Fiction Writing

Writing Novels is Like Running  Marathons

During a recent fiction workshop my instructor mentioned that he likes short stories because they allow him to get done quickly. Anyone who has ever attempted to write novels knows that it takes a long time. There is this romantic notion that an author sits at his desk and pounds out page after page as his story develops by magic. At the end, he puts the pages into a neat stack and sends them off to the agent/publisher. Needless to say he gets rich in the process.

Right! Maybe there is an occasional genius out there that either can write like this or has developed his/her craft to this degree. I think for the most part, writing is plain hard work and discipline. For those of us that are to date unpublished and I have no doubt that there are millions, it is working in good faith. It is working without pay and praise, just – if we are lucky enough – with feedback from readers and writers groups on how to improve. It is working on multiple drafts for years and deleting enough pages to fill a bookshelf.

One might ask why I bother. After all, I am spending thousands of hours in front of the PC and don’t know if any of the work will ever be viewed by more than a dozen readers. The only thing I can think of is that I, as an author, have to really love what I do and that I have to believe in my work and that it will be discovered and read eventually.

In the case of my first completed work “From the Ashes” I felt compelled to write this story because it is based on true events and needs to be told.

From the Ashes – Completed Manuscript

In 2002 I began interviewing my parents who experienced WWII as children in Germany. Initially, I wanted to capture their memories and preserve them for our family. It was a story that hadn’t been written as most of Germany’s documented WWII history focuses on Hitler’s horrific reign, battles, the Holocaust and the millions that died.

I wanted to understand what happened to the children of that time who were born at the wrong time and place, when insanity ruled and nothing was safe. From the Ashes is based on the true story of my parents, Helga and Guenter:

Helga ca. 1940

Helga is seven when her father joins the war and it marks the beginning of her world spiraling out of control. All she is left with are her integrity and the hope that her father returns soon to protect her against her pedophile neighbor, her cruel and promiscuous mother and the unraveling threats of air-raid bombings.

Eleven-year old Guenter’s utmost concern is surviving —

Guenter ca. 1940

surviving to take care of his mother, surviving Hitler’s draft in the last months of the war and surviving the threats that follow. He will do what it takes, no matter what.

The 13-year journey of two adolescents growing into adults provides a view behind the scenes of civilian Germany against the backdrop of the country’s physical, sociological and emotional annihilation during and after WWII — an era silenced or ignored as the last of the surviving war children die off seventy years later. It is also a love story of two people that find each other and rise above the rubble of their souls and their country.

Aus der Asche – German Translation

Da mein dreiundachtzig-jaehriger Vater kein englisch versteht, bin ich dabei, meinen historischen Roman in seiner Gesamtheit ins Deutsche zu uebersetzen. Wer sich mit Uebersetzung beschaeftigt weiss, wie langwierig und kompliziert diese Aufgabe ist. Bei etwa 400 Seiten geht es langsam aber stetig voran und ich plane, bis Oktober 2011 fertig zu sein.

Nach Vollendung der Uebersetzung steht ein Exposé des Romans auf dem Programm, um hoffentlich einen deutschen Verleger ausfindig zu machen.

A Different Truth – Current Work

My current manuscript – working title A Different Truth – is  about a young man who gets kicked out of his family to attend a military high school in the Midwest. Set in the late sixties and the unrest of the Vietnam era, he struggles to make sense of his life among the arrogance of affluent cadets, ignorant military leadership and anti-war demonstrations of a new hippie generation.

In 1967, the family of 15-year old Bradford, has had enough. Brad needs to learn to obey and there is no better place to learn than the military. Shipped off to Palmer Military Academy in southern Indiana, Brad is plunged into the world where rules are everything.

Sorry, I am in the research phase and though much of the story is in my head, I need to become well versed in all things military. I will be visiting a military high school shortly and am conducting interviews to fill in any holes. In addition, I am reading a number of books about boys, military jargon and etiquette, the Vietnam era and whatever else looks interesting.