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Betrayal, Guilt, and World War II: An interview with historical fiction author David Leroy

1) Tell me about your book. 

The Siren of Paris follows the mortal life of Marc Tolbert during World War II.  The story opens with him as a ghost of the war who is attempting to move past his mortal life into eternity.  His failure to deal with his own sense of survivor’s guilt, and the personal shame he has regarding a relationship with a woman, prevents him from moving on. Instead he must fall back into mortal time to review his life during the war. This review becomes the bulk of the story. 

2) Your protagonist is a French-born American art student. That's an interesting POV for a story of World War II. Why did you decide on that particular background and POV? 

Marc and Marie are based, in part, upon real people.  There were, in fact, many real people who became trapped by the war and were unable to leave France, hence living in very dangerous circumstances. Marc is a “Teddy boy,” which is a term for a child of an American veteran of World War I.  His dual citizenship is both a blessing and a curse to him throughout the story.  He decides to drop out of medicine and pursue art, primarily because his girlfriend, who wanted to be married to a rich doctor, has left him.  Marc’s experiences during the war will drive him, for the rest of his life, to give himself entirely to medicine, powered by the memory of being helpless to care for his friends as they died during the war.  

3) Please tell about the primary themes your book explores.

 The main theme is transcending guilt.  Marc is Catholic with a strong conscience. He feels guilt over the death of many of his friends who were betrayed during the war, because this betrayal came from his own girlfriend.  He blames himself for not seeing her as a collaborator until it was too late to do anything.  The second theme is the nature of freedom.  This is explored through Dora’s reactions to the war and Jacques’s experiences during the liberation of Buchenwald.  There are multiple lesser themes including courage in the face of danger, faith, hope, love and innocence.

4) Please tell us a bit about your historical research process.

I got a little carried away because I set out to write a realistic story.  The story follows real events instead of a fictionalized storyline of events. This required reading about 46 different books, along with several papers and documents, to put together all the various details. This has opened the door to some criticism regarding the book.  For instance, the scene of the traveling circus being raided on the Loire Valley seems to stretch credulity, but there was a circus on the run, remembered by many eyewitnesses.  The resistance group I choose is small, humble, and isolated from others with only few resources, because Dr. Jackson and his family are real. They are in contrast to the fictionalized Hollywood portrayal we have in our imaginations regarding Parisian resistance members.  The head of the Sons of Liberty, which is the largest of the French youth resistance movements, is blind. He is another unlikely actual historical figure of the war.   

5) You've said your book is a mix of a historical narrative and a spiritual journey inspired by The Egyptian Book of the Dead. World War II and the Book of the Dead are two things I don't normally associate with each other. Please tell us a bit more about that and how you came up with that connection to begin with.

My degree in philosophy and religion has a major influence upon how I approach telling a story.  If I had limited myself to only the clear historical facts, focusing upon certain events and people during the war from Marc’s emotional and mental point of view, it would be an interesting historical novel regarding a betrayal. 

However, by placing the historical events of the war into the context of Marc’s spiritual test, The Siren of Paris becomes allegorical historical fiction.  The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a mythical journey through an underworld of both demons and gods, testing the soul of Ani, until he reaches his place of final peace.  The match was perfect for the purpose of exploring guilt felt on a spiritual level.  Of course, I do not follow the same journey that Ani takes, because this is Marc’s journey and his tests are different.  The lucid dreams and hallucinations in the story serve as a way of guiding Marc in this journey that equates the war with hell.

Readers’ reactions to this allegory are mixed.  Some find it incredibly interesting, while this odd mixture of imagery does not impress others. I am actually surprised that I have not attracted more negative reviews, since some readers do not enjoy allegorical writing.   

6) World War II, being the greatest, most horrific war that humanity has even known and relatively recent has been rather thoroughly explored in fiction. What does your novel bring to the forefront that has perhaps been less explored well in the past?

Aside from the fact that The Siren of Paris is an allegorical approach to exploring World War II, the book brings several obscure events to light.  Very few people know the story of the RMS Lancastria, a British passenger liner put into service as an emergency troop ship, that took on 8000-9000 soldiers and civilian refugees only to be sunk, killing most in 20 minutes.  The British government, to this day, continues to passively deny this sinking, which is the worst maritime accident in British history. People are very familiar with the stories of Titanic and the Lusitania. However the Lancastria death toll, which is estimated to exceed both disasters combined, is unknown to most and has never appeared in a novel. Most war novels don’t dwell long on the “false war period” when the French and British engaged in a long period of denial of their circumstances.  This is reflected in the confirmation bias of Marc’s fellow trapped travelers. Plus, many of these historical figures, such as Joan Rodes, Jacques Lusseyran, Ambassador Bullitt, and Sylvia Beach, have never appeared in a fictional account before.   

A standard historical novel would explore these characters in depth. However, in the context of an allegorical novel, these characters play roles in the service of the larger spiritual journey of Marc’s soul.  The people are guides, gatekeepers, threshold guardians, teachers, and mentors to Marc as he travels through this dark underworld where he lost his own innocence to the horrors of war.

A strict historical novel would remove all allegorical elements, including any spiritual mysticism, lucid dreams, or symbols, as useless elements that obscure the historical story.  I choose to look at this historical story through the use of allegory, because frankly, I can’t expose my readers to enough bombings, starvation, terror, arrest, and death to help them experience World War II.  I do not have a romantic vision of this war, because I grew up around so many civilian survivors who were haunted by what they saw and experienced.     

7) Do you have any excerpts you'd like to share?

“There are those who believe that faith, hope, and love are things we do, in order to lead blessed lives. They are like tricks that earn us a prize from God, such as an easy life. If we play the tricks just right, we will be blessed with love, find riches, and be successful.” Jacques remembered the precise morning the bill came due for his tricks on the Nazis when they came to arrest him. 

“It is not true. Faith, hope, and love are states of being, and when you are these states of being combined in one moment, you can pass any test that life may bring to you, even the test of when it is your time to stand for your own death.” 

 Jacques Lusseyran, 1967 at Marc’s grave in Saint Nazaire.  Chapter 45.

8) Please tell us about your other projects.

I am currently working on the first draft of a smaller book called The Flower of Chamula.  It explores the victory of living a life worthy of today, over death tomorrow, because of a diagnosis of terminal cancer.  It is set in the Chiapas Mountains of Mexico in the town of San Cristobel and the indigenous spiritual center of the town of Chamula.  I hope to release this work in 2013. 

Several readers of The Siren of Paris have asked about the fate of Marie after the war.  I plan to explore writing a follow up book that will explore her own betrayal, arrest, trial, and death, after the war, during the period known as the Purge.  I am not sure what I will be able to teach the reader about a narcissistic personality, but the Greeks did have a place for tragedy.  The natural title would be Death of a Siren, but I am leaning towards Death by Sun.   

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Thanks, David.

About the Author: A native of California, David received a BA in Philosophy and Religion at Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego. After returning from a European arts study program, he became interested in the history behind the French Resistance during World War Two. Writing fiction has become his latest way to explore philosophical, moral and emotional issues of life. The Siren of Paris is his first novel. You can visit him at http://www.thesirenofparis.com/.

You can purchase The Siren of Paris from Amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/The-Siren-Paris-David-LeRoy/dp/0983966710/ref=tmm_pap_title_0 -- for more information about his virtual book tour, please visit -- http://bookpromotionservices.com/2012/05/22/siren-of-paris-tour/

Ancient Japan Comes to Modern-Day Pittsburgh: An Interview with UF Author Larry Ivkovich

If you're interested in entering a drawing for the book, please click the following link: a Rafflecopter giveaway.

1) Please tell us about your book. 

The Sixth Precept is an urban fantasy with science fiction and horror elements, part of it taking place in contemporary Pittsburgh, PA, and part in ancient Japan. My two main characters and several supporting ones get caught up in a centuries-old conspiracy involving a 16th-century Japanese courtesan, a power mad warlord, a group of genetically bred animal-human hybrid hunter/trackers and time-travel. Kim Yoshima is a Pittsburgh police officer beginning to discover her latent psychic powers and Wayne Brewster (whose name is a take on Bruce Wayne aka Batman) is a mild-mannered IT analyst who dreams of a life as a real super-hero. Both characters undergo startling metamorphoses in order to combat an evil from the past that threatens the stability of the present. And everything is tied to a mysterious book written by an obscure ancient Japanese philosopher titled The Five Precepts to Enlightenment.

2) Please tell us a bit about your characters.

Kim Yoshima is a lieutenant in the Pittsburgh Police force who has maintained an interest and connection to her Asian heritage. She becomes a cop in order to help people and maintain the “harmony” of the world around her. Not particularly close to her parents or brother, the only family member she really has ties to is her paternal grandmother. Grandmother Mitsu’s advice over the years begins to take on whole new meanings as Kim tries to deal with her burgeoning esper powers and the very real danger out of Japan’s medieval past. It was Mitsu who gave Kim the book The Five Precepts to Enlightenment.

Wayne Brewster’s life has been fairly routine up until he begins to dream of the comic book icon, ArcNight. Nicknamed “Tame Wayne” by his coworkers, Wayne is anything but a super hero. But these dreams are different as Wayne feels he’s actually becoming this masked vigilante. Trying to make sense of the change coming over him, circumstances lead him to a person he’s been seeing in these nocturnal visions repeatedly--Kim Yoshima.

Omori Kadanamora is the Eminent Lord, the warlord of Odawara, having taken the 16th century Japanese city and the environs of the Kanto Plain by force. Using the combined might of his warrior monks, the sohei, and terrifying human/canine hybrids called shadow-trackers bred by the witch, Eela, he has staked his claim on the region through fear, force and intimidation. But his superstitious fear of the supernatural leaves him vulnerable to a prophecy by Eela--a child will usurp him, a child with a link to the future.

Shioko is that child. The attendant to the shirabyoshi (precursors to the geisha), Yoshima Mitsu (Kim Yoshima’s ancestor), Shioko is flung centuries into the future by means of the ‘Spirit Winds”--temporal displacement tremors. There, Mitsu believes Shioko will be safe from the purges of Omori. And for a while, she is, found and cared for by Kim herself. But the past catches up with Shioko, in a very literal and horrifying way.

3) What got you interested in writing an urban fantasy story with such an intimate connection to Japanese mythology and history? What sort of research did you do to add verisimilitude to these elements?

After reading James Clavell’s novel, Shogun, in the 1970s, I developed an interest in medieval Japan and have been wanting to write something with elements from that historical period for some time. I actually wrote four short stories featuring Kim Yoshima before I wrote The Sixth Precept, two of which were published--“Time Noir” in M-Brane SF and “A Concerned Citizen” by IFWG Publishing but these were pretty straight-forward genre tales with just small references to Kim’s interest in her heritage. When I decided to expand her adventures, the idea of including elements of ancient Japan just fit right in with the story I wanted to tell. I did a lot of mainly online research of the time period. The Muromachi or Warring States Era, with its almost constant warfare between the warlords and the samurai, seemed a good fit for the novel. I also read a lot about Japanese mythology and the city and castle of Odawara and the Kanto Plain region as well as the Ise Jingu complex in Ise, Japan. It was fun and enlightening. For instance, I originally made Kim’s ancestor, Yoshima Mitsu, a geisha, but then found out that geisha’s didn’t exist during that era but the shirabyoshis did, practicing the same type of entertainment and art. So, with a global search-and-replace on my PC, Mitsu became a shirabyoshi!

4) Related to that, the mythology and history of Japan isn't as readily known to Western readers. Did you have any concerns that your heavy basis in such elements would alienate any readers? Many popular urban fantasy books sometimes rely on people's general familiarity with certain concepts (such as vampires, werewolves, et cetera) to quickly bring people up to speed.

No, I wasn’t. I wanted to do something a little different although manga and anime are certainly popular and contain those elements. I tried to explain or translate any concepts or terms in the book not so much by info-dumps but by short phrases or more familiar words. It’s true that a couple of people who’ve read the book told me they were initially stumped by the Japanese terms but did get into the story very quickly regardless.

5) What was the most difficult aspect of writing this book?

Besides finding the time to write (which is a common problem among writers in general), I think it was tying all the disparate elements of the book together. I’ve got time travel, mental telepathy, Japanese myth, reincarnation and genetic experiments all in the mix. It was fun to include all of that but it took some work to bring it all together.

6) Do you have any sequels planned?

Yes, I’m writing the sequel to The Sixth Precept now. Working title: Warriors of the Light. I’m not done with these characters yet! Or, maybe I should say, they’re not done with me.

7) Please tell us a bit more about your writing background. The Sixth Precept is hardly your first trip to the writing rodeo. Indeed, you've even won a writing awards.

I’ve been writing genre fiction for thirty years and began selling some of my short stories about fifteen years ago to various print and online markets. I’ve always been a big reader and finally decided one day that I’d like to try my hand at writing. Haven’t looked back since. I belong to two writing/critique groups, the Pittsburgh Southwrites and the Pittsburgh Worldrights, in which the members meet every couple of weeks and go over any submitted work. This had helped my writing and critiquing skills immeasurably. I advise any new writers to try and find or start such a group. I’ve been fortunate to have been a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest and was the 2010 recipient of the CZP/Rannu Fund Award for fiction for my science fiction short story, “Finding Sanctuary.” The Sixth Precept is my first published novel.

8) Please tell us about your upcoming projects.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m writing the sequel to The Sixth Precept, which will delve deeper into the characters’ pasts as they battle a new threat. Part of it takes place in Venice, Italy. Next year, IFWG Publishing will be publishing my second novel, Magus Star Rising. This is a futuristic science fiction novel with noir elements taking place on a backwater rim world where superstition and science are a dangerous and deadly mix. I’ve also started several short stories that are in desperate need of finishing!

Thank you very much for hosting me on my virtual book tour.

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Thanks, Larry.

If you'd like to see more from Larry, please check out him out at his Website and Facebook page.

The Sixth Precept can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IFWG Publishing.

Here's giving away copies, please click here if you're interested a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Wednesday Interview About The Emerald City

Jennifer Donohoe interviewed me about The Emerald City.

Please check it out at http://www.jenniferdonohoe.com/wordpress/2012/12/05/the-wednesday-evening-interview-6/.

Family, Faith, and Individuality: An interview with memoir writer Daniel Boerman

1) Please tell us about your book.

            Imagine living on a small family farm in a tiny, isolated community in southwest Michigan during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Imagine a world consisting almost exclusively of family life, work on the farm, attendance at a two room country school and participation in weekly services at the local church.  This was the world of my childhood, the world described in my memoir.  Our Dutch Reformed community was small and close-knit, and most of our social life was limited to visiting close relatives and other members of our church.  Occasional excursions beyond our local community were thus exciting adventures.  Riding with my dad to a livestock auction, a trip to a drive-in restaurant in a nearby town or a yearly visit to a county fair were special occasions to be anticipated and savored for weeks.

            In this setting I grew up with my parents and two sisters.  My dad was a full-time farmer until my teenage years, and my mom was a full-time homemaker who struggled with chronic and undiagnosed health problems throughout my childhood years.  I was a skinny, red-haired boy who was usually more comfortable at home with my family than in some new or unfamiliar social setting.

            My book contains many stories about life in our family and on the farm, in school and in church.  It records the terror of a runaway sled ride, the challenge of trying to devise projects to make money on the farm, the excitement of learning to drive a tractor for the first time, and many more interesting experiences.  

The book concludes with my graduation from high school in 1969.

2) What inspired you to write your memoir?

            The initial inspiration for writing my memoir was simply the thought about how much life had changed since I was a boy.  I remember shoveling coal into the furnace downstairs to keep our house warm and my mom using her wringer washing machine every Monday morning when she did the laundry.  I thought it would be a good idea to record what life was like at the unique time and place of my childhood.

            As I began to work on the memoir, however, it also became more of a personal journey for me.  How were the joys, challenges and disappointments of adult life prefigured in my childhood experiences?  Did my hopes and dreams as a child have an important influence in shaping how I approached and experienced life later on?  The deeper I got into my childhood, the more connections I could see with who I am today.

3) A good memoir isn't just a story of an interesting life, it also explores universal themes that can engage readers from a variety of backgrounds. How does your memoir speak to readers who don't share your background?

            My memoir describes many values affirmed by my family and community.  Experiencing, challenging and living out our inherited values is a theme many readers can appreciate.  Having a family that stayed loyal to each other and remained intact in spite of serious challenges is a value I celebrate, endorse and recommend to everyone.  Growing up on a farm also taught me that responsibility and hard work were necessary parts of life.  Picking pickles as a boy was a task so boring that at times I didn’t know if I could endure it any longer.  I thought the boredom would permanently warp my brain.  But my brain and I both survived in good shape, and I would like to think that enduring that experience equipped me to endure other difficult and boring tasks I have faced as an adult.  Although my Christian faith has developed and changed in significant ways since my childhood, it, too, has continued as an essential part of who I am as an adult.

4) What main themes does your memoir explore?

            When a small boy, I occasionally dreamed that I could begin flapping my arms like wings and fly above my astonished family, our house and our farmyard.  It was an exhilarating experience to rise above the normal, human perspective and see reality from a bird’s-eye view.  That experience inspired me to imagine the fantastic possibilities for my life, and it gave birth to the title of my book, The Flying Farm Boy.

            My dream was almost laughable.  I was part of a very ordinary family living in a tiny, obscure community far from any prominence or power.  And I was a skinny, red-haired boy deficient in athletic prowess and in social skills.  I was so shy that I had to advance to the mature age of twenty before I first dared to ask a girl out on a date.  But I kept dreaming, anyway.  Not all of my dreams have come true, but the power of my childhood dream has motivated me through much of my adult life.  Thus my dream of overcoming my isolation and insecurity is a primary theme in my book.

            A secondary theme is the difficulty of learning to affirm myself as an individual in distinction from what my family and society expected of me.  For example, the stern Calvinistic God of my childhood often scared me, and I didn’t understand how to make peace with him.  Sometimes I didn’t know if I could even believe in him anymore.  Was faith a real, living part of my own fabric or was it merely part of the air I breathed in my community?  When I reached maturity, would I discard my childhood faith as something I had outgrown or would I reclaim it as my own?

            It was also sometimes hard to know if I did certain things simply because it was expected of me or because I actually enjoyed them.  As a teenager I participated in the annual fall rite of pheasant hunting simply because it was expected of me.  I went so far as to skip school on the first day of pheasant hunting even though this meant all my grades were docked for doing so and even though my grades were much more important to me than was hunting.  I had not yet matured enough to know that I should follow my own heart rather than conform to social expectations.

5) Are there any memoirs you've read that have personally inspired you?

            There is an older, out-of-print memoir by Ronald Jager called Eighty Acres.  This book is a record of life on a Michigan farm for the generation before mine, and, as such, it encouraged me to think that such a project was feasible for me, too.   More recent memoirs I enjoyed include Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and James McBride’s The Color of Water.  Although both of them deal with family circumstances more challenging than were mine, they nonetheless encouraged me to consider the possibilities of the genre for my own situation.

6) Please tell us about your other projects.

            In the past I have published numerous essays in religious magazines, a few poems and one short story.  One of my current ongoing projects is a blog called “Rural Ramblings” at www.danielboerman.authorweblog.com.  I hope to do something in the future to tell the story of Christianity in a way that appeals to our postmodern culture, but I have not decided on the format for that at this point.

7) Do you have an excerpt you'd like to share?

            One morning when I was ten years old, Mom took me for a ride in the family car that I will never forget.  I watched the early spring scenes of muddy fields and patches of snow sail past the window of the car as if in a dream.  Would I ever enjoy these familiar sights again?  Would life ever be the same again?  Mom was driving me to Zeeland Hospital to get my tonsils removed.

            During the past years I had a lot of colds and sore throats, and Dr. Yff decided that getting my tonsils and adenoids removed was the cure.  Since Dad and Mom trusted Dr. Yff to do what was best for me, they agreed that I should have this surgery.  But no one asked my opinion.  I felt like a lamb led to the slaughter.  Being in an unconscious state while a doctor took a knife to my throat sounded terrifying.  Could I really trust Dr. Yff?  Did he know what he was doing?  What if he slipped and cut my vocal chords or my tongue instead of my tonsils?  What if the bleeding wouldn’t stop?  What if…I died?  Who knew what awful things could happen to me once I had lost consciousness?

            Mom gave me a hug and kiss, and a nurse led me by the hand into the operating room.  After lying down on a table in the middle of the room, they strapped me down like an animal being prepared for sacrifice.  But instead of plunging in a knife to achieve a quick kill, they devised a slow and torturous method of subduing me.  They put an apparatus over my mouth and nose that held cotton batting soaked with ether.  Every time I breathed, I inhaled a little more of the ether’s noxious fumes.  As I kept inhaling that awful smell, the fumes gradually sent me reeling into a nether world of darkness and panic.

            My head began to pound with an incessant noise that grew louder and louder.  I could feel myself drifting off into a dark world I dreaded to enter.  I was sure I was dying, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  Never before had I so much wanted to escape and fly away.  But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t free myself from my restraints and the stifling ether smell.

            The next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital bed with the worst sore throat I had ever experienced.  But I was alive!  Wonders of wonders, I had survived the ordeal!  I went home that same night to recover in more familiar surroundings.             

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Thanks, Dan.

If you'd like to see more from Dan please visit him at www.flyingfarmboy.com and www.danielboerman.authorweblog.com.

The Flying Farm Boy can be purchased at www.winepresspublishing.com and Amazon.

The Playground Before The War to End All Wars: An interview with Gabriele Wills

1) Please tell us about your book.

The Summer Before the Storm is the first in an epic trilogy that begins in 1914 in legendary Muskoka – the summer playground of the affluent and powerful in the rugged Canadian Shield. Amid the pristine, island-dotted lakes and pine-scented forests, the young and carefree amuse themselves with glittering balls and friendly competitions. This summer promises to be different when the destitute son of a disowned heir joins his wealthy family at their cottage on Wyndwood Island. Through Jack’s introduction into the privileged life of the aristocratic Wyndhams and their social circle, he seeks opportunities and alliances to better himself, including in his schemes, his beautiful and audacious cousin, Victoria. But their charmed lives begin to unravel with the onset of the Great War, in which many are destined to become part of the “lost generation”.

You can get a sense of the setting and story on this YouTube trailer.

2) What got you interested in writing a book about World War I?

I wanted to evoke the unique lifestyle of Muskoka’s Age of Elegance, and the war provided a perfect counterpoint. People live more intensely and passionately in tumultuous times when death is unpredictable and unprecedented. I also wanted to highlight the lesser-known aspects of that war, especially women’s unsung contributions. They stepped from genteel drawing rooms into the horrors of makeshift hospitals and dangers of driving ambulances on the front lines – which are portrayed thoroughly in book 2, Elusive Dawn. It’s not so much a war story, as a tale about a generation tested by extraordinary times.

3) Please tell a bit about your main characters.

Victoria Wyndham is the feisty, tempestuous heroine who rebels against the stultifying restrictions of her Edwardian life. But she’s neither a suffragette nor a bluestocking, like her cousin Zoë. Mad cousin Phoebe has an uncanny knack of seeing and telling the truth, which others rarely appreciate. Their families are firmly ruled by Grandmother Augusta Wyndham, but charming, ambitious cousin Jack disrupts their complacent world.

Augusta is determined that sensible Justin Carrington should marry Victoria, since he should be able to control her impetuous nature. Also vying for Victoria’s affections is charismatic Chas Thornton, who’s trying to find a path for himself in a self-indulgent world.

Doctor siblings Blake and Eleanor Carlyle annoy Augusta with their socialism and middle-class sensibilities. The “downstairs” life is seen through the eyes of the parlour maid, Molly, who is not all that she appears.

A supporting cast of friends and relatives – including artists and gold-diggers - helps to bring the era to life.

4) What sort of themes do you explore in your book?

Love and betrayal in different guises – familial and romantic.

The contrast between the rich and the poor, as seen through Jack’s experiences as well as through the servants’. There’s also the contrast between the free-spirited Bohemians and the chaperoned young people continually pushing for freedoms that scandalize their elders.

Family dynamics are explored, exposing that things are not always as they seem. Some people are living lies, and many have secrets. Madness is brushed aside as immaturity. There’s also a great burden of duty to family as well as to country.

This was a time of monumental change, particularly for women, who were invading “men’s realms”, seeking independence, and eager to “do their bit” for the war effort.

Overcoming adversity is a challenge for many of the characters. Obviously the war provides trials both physical and psychological. The true impact of that cataclysm can be appreciated through the eyes of these individuals.

5) What sort of research did you do to help ensure you were accurately bringing the period to life?

I really need to immerse myself in all aspects of an era, from food to philosophy. I read over 100 books, my favourites being memoirs and letters, in which there are intriguing details about daily life as well as the actual voices of the time, elucidating the language, morals, and values. They also provided incidents that I used for my characters. For instance, flying with top ace Billy Bishop and others helped me to understand the life of pilots, and the intensity of aerial battles. I was thrilled when Bishop’s son said I got it right!

I visited museums and archives, WW1 battlefields and cemeteries, explored hundreds of websites, and joined three online war forums, where I asked experts about obscure facts I couldn’t find anywhere else.  I’m particularly fascinated by odd and often unbelievable bits of social history. Notes at the end of my books assure readers that these quirky events are true.

6) Is there anything you feel people misunderstand about World War I? 

There’s a misconception that soldiers spent most of their time in the front-line trenches. In fact, there were long periods when the men were safely behind the lines. Tennis and polo matches, soccer and baseball games, dances and entertainments were all part of the military experience in France. You can find more on my website, Odd, Intriguing, Surprising Facts about WWI,

7) Please tell us about your other works.

Elusive Dawn (Book 2) and Under the Moon (Book 3) continue to follow the lives, loves, and fortunes of the Wyndhams and their friends through the war and the glittering Jazz Age.

A Place to Call Home is a saga set in Canada’s less civilized pioneer past.

Moon Hall is a Gothic tale of two women in different centuries.

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Thanks, Gabriele.

If you're interested in more from Gabriele or purchasing her novels, please visit http://www.themuskokanovels.com/.

A Horrible Wager and Fairy Tale Reinterpretation: An interview with fantasy author Adrianna Morgan

1) Please tell us about your book.

Once Upon a Fairytale Princess is a 45,000-word paranormal romance novel that takes some of what we know about fairy tales and twists it. After all, the plot is simple. What if every fairy tale we’ve read were snippets of one girl’s life? Ella Fitzpatrick is a young woman trying to hold her family together after her mother and two aunts are killed. The only thing she has of her mother’s is a crystal pendant and a pair of glass heels. Her father, in his grief, makes a horrible wager, forcing Ella to prove herself or lose the only home she has ever known. Just as horrible are her conflicting feelings for Prince Ethan and his bodyguard—her childhood friend—Hunter Kirk. The only thing Ella wants is her very own happily ever after, but will she have to choose between the Prince and his Beastly guard?

2) Please tell us about your opening.

“My daughter is far more talented than any spawn that spewed from your loins!” While the lead in this case was a bit dramatic, I wanted Ella to start her story in the middle of what becomes the beginning of the end. Her father is drunk and after an argument, sets the boast which sends Ella’s life spiraling out of control.

3) What inspired this particular book?

I have an affinity for fairy tales and during a conversation with my mother while watching television, the idea came to me: what if Cinderella, Snow White, and all the other fairy tale princesses were actually one girl and the stories were all one adventure in which this young woman has to adapt and change her appearance and her mannerisms in order to survive? What would that tale be like? How would she change? Why? It seemed too good of an idea to let go, so I experimented with it and the book was born.

4) What separates a fairy tale, in your opinion, from just basic fantasy?

Fairy tales can be differentiated from fantasies in that the fairy tale world is one of magic and hope and love. There is always a happily-ever-after and a moral of some sort. In the fairy tale, the main character overcomes some great obstacle and learns a lesson in the interim. Fantasies can have some of these aspects, but there is something about a fairy tale, that tangible feeling, where as you read it, you just know. Fairy tales also seem to have the heroine as the main character; it is her life, her mistakes and her triumphs that you read about. She is the one who becomes the champion and essentially, the hero. Fantasies can focus on many different aspects of the story, but the love and what the heroine goes through in the fairy tale makes it different. And although you know how it will end, the journey and the message become an integral part of the story.

5) We're in a bit of a cross-media fairy tale revival. There have been multiple recent movies revisiting classic fairy tales, more scheduled to come down the pipe, multiple network dramas based on fairy tale themes, and many books. What do you think is behind this recent trend?

It is more than simply fairy tales. We are seeing a return to the past. What was once old has become retro and such, it has become interesting. In addition to the fairy tales, we are seeing remakes of movies and television shows from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The idea of ‘recycling’ the different stories with a twist or a modern update makes for a great change from the stories we read and loved as children and it endears us to the newer version of the story.

6) Although fairy tales have been rewritten and changed throughout the ages, many modern readers often tend to think of them as more a fixed quantity, due to certain particular interpretations (e.g., Grimm's fairy tales, Perrault, Disney, et cetera) spreading in popularity because of the role of mass media. Do you think that anything is loss by this gradual waning of fluidity in the stories, or do you think things are still just as dynamic as they've always been?

I think the Westernized stories have become too blasé. And this is why some people have issues with the “message” they believe fairy tales send to young women. But the original stories were truly gruesome in some regards. Think back to Grimm’s fairy tales. In the Cinderella we know, there are singing woodland creatures and a pumpkin and the glass slippers. However, the original story had the sisters mutilating themselves in order to present themselves to the Prince. They were horrifically fascinating. The message of the story is lost and instead of Cinderella being a story about perseverance and hard work, it becomes about beauty and fashion, which fits in fine with our materialistic society. But the beauty and intrigue of the story gets convoluted and eventually lost.

7) You also seem to have a writing interest in another mythic subject embedded in our culture: the werewolf. Please tell us a bit about your werewolf books.

Mythology has always been a huge part of my life. I have read myths from all over the world; Greek, Roman, Chinese, and Egyptian. Even my favorite story as a child was an Arab myth. My werewolf series “The Blue Moon Trilogy” is a look at my love for mythology. The series utilizes Native American myths from both Alaska and Florida in addition to the mysticism one expects from mythology.

Book 1 in the series is called Tala and is about a young girl who is attacked on her 10th birthday by a group of rogue werewolves. She manages to escape, but her mother is not so lucky. 19 years later, the young woman, Layla, is in college, trying to get her life together and starts to have disturbing experiences. And three strangers; an old man who knows more than he lets on, a guy who is more than he seems, and the werewolf who killed her mother, are back in her life. Now Layla has to decide who is friend and who is foe. The book is available now on Amazon.com, while books 2 and 3 will be out in December and January, respectively.

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Thanks, Adrianna.

Adrianna Morgan was born in the Bahamas. Of both West Indian and African ancestry, she was exposed to the shadowy world of the supernatural at a young age. She was blessed with a mother that knew the importance of a good ghost story making her fascinated by anything that goes bump in the night. Adrianna is obsessed with werewolves, vampires and demons, oh my! A Marine Biology teacher by day, she is still intrigued by the weird and the unusual. Currently, she has 10 books on Amazon and has challenged herself to write one full novel per month this year, although she admits
she is ready to throw in the towel.

Visit her at http://adriannamorgan.com for more of her books.

Once Upon a Fairytale Princess is available at Amazon.

One Person Can Change The World: An interview with Glenn Snyder

1) Tell us about your book.

One Moment in Time simply put is a story about how one person can change the world.  Jack Barrett is an average guy, at twenty-three, he lives with his parents and works for his father.  On a stormy November evening, his Ford Mustang is hit by a drunk driver running a red light.  As he was fighting to survive, Jack realized there was more to life, and he wanted to experience it.  This revelation changed Jack’s life, his journey taking him all over the world, gaining experiences and skills that would propel him to the global stage.  In the end, Jack would become one of the greatest leaders the world had ever seen.

2) Tell us about your lead, Jack.

When creating Jack, I thought about what type of person could excel in politics and business, while keeping his personal ego in check.  Jack has his quirks, like an odd sense of humor and an impulsiveness that has gotten him into trouble.  However, Jack has a good heart and often looks for the greater good over personal gain.

3) What is the main theme your book explores?

There are two main themes of One Moment in Time.  The first is about taking opportunities.  Everyday, each of us are presented with opportunities to do something.  It can be as simple as picking up a piece of trash on the ground versus walking by and leaving it there.  Jack is an example of what can happen if one proactively looks to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.

The second theme is about the state of politics today.  Too many times, our leaders seem more interested in getting re-elected and saving their jobs than doing what’s in the best interest of their constituents.  Imagine what the world could be if our leaders were more focused on leading than personal gain.

4) You've said the idea of this book came from a dream. Tell us a bit about that.

We all have many dreams every night, however most of the dreams are forgotten by the time we awaken, and those that are initially remembered often fade quickly.  However, sometimes we have dreams that really stick with us.  That was the case with One Moment in Time.  I didn’t come up with the whole book from that dream, but the dream did give me the premise and the twist that makes One Moment in Time a unique tale.  I would tell you more, but I don’t want to ruin the story.

5) Please tell us about your literary influences.

Although there were many historical novels and plays that I absolutely love (A Tale of Two Cities and Hamlet to name two), I didn’t really get into mainstream reading until I read The Firm by John Grisham.  The story was engaging, and Grisham’s writing style was simple and allowed the reader to quickly move through the story.  After The Firm, I started to get into stories by Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Crichton, David Baldacci, James Grippando, Dan Brown, and Brad Thor. 

There were also many authors that I didn’t enjoy who influenced me as well, but I won’t mention their names.  Those authors seemed more interested in showing off their vocabulary than telling a story.  I’ve tried to keep my writing about the story more than the individual words.

6) Please share with us about your other projects.

I am currently writing my second novel.  It’s a story about a successful stock broker whose wife is poisoned.  His life begins to crumble, as he’s accused of the murder.  The press hounds him and the publicity costs him his job and friends.  He’s in a fight for his life, all the while trying to grieve for his wife that he dearly loved.

7) Do you have any particular excerpts you'd like to share?

The following excerpt is from one of my favorite segments of the book.  Jack and his wife Maggy are in Oaxaca, Mexico visiting an orphanage…

Jack put the dishes and utensils, along with the serving bowls, in the sink.  Isabel and Araceli started on the dishes while Jack took out the trash.  Isabel pointed to a door at the far end of the kitchen that looked more like a heavy dark screen.  Jack probably hadn’t noticed it before, because its thickness made it difficult to see through.  Jack grabbed the two trash bag bundles and headed outside.

The other side of the door was an alleyway off the main road.  The small, unpaved path, which was similar to the road at the front entrance, was squashed between the walls of La Ciudad para los Niños and the walls of the backside of what Jack could only assume were houses.  Jack noticed a giant trash bin to his right and threw the trash over the side of the bin.  Suddenly, Jack heard a woman screaming “¡Ayúdame! ¡Ayúdame!”  Jack didn’t know much Spanish, but he did know that scream meant, “Help me!”

Jack looked around the bin and saw a woman in her late twenties running with a small child in her arms.  She looked frazzled and exhausted.  She was slender and couldn’t be more than five and a half feet tall.  She was wearing a torn cotton striped shirt and ripped jeans.  As she got closer, Jack noticed she had several bruises on her face and arms.  The child she was holding wasn’t very big, but it was hard for Jack to gauge.  Jack couldn’t imagine what this woman was going through, but she continued running towards him yelling “¡Ayúdame! ¡Ayúdame!” 

Instinctively, Jack moved closer to see how he could help the woman and yelled back in English, “What?  What’s wrong?”

The woman continued her sprint towards Jack and continued yelling “¡Ayúdame! ¡Ayúdame!” 

When the woman was next to Jack, she handed her child to him.  He looked down at the little girl suddenly in his arms.  She was quiet, but tears rolled down her face.  Jack looked up and the woman was already twenty yards away from them, running up the hill.  He looked down at the girl again, then a vehicle came seemingly out of nowhere.  With all of the excitement, he hadn’t even heard the large SUV bouncing up the alleyway.

The car was a dark blue Chevy Tahoe with two young men seated in the front.  Jack couldn’t get a good look at them, because by the time he noticed the car, they were passing him.  He didn’t think either man in the Tahoe noticed him or the little girl.  The Tahoe continued up the hill after the woman.  The driver rolled down his window and stuck out his arm.  In his hand was a large gun.  After two quick, deafening explosions from the gun, the car stopped.

Recognizing that the girl was probably also in danger, Jack jumped behind the trash bin, holding her tightly in his arms.  He peeked between the lid and the bin and saw the driver get out of the car.  He was dressed in slacks, a dark dress shirt, and black cowboy boots with a white star on the side.  The colors of his clothes were difficult to determine because of the way the sun was reflecting off the Tahoe.  The driver held his arm out.  Another two shots.  The man spit on the woman, looked around, and Jack jumped out of sight praying they didn’t see him.  The young girl was squeezing Jack as tightly as she could, and Jack squeezed back.  He heard the door to the SUV close, and then the vehicle turned around and began moving back down the hill.

With his senses on full alert, Jack could have sworn that as the Tahoe was passing the rear door to the kitchen, it slowed down to take a careful look.  By this time, Jack had completely barricaded himself and the little girl between the trash bin and a small wall near the kitchen.  They sat perfectly still and silent. 

The car continued down the road, but Jack did not move until the Tahoe was out of hearing range.  He slowly got up and peeked down the road.  The coast was clear.  The little girl was still clinging to Jack’s neck.  He wanted to go check on her mother, but didn’t want the little girl’s last memory of her mother to be of her lying dead in a dirt alley.  He walked into the kitchen and it was empty; all of the dishes had been cleaned, dried, and neatly stacked.  He continued into the dining hall and found Maggy and Victoria chatting away.  They looked up at him and noticed he was sweating profusely.

About Glenn Snyder:

Glenn Snyder grew up in Marin County, a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. After graduating from UCLA, Glenn worked as a finance professional. In 2001, Glenn earned his MBA from the University of San Francisco. Shortly after his MBA, Glenn pursued two of his dreams, teaching and writing, while still working full time. For five years, Glenn taught Finance at San Francisco State University, while he also wrote the first draft of One Moment in Time. In May of 2011, Glenn published his first novel, One Moment in Time. Glenn is currently a Finance Director and is working on his second novel.

Visit www.OneMomentInTimeNovel.com to find out more.

Glenn is offering some coupons until the end of the year:

Paperback:  $2 off when purchased through www.OneMomentInTimeNovel.com - coupon code WL5W3K6Y

E-book (any format):  25% off when purchased through Smashwords (www.smashwords.com/books/view/62532) - coupon code WQ79X

One Moment In Time on Facebook Glenn Snyder on Twitter

The Fading Power of Marriage and the Growing Power of a Prosecutor: An interview with Daniiel Q. Steele about When We Were Married

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