Author JT Maicke on Research for Historical Fiction

 

I believe most fans of historical fiction would agree that thorough research and detailed knowledge of the location and period of the story is of utmost importance. This is key to developing a solid and believable plot line as well as interesting and convincing characters who speak and act in a manner appropriate to the culture of that time and place. The Humble Courier takes place in Germany during the interwar period and I put a great deal of effort into researching German history from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. The study of German history, politics, culture, customs, geography, and cuisine has been one of my lifelong passions. As you can imagine, I have amassed a rather sizeable library on all things German. While researching and writing this story, I consulted a score of textbooks on German history and culture during the period 1914 through 1939, including books on the role and activities of the Catholic Church in Germany.

I also am a German speaker who had lived and worked in Germany and Austria for roughly five years of my life. These years allowed me to experience German culture firsthand along with the opportunity to visit over 100 cities, towns, and villages throughout Germany and Austria, including many of the locations depicted in The Humble Courier. In addition, while drafting the story, I had the opportunity to revisit Trier, Germany—location of about one third of the action in the novel—to refamiliarize myself with many of that city’s landmarks, including St. Matthias’ Abbey, the Electoral Palace, the Kastilport, the Episcopal Seminary, and the High Cathedral of St. Peter. This proved invaluable and led me to redraft a few chapters to modify the plot and to improve the richness and accuracy of my descriptions. I realize that overseas travel is expensive, not to mention difficult during this pandemic period, but it is vitally important in helping to create a believable portrayal of the scenes for your story.

Many friends and colleagues have asked me whether I relied on the Internet and whether I believed that this is an appropriate research medium. I did indeed use Internet websites to research several aspects of my story. Why not? There is a wealth of information available on the web. That said, I was careful to substantiate this data by examining multiple sources—both electronic and hard copy—to ensure accuracy.

I had a wonderful time creating the characters in The Humble Courier. Several characters were not part of the original plan for the story but came into being as my writing progressed. Several characters are introduced early in the story only to reappear later to play key roles in the plot line and to move the action forward. A handful of true historical figures also appear in The Humble Courier. The actual fates of several of these individuals, however, differ from their outcomes in the novel. I consulted biographies on these historical figures in an effort to ensure that their words and actions were commensurate with their personalities, positions, and circumstances.

The Humble Courier also contains several paragraphs of historical information designed to provide readers unfamiliar with Germany’s interwar period the necessary background to understand the environment in which the story is taking place. These passages were designed to avoid bogging down the action or converting the novel into a history textbook. I also included an Author’s Note at the end of the novel informs the reader which characters in the story are fictional and which were historic persons. This is a device used by some of my favorite historical fiction novelists, including Bernard Cornwell and Robert Harris.

I believe readers will enjoy The Humble Courier. The story contains a new and compelling plot line, heroes the reader will care about and root for, as well as villains they will love to hate. One doesn’t need to be a historian, or even a fan of historical fiction, to enjoy this tale of a brave and caring Catholic priest, living in an extraordinary and brutal time and place, who decides that passive resistance against evil is simply not enough.

About the book: Father Hartmann Bottger, a Benedictine monk and priest, has confronted bullies his entire life, including pompous clerics, local thugs, and callous and corrupt French Army occupation authorities in the German Rhineland. But Father Hartmann faces his greatest challenges with the rise to power of the Nazi Party and the brutality of the dreaded Gestapo, which threaten the rights of the Church as well as the lives and spiritual beliefs of Father Harti and the members of his small village parish.

The Humble Courier takes place in Germany during the turbulent years from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. It is the story of a German soldier who believes he has been called to the Roman Catholic priesthood and tasked with fighting evil and protecting the weak from the strong. Although Father Hartmann initially employs passive resistance to fulfill what he perceives to be his mission, he comes to the conclusion that more aggressive—even violent—means are necessary to confront the awesome power of the SS and the Gestapo. Employing unlikely allies and extraordinary methods, Father Hartmann sets out to take the fight to his enemies, justifying his actions with St. Augustine’s proverb “Punishment is justice for the unjust.”

About the Author: A self-described Germanophile, J.T. Maicke writes historical novels that take place in Germany or among German American communities in the Midwest. The study of German history, geography, language, culture, and cuisine has been one of his life-long passions. He has spent several years living and working in Central Europe and has explored many of the locations mentioned in his stories. Maicke is a great fan of historical fiction, and his favorite authors include Ken Follett, Bernard Cornwell, George MacDonald Fraser, Umberto Eco, Robert Harris, and Morris West. He was educated by Benedictine monks and nuns in the Midwest and several of his stories have a Roman Catholic theme.

Secret Messages in Historical Fiction

Please welcome Pamela Taylor, author of the historical fiction novel, Pestilence. Pamela Taylor brings her love of history to the art of storytelling in the Second Son Chronicles. An avid reader of historical fact and fiction, she finds the past offers rich sources for character, ambiance, and plot that allow readers to escape into a world totally unlike their daily lives. She shares her home with two Corgis who frequently reminder her that a dog walk is the best way to find inspiration for that next chapter. Pamela very kindly divulges the secrets behind the coding of messages, always important in dangerous and uncertain times. But how many methods could one use?

Secret Messages in Historical Fiction

Secrets are as old as time. As soon as humans realized they could gain an advantage by keeping others from finding out what they knew, they started devising methods to protect their knowledge. And when they needed to share that knowledge with an ally, they began developing techniques to transmit it in secret. Among the earliest were pictographic techniques – either hidden in graphical representation of language or in drawings. Eventually, men developed locks and keys. Secrets could be protected in locked chests or boxes. Over time, the locks and keys grew ever more complex and often included booby traps that could harm anyone trying to break into them. Puzzles could also hide secrets (think complex puzzle boxes that could contain hidden messages or contraband). Karen Brooks’ historical novel The Locksmith’s Daughter includes some nice depictions of these methods.

But boxes and chests and paintings and physical things are bulky. What if one needed to send a message that could be easily concealed by the messenger but not easily read if it was intercepted? Invisible writing – using citrus juice or milk as ink – could hide a message which would be revealed only when the paper was heated. Citrus juice or milk might not always be close at hand, though. That’s where coded messages come into play. Encryption (encoding a message) goes back as far as Julius Caesar, who used simple alphabetic substitution. His trusted allies knew that he always used an offset of three, meaning that the letter “D” would be substituted for “A,” so they could decode the message easily while his enemies, presumably, would remain confused.

In the Second Son Chronicles, Alfred (the protagonist) and his grandfather are both students of Roman history, so they know about Caesar’s method. When, in Second Son, Alfred needs to send an urgent message to his grandfather in secret, he encodes it as Caesar would have:

Vxqgdb qhaw. Dwwdfn hduob pruqlqj dv phq dzdnh. Wzhoyh phq lq jdqj. Udqxoi, vrqv, vla qhz lq jdqj, Urqdq dqg vtxluh. Doiuhg

He knows his grandfather will recognize the garbled message for what it is and will know how to make sense of it. But what other precautions does he take to make sure his message isn’t intercepted. In Pestilence, Alfred faces an entirely different impediment to communicating with his friends while avoiding the prying eyes of his brother’s spies. His solution may surprise you. As the series progresses, Alfred’s lifelong interest in books and learning will lead him to new discoveries about secret communications. He finds a book from the ninth century by an Arabic mathematician that introduces the idea of polyalphabetic substitution. This concept uses a table like this: 

The sender would pick a row and make that the first letter of the message. So if the king wanted to tell all his commanders “Attack at dawn,” he could encode it as:

Mmffmow mf pmiz.

The recipient would know that the first letter represents the row or column to be used for decoding – in this case, “M.”  Throw away the first letter and then decode the rest of the message. The lovely thing about this method is that is doesn’t matter if either the sender or the recipient chooses a row or a column for the encoding and decoding.  The results come out the same either way.  And, just like the Caesar cipher, the sender or recipient can construct the code table when they need it and doesn’t have to carry anything with them that might fall into the wrong hands.

 Follow the series to learn how Alfred puts that new knowledge to use and who he shares it with.

Book Review: I, Claudia

I, Claudia: A Novel of the Ancient World by Lin Wilder is the story of Claudia Procula and Lucius Pontius Pilate. A Tribune at 28, after success in battle in Germania, Lucius Pontius Pilate was appointed Prelate of Judea, to rule over the Jews. They were considered to be a fractious, unruly people that answered only to a god who’d given them very specific rules of behaviour, diet and morality. A troublesome bunch, they fought among themselves in various factions, united only against a common enemy: Rome. Judea was a powder keg of trouble and the least spark could set it off. Not only that, a troublemaker called the Baptizer was turning people’s minds and a prophet called Jesus of Nazareth was drawing crowds with his talk of spiritual matters. This is the background for a wonderful love story between Claudia Procula, intelligent and well-educated daughter of the last of the Oracles of Pythia, and Lucius Pontius Pilate, a Roman soldier and hero.

History has defined the real Lucius Pontius Pilate as being the man who allowed Jesus to be crucified. However, the truth of the matter is that the situation was alarmingly more complex and volatile. Caught between the rock of the Sanhedrin and the hard place of Rome’s authority, Pilate was unable to deal with the festering political and religious issues of the time. Compromise was the only answer. And was that compromise somehow all part of God’s grand plan, even if it entailed the sacrifice of His only son? Such interesting questions are raised here that will intrigue both Christian readers and those of other faiths. Reading this story brings to life a tale well known to many Bible students.

The author cleverly incorporates enough ancient historical detail into the narrative to inform the reader while maintaining the flow of the story. The dramatic unfolding of events is told in short alternating chapters between Claudia and Lucius, and in this way, her maturing and the development of her powers as an oracle, and both of them falling in love with each other come across beautifully. Their emotional love story is set against the backdrop of a tumultuous chain of events which we see as both Claudia and Lucius are affected by the man people called the Messiah. Quotes from Cicero, Seneca, Plato, Socrates and other renowned writers and thinkers of the ancient world add extra food for thought and give insight into the mindset of the characters.

The pace is measured and in line with historical events. The region and the era saw its fair share of political turbulence and I liked how the author conveyed this throughout the narrative. The descriptions also evoke vivid imagery of the past, the setting, and social customs and behavior. This is a well-written and researched story that will satisfy fans of historical fiction as well as romance. The story itself encompasses themes and ideas which go far deeper than a review can adequately portray. Being a fan of ancient and biblical history, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author includes an afterword and a bibliography, both of which I found enlightening and useful.

Book Review: Queen Mary's Daughter

Do you know your history? Do you know your Scottish and English history, to be exact? In a story that starts in 2016, and jumps back in time to 1567, the reader is taken along with Mary Elizabeth Stuart as she discovers her heritage, meets her true mother, has to make decisions that could change the course of history… and finds out why her grandmother insisted she make a trip from Toronto to Kinross, a tiny little Scottish village, to understand her role in life, both here and back in the sixteenth century. Open Queen Mary’s Daughter by author Emily-Jane Hills Orford for more!

What a story! I absolutely loved it from start to finish. For fans of historical novels, historical romances, modern romances, time travel, alternative history, and a bit of mystery thrown in, the book has a lot to offer a variety of readers. Time travel has never really been explained (except by writers) and is not an exact science (as scientists would be the first to declare), but in this story that spans centuries, the author’s concepts work very well, and readers are never in the dark. The ramifications of time travel, the effects of the past on the future and vice versa are also explored. The characters are well defined, and their actions and ambitions make sense. For anyone who takes an interest in the Brexit question, and Scotland’s determination to break away from Britain, regain independence, and remain in the EU, this is a theme that has ramifications stretching back into history. I enjoyed how a modern theme had its roots in the past. Very cleverly done by the author.

I have Scottish heritage and I really appreciated the descriptions of the settings, and I’d love to visit Mrs D’s B&B as well. Mary Elizabeth is a likable heroine with a huge burden placed upon her shoulders. Historical facts are woven into the narrative very naturally, informing the reader without overwhelming them. History buffs will love the detail. Bigger themes than just love and romance, time travel, and historical references abound; what if the fate of your society, your country, rests upon you giving up your own desires and decisions to fulfil a role thrust upon you?

I enjoyed this story so much. The author has the ability to make the reader time travel with the characters. In fact, I found myself asking the same questions that Mary Elizbeth asked. “So many questions; so few answers.” Sometimes British history can be confusing, with similar names, kings, queens, marriages, alliances, treachery and more. With extensive and meticulous in-depth research and consummate skill, author Emily-Jane Hills Orford makes this all read very easily, and one is never in any doubt as to who is who in the grand picture. There is a wonderful twist at the end of the tale that should delight fans of conspiracy theories as well. A most enjoyable book!