FEATURED AUTHOR: LINDA K. SIENKIEWICZ

ABOUT THE BOOK

What makes us step back to examine the events and people that have shaped our lives? And what happens when what we discover leads to more questions?

Angelica Schirrick wonders how her life could have gotten so far off-track. With two children in tow, she begins a journey of self-discovery that leads her back home to Ohio. It pains her to remember the promise her future once held and the shattering revelations that derailed her life.

Can she face the failures and secrets of her past and move forward? Somehow she must learn to accept the violence of her beginning before she can be open to life, and a second chance at love.

PRAISE FOR IN THE CONTEXT OF LOVE

“Linda K. Sienkiewicz’s powerful and richly detailed debut novel is at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey. In the Context of Love should be required reading for all wayward teenage girls—and their mothers, too.” ~Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed, Mothers, Tell Your Daughters.

“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean

“Absorbing, heartbreaking, compulsively-readable and insightful, Linda Sienkiewicz’s In the Context of Love casts a hypnotic spell. This is storytelling at its best.” ~ Lewis Robinson, author of the critically acclaimed, Officer Friendly: and Other Stories, and Water Dogs

BOOK TRAILOR

INTERVIEW WITH LINDA K. SIENKIEWICZ

Linda, how did you get started writing?

My writing evolved from my love of stories. As Thomas Lynch said, “Writers are readers who have gone karaoke.”

I like that. What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book?

Writing a first draft is hard. It’s cheesy, bland, boring and unfocused. It takes a lot of faith to believe that you’ll be able to massage schlock into a good story.

What’s more important – characters or plot?

Characters and their inner development, which hopefully will lead to plot.

What is your writing style?

Evocative (I hope that doesn’t sound pompous). I like to evoke feelings and emotions through description and action with well-chosen words.

What do you think makes a good story?

A good story needs conflict, either inner or external. There has to be something for the character to resolve to keep the reader turning pages.

What scares you the most?

My own clumsiness is terrifying. I move too fast without looking. I fear I’m going to knock my teeth out some day.

What’s one thing you never leave the house without (besides your phone).

Got to have lip balm.

What do you love about where you live?

Historic Rochester, Michigan is so cool that my friend from California asked “Is this a tourist town?” Eclectic shops, five star restaurants, and festivals like Fire and Ice, Arts and Apples, Rockin’ Rods of Rochester, and the Big Bright Light Show at Christmas. Everything is within a few blocks of our 1914 home.



Name one thing you’re really good at and one thing you’re really bad at.

I’m great at hands-on creative problem-solving but I suck when it comes to organization.

Where is your favorite place to visit?

Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France, where I visited Jim Morrison’s grave. The cemetery is stunningly beautiful and strangely peaceful.

What would you name your autobiography?

Oh, Yes, She Did.


Do you have any hidden talents?

I can wiggle my ears.

Excellent. 
Do you give your characters any of your bad traits?

Of course. Like Angelica, I went through an angry, rebellious stage in my teens, and often stretched the truth to get out of the house. I was a little too fond of my boyfriend, as well (cough, cough). I have an addictive personality like her ex, although I’ve learned to keep things in check.

Do you procrastinate?

I follow the OHIO rule: Only Handle It Once. If I don’t take care of business right away, it’ll just nag at me.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

At a reading, a well-known poet from Cleveland read a poem referring to the Cuyahoga River catching fire. As a former Clevelander, I’d heard that worn-out story so many times that I decided to tease him when I took the stage to read. In front of 100+ people, I said “Thanks, Ray, for your Cleveland poem, but, about the river catching fire: get over it.” It did not sound as funny as I thought it would. I later apologized to Ray. He was a good sport.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write? 

It was difficult to write about my grown son’s suicide, even years after. Tears were rolling down my face, but I felt it was important to share my experience if the story helps another parent.

That's heartbreaking. What’s one of your favorite quotes?

“There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage, which smokes up the inner windows of the soul.” Erica Jong

Describe yourself in five words.

Impulsive. Empathetic. Naïve. Optimistic. Clumsy.



What would you do for a Klondike bar?

Roll over and beg.

What is your favorite movie?

Lars and the Real Girl with Ryan Gosling, a surprisingly tender and emotional story.

Do you have a favorite book?

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. It was the most powerful and intimate story I ever read. Certain passages can still make me weep. In my novel In the Context of Love, I used the same perspective, where the book reads like a letter from Angelica to Joe.


What are you working on now?

The story of Angelica’s first love, the “Hungarian heartthrob, the Gypsy King,” Joe Vadas. I think he deserves his own book, don’t you?

Absolutely!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a published poet and fiction writer, cynical optimist, fan of corgis, tea drinker, and wine lover from Michigan. Her poetry, short stories, and art have been published in more than fifty literary journals, including Prairie Schooner, Clackamas Literary Review, Spoon River, and Permafrost.

She received a poetry chapbook award from Bottom Dog Press, and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Linda lives with her husband in southeast Michigan, where they spoil their grandchildren and then send them back home.

​Connect with Linda:
Website  |  
Blog  |  
Facebook  |  
Twitter  |  Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon  | Barnes and Noble

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Guest Post from Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer was here last week with an interview and excerpt from his new novel, Time to Let Go, a book that deals with the issue of Alzheimer's disease. I'm glad to have him back today with a guest post in which he talks about the real woman who inspired his novel; Alzheimer's disease; the airlines industry (another subject of the book); and memory. As I mentioned in Christoph's previous post, my mother had Vascular dementia, a sister to Alzheimer's, and I can say firsthand that Christoph's observances are spot on. I'm happy to have Christoph here today to shed some light on the issue of dementia and to talk more about his book.

About the book:

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.

Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer's disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Guest Post by Christoph Fischer

“The Real Biddy Korhonen”

I grew up with only a few friends and with two older siblings who were miles ahead of me in their lives. My mother was a busy woman, and so I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s house. She had always wanted to have four children but lost one child at birth. Her other three children were much older and didn’t need her much anymore, so my visits to her house filled a gap for her, in the same way as her attention to me filled a need in me. A match made in heaven. 
Philomena, or Minna, as we called her, remained a source of happiness and encouragement throughout my life. I was always welcome and treated like a precious gift. She smoked, but she outlived both of her sisters (taken in their 40s by cancer). 


In her late 70s,  Minna was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Well, I thought, at least she lives, belittling her misfortune without much awareness.


The next time I saw her, her trademark happiness, however, seemed far away. She was crying bitterly because she had lost her hearing aid, a very expensive one, too. Suddenly her life seemed to revolve around retrieving things. She was spared the physical pain of her sisters, but she suffered severe mental torture.


She fortunately reached a happier stage as medication and care helped reduce the misery in her life, but the attention she needed was a huge toll to the family. Despite her memory loss, she seemed to vaguely recognise me; me, the ‘child’ that lived abroad and who rarely came to visit. She had not lost her warmth and happiness, or maybe she had just regained it after the bad patch I mentioned earlier.


Very recently I saw her again, almost unrecognisable: withdrawn, very unresponsive and almost reduced to basic functioning. Surprisingly, she could still read, and when I came to see her for a second time, her eyes shone as if she did recognise me. I spoke an emotional goodbye to her and her hand was shaky and excited as she listened to my speech. She even responded by talking, using words that didn’t fit exactly but which expressed an emotion similar to what one would expect from a loving aunt in such a situation.


With her loving kindness in mind I created Biddy, the mother in Time to let Go, a selfless, giving woman, who even in her illness manages to show her innate kindness. I know it would be wrong to praise her for a gift that many other patients do not have, through no fault of their own. Losing one’s memory and control of one’s life is a terrible thing that you can only understand when it happens to you.

Time to Let Go is partly meant as a tribute to my brave aunt and to the wonderful people who help make her life dignified and as happy as is possible.

***

Alzheimer's

My book is inspired by personal experiences with sufferers from the disease. Nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who has relatives with Alzheimer's and gradually stories and anecdotes about these patients have entered the social dinner party circuit and become common knowledge.

Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease that cannot be easily understood in its gravity and the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for the victims and their families. There are different stages of the disease as it progresses and patients can move through them at different paces and in varying intensity. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation or a manual of how to deal with the disease. The illness affects every patient differently and there are many stories to tell and many aspects to cover. I hope that I can bring some of those issues to the surface and help to make the gravity of the disease more prominent. I did, however, decide to stay firmly in fiction and family drama territory, and not to write a dramatized documentary on the subject.

I have witnessed several different approaches to handling the disease by both individuals and entire families, and I have learned that the people involved in every case need to work out what is best for them. In my book, a family work out their particular approach, which is right for them. They have different ideas about it and need to battle it out. These clashes fascinated me and I felt they were worth exploring.

Issues of caring at home, mobile care assistance or institutionalising patients are personal and, depending on where in the world you are, every family has very different options or limitations. The ending in my book must be seen in that context: as an individual ‘best’ solution that uniquely fits the Korhonen family.



As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific overview of information and help available, I recommend: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ in the UK, and http://www.alz.org/ in the US. 
There are support groups, helplines, and many other sources available in most countries. These will be able to advise specifically for each  individual situation.
(Note from Amy: I found www.alz.org to be extremely helpful. I highly recommend it.)



I can also recommend Because We Care by Fran Lewis. This fantastic book has a comprehensive appendix with more or less everything you need to know about the disease: its stages, personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.

For consistency, I exclusively used material relating to a medium-advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the patients that inspired the story I have altered all of the events and used both first and secondhand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has actually happened in that way. Apart from some outer parallels between my characters and patients I witnessed, any similarities with real people, alive or dead, are coincidental and unintended.

*****

Airlines

The airline plot is not based on any real incident but is inspired by my own imagination. I used to work for an airline and so naturally, much of Hanna’s life is based on my own experience of 15 years flying. I lived with the awareness that every time a call bell goes off on a plane this could be a matter of life and death. What happens to Hanna in the book has never happened to me or anyone close to me. My flying life was not that extraordinary. Fortunately. 
But every year airline crew are retrained in emergency procedures and aviation medicine, and at least during those intense yearly re-training sessions, your mind cannot help considering the possibilities of such events.


The modern trend of the ‘suing- and compensation-culture’ and the extent of it in some cases worries me a little, which is why some of that concern found its way into the book.


The lifestyle of cabin crew and pilots is often falsely glorified as a glamorous string of free holidays and leisure. A recent crew strike in the UK has brought the profession into disrepute in the media as fat cats and lazy bones. My book aims to shed a bit of light on the realities of flying. I enjoyed the life and would not want to miss the experience, but it is a tough life that demands huge personal sacrifices and flexibility, sleep deprivation on a massive scale, and exposure to aggressive and abusive behaviour by a consumerist clientele. In the global trend of cost cutting, salaries are going down and what used to be a career is at risk of becoming a minimum wage job handed to people who have no experience and who have no incentive to give it their all.


My book is a tribute to my former colleagues in the airline industry, who, in my opinion, are unsung heroes and a bunch of wonderful, hard-working and very caring people.

*****

Memory 



What makes Alzheimer's so terrible? What is it that makes a memory so important to one’s life that people compare its horrors to pain-inflicting diseases like cancer? You are alive and physically well, you eat and function as a human, but as an Alzheimer patient you are bound to be suffering, frustrated, depressed and unhappy.


Of course it is ridiculous to compare the two diseases, but while a cancer patient has still their awareness and choices, the Alzheimer sufferer is losing the core of their being, everything they ever were. 


How can you define yourself if you cannot remember? You have had children, but you won’t recognise them. You won awards, had a successful career, made people happy, but you don’t know any of it. Who are you and what are you doing on the planet? Who are the people around you? As the disease progresses, these things become more intense and you can live in a mental prison of fear and disorientation. Your brain won’t do as you want it to. The fear of losing ‘it’ altogether, for some is impossible to bear. You are about to lose everything that was ever precious to you.


That thought is frightening to all of us. It can happen to all of us. The worst stage seems to be when patients still notice that something is wrong. We all know how annoying it is when we just put something down and don’t remember where. Imagine that happening to you all the time, every day, and you get an idea of how it might feel. The carers see their loved ones slowly drift away into a stranger.

Biddy’s husband Walter in my novel becomes obsessed with preserving memories – his own and others. He begins to write a family chronicle as a constructive outlet for his fears. He is an important character with his musings about preserving knowledge, memories and facts, and he allowed me to bring in thoughts about the disease on a different and more reflective level.

I hope that I have managed to write about more than just the clinical side of the disease. I stuck to the early stages of Alzheimer's in the story because it gave me the best opportunities to work these thoughts into the story. It allows me to look back at Biddy’s past but with still a lot of hope.


About the author:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border. After a few years in Hamburg he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in libraries, museums and for a major airline. He completed the historical Three Nations Trilogy last year, which included: The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn.

Connect with Christoph:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon

Did you know?
In addition to writing, Christoph and I have something else in common: we both own

Labradoodles. In fact, Wilma, one of Christoph's three Labradoodles, just had puppies (go to his Facebook page or his blog for adorable pictures!). This little nugget of trivia really isn't relevant to this blog, but the picture Christoph sent me is just too darn cute not to post. Congratulations, Papa Christoph!

And Christoph asked, and I delivered... here's an up close and personal  picture (left) of my Cooper.

Featured Author: Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer's fourth book, Time To Let Go, is a family drama that deals with the issue of Alzheimer's Disease. My mother, who recently passed away, had dementia, a sister to Alzheimer's, so I'm anxious to read this book. This is Christoph's fourth visit to A Blue Million Books. He's been here previously to talk about his Three Nations Trilogy, specifically, The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn. Check out those features, and then check out the books. But first, read my most recent interview with Christoph and an excerpt from Time To Let Go.

About the book:

Following a traumatic incident at work, Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Interview with Christoph Fischer

Christoph, what inspired you to write Time to Let Go?

I thought I knew a lot about Alzheimer’s and dementia until I finally got to witness the disease first-hand, about five years ago. I have seen some very different approaches as to how to best look after the victims. Caring at home or using professional help? That issue played a prominent part in my life. At the time of writing the book, I was working for an airline, which should explain the other parts of the story.

Who is your target audience?

Fans of family dramas will probably enjoy it the most. People who are unfamiliar with Alzheimer’s or the life of cabin crew may get some ideas of what is involved, whereas those already in the know hopefully might find it re-assuring and enjoyable.

How long did it take you to write this book?

I wrote the first draft within two months, in 2011. It was actually the third book I wrote, but I got carried away with the historical novels, and revisited Time To Let Go only when I needed a break from my war stories. Since November 2013, I have rewritten it about five times before giving it to the editors in March.

What do you hope readers will get from Time to Let Go?

I hope the book provides entertainment for its readers with some informative parts and a little food for thought. Understanding Alzheimer’s and what the sufferers and their families go through is only one aspect of the story. The life of flight attendants is something that many people have misconceptions about. 
Primarily however, the book remains a family drama. We all come to crossroads in our lives and need to make tough decisions. We hold on to things that we need to let go of, only we need to know what they are and when is the right time to do so.

Why did you decide to write Time To Let Go? Have you had any personal experience with Alzheimer’s patients?

Yes, my aunt, who played a very central role in my life, was diagnosed with it several years ago. I see her once or twice a year and have witnessed the progress of the disease and the way she is cared for over the course of time. I have also come in contact with a few other sufferers, although much more superficially.

Did you do much research for this book?

I read several books about the disease when my aunt was diagnosed, long before I thought about writing this book. A lot of the information was also collected from real life – first and second hand. In my life for the airline, I met many people and exchanged stories with them on long sleepless night flights: there was no shortage of material. I took a deliberate decision though, not to make a fictionalized documentary.
 The most difficult parts to research were police procedures and other details that play actually a very minor role in the book.

What was the most difficult scene or chapter to write?


The scene I am including as an excerpt. At a certain stage of Alzheimer’s, patients can get very repetitive, yet obsessive in their interactions. At that point, conversations with them can be very taxing. It was very hard to write that scene at the Korhonen kitchen table. I wanted to show the problem without losing the attention of my readers, I wanted to show Hanna and Walter’s different ways of handling it, while making sure that Biddy still remained a likeable character. 
I have witnessed many such moments in my life but needed to come up with something new and fictitious to protect the dignity and privacy of the people who inspired my story.

What’s your routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I work best very early in the mornings, before the Internet wakes up and keeps me busy. I do need to take the dogs for a walk first though, or Molly will push my hands off the keyboard with her nose, Wilma will drop the ball in front of my feet every two seconds, and Greta will give me her most evil look.

You're a devoted dad! Where do you prefer to do your writing?

Anywhere quiet and secluded really. I have a small office which is away from everything else in the house.

Where’s home for you?

Home is wherever my partner and my dogs are. I have moved so many times in my life that I feel quite ungrounded, to be honest. I missed over twenty-four years in my hometown in Germany. It has changed so much, it feels somewhat strange to me now: the people and the culture (the language even) have evolved, leaving me confused in otherwise familiar surroundings. I spent nine years in London and will always feel home there to some degree, but not entirely. Where we live now, the deep West English countryside, is beautiful and very familiar, too, after 5 years, but there is not much of a community, so we could easily move somewhere else.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"He is not the Messiah, he is a very naughty boy." From Life of Brian, Monty Python.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Currently, I am binge-watching Dexter, a very gory TV series about a mass murderer and some more lighthearted comedy programs, such as Modern Family and Brooklyn 9-9. I love running, walking the dogs and lifting weights to balance the hours in front of the computer; I still have the addiction of reading books, and I enjoy just being completely silly with my friends.

You’re self-publishing this book. How has that process been for you?

The process has been amazing. I was lucky to have met helpful people who gave me good advice very early on in the process. In particular, I attended a self-publishing seminar in London and realized that the publishing industry has changed dramatically over the last decade. You are expected to do a lot of your marketing and social media platform work yourself. What some publishers offer may not be in your best interests; for example giving up the rights and control over your work and how it is promoted. I was lucky to have had the right help, the time to learn and to do it. 
It is a bit of an acquired taste, but now I absolutely enjoy doing it all by myself – of course with the help of wonderful friends I made on the way.

What have been the most effective marketing tools in promoting your books?

Book blogs and Twitter. I found that the second I stop tweeting, my sales drop. Via HootSuite, I have learned to catch the people who like or respond to my tweets, and I have made more helpful contacts that way than I would have dreamed. Many reviews and messages about my books suggest that readers found my books on other blogs, which is encouraging.

I noticed you have 18.5K Twitter followers. I know you’re a great guy with a charming personality, but seriously...how on earth does one get that many followers?

Weeks’ worth of continued hard labor on Twitter and HootSuite. Making your tweets interesting and not just hard sales of your own books but also about other books and issues I believe will keep you the followers that you gained. I interact with other twitter users and re-tweet their interesting tweets, which helps both parties to get attention from the other user’s followers.  Following the followers of similar authors can lead to reciprocation, and having my dogs in the profile picture helps, too. There are automated tools to take some of the workload off you, but since twitter has floated on the stock market and offers to ‘promote your account’ for cash, they are a little restrictive about this.

What are you working on now?

I am currently working on several projects. An epic historical novel set in Scandinavia, mainly Finland, from 1918 - 1950, currently with the working title In Search of a Revolution. It tells the story of two friends on opposing political sides and how their lives change during the various wars being fought in Europe during that era. I also just started writing a psychological thriller, currently called The Healer, which my partner had the idea for last week. I have not been able to stop writing it.

Other books by Christoph Fischer

Excerpt from Time To Let Go

Hanna looked around the room for inspiration, but all she could think of was the tried and trusted: “Is there anything interesting in the newspaper?”

“Yes. Let me have a look,” her mother said, as she folded the newspaper back to the front page and scanned the article in front of her with intense concentration.

“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...” Biddy began, and read the entire article remarkably well, without any errors.

After finishing Biddy asked: “What is the Taliban?”

Walter shot his daughter a warning look and shook his head.

“Oh, they are politicians,” Hanna said vaguely. “A lot of people do not like them.”

“Ah, politics,” she replied. She hesitated for a moment then she went back to the paper.
“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...”

“Is everything ok with you?” Walter asked his daughter whispering so as not to disturb his wife’s reading.

“Oh yes, all good,” she nodded enthusiastically.

Walter turned away from the stove and looked at her intently.

“There’s something you’re not telling me. I’m not stupid!”

“There is nothing going on that you should be concerned about,” Hanna said, shifting in her seat. “You are doing a fantastic job looking after mother. Stick to that as your family duty. I can manage my life. I am 40 years old, for crying out loud.”

“Who is the Taliban?” Biddy interrupted.

“They are politicians,” Hanna repeated.

“What kind of politicians?”

“Not very nice ones,” Hanna replied. “A lot of people don’t like them.”

“Ah,” Biddy nodded, looking at the paper. Then she turned back to Hanna and asked “Who is it that the people don’t like?”

“The Taliban, Biddy.”

“Who is the Taliban?”

“They are politicians.”

“Hanna save yourself the effort, you are hardly going to teach her about world politics now,” Walter said, but Hanna ignored him.

“What kind of politicians?” Biddy asked again.

“You don’t need to worry about them,” Hanna put her comforting hand on her mother’s shoulder. “The government is dealing with them. They have no relevance to you or me.”

“Are you sure?” Biddy was shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

Hanna pressed harder on her mother’s shoulder.

“Quite sure.”

“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...”

“I admire your endurance,” Walter said, blatantly talking over his wife now from the stove. “If I were you I would just steer the conversation to something else. Why should she concern herself with the Taliban?”

“Why should she concern herself with anything these days?” Hanna shot back. “It doesn’t really matter what she engages with. As long as she interacts and asks questions I am glad for her.”

“You can only confuse her by talking about abstract things like that. Keep it simple.”

“I am not going to discourage her if she shows interest in something. I just want her to feel valued, surely that is worth a few repetitive moments.”

“We’ll see how you feel when you have done this for a week, or a month,” Walter said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love your patience. Just don’t burn yourself out.”

About the author:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border. After a few years in Hamburg he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in libraries, museums and for a major airline. He completed the historical Three Nations Trilogy last year, which included: The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn.



Connect with Christoph:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon 

Talking With Author Karen Wyle

Author Karen Wyle is here to talk about her book, Wander Home, a family drama with mystery elements set in an afterlife. Before we begin, take a look at a little more about Karen's book.

About Wander Home:  
Death is what you make it. . . .  Eleanor never wanted to leave the daughter she loved so much. The overpowering urge to wander -- to search, without knowing what she sought -- drove her away. She left little Cassidy in her family's loving care. But Cassidy and the others died in an accident before Eleanor could find her way home.  Cassidy has her grandparents, and her Great-Grandma. And all of them have what may be eternity. Memories can be relived, or shared. The wonders of the world they left behind are only a thought away. The one-way tyranny of aging is no more -- a white-haired and stooped great-grandmother one moment can be a laughing young playmate the next.  But nothing can ease Cassidy's longing for her mother; and Eleanor's parents know better than to hope that Eleanor's life has been a happy one.  Now, they are all reunited, with the chance to understand and heal. But the restlessness that shaped Eleanor's life still haunts her in death. Somehow, she must solve the mystery of her life -- or none of them will be at peace.

Hi, Karen, and welcome to A Blue Million Books. Let's begin with your thoughts on writing. What do you like best about it?
I love having a story or its characters surprise me--for example, when an element I added casually or for one purpose turns out to be important for some quite different reason.

I know exactly what you mean! What’s your least favorite thing about writing?
The hardest part of writing, for me, is fighting the invisibility of self-published work by new authors. But my least favorite aspect might be the constant threat of carpal tunnel syndrome.

I’ve never had trouble with carpal tunnel, but I’m with you on the invisibility thing. How did you come up with the title of your book?

I'm basically bad at naming things, tending toward the dull and literal. My daughters' special sleep-toys were named Special Bear and Puppy. I once had a coffee plant named Coffee. My first novel, Twin-Bred, was named for the human-alien fraternal twins who bore that label in the book. So I had quite a time finding a title for my second novel.

I started with the working title "Reflections," which had some subtle connection to aspects of the book. Various people following my progress, and then some beta readers, found that title boring and thought it didn't (so to speak) reflect the book well enough. I also realized that it had been used quite often, and that one recent book with the almost-identical title Reflection had some thematic overlap with my novel. I came up with a few alternatives that sounded like romance or YA, when my novel was neither. After that, I started reading poetry, hoping that a line would jump out and declare itself a good fit for my book. For a while, I was ready to go with "The Story of Our Days," from a somewhat-appropriate poem by Sir Walter Raleigh – but it reminded me and too many others of the soap opera Days of Our Lives . . . . My next candidate, "Nor Whence Nor Whither," was adapted from a stanza in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam – but not even the people who liked it could remember it. 
Finally, I spent some time thinking about my book and free-associating words and phrases, writing them all down and reading them over and over. My final two possibilities were "The Road Behind" and the title I finally chose, Wander Home. I liked the feel of the latter, and its slightly paradoxical and somewhat optimistic connotations suited me.

I like it too. Good choice! Did you have any say in your cover art?
As a self-published author, I had total control of my cover art, within my technical limitations – which are substantial. I needed to collaborate with designers to realize my ideas.


I wanted faces on this cover, although I know the arguments against using faces. After a couple of attempts to find an artist to draw my characters, I decided to use stock photos that came close to how I imagined them. I encountered some frustrations in this process: in one case, the version of a photo that I saw online and fell in love with was subtly but crucially different when I bought and downloaded the full-size file. The photos I ended up using don't completely match my character descriptions, but they're close enough to content me, and they're wonderfully striking photographs. (The photographer credits are in the front matter of the book.)

Tell us about the artist. 

Two designers in a row had the unenviable task of coping with my many requests for tweaks. (The first one eventually dropped out of the process; the second, Michelle Hartz, who is also an author and our local NaNoWriMo municipal liaison, picked up where the first left off and actually still talks to me.)

What do you think of it?

I'm very pleased with the final result!

Sophie’s choice: Do you have a favorite of your characters?

It'd be a close competition between Eleanor's father Jack and Jack's mother Amanda. Jack is a big strong hunk who's not afraid of strong and somewhat dominating women (including his wife Sarah). He's a thoroughly nice and affectionate fellow, and he's good with his hands. What's not to like? Amanda is (at certain points) a very talented ballet dancer, hailing from a different background than many of the inhabitants of that world. She's both shrewd and wise, with a talent for accepting people as they are. In her latter years, she looks like my maternal grandmother, of whom I have warm memories.

When you start a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be?

Some day I may work out my whole plot and all my characters ahead of time, but so far, I start with a situation, some scenes, and a few key characters, and then let the story lead me.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people? 
Eleanor, the central character in Wander Home, has some resemblance to my late brother. He was a troubled soul who caused a fair amount of heartache to those close to him but was fundamentally a good and decent person and deeply creative. One could say the same of Eleanor – although the reasons for her problems and life choices are unrelated to my brother's lifelong mental health issues.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.
I'm not good at choosing a favorite anything -- but I'm quite fond of the very first scene, and of the very last scene. Other contenders include Eleanor's introduction to the surprising features of the afterlife, and her reunion with Cassidy (the portion that takes place in Grandma/Amanda's kitchen.)

How do you handle criticism of your work?
I remind myself that there are other readers who love my work, sometimes more than it deserves. I acknowledge any areas where I agree, at least in part, with the criticism. If the reader doing the criticizing appears to have misunderstood some aspect of the book, i.e. on what planet it takes place, (this actually happened with Twin-Bred) I examine whether there is some deficiency in the book that made that misunderstanding more likely. Finally, I look for any grammatical or logical flaws in the criticism that allow me to feel superior to the critic. (I'm only human!)


I love that! Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.
Weird: it isn't anywhere. That is, we're not in any municipality -- only in a county.
Nice: we're in the woods, and it's beautiful much of the year.
One fact: Indiana University basketball is coming BACK! (Yes, it's a fact! . . .)

It certainly is. They’re currently number one. And I’d like to point out that the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky are numbers two and three! Go CATS! Okay…if you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go? (Don’t worry about the money. Your publisher is paying. )
I would go to Venice during Carnavale. I visited Venice once for two days, many years ago, and felt as if I'd been there much longer. I found it not only beautiful, but soothing, at a time when I needed some emotional healing.

What are you working on now?
I'm in the middle of editing the sequel to Twin-Bred, tentatively titled Reach (or, more completely, Reach: A Twin-Bred Novel). I also plan to format Wander Home for paperback publication via CreateSpace.

And then there's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)! I’m hoping to finish the VERY rough draft of my latest novel.

I hope you’ll come back and talk about it here when you publish it. Thanks for being here today. 

Thanks, Amy!
                                              

About the author:
Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved every few years 
throughout her childhood and adolescence.  After college in California, law
 school in Massachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San
 Francisco law firm, she moved to Los Angeles, where she met her now-husband,
who hates L.A. They eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of
 Indiana University. 

Wyle's childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist.
 While writing her first novel at age ten, she was mortified to learn that 
some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age nine. 

Wyle has been a voracious and compulsive reader as long as she can remember.
 Do not strand this woman on a plane without reading matter! Wyle was an
 English and American Literature major at Stanford University, which suited
 her, although she has in recent years developed some doubts about whether
 studying literature is, for most people, a good preparation for enjoying it. 
Her most useful preparation for writing novels, besides reading them, has
 been the practice of appellate law -- in other words, writing large
 quantities of persuasive prose, on deadline, year after year. 

Karen's website

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