More about Helga’s Story

a clue to the 1980s' setting of Helga's Story 

I shall be starting work on this very soon. I’ve decided to link Helga’s time in the 1940s to her later life in the 1980s where persecution threatens to happen again.  Except that she is now wise to the way it works and gets round it this time.

I shall make good use of the episodes of her life that appear in Girl in a Smart Uniform. The very first scene, however, will be in the 1980s.

I’ve read a few novels recently that do this sort of exchange between the 1940s and a later time and I find they work very well. So, I’m looking forward to playing with this a bit myself.

I’m at that stage with this story where I sit and make notes, often when I’m in cafés. Next week it will be when I’m on the train to London. I’ll be thinking about the characters, the settings and the shape of the story. Also there is a lot of planning about background material that the reader never sees but it must be there so that I can write my characters with authority.

I’m looking forward to getting to know Helga a lot better.         

More stories coming soon

 

I have two books waiting to go through the editorial process.

Face to Face with the Führer looks at Renate’s mother / Clara’s daughter and a strange encounter she had with Hitler. So strange in fact that a mainstream publisher probably wouldn’t look at it.   

The Class Letter  revisits the round robin letter but looks in more detail at some of the characters we’ve met before: a girl who trains to be an actor, one of the twins who has to help run her father’s business after he dies suddenly, a girl who becomes a farmer and the class teacher.  

In addition there are two further stories being planned. They haven’t got firm titles yet but working titles are:

Helga’s Story This is the story of an “Untertaucher” who survives being hidden right under the noses of the Nazis. However, she meets persecution again in the 1980s. This story takes place partly in the 1940s and partly in the 1980s.

Gabriela Gabriela is the aunt of the girl on The Class Letter who becomes an actor. She is working secretly for the German resistance.

Comments and beta readers are very welcome.  The first two books mentioned are ready to go. The second two aren’t written yet.