, family stories poured out of me: my father’s untold WWII experiences became Unintended Hero, my mother’s adventure to become a Rosie the Riveter at a shipyard in WWII turned into a novella, Across the Country, and her wisdom filled a weekly devotional for women, What’s In Your Purse?. I’d discovered a wellspring in my own heritage, tales that had always surrounded me, waiting for someone to give them voice.
Click here to read Across the Country for free. I’d love for you to check it out!
Could you share the inspiration behind your most recent book? Was there a specific moment or experience that set everything in motion?
Her Strength Within, my second novel, published September 2025, draws from my grandmother Alzbeta Holeva’s journey to America, a teenage girl traveling alone over a century ago. Throughout my childhood, my grandmother would describe her peasant upbringing in Poland and later Czechoslovakia. Frequently her stories spilled out when I was in the kitchen with her as we rolled out dough for pierogi. I especially remember how scared she was traveling in steerage on the ship and arriving at Ellis Island by herself, not understanding any of the English language. Her uncle was to meet her there, but he was a day late. Though she passed to heaven when I was in college, her stories lingered. After completing my first historical fiction novel inspired by my father, I knew her immigration story would fill the pages of my next.
Which scene or chapter in your latest work challenged you the most, and how did you push through it?
My grandmother’s stories of her harrowing Atlantic passage in steerage remained vivid in my memory, yet when I reached this part of her story, I found myself compelled to research further. What I discovered was even more shocking. I learned the immigrants mostly consumed soggy black bread for the duration of their traveling. I read accounts of the steerage passengers, usually about 500, herded to the bottom of the ship, standing in lines for hours to share just two toilets and bathtubs. Diseases ran rampant. During violent storms, passengers were flung against bulkheads as the ship pitched and rolled. There were no portholes in steerage. Some passengers who boarded these ships in Europe never lived to see America.
To be honest, I cried more than once as I wrote this part of her journey. I wish I had thanked her for all her sacrifices. Yet her love for America and the new life she started at only age nineteen spoke volumes of her fortitude. In the end, my book would honor her faith and courage.
Can you give us a glimpse into any projects you’re currently working on?
Glad you asked! I just signed a contract for a three-book WWII romance series, Hearts in the Shipyard. Book one, Waves of Faith, will be published in 2026, and as you might have guessed, is inspired by another family member who bravely fought in WWII. I love preserving my family stories! Waves of Peace and Waves of Hope will follow.
The lush, green hills of Poland and Czechoslovakia are all that Alzbeta Holeva has ever known. Yet, as a nineteen-year-old peasant girl in 1921, her life is on the brink of a drastic upheaval. Papa plans to send her to America for a better life. The very thought of severing ties with her family, abandoning her homeland, and facing the frightening unfamiliarity of a new country fills her with an overwhelming dread.
Although her aunt and uncle are willing to sponsor her and have already braved the journey successfully, the thought of venturing alone to a distant land makes her stomach roil. Still, with the haunting memories of German military planes menacing the skies of her childhood and her brothers later embroiled in the horrors of the Great War, she must summon every shred of courage to embrace Papa’s plan. She would pave the way for the rest of her family to follow.
At last, Alzbeta steps onto the SS La Touraine, the mighty vessel that will carry her across the perilous Atlantic waves to an uncertain future. The grueling trials awaiting her in steerage passage will forever change the course of her life and shape her path toward America.
Inspired by a true story.
