Wandering Wednesday | Researching The Songbird and the Spy

by J’nell Ciesielski

You know it when you read it. That certain something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but there it is, sparkling off the page to dazzle you into another realm. A whisk across a sun swept beach, a medieval castle filled with crumbling stone, or bouncing along the front lines in the back of an ambulance. You close the book and realize with a start that you’ve been sitting on your couch in sweat pants the whole time.

That, my friends, is research done right.

Research is my absolute favorite part of the writing process. I love reading all the details I can and finding ways to incorporate them into a story. For The Songbird and the Spy I stepped back in time when fear ran rampant under Nazi terror and ordinary (and not so ordinary) people fought back.

France was a natural choice because it was central to much of the fighting and occupation, and having lived in Europe for several years I was fairly familiar with the land and cityscapes. I’ve walked the cobblestone streets of tiny villages and seen the remnants of bullet holes in the garden walls. I’ve smelled Paris in the springtime while walking along the Seine, and strolled across Trafalgar Square with the big lions.

My American ideals of convenience have been stopped short when shops close down for people to enjoy long lunches at the local café. Taking all of these experiences with a dash of imagination thrown in, I was able to create the most realistic world I could for Claire and Michael to inhabit.

(I love Paris in the springtime)

Remember I mentioned living in Europe? 

I was stationed in Germany while a member of the Air Force. The military is a world in and of itself with its own language, dress, and code of behavior. Having left the service only months prior to writing Songbird, the lessons of four years were still heavily ingrained in me and were put to good use in Captain Michael Reichner, epitome of the dutiful soldier.

I’ve worn a service jacket with a hidden clasp rubbing against my neck while standing in open ranks. I’ve low crawled through mud under barbed wire, and stayed up late polishing boots to a high shine. And who but a fellow military member understands the significance of using baking soda to rub sweat stains from the inner rim of a cap (or in military speak a cover)?

(Yep, that’s me)

Now, before you think I’m only here to brag about my own experiences, know that I would be desolate without books, online articles, and movies. Movies offer a visual consumption of the times gone by and allows for a writer to see all the details of clothing, hairstyles, living conditions, etc.

It’s a total immersion that I do my utmost to relay to readers. 

When it comes to books and articles I try to read everything I can get my hands on. Firsthand accounts, battle plans, ration card descriptions, musical preferences, and even the weather patterns for that year.

These are what give insight to characters. Who they are at their core because of what is going on around them. It was terrifying to step inside the head of a Nazi like Ilsa, but as a writer I had to understand why she thought the way she did so that my hero and heroine would understand why it was so important to defeat her, and by her the ideology of the Nazis.

(Site of the book burnings in Berlin)

No detail is too small because those are what make a story and the characters who inhabit it come alive. Is it difficult to read about occupied lands under Nazi rule? Yes. I can’t tell you the number of times my heart broke over what was done to the citizens and any person who stood against the tyranny.

But in the ashes of sorrow rose the spark of hope. 

One flash of light sprang to ignite another, and then another until the fire of resistance set the world aflame and good triumphed. That is the essence of what I hoped to capture.

If I can but relate any of these details, even if I’m the only one who notices them, then I consider the story a success. Hopefully, readers will learn something they didn’t know before while wrapped in the delights of fiction.

About J’nell Ciesielski

Believing she was born in the wrong era, J’nell Ciesielski spends her days writing heart-stopping heroes, brave heroines, and adventurous exploits in times gone by. Winner of the Romance Through the Ages contest and Maggie Award, J’nell can often be found dreaming of a second home in Scotland, indulging in chocolate of any kind, or watching old black and white movies. Born a Florida girl, she now calls Virginia home, along with her very understanding husband, young daughter, and one lazy beagle.

You can find J'nell online at:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter

About The Songbird and the Spy

As shells explode over Nazi-occupied France, American music student Claire Baudin is trapped behind enemy lines, struggling to protect her identity. Singing as a barmaid while she plans her escape, a handsome Third Reich captain threatens everything she knows to be true about the enemy.

Nazi Captain Michael Reiner isn’t who he claims to be. A British language expert turned spy, he discovers the truth about Claire, but he knows the importance of a secret. Struggling to resist his attraction to the songbird, he’s determined to complete his assignment, no matter the cost. His cover is threatened when a ruthless female Gestapo officer arrives hunting Resistance fighters. The raid forces Michael's hand: complete the mission or save Claire.

As the war threatens to tear them apart, they must rely on each other for survival. Is there hope—and a future—for an American songbird and a British spy?

You can buy The Songbird and the Spy at Amazon.

Wandering Wednesday: From Georgia to Germany with Patricia Beal + a Giveaway

By Patricia Beal  @bealpat

Yesterday Narelle Atkins posted about my debut novel, A Season to Dance. A Season is the heart-wrenching journey of a small town professional ballerina who dreams of dancing at the Met in New York. It's about her, the two men who love her, the God who loves her even more, and the forbidden kiss that changed everything.

I hope you'll read Narelle's review (if you haven't yet) and participate in our giveaway. You can comment on either post to enter to win a signed copy of A Season to Dance. More details at the end of this post.

Today I want to take you behind the scenes into the real life settings of the book. 

Welcome to the world of A Season to Dance!

Brazil in the seventies. The beginning.

This is the real theater and the real marquee in Columbus, Georgia. I had to take some architectural freedoms to make the marquee scene work. I danced at that theater when my husband was stationed at Fort Benning. My daughter was nursing when I participated in the advertised shows. I learned nursing pads and snow costumes don't go well together :)

The RiverCenter in Columbus, Georgia

This would be the view during on-stage classes and rehearsals. This is also what Ana and Claus see when they go over corrections and before climbing the wobbly steps to Juliet's balcony. "I ran down to him. The melody became fully established. Luminous. Exalted. Beautiful. We locked eyes. We locked hands. We locked hearts. And then we danced." 

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts - Bill Heard Theatre

This is the sign Ana sees at the entrance of Callaway Gardens when she's looking for Peter. "If I wasn’t going to Mom’s and wasn’t going to Peter’s office, why was I still driving toward the park? Because I have nowhere else to go. That’s why…"

Callaway Gardens

Here's the Callaway Gardens chapel. "Tomorrow, I think. Today, I remember. I remembered the first day I’d met Peter. The chapel, the organist playing Vivaldi’s 'The Four Seasons,' and the little girl with the white sandals that showed her cute little toes, her dress flowing as she ran. I remembered the warmth and the sweet scents of that beautiful spring day. Turning the corner, my eyes looked for the bridge where we’d first seen each other." 

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel exterior

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel interior

Peter's bridge. "He stood on the bridge looking out at the lake. He was cuter than I’d imagined, and anything resembling quiet reverence departed from me fast. I just wanted to go behind an azalea bush and squeal. I started walking toward him. He turned to me and smiled. The scruff on his face and his tan made him look surprisingly boyish, and his dark blue eyes were even bluer than in the pictures from his profile. 'Hi.' I reached out for the metal rail to steady myself and breathed in his soapy smell. Everything about him was warm and inviting." 

Callaway Gardens

Callaway Gardens

Callaway Gardens

The real Barysh was a girl and a boxer. "My tan border collie, Barysh, scooted toward me when I opened the balcony doors. 'Here, let me help you.' Soon I would have to do something about him too. He hadn’t stood on his own in weeks and wasn’t getting any younger. I picked up his hips and helped him get outside."

Kyllian at Callaway Gardens the year before she died

Wiesbaden. "A white heron stood on the bank of the rain-swollen river, looking in the direction of the submerged rocks where he normally stood. Germany, huh?"

Wiesbaden was so fun to write. I lived there as a single public affairs officer in 2003. These images are from a visit in 2012. "Downstairs, a narrow stone driveway, edged by clusters of miniature roses, ended at a dark iron gate that led to quiet Blumenstraße, two long blocks from the downtown attractions and from the Warmer Damm Park, a large English landscape garden with a lake and a fountain, which bordered the southern façade of the state theater where Claus danced."

The real Di Gregorio

The theater

The neighborhood

Rüdesheim."Most restaurants and hotels by the water had the charming half-timbered architecture generally associated with Germany. Lush vegetation and vibrant flowers shaded outdoor tables, and window boxes overflowed with bright geraniums, petunias, and begonias. At a restaurant with a large courtyard and a fountain, a group of women— three generations for sure—danced the polka, accompanied by a live accordion, and a teenage boy who was watching them from the sidewalk picked up his girlfriend and spun her around to her giggles and protests. Everybody looked happy and relaxed, and I noticed that even though we were surrounded by vineyards, most people were drinking beer—vom Fass."

I love this place :)

Europe and the double-decker stroller

View from Germania

In the footsteps of Claus

A side trip to Prague for a performance. "We didn’t sleep. Instead, we watched the sunrise from the Charles Bridge, and his tender kisses were as precious to me as the pedestrian-only stone bridge in the soft light of the morning sun’s rays."

Charles Bridge in Prague

A Side trip to Mallorca. " 'Are you mocking me, Jody Sawyer?' Claus held his chest as if heartbroken. 'Shut up, Cooper.' The sound of our conspiring laughter rolled through the night air like the gentle waves that rolled into our Cala Romantica beach, rhythmic and unassuming. 'Can I speak seriously now?' His brows drew together. 'If you must.' Claus held my hands and looked into my eyes. He did look serious. I hadn’t seen him that serious since the day we left Georgia."

Cala Romantica in Mallorca

From Mallorca to Ibiza to Barcelona during a month in Spain

I wrote most of the Callaway Gardens chapters at Callaway Gardens but finished the first draft of A Season to Dance in Germany, at this square in Idar-Oberstein (after many trips to Rüdesheim). 

Idar-Oberstein

In a million ways, my ballerina dreams didn't work out. I was in pre-professional companies in three different continents. Never went pro, though. But now that A Season to Dance exists, it all makes sense. Every twist and turn of my life is in this story to one extent or another. Had my path been different, the novel would have been different. And it is exactly what it needs to be, I'm confident in that. God knew that A Season to Dance was the only way to my heart.

Because of A Season to Dance

Also because of A Season to Dance

Maybe there will be other published books, but if this is the only one I ever publish, if A Season to Dance is my life's work, I'm okay with that. I now know that I was born to write it and I did.

Thank you, Narelle, for loving the story and for feeling it intensely, like I do :)

I will close with the words of my protagonist:

"The studio was old—the best always were. The dark marley floor had seen years of pointe work, and the wooden barres looked worn—worn by sweaty hands holding tight to big dreams. 'You are so beautiful,' the girl cast as Dew Drop whispered. 'Thank you.' I grinned. 'Your variation is looking beautiful too.' Her cheeks turned pink, hiding most of her small freckles. A newer generation was dreaming now, but the ballet studio still was what it should be: a bastion of civility in an everything-goes world."

 

My little girl - the real Dew Drop :)

Love,
Patricia

*Remember to comment to participate in the giveaway. The prize is one autographed print copy of A Season to Dance (open worldwide, void where prohibited). The deadline to comment is 11 p.m. EST on Friday, January 12. Participants can comment on the A Season to Dance review posted by Narelle Atkins on January 9 and/or on Patricia Beal's Wandering Wednesday real life settings post of January 10. People who comment on both posts get two entries. Winner will be selected via random.org and announced on Saturday via comment on both blog posts. Thanks!

About Patricia Beal

Patricia Beal has danced ballet her whole life. She is from Brazil and fell in love with the English language while washing dishes at a McDonald's in Indianapolis. She put herself through college working at a BP gas station and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in English Literature. She then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years.

 She now writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas 2017). 

Patricia is a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children.

Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/bealpat
Facebook - www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author
Pinterest - www.pinterest.com/patriciasbeal
Twitter - www.twitter.com/bealpat
Web - www.patriciabeal.com

Book Review: Springtime of the Spirit by Maureen Lang and book giveaway

by Narelle Atkins

Springtime of the Spirit (Tyndale 2011) is the third book in Maureen Lang’s The Great War series. A spirited and poignant love story set in Germany in 1918 during the politically turbulent months following the end of the First World War.

Annaliese Duray is from a wealthy family who live in a small town outside Munich, and her capitalist father has benefited financially from the war by building weapons in his factory. After the death of her beloved sister and Germany’s crushing defeat by the Allies, Annaliese runs away from her family. She disappears in Munich, determined to help create a better future for Germany.

The socialist revolution, arising during a time of high unemployment and food shortages, brings Eisner to power and Annaliese joins the socialist party. Within weeks she becomes a political voice for the rights of women. Keeping her privileged background a secret, she speaks passionately in the streets to the working class crowds, espousing socialist values of equality and the evils of capitalism.

Christophe Brecht is a disillusioned Major from the German Army who returns from France to discover his homeland has been changed by the war. He finds his family’s home abandoned and a note from his sister. His brother died fighting in the war, his parent’s are now deceased and his sister has moved to America.

Annaliese’s older sister, Giselle, was Christophe’s first love. After learning of Giselle’s death, he visits her heartbroken parents. They enlist his help in finding Annaliese in Munich and bringing her home before they leave Germany and move to America.

A fascinating story unfolds as Christophe finds Annaliese and tries to convince her to return home with him and reconcile with her parents. Annaliese has rejected her childhood faith and, as the political upheaval and danger intensifies around them, she is challenged by Christophe’s beliefs that are in conflict with her new socialist ideology.

Springtime of the Spirit is an amazing story of love and hope during a politically unstable time in Germany’s history. The characters are passionate in their political beliefs that also shape their decisions in their personal lives. The exciting political backdrop adds an extra element of danger and intrigue to the story. The heartache and desperation of a nation economically crippled by war is captured in the story and the character’s motivations and desire for change is realistically depicted. I would recommend Springtime of the Spirit for those interested in political ideologies and looking for an exciting historical romance set during a time of significant social change.

To learn more about Maureen Lang and her books, please visit her website.

I really enjoyed reading Springtime of the Spirit and Maureen has very kindly offered to give away a copy of her new release.

By commenting on today’s post you can enter the drawing to win an autographed copy of Springtime of the Spirit. The drawing will take place on Friday, March 11 and the winner announced on Sunday, March 13. Please leave an email address [ ] at [ ] dot [ ] where you can be reached.

"Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws."

Narelle Atkins writes contemporary inspirational romance. She resides in Canberra, Australia with her husband and children. To learn more about Narelle, please visit her website.

DEVOTION: More Than Sights and Sounds (Yvonne Ortega)

Yvonne Ortega, a Licensed Professional Counselor and speaker, author of Finding Hope for Your Journey through Breast Cancer,and a contributing author to The Embrace of a Father. She has also published in CBN.com, Spirit-Led Writer, The Secret Place, The Quiet Hour, and The Virginia Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors VAADAC Views. 


Psalm 24:1-2: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” NIV

In June 2010, my father and I went to Germany and Austria for two weeks. For years I dreamed of a visit there. Of course, I saw the Rhine River and visited the palaces and castles. I stood in awe of the sites where my favorite movie, “The Sound of Music,” was filmed. The music and folk dances of Austria filled my heart with joy, especially because I sat up front and could almost touch the folk instruments. The concert of the music of Strauss and Mozart ended too soon.

This is the year of the famous Passion Play at Oberammergau, and we had tickets for it. In spite of wrapping myself in three blankets, I nearly froze at the play. That didn’t stop me from appreciating the music, the scenery, and every aspect of the play.

However, as a writer and speaker, my time there meant more than capturing the sights and sounds of both countries. As I walked the cobble stone streets of Germany and Austria, I prayed. I claimed both countries for the Lord Jesus Christ and asked God for revival there.

When I saw parents with their children, I prayed they would teach their children about the Good News of Jesus Christ. When I saw people of all ages, I asked God to bless them with salvation. As I passed bakery after bakery, I prayed the employees there would know and love the Bread of Life.

I’m home now, but I still see the faces of the Germans and Austrians and can still pray for them.

Prayer: Father, Germany and Austria are yours. So are all who live there. I pray they will know, love, and serve Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Thought for the Day: Which country will you pray for today?

Prayer Focus: People in other lands
Copyright © by Yvonne Ortega July 7, 2010

For information about Yvonne's book, Finding Hope for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, visit her website.