About the Book

Book: The Last Quiet Autumn

Author: Loni Kemper Moore

Genre: Christian historical fiction with strong faith themes

Release Date: September, 2025

One letter stitched a family together. Now, with war on the wind, only love—penned note by note—holds the threads in place.

Autumn 1941

Three young women—strangers to one another—each receive an alluring invitation they cannot and dare not refuse—Thanksgiving dinner in Texas with a mysterious ninety-year-old woman.

Virginia Campbell, a poised Boston socialite on the brink of marrying into a powerful political family, is entrusted with a delicate family mission—one that could jeopardize the perfect wedded life she so carefully planned.

Eulalia Bell, a spirited nursing graduate, earned her scholarship in Nebraska thanks to the Orphan Train. But the truth of her past threatens the career she’s fought hard to build.

Francesca Smythe, a resilient wife and mother on an Oklahoma ranch, survived the Dust Bowl and Depression. She longs for the warmth and connection of a true family. When the letter arrives, she wonders if it holds the key to the belonging she’s yearned for all her life.

As secrets unfold and pasts entwine, these three women are drawn to a truth that will reshape their lives—about love powerful enough to face a potential world at war, desires too strong to be silenced, and the courage to claim their place in history.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Loni Kemper Moore is a sports-cheering, Diet-Pepsi-sipping, Rocky Mountain–adventure-seeking storyteller who longs to reflect God’s beautiful love through life’s hardest places, especially for remarkable women around the globe.

A preacher’s kid at heart though her father joined her mother in Heaven, Loni’s wanderlust was sparked early by family and missionary stories. She has visited more than a dozen countries, learning from other cultures while often experiencing life as “the other.” Though she attended multiple schools as a minority and later discovered African heritage through DNA testing, she approaches those experiences with humility rather than assumption.

Loni earned bachelor’s degrees in Education and Biblical Studies from the former Denver Baptist Bible College and completed graduate work in Education at the University of Evansville.

A Jesus-following history enthusiast, Loni was named Leonnie Sue after generations of strong women. Leonnie was her maternal great-grandmother, who died during the Influenza Pandemic, leaving behind her husband and four teenagers. Sue traces through the family tree to Susanna Dean, who stepped off a ship in Korea, Maine, in the 1640s. These inherited collections of more than 500 spoons; stories of faith, endurance, and love deeply shape Loni’s writing.

Her novel The Last Quiet Autumn came to life after cousin reunions on both sides of her family stirred memories of childhood gatherings at her grandparents’ homes—one on a Loudoun County, Virginia farm and the other on a southern Colorado ranch. Reflecting on shared family experiences and her parents’ childhood just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Loni began to wonder how different her life might have been without nearly two dozen cousins spread across four time zones. That question sparked a story that grew far beyond her original imagination.

When she isn’t writing, Loni is visiting friends, studying history, and exploring meaningful places—like the Cherwell River near Oxford, UK where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis once walked. During a trip to Swindon, England, she visited the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings met, a moment that proved especially encouraging.

Loni is the proud mom of Adam, a CAD engineer and YouTuber; Becca and Anthony, who made her a delighted grandmother of her “GrandMiracles,” Naomie and Zemira; and a frequent traveler with her beloved “Hugsband,” Robert, an embedded engineer. A granddaughter of ranchers and farmers, Loni holds close the legacy of trusting God through tragedy—faith that carried her grandparents and parents through the World Wars and continues to anchor her stories today.

More from Loni

I can still picture my grandmother standing at her farmhouse stove, cracking open precious eggs she’d just sold back to herself. The surplus eggs were sold to allow her to buy rationed products.

One recipe she made regularly was this ‘Wacky Cake’—a chocolate cake so frugal it needed no eggs, butter, or milk. While historians debate the exact origin of the name, the most likely explanation is that it earned its playful moniker from the unconventional method of mixing everything directly in the baking pan—no bowl required. Homemakers could hardly believe a cake without eggs or butter would actually rise and taste good. But it does!

As a child spoiled by Betty Crocker mixes, I had to admire her ingenuity, even if I couldn’t quite share her enthusiasm for the taste. When my character Chessa bakes in ‘The Last Quiet Autumn,’ I drew directly from recipes like this one. Understanding how women stretched ingredients during wartime rationing helped me write scenes that felt authentic.

Have you tried Depression-era recipes? I’d love to hear about your family’s resourceful traditions from that era.

It reminded me how faith, like that cake, often rises when we least expect it to.

 

Wacky Chocolate Cake

(a.k.a. Depression Cake or Crazy Cake)

Circa 1940s

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (white or apple cider)
• ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup cold water

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. In an ungreased 8×8-inch square baking pan, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
3. Make three wells in the dry mixture:

o   In one well, pour the vanilla.

o   In the second, the vinegar.

o   In the third, the oil.

4. Pour the cold water over everything and mix well with a fork or whisk until smooth.
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cool in the pan. Dust with powdered sugar or enjoy plain.

Author Interview

• What is your favorite genre of books? Biographies Why? They’re rarely stories about perfection. Instead, they show us how people stumble, endure hard seasons, and rise again—and how they carry themselves when life is finally kind. A few Christmases ago, the film I Heard the Bells captured that kind of honest biography beautifully, portraying both the sorrow and the steady faith of a life tested and restored. I would love to have the honor to write something so beautiful.
• How has your life experience helped in your writing journey?

A high-tech company I once worked for had what they lovingly called “regular reductions-in-force.” (Don’t you just adore a good corporate euphemism? Nothing says you’re fired quite like a tidy little hyphen.)

One fine season of “workforce optimization,” I was included in a three-for-one special with two dear work friends and promptly “let go.” Such a gentle phrase. As if they’d simply released us back into the wild to roam free and write novels.

Within weeks, I discovered my fellow castaways were also secretly working on books. Instead of competing for office promotions, we began comparing word counts and plot twists. We cheered one another on through rejection letters, revisions, and emotional snack binges. They are, without exaggeration, my heroines.

One of them wrote a YA novel that sold record-breaking numbers worldwide in its first year. Casual. The other—clearly not content with mere global domination—had her fourth book turned into a Hallmark Channel movie. Yes. A Hallmark movie. With snow. And meaningful glances.

Meanwhile, I’m still running to catch up—typing furiously, fueled by coffee and the faint hope of one day being “reduced in force” straight into cinematic glory.

• Do you have extensive outlines when writing or do you write a book as you go?

My characters tend to take the reins. They make choices I wouldn’t always approve of, and sometimes they lead me into places I would not have planned.

An engaged woman allows herself to linger in a conversation that crosses an invisible line. A young woman endures an attack that alters her sense of safety and leaves questions no one can easily answer. A family member turns against one of their own, filing a lawsuit that fractures what once felt unbreakable.

I must determine how to tell these stories without excess — without sensational detail — yet still convey their weight.

• Do you remember the first book you read? What sort of impact did it make on you?

Besides Bible stories, Charlotte’s Web was my first brave leap beyond Dr. Seuss—and it absolutely wrecked me. I cried so hard my family probably thought I’d lost a close relative, not a farm animal with exceptional spelling skills.

I didn’t have the vocabulary to say it was “beautifully crafted” or “emotionally resonant.” I just knew that words on a page had ambushed me. And somewhere between tears and dramatic sighs, I decided I wanted to grow up and do that to other people—make them cry over fictional livestock in the most dignified way possible.

• What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?

I’ve discovered I write best when there’s a window involved. Preferably one with a view dramatic enough to suggest I’m pondering life’s great mysteries instead of wrestling with Chapter Twelve.

At home, I’m completely spoiled. Pikes Peak practically poses outside my window, along with its mountain entourage, as if they’ve agreed to supervise my deadlines. It’s hard to complain about writer’s block when a 14,000-foot reminder of perspective is staring at you.

When we travel, I somehow develop a deep “creative necessity” to spend at least a day or two writing on a deck in Honolulu or somewhere along the Florida coast. Purely for inspiration, of course. If I must glance up from my laptop and see turquoise water stretching to the horizon, I will bravely endure it. The ocean and I have an understanding: it sparkles; I pretend to work; eventually, a decent paragraph appears.

Blog Stops

The Avid Reader, April 9

Stories By Gina, April 10 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 11

Simple Harvest Reads, April 12 (Author Interview)

A Simple Texas Girl, April 12

Texas Book-aholic, April 13

Artistic Nobody, April 14 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, April 15

Guild Master, April 16 (Author Interview)

Life on Chickadee Lane, April 17

Fiction Book Lover, April 18 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 19

Vicky Sluiter, April 20 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, April 20

Lily’s Corner, April 21

For the Love of Literature, April 22 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Loni is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/3bY3w/the-last-quiet-autumn-celebration-tour-giveaway