Joann Petrie Carr

Keeper of the Flame Joann Petrie Carr

This is a fictional inside look in answer to the question, What's it like being married to an astronaut? I was an Apollo wife in the sixties, which gives me a unique perspective from which to write this book. This is the feminine view of the space race and has never been done before by an insider. Keeper of the Flame is a metaphor for the universal story of every traditional married woman who found herself exposed to the possibilities offered by the changing world of the sixties. It will also appeal to those younger women who struggle to combine career and family. Jennifer Davis, devoted mother of four and wife of an Apollo astronaut, had dreamed of being a lawyer. Instead, she married and started a family while her twin brother went to law school. Although the women's movement tells her she can have a career of her own, she supports her husband in his quest for the moon. Her husband is a good but neglectful man who is driven by his need to excel at whatever he does. His time and attention are focused exclusively on the moon to the detriment of his family and his relationship with Jennifer. Jennifer pushes the traditional envelope of her life as far as she's able without jeopardizing Evan's chances or neglecting her children. NASA lets Evan know he needs to rein her in. Meanwhile, the astronauts, like rock stars, are allowed every indulgence offered by an adoring public. In spite of Jennifer's conventional upbringing, an intense relationship with a television director Mason Sears, who is filming a documentary on her family, threatens to become intimate during her husband's one-month stay on the moon. An emergency on the lunar surface, endangering the crew, causes her to reexamine her core values. She meets the tough choices that face her head on.