Joanie Schirm is author of a narrative non-fiction series - based on the discovery of a treasure trove of 400 WWII era letters by 78 Czech writers.
Books include:

The Golden Youth - Adventurers Against Their Will - inspirational stories of seven recreated lives after WWII - revealed by the author using modern detective work in five continents - inspired by a secret treasure trove of letters hidden away by her Czech-American father.

My Dear Boy: The Discovery of a Lifetime - an inspirational non-fiction narrative that combines historical information and the human story gleaned from seventy eight writers in hundreds of letters written and received by Dr. Oswald “Valdik” Holzer during World War II with his daughter Joanie Schirm’s account of how she found the letters and revealed the secrets—both historical and personal—that they held.

This remarkable book encompasses and transcends genealogical how-to and World War II memoir. It is a love song by a daughter to her father, a powerful exploration of memory, family, and responsibility to which all readers will connect regardless of their heritage.

The story of this 'discovery of a lifetime' was broadcast nationally in 2011 on public television channels and national public radio on the show Growing Bolder. A national public radio show about the book The Golden Youth will be broadcast in early 2012.

The Book
My Dear Boy interweaves two points of view: Valdik’s through the letters and 7 hours of interviews given before his death...and Joanie’s through her memoir.
• Valdik's narrative is about his dramatic escape from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, flight to and adventures in China in the early 1940s where he fell in love with a young missionary, marriage and early career spent in the oil fields of South America, and new homeland in the United States, where he led a life of exemplary goodness. The letters from Valdik’s parents who later perish in the Holocaust provide a heartbreaking counterpoint to an All American recreated life.
• Joanie’s narrative opens each chapter sharing her genealogical detective work, bringing her heritage to life, creating a picture, piece by piece, of lost and stolen people whose voices, when restored, told her not only who they were, but who she is.

The Letters
Described by a representative of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as “one of the largest and most comprehensive personal collections seen in some years,” the cache of letters is the cornerstone for the Golden Youth and My Dear Boy’s remarkable discovery and revealing storylines which are rich in contemporary relevance.
There are numerous collections of letters from World War II on the market, but as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other scholars have assured Joanie, the Holzer collection is unique because it’s extremely rare to have copies of the recipient’s letters—to hear the recipient’s voice. Usually this element of an epistolary collection is almost entirely missing, but Joanie had the opportunity to learn her father’s coming-of-age story not just through his correspondents, but also through him. In fact, My Dear Boy is a gathering of genealogical research and cultural history at such an extraordinary level of detail that Allan Stypeck, Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers, who works closely with the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution, wrote:

… the Oswald A. Holzer archival collection is one of the most substantive and detailed collections pertaining to a specific individual’s experience during the time period relating to the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia…The importance of the Holzer archive is based on the substantial quantity of correspondence, audiotapes, video footage, and the photographic archival material, which identifies so many Czechoslovakian citizens’ experiences during this time period…The content of the archival collection is as comprehensive as any I have ever reviewed in this field and if there is a mainstream publishing house with a desire to publish a narrative relating to this subject, I feel this would be a primary candidate…

The Audience
The breadth and intimacy of the voices in these letters—sent from China, Ecuador, England, France, Palestine, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and America—combined with the insights and context that Joanie brings to them—their duet, if you will—will attract a broad general readership of history and memoir, adventure and inspirational narrative non-fiction—from devotees of Mitch Albom to Daniel Mendelsohn.
Although My Dear Boy and the Golden Youth are not exclusively World War II books but present a universal story about displaced people, the consistent audience for books directly related to World War II and the Holocaust is a substantial one, as any perusal of the “New Non-Fiction” table at Barnes & Noble will demonstrate. Many World War II anniversary dates are coming up in the next few years, which will further allow for ongoing promotional opportunities.
The Golden Youth and My Dear Boy will also sell in several targeted market categories, including genealogy, doctors, and Czechoslovakia.
• The books will capitalize on the growing genealogy craze. According to the National Genealogy Society, “Family history is now the second most popular hobby in the United States, after gardening.” Sixty percent of the American population is interested, according to a 2000 marketing report that also indicated that about 35 million people in the U.S. use the Internet for family history research.
• There are 250,000 members of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the author has already initiated conversations with a major pharmaceutical company for presale of My Dear Boy as a promotional gift for physicians.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 1.7 million Americans of full or partial Czech descent, affording a substantial built-in audience.

The Author
Joanie represents her baby-boom generation in its quest for life’s meaning through legacy. She is uniquely positioned to promote The Golden Youth and My Dear Boy and combines her passion for her family’s history with extensive personal experience working with worldwide media, especially in her leadershp role in bringing and staging the 1994 World Cup to Orlando, Florida.
Joanie worked in senior marketing and management positions, ran her own engineering firm for seventeen years, and has been interviewed extensively about her business acumen. She has a wide range of contacts, colleagues, and admirers, and plans to draw on all of them to further develop the audience for her book.
Joanie’s national and international profile continues to grow. If you Google her, you’ll see that she has an especially strong following in the state of Florida, as recent articles in the Orlando Sentinel (February 21, 2010), Orlando Business Journal (January 29, 2010) and Heritage Florida Jewish News(February 12, 2010).
On August 2010 on PBS Radio Station WMFE, which reaches 191,900 listeners, Joanie was interviewed about the process of writing My Dear Boy. It can be heard at: growingbolder.com/media/.../joanie-schirm-663947.html The television show Growing Bolder has been broadcast in 2011 to a national audience and now has over 7000 additional views on the web site. An updated radio interview will be broadcast beginning January 2012 featuring the story told in the book: The Golden Youth.