Historical Fiction – Avonna Loves Genres

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Midwife of Auschwitz, The Midwife of Berlin, and The Children on the Train by Anna Stuart

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Book Description – The Midwife of Auschwitz

Ana Kaminski is pushed through the iron gates of Auschwitz beside her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak. As they reach the front of the line, Ana steps forward and quietly declares herself a midwife – and Ester her assistant. Their arms are tattooed and they’re ordered to the maternity hut. Holding an innocent new-born baby, Ana knows the fate of so many are in her hands, and vows to do everything she can to save them.

When two guards in their chilling SS uniforms march in and snatch a blond-haired baby from its mother it’s almost too much for Ana to bear. Consoling the distraught woman, Ana realises amidst the terrible heartache there is a glimmer of hope. The guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. And there are whispers the war is nearly over… Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother’s numbers, praying one day they might be reunited.

Then, early one morning, Ana notices the small bump under Ester’s thin striped clothing.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart is a compelling read. Ana Kaminski and her frightened young friend Ester Pasternak were sent to Auschwitz. Ana quietly steps forward and states she’s a midwife–and Ester is her assistant. The story follows their time there but also how innocent babies born in that horrific place were snatched from their mothers if they had blonde hair. The guards are taking the healthiest babies and placing them with German families, so they will survive. But before they are taken, Ana and Ester begin to secretly tattoo little ones with their mother’s concentration camp identification numbers, praying one day they might be reunited.

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Book Description – The Midwife of Berlin

1945, Berlin: Ester Pasternak walked out of the gates of Auschwitz barely alive. She survived against devastating odds, but her heartbreaking journey is only just beginning. In the camp, Ester gave birth to a tiny fair-haired infant, only for her precious baby to be snatched from her and taken to a German family. Now the war is over, Ester is desperate to find her little girl.

But Europe is in chaos, Jewish families have been torn apart and everyone is urgently looking for their loved ones. In every orphanage and hospital she visits, Ester searches the faces of tear-stained toddlers; each mop of blonde hair and pair of blue eyes she sees sets her heart racing.

Will Ester ever be able to find the child whose tattoo matches her own? Or is she already too late.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Midwife of Berlin, a continuation of Ester’s story is also riveting. Ester Pasternak walked out of the gates of Auschwitz barely alive. She survived against devastating odds, but her heartbreaking journey is only just beginning. In the camp, Ester gave birth to a tiny fair-haired infant, only for her precious baby to be snatched from her and taken to a German family. Now the war is over, Ester longs to find her little girl. But in doing so she is connected to a little girl, Olivia, an orphan, who Ester adopts. This story takes readers on a journey reuniting the family.

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Book Description – The Children on the Train

Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands. The danger increases with each trip, but, today, she has to get her best friend’s children to safety, because they are closest thing she has to family.

But at the border, the train screeches to a halt and she hears the shout of a Nazi guard. Then the sound of boots coming towards their carriage. When the door bursts open, she draws herself up tall, and prepares to face the interrogation she knows will come. With shaking hands, she passes over Rosa and Adele’s tattered papers and hopes they aren’t scrutinized too closely.

Grete is ready to do whatever it takes to keep her small charges safe.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Children on the Train is not connected to the Midwife novels, but it’s a story of courage. Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands, and then to England. The danger of the Kindertransport increases with each trip.

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The following is an interview with Anna Stuart about three of her books which can only be described as amazing.

Questions for the Midwife of Auschwitz

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Anna Stuart: I must give the credit for the idea to my editor. She suggested that I might want to explore stories in Auschwitz. I wasn’t at all keen at the time, as it’s such a horrific subject, but I had a look on the internet to please her, and discovered the true story of Stanisława Leszczyńska, who was the original inspiration for Ana. I was hooked immediately and couldn’t believe no one had written about her already. Her life felt like something that just had to be shared with the world and I was honoured to be the writer that, via a fictional interpretation of her life and that of those around her, got to do that.

EC: How would you describe Ana?

AS: I think she was a genuinely good woman. She was a committed catholic who believed it was her God-sent duty to help others. She did that via her career as a midwife, but when things got tougher and the Jews in her hometown of Lodz were shut into a ghetto, in appalling conditions, she stepped up to help them, even when it put her in great danger.

She stood up for what she thought was right, even in Auschwitz, confronting the cruelty of the kapos (block heads) and even evil men like Josef Mengele. Maybe something in her certainty and conviction got through, because she often won those battles, even if they were within a terrible framework. Somehow, despite being in her fifties in Auschwitz, she survived it for almost three years and got home after the war, where she continued to help others throughout her life. I admire her more than I can ever express and always love it when readers get in touch to tell me how much my version of her story moved them.

EC: How would you describe Ester?

AS: The inspiration for Ester was Stanislawa’s daughter, Sylwia. Ester is just a normal young woman, caught up in horribly abnormal affairs. Like Ana, she is inherently good, having been brought up to help others and stand up for what’s right. Ester’s ‘superpower’ in Auschwitz, alongside her friendship with Ana and Naomi, is her love for Filip, who she married at the start of the war. This gives her something to hold onto – something to believe it’s worth staying alive for, especially once she realizes that she’s pregnant with their child. The only thing I can think of that would be worse than being in a death camp, is giving birth in a death camp and Ester embodies that nightmare.

EC: Is it true that babies and their mothers had the same tattoos?

AS: In her brief testimony of her time in Auschwitz, given much later in life when urged to it by her son, Stanisława Leszczyńska stated that she tattooed the babies with their mother’s numbers in ‘a secret place’ in the hope of them being reunited after the war. Other witness testimonies suggested that this place was in the armpit, so that’s what I went with.

EC: Please discuss the Lebensborn program and why would Germans accept Jewish babies?

AS: Hitler – and many, many others – believed that the ‘Aryan’ race was superior to all others and that it was therefore their duty to suppress the supposedly inferior races around them and take over their land to allow the Aryans more room to breathe and grow the crops to sustain themselves. His plan was twofold: to get rid of those people he believed to be worthless, and to ensure that as many Aryans as possible were born.

We know a lot about Hitler’s vicious policies to exterminate the Jews, the Romanies, disabled people, homosexuals, and perhaps, had he been given his way, eventually all ‘Slavs’. What we know less about is how he pushed the German people to produce more children. There was a relentless pressure in the media for women to stay at home and have children ‘for the Fuhrer’. Mothers who had more than four children were given medals and there was also a push to be sure that any Aryan women who got themselves pregnant out of wedlock were offered places in discreet ‘Lebensborn’ (‘found of life’) homes to have their babies. It was all about populating the world with their own kind.

As the war went on and many German soldiers were killed fighting, especially in the bitter Russian campaign, this need for more babies became desperate and increasingly evil. Under the innocuous sounding ‘Lebensborn’ banner, German soldiers kidnapped thousands of blonde children from families in the occupied lands, especially Poland, Norway and, later, Hungary, to either put into homes in Germany or adopt out to German families. Many of these families did not know where their new babies had come from – often believing them to have been orphaned by warfare – but the truth was that they had been stolen from out of the arms of their mothers. Towards the end of the war, the same was done for any babies born in Auschwitz who looked even vaguely blonde. The irony of the Nazis taking in babies born to Jewish women is dark indeed, but it really did happen.

EC: How cruel was Klara and what did you want her to represent?

AS: Klara was the block ‘kapo’ – head – and, from all I read, is typical of the women who made it to the top of the prisoner tree in Auschwitz. Most of them were the original prisoners, sent there when it first opened in 1942 from prisons around Germany. They were often hardened criminals before they went in, even though some of them may not have done what we would see as terrible crimes. Klara for example (as she is inspired by a real woman) seems to have been imprisoned for offering abortions, which were illegal in Germany that was keen on bringing Aryan lives into the world. In Auschwitz, given a small amount of petty power, these women (and their male equivalents) became very cruel, ruling their block with an iron hand to curry favour with the Nazi authorities to get themselves privileges and safety. Not all kapos were so brutal – there are a few stories of some who did their best to keep their charges as safe as was ever possible in that terrible place – but many were, and Klara exemplifies them.

Questions for The Midwife of Berlin

EC: Idea for the story?

AS: I never intended to write a sequel to The Midwife of Auschwitz but when readers kept writing to me asking what happened to Pippa, the idea for the story was seeded. When I realized that Pippa and Oliva would have turned 18 in 1961 – the year the Berlin wall went up – the two events came together in my mind and I was ready to get researching. I knew a bit about the wall coming down, having watched it on television as a child, but nothing about it going up and I found it utterly fascinating. It was a horrific time in history, especially for people who had just been through all the horrors of war, and I was very glad to follow my fictional characters’ stories into that year and intertwine them with the shocking events of history.

EC: Do you think there was not much difference between the Stasi and Gestapo, Russians and Nazis? Please comment

AS: This is a tricky area to get into and not really the place of a fiction writer. My job is to put my characters into a true world and follow their personal stories, but inevitably I came up against many stark historical truths in doing so. Certainly, the Stasi was born from the same place as the Gestapo, and, indeed, the KGB, and became, if possible, even worse. The culture of fear created by everyone informing on each other was one of the most terrible features of life behind the Iron Curtain and it seems to me a bitter truth that, in this period at least, the so-called left was just as bad as the so-called right. If you ask me, any regime that can only operate by controlling its citizens, depriving them of outside news, censoring all they say and do, and keeping them trapped within its borders with guns is inevitably doomed to failure. It’s truly terrible that they ruin so many lives in the process.

EC: Describe Kristen and her predicament.

AS: Kirsten and her brother Uli have been brought up by their mother Lotti, in a small flat in Berlin. Their father, Jan, disappeared after the war and their mother never wanted to speak about him, so the children assume he must have been a Nazi. They’ve got on fine without him. They don’t have much money but they do have each other and are happy. The novel opens, however, when Jan comes home and everything is blown apart.

First, they find out that Uli is not Jan’s son, but the product of a Russian rape of their poor mother when they took Berlin. Then bitter, drunken Jan tells Kirsten that she is not his or Lotti’s daughter, but that he ‘found her’ and gave her to Lotti as a ‘present’. When her mother tearfully admits to this, she also tells Kirsten that she had a tattoo in her armpit – 41400. This most likely means she was born in Auschwitz to a mother who may, possibly, still be alive and out there looking for her.

EC: Describe Olivia and her predicament?

AS: Oliva knows that she was born in Auschwitz to a mother who died and that she was adopted by Ester and Filip. She has two brothers who are Ester and Filip’s full children and has always felt loved and part of the family. But the novel opens with her finding out that she also has an adoptive sister – another baby, born to Ester (and Filip) in Auschwitz and never found after the war. A baby who might be out there, still bearing the tattoo 41400, waiting to be found.

EC: Similarities and differences between both sisters?

AS: Kirsten prefers dancing and fashion, where Olivia is more into sport, but they are both hardworking, honest and loyal to those they love. They are also both curious – especially once they learn of the existence of a mystery sister. And they both have the drive to try and find each other.

EC: Lotti versus Ester as mothers?

AS: Ester is a kind, gentle, loving mother and an excellent midwife. But Lotti, despite taking in a child handed to her by the SS, is also a great mother. The Lebensborn programme was deeply flawed, and run by evil men, but not everyone caught up in it was equally evil. Lotti is a relatively simple woman, who took the child she was handed when she couldn’t conceive herself and worked hard to love and care for her. It was important to me to show Lotti as a good mother and explore the greys of the whole situation. She adopted Kirsten for genuine reasons but was, perhaps, wilfully blind to the wider world around her. In the novel she must face up to her own culpability in Kirsten’s story. This she does bravely. Motherhood has many facets I hope the novel explores that via Ester and Lotti.

Questions for The Children on the Train

EC: Idea for the story?

AS: As with many of my novels, the inspiration for this story came from a real woman – Truus Wijsmuller, a key figure in the Kindertransport. She was an astonishing person, bold, organised and very brave, and she put herself in danger time and again to make the Kindertransport work. In Britain we know a lot about Nicholas Winton, who brought nearly 700 children to safety from Prague in the same period, also under the umbrella of the Kindertransport. His work was wonderful, but Truus did far more than him with no real acknowledgement. I have a personal suspicion that this is because Winton was a man, so history feels the need to commend him for rescuing children, compared to women who we simply expect to do so. The facts are, however, that Truus was out there, on the frontline, facing down Adolf Eichmann, and riding the trains between Germany and the Netherlands time and time again to get the terrified children over the border to safety. That, to me, is astonishing, and I hope this novel brings her story to more people as it really deserves to be known.

EC: Are there any real characters or characters based on real characters?

AS: As stated above, Grete is inspired by the amazing Truus Wijsmuller, and her husband Aart by the real life Joop Wijsmuller. Several of the key workers of the Kindertransport, such as Lola Hahn-Warburg and Norman Bentwich also feature in the book in a minor way, as does the horrific Nazi Adolf Eichmann in an interview that is inspired by Truus’ real-life testimony, plus several of the guards who she dealt with regularly in her work.

The tale of Grete/Truus fighting her way back to the Netherlands from Paris as the German armies swept towards her is inspired by real testimony (and, incredibly, I had to dial back what actually happened as there wasn’t enough room for every crazy event), as is her getting eighty orphans out of the Netherlands on the very last boat before the country had to surrender. Various accounts of encounters with border guards are, sadly, based on real tales, as is the fact that Truus took her sightings of German tanks at the border just days before the invasion to the Dutch authorities and they would not believe her…

EC: How would you describe Grete?

AS: Astonishing! My Grete, inspired by Truus, is a sturdy, no-nonsense, middle-aged woman, who is prepared to cut through every scrap of red-tape to get to the heart of rescuing children from the Nazi’s clutches. She’s incredibly brave, hugely determined and one of those people who are prepared, when the rest of us are cowering, to stand up and be counted. She’s also, of course, a woman with her own fears and insecurities and I hope the novel explores what a toll public work can take on a private person.

EC: How would you describe Helena?

AS: Helena, a bit like Ester in The Midwife of Auschwitz, is a normal woman – a wife, a mother, and a daughter, trying to keep her family safe against terrible odds. I hope that readers can, perhaps, look at what happens to her and imagine themselves in her position, simply trying to live an honest, kind life, but thrown into terrible danger through no fault of her own.

EC: What is the Kindertransport?

AS: The Kindertransport wasn’t a set organisation, but rather a loose coming together of several different charitable groups who were keen to rescue children in danger in Hitler’s increasingly censorious regime. A variety of kind, brave people came together after Kristallnacht (The night of the broken glass when Nazi gangs rioted through the cities of Germany attacking Jewish people and their homes and businesses) to take a proposal to the Prime Minister to scrap visa requirements for unaccompanied minors. With tenacity and courage, and the backing of the Quaker Home Secretary, they succeeded in getting parliament to pass a law permitting this. They then all worked, in an ad hoc way, to organise transports to bring as many children as possible out of Europe under these new entry conditions. There was no limit on how many could come and they managed to free just under 10,000 before war broke out and made further operations impossible.

EC: Why do you think the parents were willing to give up their children and send them to an unknown foreign country?

AS: This is very hard for us to understand today, and even then, clearly, it was impossibly hard for people to put their beloved children on trains to a foreign country without them, but times were desperate. The Jewish people had seen their rights continually eroded each year. They had been declared ‘untermenschen’ – non-people – and had no protection from the law. As an example of the rampant prejudice and unfairness they were up against, after Kristallnacht, when their properties were trashed and many of them were beaten up and imprisoned in mass rioting, the Reich imposed a fine upon them to pay for the damages!

Jews in Germany were living in constant fear of attack. Many of the men had been taken away to brutal labour camps (the precursors to the eventual concentration camps). They weren’t allowed to work as teachers, doctors or civil servants of any kind. Notices were going up everywhere banning them from cinemas, swimming pools and parks. Many of their businesses were being taken from them with no remuneration whatsoever. It was desperate. That had been going on ever since Hitler took power in 1933, getting worse with every year, and they were under no illusions that he intended their destruction. In those circumstances, getting their children away must have seemed like the one tiny shred of hope, and if it meant parting from them, that’s what they had to do.

EC: Do you think that it was hard for the children to go to a foreign land and live with strangers?

AS: I think it must have been incredibly hard and there are very varying stories about how it went for them. Many were lucky and got kind foster parents, who did their best to look after them – though even then, of course, they would desperately miss their own families. Others were treated roughly, even made into servants for the families, or passed around homes like unwanted baggage. After the war, there is no doubt that almost all of them were desperate to find their own families – and that very few of them ever did, as they’d been killed in the concentration camps. The Kindertransport was an operation borne from wonderful charity and kindness and it did save lives, but it was inherently sad, being only a last-ditch rescue possibility and never something that anyone would truly wish for a child.

EC: Would you have given up your children?

AS: I honestly don’t know. How can any of us say what we would have done without living in those times? My instinct is to say that I would rather they’d died with me than gone away to strangers but that, in truth, is a selfish stance. Most of the Kindertransportees, interviewed in later life, appreciated how much love it must have taken from their parents to send them away to survive. Would I have been brave enough? I have no idea.

EC: What happened to the children after the war?

AS: Many different things. Some were adopted by their foster families; some went on to homes or hostels. Many went to America, or stayed in Great Britain. In essence, they grew up. They got jobs, met people, and started families of their own. I read many testimonies from Kindertransport children and rebuilding was very important to them – finding love, having children, continuing the line that Hitler tried so hard to destroy. I think it’s wonderful that, in that way, they fought hatred with love, but it cannot have been easy for any of them. They were very brave young people.

EC: Next book?

AS: My next book will be The Berlin Bookshop, also a story about Nazi victims escaping Germany in the hideous build-up to the war in that country, though more adults than children. One strand of the story is inspired by the amazing real women, Ida and Louise Cook, who helped many families to escape. It will come out in Spring 2027.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The House for Lost Children and The German Sisters by Marty Wingate

Elise’s Thoughts and Book Descriptions

The House for Lost Children and The German Sisters by Marty Wingate take readers on an emotional roller coaster ride. People will realize how kindness, compassion, and security can help in restoring hope to those who have experienced severe trauma and heartache.

The plot of The House for Lost Children has divorced Lady Louisa Brightford and her best friend/cook, Iris, alone in a countryside mansion. David, her son, is away flying Spitfires for the British Air Force. Trying to keep relevant, she learns of a group of children and their two teachers displaced by a bombing in London. Realizing Oxburrow Manor can be a boarding school for the nine evacuee children, she calls the family lawyer and asks for his assistance in moving them to the mansion.

One of the children, Gracie, is traumatized to the point of becoming mute after being buried in the rubble with her dead mother. Louisa adores all the children and does everything she can to give them a good home but takes a special interest in Gracie. She has not spoken since she lost her mother, but clings to Louisa who continues to offer her love. Louisa also finds herself becoming closer to Jack Barry, one of the teachers. So, when the governors of the charity that run the school threaten to take the children away because she is a divorced woman, she will do everything in her power to keep them.

The second book in the series, The German Sisters, was inspired by the true events surrounding Kindertransport. It’s a bitter- sweet story. The girls, Dagmar and Heike, were sent to an unknown country, England, to escape the horrors of the Nazi persecution of the Jews yet while at Oxburrow with Louisa they have fellowship, love, and begin to heal.

Louisa and Dagmar form a bond and offer each other love and understanding, drawing from each other’s strength. Dagmar realizes as the older child she must be responsible for Heike, but once at Oxburrow a lot of that responsibility is no longer needed. Now Dagmar must try to find out what happened to her parents and does so with Louisa’s help.

These stories seem very realistic. They are both heart wrenching and heartwarming. Readers will take the emotional journey with the endearing characters. The only fault with these books is that there are no more books to read in the series.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Did you do research about the evacuees?

Marty Wingate: I had read about the evacuees while doing research for my other book Glamour Girls. I had also, in my own reading that I’m interested in, come across references to evacuees and where they went. I’ve seen stories on television about it. There’s one of my favorite wartime series, “Foyle’s War,” a British series which had a boy featured, who was an evacuating. So, I knew about the evacuees. And I thought this would be fun having her take in a bunch of children and animals. The idea where a lot of different people stuffed in one house is always fun. In the second book, The German Sisters, readers will see how the children adapted during the book. There are a couple of them that stayed including Gracie, Athena and George.

EC: In the first book, The House for Lost Children, there was a scene where Louisa, the female lead, was worried about losing her mansion. Please explain.

MW: I knew houses had taken in evacuees, and some country houses could be used for any purpose in the war. Sometimes the army would take them. That was what she was afraid of. Her ex-husband would want to burn the place down so he could get it back again, get the land back. They could also be used for hospitals as well.

EC: How would you describe Louisa?

MW: She is a very generous person and considered herself a part of the village. She was not a snobby entitled person. When the children came to live with her, she had welcoming arms along with her cook who happened to be her best friend, Iris. Both women were generous, loving people. Her mom had died and her father was not around a lot because he had to work, so she was pretty much left on her own. She missed having that home life. I think that Louisa was always looking for an opportunity to have that big family that she always wanted. The way she fulfilled the need of hers was to invite all these children and adults to stay at Oxburrow Manor.

EC: How would you describe the setting of Oxburrow?

MC: The village Debden Ash is made up, but Suffolk, of course, is not made up. Suffolk is a real county. And a lot of it is very flat. I love Suffolk. We go to England a lot, and we are always staying, either at the coast in Suffolk or in, western Suffolk inland. I saw a manor and like some characters, the setting just came to me. I pictured it as a country house, but early Victorian, and after several generations of not having a whole lot of money around, getting to be a little shabby. Also, there’s a book by Robert Bly titled Akenfield, which is about a village of the same name. There was a reference in that book of how Akenfield was really hidden away, because it wasn’t on the main road, but a Roman road running by it. Where there was a little fold of land, and so people almost didn’t notice it. People wouldn’t even realize they were passing it because it wasn’t on the main road. So that’s how I created my vision of Oxburrow.

EC: What was the impact of Oxburrow?

MW: It was a place to heal, where children could thrive in both books. It became a home and a family to the children. It helped them with their trauma. And it was mystic. The children felt safe and protected there. I wrote how not only the children, but the adults as well, were disparate people who have their own stories and their own secrets and how they interacted within Oxburrow.

EC: What about Louisa’s relationship with one of the children, Gracie?

MW: The House for Lost Children is Gracie’s story too. Her backstory is that in the bombing, several of the children’s mothers died. Gracie and her mother were buried for two days before they were found in the rubble. This was an actual news story I read of the time. It was just heartbreaking, because they find Gracie’s mother dead, and there’s Gracie holding her hand, and will not let go. Obviously, Gracie has an enormous amount of trauma, thinking her mother’s death is her fault. When she first comes to Oxburrow she is not talking. And of all the children, Louisa sees the trauma in her more clearly. The other children miss their mothers, and they act out a little bit in other ways, but Louisa realizes she can help, and that’s how she and Gracie bond.

EC: Did Louisa in Gracie’s mind become her new mom?

MW: Gracie wears Louisa’s clothes because it soothes Gracie and helps her feel safe. Gracie’s mother loved her daughter and now that love, that support, and that security is gone. She knows her real mother died, but has a good replacement in Louisa, realizing she has security and love once again. I can’t say that Gracie would ever get rid of all that guilt, but it becomes understandable, just like grief does after a while, it doesn’t hurt as much.

EC: Why was divorce considered so bad?

MW: I turned in the first draft of the manuscript I had a conversation with my editor who is younger than I am. She said, ‘I don’t understand why that’s bad.’ I realized that I had to paint a better picture about what divorce looked like during those times. Louisa couldn’t get remarried in the Church of England at that time. There was still a huge stigma. Louisa and Jack grow close but she was afraid to commit to marriage. I think she did not face up to her hidden fear. that maybe she was the one that wrecked her marriage. She questions if it was her fault. We take on guilt that we shouldn’t a lot of times, and that’s what had happened to her.

EC: Divorce played a role for Mrs. Harrison, the children’s guardian and head mistress. Do you agree?

MW: Mrs. Harrison did not look beyond the person, because Louisa divorced. I think that she acts in that way because believes she is right. I think she’s a very caring person. She’s a very good teacher and always good with the children. She could not imagine letting the children share a house with a woman who had broken the rules, whether they were moral rules or the rule of law. She’s just too strait-laced, and it was very difficult for her to get through that. She did, but it was very difficult.

EC: What about Jack Berrie?

MW: The First World War was an awful war, where he lost friends, and was traumatized. He got married, had a baby, and his wife died, which certainly didn’t make it any better for Jack. He had a rough life, until he ended up falling into what he had always wanted to do in the first place, and that’s be a teacher. He’s a diamond in the rough.

EC: The second book, The German Sisters, has a powerful scene about the children having to leave their parents. Please discuss this.

MW: There’s a wonderful documentary from a few years ago called “Into the Arms of Strangers.” There were interviews with adults who had been part of the children’s transport coming out of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. They told amazing stories of how children had to say goodbye to their parents. The scene on the platform and on the train, came from one of those actual stories. The parents were devastated in having to give up their children and send them to a foreign country, England, but they wanted them to be safe. They wondered if they will ever see each other again.

EC: In the second book, Louisa eventually takes in two Jewish German evacuees. Can you describe the older sister, Dagmar?

MW: Dagmar and her sister Heike were two children who were part of the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport. She’s responsible. She grows up too soon. She’s calm, fearful, a worrier, feels guilty, an observer, and is afraid for her parents. At the beginning of the story, she is ten years old when her parents say goodbye to them on the platform. The parents explained, ‘We must do this, we must get you out, but don’t forget to write the letters.’ Well, Dagmar took this on, literally, feeling she was the only one that could do this. And so that’s what follows her through the story.

EC: How would you describe the younger sister, Heike?

MW: She is sociable, attentive, sweet, happy, and rambunctious. She just bounces back. She’s tearful at first. She misses their parents, yet she thrives at Oxburrow. I think the two sisters are quite a contrast. She just fell in with Gracie and Athena, the two girls from the first book. It’s like, they are a threesome now, that she’s just that kind of girl.

EC: How would you describe George?

MW: I love George. He’s a bookworm. He was quiet in the house when there were a lot of children, but in the second book he gets a bigger part. He and Dagmar both have a way of ordering their world. They want things in the right place. I was so pleased that George had a friend. He and Dagmar are both inquisitive and love to learn, especially about maps. George and Athena have their mothers die in the bombing in the first book, but their fathers are still alive. Athena’s father is a jazz musician in London. Sometimes she thinks she hears him on the radio playing in his orchestra. And George’s father is in the merchant navy on some ship somewhere. They have that hope that they will be a family, but in the meantime, they are quite content to be with Louisa.

EC: What role does Rebecca play in the story?

MW: She has secrets and is too direct at times, can be abrupt. She works for the Jewish Refugee Committee. Her sister, Mrs. Gedge, is a Quaker and Rebecca is not. She is caring and responsible.

EC: Next book?

MW: I got a two-book deal for the historical fiction. So, it looks like these are going to be the only two. I’ve really enjoyed writing them, and I love writing about World War II.

My next book is a Christmas mystery, titled A Murder is Rehearsed, coming out in November. Its set in England and Scotland, maybe in Wales too. There is a tradition going back to early Victorian times to put on a pantomime at Christmas. They’re comedy parodies that are hugely popular even today in theaters at Christmas time. I’ve decided to set this murder mystery at a production of Cinderella in a little town in Kent in England, in 1952. Cinderella’s coach, is on a fly rigging, up above the stage and then comes down when it’s time for Cinderella to look as if she’s getting in her coach to go to the ball. But someone releases the brake on the fly rigging and it falls and hits the actor who is playing the fairy godmother and kills him.

THANK YOU!!

***

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Where the Sky Begins by Cindy Dees and Mary Wine

Book Description

In 1929, twenty daredevil women take to the skies in the most dangerous race of their lives.

Florence “Pancho” Barnes—heiress, rebel, and the most colorful pilot in America—can outfly, outswear, and outdrive any man. When Hollywood tries to turn the first-ever cross-country National Women’s Air Derby into a publicity stunt with movie starlets and their male “mechanics” doing the real flying, Pancho rallies the greatest female aviators of the era to fight back.

Alongside aviation legends Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, and Marvel Crosson, these fearless women demand the right to fly solo across 2,800 miles of treacherous terrain in primitive, fragile aircraft held together by glue and prayers. But as the race begins, sabotage strikes. Someone wants these women to fail—or worse.

As increasingly serious incidents mount, the pilots realize they’re not just racing for glory. They’re fighting for their lives and the future of women in aviation. United in their determination to finish the derby, they refuse to back down, watching each other’s backs as they barrel across the country in a white-knuckle race that will determine once and for all whether women belong in the skies.

From high-speed car chases to emergency landings, speakeasy showdowns to courtroom battles, Where the Sky Begins is a thrilling ride through one of aviation’s most dramatic chapters—a story of courage, sisterhood, and the unbreakable spirit of women who refused to be grounded.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Where The Sky Begins by Cindy Dees and Mary Wine will take readers on a thrilling ride emphasizing how women aviators displayed courage, sisterhood, and the unbreakable spirit of those who refused to be grounded. It is a reminder of how these women pilots in the late 1920s had to overcome insults, injustices, and obstacles simply because they were women.

The story is based on the National Women’s Air Derby which took place in 1929. The derby was a race of 20 daredevil women flying from San Bernardino to Cleveland, although the authors concentrated on four: Florence “Pancho” Barnes, Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, and Marvel Crosson, But, as the race begins, sabotage strikes. Someone wants these women to fail, or worse die. As increasingly serious incidents mount, the pilots realize they’re not just racing for glory but fighting for their lives and the future of women in aviation. They band together in their determination to finish the derby. Undeterred by the dangerous obstacles thrown at them, they refuse to back down and watch each other’s backs.

This exciting and extraordinary story was brought to the forefront in the novel by Dees and Wine. Readers will turn the pages to discover what could possibly happen next. The afterword is a bonus, explaining which parts are fictionalized and which are true.

***

Author Interviews

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for this story?

Mary Wine: This is our third collaboration. I was in what’s called WHAM, which is an air museum in the Pacific Northwest. I was walking along in there with its hangars of old airplanes and vehicles and all kinds of bits of history. I enjoy prowling through old dinosaur bones of history. It’s something I really enjoy. I wandered around, and I found this ancient newspaper, and it had a headline that said, ‘Women are naturally handicapped by their dependence on men, and shouldn’t be in the cockpit.’ This was a headline that ran in one of the local papers. I knew I needed to dig deeper. I must know what dinosaur bone this is and when I got the whole idea, I ended up reaching out to Cindy.

EC: What was the writing process?

Cindy Dees: We sat down together and talked out the plot. I am a story structure geek, and Mary has massive experience in the TV and film industry and knows that story structure very well. And, of course, she has written dozens of historical novels and some contemporary stuff. We hammered out the plot. And the plot was kind of written for us by history. But because Mary has a lot of experience writing historical novels, she’s one of those historical writers that gets the historical facts correct. This is unusual, particularly in the romance industry. A lot of the facts are wildly wrong. But she is really gifted at saying, here are the facts. Where is the really good story among those facts? And so, she really, truly found the story. She told me, ‘I think these are the main characters whose points of view are really important,’ and I was like, ‘yep, I totally agree.’ And then we came up with kind of the skeleton of how we were going to cover the race.

EC: How did you narrow down the cast of characters?

Cindy Dees: There were multiple FBI agents and police officers involved in investigating the various acts of sabotage, but we don’t want a cast of a thousand. Let’s create one fictitious kind of amalgam FBI character for that. We also needed some race officials that are acting in bad faith. Let’s just create one.

EC: What was true?

Cindy Dees: We don’t have names of actual race officials that were doing some of the shenanigans but the shenanigans were absolutely happening including the arguments over trying to get the women to land at fields that they were going to crash on because the fields were too short. The argument of how close they were flying to the Mexican border. Those were real arguments. There was clearly bribery happening. I couldn’t tell you who bribed who but it was very clear there was bribery, buyoffs, and payoffs happening for the route of the race. Cities, industries, betters, and all kinds of people were paying to get the race to come through their town. So, Mary did a ton of that research and then we kind of talked through how to amalgamate a lot of that research.

Mary Wine: There was a fair bit of discussion about how to open the book. It took us a bit to find openings and we tried a couple of different openings. We wrote three separate openings to the book. Both of us wanted this to be a filmable opening. An opening sequence that you see when you go to the movies that makes you sit your tail down and stop checking your text messages. I guided the opening to a nice big action scene, and wrote that scene.

EC: Why the four pilots?

MW: We decided because there were so many pilots in this race, over 20 of them, to narrow it down to the story happening between basically four of them.

EC: How would you describe the four pilots? First, Pancho?

CD and MW: They were similar in that they were all passionate about flying, and they were all certainly quite frustrated with the strictures being put on women as pilots. They were four of the strong voices as we did our historical research on the race that spoke out for organizing the women, pushing back against the things that were unsafe, sticking together, refusing to stop the race, and were four of the most dynamic, but that is where all the similarities end. Pancho Barnes was an heiress, big personality, bold personality, and a rebel at heart. Pancho was one of the race organizers. And it’s why she could threaten the boycott that the pilots did. And she was the mouthpiece. She organized all the pilots, and they all agreed to the boycott to make sure only experienced pilots raced. She had that clout, because she was on the organizing committee. She has this big, loud personality. A lot of money and takes no guff.

EC: What about the famous Amelia Earhart?

CD and MW: She was a celebrated pilot, but ‘Lady Lindy’ didn’t fly in that flight over the ocean, that they gave her a ticket tape parade. And believe it or not, Amelia Earhart had a big problem with that. She was the one who called herself a sack of potatoes. She wanted to be in this race because she was going to be at the controls of the aircraft. It was very important to her. This derby was the moment that she got to be an aviator. She was 100% passenger on that famous flight. Amelia was really embarrassed and humiliated by that. The reality is, Amelia at that time was not a particularly experienced pilot. She had crashed a couple of airplanes. She was not considered to be one of the premier aviators of the day, although they all really respected her celebrity and they really appreciated the attention she was bringing to women pilots. They held her no ill will. But they all knew she wasn’t much of a pilot. This was her opportunity to really come out and step into her shoes as a real aviator. She had something to prove. She has a big chip on her shoulder, a big case of imposter syndrome, and then a big tragedy as the race begins, losing her longtime dear friend and mechanic, who died the night the race started in a plane crash.

EC: What about Louise Thaden?

CD and MW: She was by far the most accomplished aviator of all of them at that point. She was the best pilot, and all the women expected her to win the race going in. She was already doing some test flying. She had the first commercial pilot’s license. She was the consummate professional, poised, and self-contained.

EC: Then there was the pilot of who died, Marvel Crosson?

CD and MW: Marvel was young, adorably cute, charismatic, and charming. She was America’s sweetheart material. Even though everybody called Amelia Earhart, America’s sweetheart, because of the Atlantic flight that had already happened, Marvel was setting a lot of records at that time. She was doing altitude records. She recently had set the world altitude record before that race. She was a bush pilot in Alaska, which was known to be exceedingly dangerous. She was kind of the mascot of the race where everybody took her under their wing. Even though Pancho Barnes was only five years older than Marvel, she thought of her as a little sister, and protected her, looked out for her. Everybody felt very protective toward Marvel, even though Marvel was a hot stick pilot.

EC: What role did Blanche Noyes play in the story?

CD and MW: Blanche Noyes, a pilot and an actress was very important in teaching all the women how to be in front of the cameras, and how to give a good interview. Because of her indirectly the name “Powder Puff Derby” came about. The women pilots were getting ready for some press, and they all had brown and black sort of greasy mess all over their faces, sweaty, and then they would take their goggles off and they would have these white eyes staring at you, looking like a racoon. She taught them how to powder around their eyes, to even out their skin tone, so they didn’t look like freaks on camera. After the first race, they were all lined up on a stage and Blanche said ‘everybody, pull out your compacts and powder around your eyes.’ Will Rogers saw them doing it and he called it the ‘Powder Puff Derby.’ It stuck and infuriated the women because it was a derogatory term. It was like calling them petticoat pilots. It was another way of saying arm candy.

EC: Why didn’t the women talk about the sabotage?

CD and MW: They had a pact. They were going to be ladies and they were not going to whine because everybody was waiting for them to whine so they could print horrible headlines about, ‘oh, these poor little women just can’t take it. See, we told you.’ They had a pact that lasted until their dying breath. They never talked about the sabotage. The only time they ever voiced it was during the inquiry meetings. They formed a sisterhood. A scene in the book where Amelia Earhart, busted her propeller. They all waited for her new propeller instead of taking off as they were supposed to get a leg up and winning because she was grounded. They said, ‘We’re here to fly against each other. We are going to wait till you fix your plane, and then we’ll go again.’

EC: What do you want readers to get out of the story?

CD and MW: How to face a challenge. I want people to understand that nothing feels like achievement. I think another really, important theme of the story is what is possible when you work together and you come together as colleagues, respect each other, and bring friendship with hard work. Never refuse to quit, because great things can be accomplished. And this race single-handedly opened the door for women pilots to follow. So, they were really breaking gender walls.

EC: Cindy, did being a former Air Force pilot influence you?

CD: Maybe I would never be a pilot if not for these women. I look at this and I think to myself, these women are amazing. They’re amazing just as they are. And I wanted to write them in full color. I wanted it to be more than a history book. I wanted to bring it out and say, ‘There’s big personalities here.’ These women plowed the road. I see doors where these women were met with walls. I wrote about the flying stuff.

EC: Next book?

CD: The next book on my horizon, will probably be the third Helen Warwick. It’s already sold for television, but that doesn’t mean anything, since I don’t control the timetable or money, all of that is way out of my control.

MW: I am writing a psychological thriller but there is no release date.

THANK YOU!!

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Midwife at Ivy Cottage by Rebecca Alexander

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE MIDWIFE AT IVY COTTAGE (Wildflower Secrets Book #4) by Rebecca Alexander on this Bookouture Books-On-Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Imogen holds the faded photograph of a baby up to the golden light by the ivy-covered cottage. Her breath catches. The sweet face reminds her of a child she once cared for… and can never forget. Who is this baby, and why was his photograph hidden here?

After heartbreak turned her world upside down, Imogen was forced to leave her nursing job and the life she had built behind. Now she has come to a beautiful countryside village, where she’s renovating a tumbledown cottage she hopes to call home. She never imagined the wartime secrets it’s hiding. Or that working alongside Jaz, the warm-hearted, handsome local builder with a kind smile, will make her light up in a way she hasn’t for a long time…

Hidden inside the cottage she discovers the photograph of a baby, and the incredible story of Julia, a midwife who once lived at Ivy Cottage. Julia devoted her life to caring for the village’s mothers and babies during World War Two, at a time when every birth was full of danger. Including a tiny infant who she was determined to save…

As Imogen pieces together the little boy’s story and Julia’s extraordinary courage, she begins to confront the loss she has buried for so long. With Jaz by her side, could Ivy Cottage finally be the place where her heart begins to heal?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250518392-the-midwife-at-ivy-cottage?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=bpg5GcdjGq&rank=1

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0GHPZRFGCsocial

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE MIDWIFE AT IVY COTTAGE (Wildflower Secrets Book #4) by Rebecca Alexander is a heartfelt, emotional dual timeline WWII historical fiction and women’s fiction mash-up with romantic elements in the Wildflower Secrets series. While these stories can be read as standalone books, there are many crossover characters in both the historical and present-day timelines which makes it more enjoyable reading them in order and reconnecting with the characters you loved in previous books.

Present Day: Imogen “Immy” and her father have come a long way in renovating the old manor house into a senior home with the help of a local contractor/carpenter, Jasper, “Jaz”. When she investigates the Ivy Cottage behind the manor to hopefully renovate for her personal use, she discovers a picture of a young boy, and she is determined to discover his past with the help of others in the town. He reminds her so much of the patient she lost as a pediatric ICU nurse before coming to help her father.

1940’s: Sister Julia is a trained midwife who survives the bombing of the hospital she works at. She is offered the position of helping evacuees, pregnant mothers and their small babies, billeted throughout the small villages on the moors. She is given the Ivy Cottage to live in behind the manor house. She becomes integral in the lives of many mothers and their babies as well as the young doctor in town to help his father’s practice. When a mother delivers a baby with Downs syndrome, Julia becomes more than professionally involved.

This is a story that is inspiring, heartbreaking, and deeply emotional with two women who are both dedicated professionals as well as troubled by an incident in their lives that could change their future paths. Immy and Julia are both strong women and while they work through personal and/or professional difficulties, they do it with grace. This is just an all-around endearing story with great characters and just the right amount of romance and history. If you have read the previous books and love all the seniors living in the manor, make sure you have tissues ready at the end of the present timeline.

I highly recommend this addition to the Wildflower Secrets series!

***

About the Author

Rebecca Alexander was born in Malta and grew up on the south coast of England, becoming a psychologist. She escaped parenting six children to study writing in 2011, and the Secrets series of novels was published in 2013. A Baby’s Bones and sequel followed. Rebecca lives in a haunted 300-year-old cottage in Devon where she grows fruit, paints, and bakes. She reads and writes all sorts of genres, from women’s fiction to fantasy to crime. She is married with four chickens, two grandchildren and a cat.

Mailing List: https://bookouture.com/subscribe/rebecca-alexander

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.rebecca-alexander.co.uk/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6151960.Rebecca_Alexander

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The German Sisters by Marty Wingate

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE GERMAN SISTERS by Marty Wingate on this Bookouture book tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and social media links. Enjoy!

***

Book Description

1938, Germany. “Be brave, little one,” her mother whispers. Dagmar holds her hand tightly through the train window, trembling, trying not to cry. But as the train lurches forward, they are torn apart, and her mother is swallowed by the darkness.

As the train carries her far away from home, ten-year-old Dagmar’s hand tightens around her sister’s. As little Heike leans in, her acorn-coloured eyes wide, Dagmar is terrified she won’t be able to keep her safe…

Dagma heart aches for her mother but only children were allowed on board. The carriage is crowded; a small boy hugs a battered teddy bear and cries for his father. A girl her own age whispers that this train is rescuing Jewish children. But their families have been left behind…

As the train jolts along the track, Dagmar holds her breath. Her scuffed suitcase, with everything she owns inside, bangs painfully against her. Dagmar and Heike have nobody else but each other; what will happen to them? And will they ever see their mother again?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/252188237-the-german-sisters?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=GMbOadtuPc&rank=3

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0H1NHLSJ9social

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE GERMAN SISTERS by Marty Wingate is an emotional WWII historical fictional story of two young Jewish sisters evacuated to England on the Kindertransport from Germany. While this book is easily read as a standalone story, it is set in the English countryside at Oxborough Manor with the cast of characters previously introduced in “The House for Lost Children” also by this author.

Ten-year-old Dagmar and her little sister Heike are sent by their parents after Kristallnacht on the Kindertransport to England. Dagmar is told she must take care of her sister and write to let them know where they settle and write the Jewish refugee committee to ask for assistance in getting a travel visa for them to follow. A heavy burden for a ten-year-old especially with a war engulfing Europe. Will they ever see their Mutti and Vati again?

After a fire in the first home they are settled in, the sisters end up resettling at Oxborough Manor with Lady B, Jack, and other evacuated children from London. As they settle into the manor, they are surrounded by the love and understanding they need, but will it be enough for Dagmar to let others help with her worries and burdens?

This is an emotional roller-coaster of a story. Dagmar has so much placed on her young shoulders and she does not know how to ask for help without feeling they will lose what they have if they need anything. Her continued letter writing was heart-breaking. When the sisters end up at Oxborough Manor, I was so excited to revisit the characters I had come to love in The House of Lost Children. The entire book is full of situations and emotions that are realistic and kept me turning the pages. Make sure you have plenty of tissues ready for the epilogue.

I highly recommend this moving WWII historical fiction!

***

About the Author

Marty Wingate is a USA Today best-selling author of both mysteries and historical fiction. Marty enjoys weaving humor into her books and creating characters—from quirky and loveable to sinister and duplicitous—that leap off the page. Before embarking on her series about the London Ladies Murder Club with Bookouture, Marty published three contemporary cozy mystery series (the Potting Shed, Birds of a Feather, and First Edition Library books). She has also published two standalone books of historical fiction and found stories of the past to be compelling. She’s delighted to combine her penchant for both mysteries and histories to bring her readers more satisfying stories. Marty currently resides near Seattle, Washington.

Mailing List: https://bookouture.com/subscribe/marty-wingate

Social Media Links

Website: http://martywingate.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martywingateauthor/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-german-sisters-completely-heartbreaking-and-unforgettable-world-war-two-fiction-by-marty-wingate

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Echoes of Infamy by Shaina Steinberg

Book Description

In postwar Los Angeles, former spies Evelyn Bishop and Nick Gallagher dig into shady real estate dealings, murder, and the appalling aftereffects of Japanese American internment during World War II.

Now president of her father’s company, Bishop Aeronautics, Evelyn is presiding over a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of her factory when she is approached by Billy Takemura, a Japanese American soldier who announces that she’s building on stolen land.

Like Evelyn and Nick, Billy is a war hero. He served in the decorated 442nd Nisei company, while most of his family were forcibly interned at Manzanar. Their thriving family restaurant, and the land it occupied, were taken while they were in the camp.

Determined to right this wrong—and concerned about her father’s possible involvement in profiteering—Evelyn enlists Nick in her investigation. What starts as a discovery of widespread fraud quickly graduates to murder. Suspects range from an unscrupulous business partner to a bitter widow to Billy’s hotheaded brother. It’s up to Evelyn and Nick to expose the truth. However, it’s not easy when Evelyn is fending off betrayal in her own company and Nick’s brutal childhood returns to haunt him.

Nothing is as it seems as secrets threaten to destroy the life they have worked so hard to build .

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Echoes of Infamy by Shaina Steinberg intertwines a black mark of American history with an intense mystery. The internment of American Japanese during World War II is a period marked by significant injustices and Steinberg skillfully shows the struggles of that community post-World War II.

The story follows the Japanese American Takemura family. The female lead, Evelyn Bishop is President of her father’s company, Bishop Aeronautics. She is presiding over a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of her factory when approached by Billy Takemura, a Japanese American soldier who announces that she’s building on stolen land. Like Evelyn and Nick (her husband), Billy is a war hero. He served in the decorated 442nd Nisei company, while most of his family were forcibly interned at Manzanar. Their thriving family restaurant, and the land it occupied, were stolen by a carpetbagger while they were in the camp. Billy implies that the land was fraudulently purchased. Moreover, things go from bad to worse after a construction worker, preparing the factory’s foundation, unearths a corpse with its head bashed in. Evelyn and her husband Nick decide to investigate, because shady law enforcement seems to be dragging their feet and stalling the official cause of death.

The other sub-plots of the story include women empowerment, Nick’s family issues that include abuse, and misogyny. Steinberg skillfully ties everything together in a satisfying and emotional way.

The reader is immersed in the era with the attention to historical detail. The story is gripping and enlightening with a mystery that has intrigue.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Shaina Steinberg: I’m Jewish, and I watched people coming out of the concentration camps, and trying to find their friends, and trying to find their family, and trying to find where to go. And I think so many people have written so many incredible, brilliant books about the Holocaust, that I decided not to write about it. But I think there’s such a strong parallel with the Japanese and Japanese American people who returned, in interned, down the West Coast.

EC: Did you base the story on anyone?

SS: No, it wasn’t based on anyone. I did a lot of research. I read a book called Farewell to Manzanar which is a memoir by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston about their experiences before, during, and following their relocation. Naomi Hiriahara, who is also a mystery writer, wrote a brilliant book called Evergreen, about a family who had been interned, and moved to Chicago.

EC: You seem to have a lot of subplots in the story. There’s murder, there’s Rory, there was Lewis, there was Willa. Was there a reason for that?

SS: We look at mystery books, and usually murder, but not always, as being the center of the plot. And I think that whenever you have something major in your life, your life doesn’t stop. I think of Nick, I really enjoyed writing that part because he’s had such a horrible family, such a hard life. And in many ways, he and Evelyn are opposite in that respect.

EC: Carl seemed very single-minded that he got angry at Evelyn without even talking to her. Is that a fair statement?

SS: Yes. Absolutely. Carl was angry at her because she continued associating with her dad, who she loved very much. But, her dad did something very bad as well. And once he took a step back, he realized that what he was angry about was not that big of a deal. It’s the small thing, and then it’s this massive thing behind it, and it appeared that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And I think for Carl, it was difficult not to be able to be who he is and not feel his friends would accept him for who he is. Plus, there was the constant fear of being discovered, because, obviously, being gay in the 40s, is a lot different from being gay now. We’ve made so much progress and thank God for it. And I think that with Carl, it probably feels very unfair that he must hide how he feels and who he is. And it’s just one more secret on top of everything. I think he is annoyed and not thrilled that Evelyn is talking to somebody who he thinks is a traitor, who he believes did horrible things. But I don’t think that element, per se, is why he cut her out. I think it’s him needing to deal with a lot of his own stuff

EC: How would you describe Rory, Nick’s nephew?

SS: I love Rory. I think that he’s smart, and driven, and curious, and dealt a bad hand in life. And I think Nick sees himself in this kid. And he saw somebody who was completely innocent. They both had a second chance for family. I really admire Rory for being able to be self-directed enough to make a change, to make his life a little bit better. It is difficult to step outside a comfort zone, but he really does that. Rory was abused in the book. His mother would let the men in her life knock him around. And yet, he still doesn’t want people’s pity or charity. He doesn’t want to open his life and say to people, look at how hard this has been.

EC: What role did Lewis, the executive director, play in the story?

SS: I think Lewis is unfortunately a typical man for that era. He’s misogynist, but doesn’t know that word, wouldn’t think of it. He’s the kind of man who sees a very strong difference between the sexes and believes that women have a particular role, and that role is not president of the company, which is Evelyn’s position. He watched Evelyn grow up from, her toddler years, all the way into a grown and a very capable woman. And I think that it can be hard, not just for Lewis, but a lot of people to see someone they knew from childhood going off to college. And with strong opinions and passions. And he had a hard time not seeing her as a child anymore.

EC: Is there women empowerment in the story?

SS: I think Evelyn has been fighting the good fights since the beginning of the series. And, Willa, who had engineering and chemistry degrees from UCLA, now going for her PhD, and working brilliantly for the company, even finding broken brackets on the plane’s engine mounts. She has this job that she loves. But it’s not necessarily easy. She’s coming into a world of these men, and asking them to take her seriously at a time when women weren’t really taken seriously. Unlike Evelyn, Willa comes into a department where she’s the only woman, she’s on the bottom of the totem hole, she has a very different experience. And as much as I love Evelyn, I do think sometimes it can take her a minute to look around and see that other people’s experiences are different from hers. even if it’s lumped into the same general category.

EC: Do you think Evelyn is a feminist?

SS: Absolutely. Even though she’s a feminist, she was brought up in the other world, too. Evelyn was expected to become a wife, and a mother, and a socialite, and I think that if the war had never happened, it is probably a life that would have never fit her well, but it was probably the life she would have had. Yet the war happened, and she went to save her brother, and she found herself in many, many ways, and she found her strength. When she came back, going back into that prescribed role really didn’t fit her. And she knew herself well enough to know that this is something she couldn’t do.

EC: How would you describe the villain in the story, Russell Clements?

SS: Clements was a scam artist, uncaring, self-centered, and unlikable. He also took advantage of the American Japanese situation during the war.

EC: What do you want to say about the three American Japanese children?

SS: Hanzo, Mary, and Billy Takemura. It’s a family story. But they had conflicts. Hanzo and Billy have butted heads ever since they were kids. They each have different strengths. And they can struggle to respect the other ones’ strengths. Hanzo was never able to understand why Billy went and fought for a country that put their family in these horrible camps. And Billy will never overcome his resentment, because he feels that Hanzo abandoned the family. And I think Mary is in the middle. She can see both sides, but at the end of the day, Hanzo was the one who pulled the family out of the camp. Hanzo was the one who helped them relocate to Chicago. So, in many ways, yes, there’s this massive historical event that affects their family dynamics.

EC: What do you want to say about the Japanese internment camps?

SS: I explain in the book that the Japanese Americans were rounded up like cattle. They were only entitled to one single suitcase. The vultures circled, trying to buy heirlooms for nothing on the dollar. Their living conditions weren’t great.

EC: What do you want to say about Billy’s unit the 442^nd Infantry Regiment?

SS: It was an American Japanese unit that fought for America. A lot of them went out with the motto of wanting to prove their loyalty, their family’s loyalty, to the United States. When they left, their parents might have approved, or they might not have approved. But almost universally, their parents told them, ‘Don’t shame the family. Go out and make us proud.’ And I think they really carried that very strongly into battle. They were incredible fighters. There were many times when they broke through the German lines after people said it was impossible. They were so incredibly brave, sometimes people recognized their humanity and the sacrifice they made. But, unfortunately, sometimes they came home, and were not accepted. People wouldn’t rent to them. There was a story of a guy who walked into a barbershop, wearing his army uniform, and the barber kicked him out, and said, ‘Nope, we will not serve you.’

EC: Next book?

SS: It will not be an Evelyn or Nick book. I’m writing a book about grief, and it centers on a young man who loses his father, and his father’s dying wish is for him to say Mourner’s Kaddish for a whole year. Traditionally, Jews are required to say the Kaddish for 30 days after burial for a child, spouse or sibling, and for 11 months after burial for a parent. It follows this young man as he grows and changes, and how he and his family struggle with that awful first year of grief. The working title is Kaddish.

THANK YOU!!

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