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:

Preheat oven to 350°F
In an ungreased 8×8-inch square baking pan, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
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.

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

Interview with the Author

Do you read books in this genre?

Yes,

If so, who do you like to read?

I remember finishing The Women by Kristin Hannah with mixed feelings. It’s beautifully written — the kind of novel that keeps you turning pages — but it also contains elements I’d normally avoid. It brought back an old youth-group illustration about brownies with “just a little contamination.” The point was simple: even a small addition changes the whole batch. That thought has stayed with me over the years, though I’ve also learned that books, like memories, aren’t always so easy to set aside.

I’ve never been very good at leaving a story unfinished. That habit goes back to my younger days, when I was deep into historical fiction set in the time of Jesus and reading Ben-Hur. The copy I had belonged to a young man I was dating. I won’t go into the reasons we parted, but I knew him well enough to sense he’d want his belongings returned — and might read an unreturned book as a sign we were still attached. So I handed it back, pages unfinished.

After that, every time I picked up Ben-Hur at the library, it carried the faint memory of that season of my life. I could never quite separate the story from the circumstances — and I never finished it. The contamination, you might say, wasn’t in the book itself. It was in what the book had come to mean.

Years later, when I was married, my husband suggested we watch the film instead. It felt lighter somehow — a story reclaimed, without the old weight attached. Sometimes that’s the best you can do: find a way back to something worth finishing.

What helps you to write? Do you eat snacks, listen to music?

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.

During our homeschooling years, my most reliable writing window was the windshield of our Jeep Rubicon — parked outside engineering classes, waiting, laptop open, mountains still somehow finding me.

When we travel, I 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. The ocean and I have an understanding: it sparkles; I pretend to work; eventually, a decent paragraph appears.

What is your favorite book and why?

The first chapter book I read was Charlotte’s Web — who knew a pig and a spider could break my heart? No book I read as an adult ever quite measured up. Later, the summer before seventh grade, Gone With the Wind became an annual read and did the trick too, proving that giant epics and tragic love stories are apparently my emotional kryptonite. I’m basically a walking, sniffling cautionary tale for book lovers.

What is your favorite hymn and why?

Over the years, my answer would have changed. For a long time, “How Great Thou Art” was the song closest to my heart. Then, a few Christmases ago, the film I Heard the Bells quietly claimed the top spot—and has held it ever since.

What moved me most was its honest portrayal of a life tested by sorrow yet sustained by steady faith. That kind of truthful storytelling still brings tears to my eyes, and I can only hope that someday my own writing might touch a reader’s heart the way it touched mine.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired to write this book while polishing the 500+ spoon collection I inherited from my mother. As a girl, I’d admired the beautiful wooden display\ frame built to house them. My mother had a story for nearly every spoon — and the oldest one, pre-Civil War, had a story worth keeping. I finally figured out how to put it in a book, so I did.