I’m very keen on my group of Schellberg novels being called a cycle rather than a series. One of the beauties of this is that they can be read in any order. Though the reader may know the outcome of particular plot line, different books in the cycle give them another angle on what has actually happened.
I’m very aware of this as I get into the early chapters of Helga’s Story. Anyone who has read Girl in a Smart Uniform will have met her already. She becomes the girlfriend of the protagonist’s brother in that book. Yesterday I wrote the scene of the squashed cakes from Helga’s point of view of Helga. In Girl in a Smart Uniform we saw that scene through Bear’s eyes.
Helga is also interesting for us in that she shares some characteristics with Renate whom, we meet in The House onSchellberg Street. Both girls only find out in their teens that they are Jewish. Both girls feel more German that Jewish.
I’m finding that each book I write suggests another story. Planned after this one is a story about someone who worked on the edge of the German resistance. I wonder whether it will ever finish. Because there are some other pieces of historical fiction I would like to write.