Books, Writing, History, and Me
In “Books, Writing, History, and Me” I share my thoughts on travel, cooking, van-life, books, the process of writing, the experiences of an indie-publisher, WWII, the Holocaust, and anything else I feel might be of interest to readers of my books. Please send me comments and let me know what you like and what you want to know more about. Everything in this blog reflects my personal ideas and feelings–a memoir of sorts, it is my perspective and any errors or omissions are mine.
Visiting Camp Ritchie
June 2012. We are again surrounded by Ritchie Boys. Bob and I sit in the auditorium of the U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center in Washington, DC. The men we are here to honor enter the theater and find seats. Many walk with the aid of a cane or leaning on the arm of a friend…
Is It Vanity? The Decision to Self-Publish
In the spring of 2013, after more than a year of sending out my manuscript to agents and the few publishers who accept un-agented work, I began to get weary. I want my book to be available to readers while I am still around to feel the satisfaction of a job completed. All around me…
An Honest Man
Ernest Wachtel is a man who sees the importance of sharing his experiences. However, when I first spoke to him on the telephone in 2009, I noticed a certain reticence to open up. As I explained my project to him, there was silence on the other end of the line. Finally he said, “I’ll tell…
Secret Heroes
I arrived at the Detroit airport on a hot and humid afternoon in July 2011, but I wasn’t there to sightsee or to wander the asphalt streets of a city in the throes of financial decline and economic desperation. I was on my way to meet Ritchie Boys. I would be part of a reunion…
Turkish Diplomats Save Thousands from the Nazis
Who knew? In spite of all the books on the Holocaust and Hitler’s war that I have read, I did not know about this. Between 1941 and 1944, the Turkish legation in France saved thousands of Jews from deportation and arrest by the Nazis. Yes, Turkish diplomats, representatives of the same country that during World…
Thanks to my 3 D’s – The Value of a Writing Group
The journey to turn my earlier nonfiction manuscript into a novel was long and sometimes difficult. As I wrote new sections, added dialogue, and struggled with what bits to delete, my writers’ group, women I met years ago through the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), remained staunchly behind my efforts. They have…
Nonfiction Morphs into Fiction
When I began talking with Herman about his experiences, I had already enjoyed some small success as a writer of stories and articles for the youth market. Naturally, my first thought was to turn his adventures into a nonfiction book for middle-grade readers. However, because during most of the story Herman is in his early…
Two Books about good Germans
One of the things I want to do with this blog is occasionally take a break from the narrative of the process of writing my novel and share with you some of the books that have inspired or informed me, adding new substance to my library of Holocaust and World War II literature. I never…
The General
“Call me GG,” he said. “That’s what my friends call me.” GG, a retired army general and a Ritchie Boy, was the executive director of the local United Way in Sierra Vista, Arizona and he had arranged for us to meet in their comfortable conference room. While my daughter, Erin, was setting up her camera…
The Vagaries of Memory – Finding the Truth when Oral Histories Vary
I have a dear friend who always quotes his grandmother as saying, “There are three ways to tell every story—your way, my way, and the truth.” I suppose if three or four people tell the story, there are that many more versions. Putting them all together in a true way is the job of a…
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