I'm hosting another guest blogger this week, and one I'm most thrilled to have join us. I had the pleasure of meeting Griff Hosker when we both attended a session at the Historical Novel Society conference, last summer. I will let Griff's bio tell you everything you want to know about him, but suffice it to say that this gentleman has clearly made his mark on historical fiction adventures. So, let's not waste another moment, but find out more about his latest project, who his main character is, and some details about how he likes to write! Oh, and since I'm a Griff Hosker fan myself, the last photo at the bottom of the blog is us last summer at the HNS conference!

‘Crécy: The age of the archer’ is the first book in a brand new series about Sir John Hawkwood who was a fourteenth century mercenary. I found his name whilst researching something else and that set me, like a hunting dog, on his trail. He sounded like a perfect vehicle for my work as he had humble beginnings and yet became one of the richest and most successful men of his generation.
This is the blurb from the book.

"In 1335 the Black Death was just thirteen years away from England but there were other threats and dangers. Young John Hawkwood is forced to leave his home and seek a life in London. There he learns how to survive and, more importantly, how to fight. Leaving his life as an apprentice tailor he follows the army and King Edward to fight the Scots. He has a skill; he can not only use a bow, but he can use a sword and his mind. It is the start of a life of war for the young man.
He fights first in the Low Countries at the battle of Cadzand before heading to Gascony to fight under the charismatic leader and cousin of the King, Lord Henry Plantagenet. As he fights so his skills improve and the novel follows his progress until he fights in the two great battles of 1346, Crécy and Neville’s Cross.

This is just the start for John Hawkwood who will become, in the fullness of time, one of the greatest condottiere the world has ever seen, a man who, at the Battle of Castagnaro in 1387, shows the world that he was a great leader, too."​

I was lucky in that his early life was not well documented and that gave me the freedom a writer craves. The first mention of his name comes from the Battle of Crécy and I began there. I knew that he was knighted after Poitiers which meant by then he was a man at arms and so this first book would allow me to write about his life as an archer. I also liked the fact that he began in England. That made the research so much easier. I am lucky in that I live close to land which has remained untouched, in terms of development, since medieval times. When I walk my daughter’s dog each morning, we walk across medieval plough marks! There is also an ancient greenway. All of this means that I can walk a land which my characters would have walked.

I also like to have weapons and armour so that when I write about a battle, I can be realistic. One of my readers, Rich Sankovich, allowed me to use his crossbow because I did not write about it accurately enough! I now understand that weapon. I have a helmet, coif and sword- one day I will get the mail hauberk too! This allows me to use the weapons my characters use. I even bought a bill hook which was a medieval tool used by archers so that I could sharpen a stake as they did at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt.

I always write in the first person. I feel comfortable with that style and I understand its restrictions. I like to get inside the minds of my heroes. The drawback is that you can only see events through their eyes but it does allow many opportunities for surprise. I am, at heart, a storyteller. I taught English for 40 years and I know that my work is not great literature. I want my reader to be reluctant to put the book down as they want to know what happens next. In fact, many of my readers have told me that they read my 90000 word books in a day or two so compelling are the stories. I like those reviews because they tell me that I have been successful.

John Hawkwood is a character who has a long journey ahead of him. He marries but he also has mistresses. He fights for and against popes. This will be a journey for me too. As with all of my books, I know where I will get to, at the end, but not how I will get there!
​
Here is a photograph of some the armour I use to help me with the writing of the books.

From the bottom up:
Norman Helmet
The Earl Marshal Sword (circa 1180)
Coif, worn under the helmet
Blackthorn staff

I included the last one as it demonstrates how I write. My hero (in War in the West- Border Knight series) is stranded in Wales and he cuts down a blackthorn branch with his sword. I have blackthorns and I made certain that I could do it. Later in the book he has to defend himself with the blackthorn staff and an enemy slices off the end. I replicated that- hence the short nature of the stick.
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I also use metal figurines to aid my combats. It is great fun but helps me give that edge of realism.

:
Griff Hosker's Bio

I was, for forty years, a teacher in the north east of England. I always loved writing and would regularly send my efforts, typed on a portable typewriter, to publishers who, inevitably, rejected them. My early success was in the musicals I wrote for the young people I taught. I suppose my most successful venture was when the Millennium Dome opened in 2000 and a musical I co-wrote was showcased there for one performance.

It took retirement to spur me to try once more to be published. I wrote The Sword of Cartimandua in 2012 and this time used the Arts Council to get it published in paperback. They had a programme called Feedareed. The book did not sell well but I had my work in print. I then stumbled upon Kindle and that changed my life. When I uploaded it, I began to sell more and more. I wrote, very quickly, the next six nooks in the series and then moved on to a series about the Battle of Hastings. It took my son to help me make the leap from having a small and select audience to the wider one I now enjoy. He found a design company and they re-did all of my covers. That was in 2014 and my monthly sales went from 1700 to 4000+ and kept rising until they hit the 20000 mark.

I now have one series, Lord Edward’s Archer, with Lume, a traditional publisher and W F Howes publishes my audio books but the majority of my work is still self-published. My readers are mainly in the English-speaking world, but I sell well in Germany and Europe.
​
I write 5000 words a day and I have a strict writing regime which starts at 6.30 a.m. I know that I am a lucky man and, at 70 years of age, I am living the dream but I have 40 years to make up for!

Amazon Book link:
Crécy: The age of the Archer

Before beginning this week's blog, I wanted to comment that it's been such a privilege to meet and get to know authors both at conferences, signings, and online. To have such fantastic writers as guests on my blog is humbling and a true delight. I also love writing blogs myself, since it's a way to comment more in-depth about material pertaining to my books. Please... should anyone have a topic they'd like to see covered, don't hesitate to ask! And now, let's take a look at the statues and busts!

This week, we're going to meet some of my book's characters face to face, as we observe some common things to look for in Roman statury and busts.

In mosaics and wall-paintings, even common people could often afford such decor within their domestic or business space. However, when it comes to portraiture, it was usually just the rich and famous who were favored with such art. Eve d'Ambra, in her excellent book, Roman Art (1998) stated, "Commissioning and erecting a portrait was a serious political act. To be awarded a portrait erected in the city center at public expense would mark the culmination of a career studded with civic honors and achievements carried out under intense scrutiny and in keen competition."

That being said, there was also a market for private portraiture, and wealthy Romans often made use of this avenue to grace their homes and leave likenesses of themselves for posterity.

Since my story begins toward the end of the Roman Republic, I want to start by covering Roman Republican likenesses. The thing to look for in Republican Roman statues and busts is VERISM--realism. Are there wrinkles, warts, blemishes? Does it look as though it really is a real-life portrait? The picture above right is Pompeius Magnus, Caesar's great rival who was defeated at Pharsalus. Note that he looks like just another guy off of the streets. His hair is tousled, and there are lines of middle age around his mouth and on his forehead. Here's a man who was one of Rome's most celebrated generals and Republican portraiture did what it always purported to do. It humbled him, making him ordinary.

​

​Probably the first statue one sees at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome is this phenomenal Athena from the late Republican Period (60's-40's BC). And another superb thing about this cult statue is that the paint job SURVIVED! By some miracle we at least get a glimmer of what a painted statue may have looked like two-thousand years ago. And the detail is stunning. The goddess's eyes are piercing and she's crowned with dark hair, as many Greek maidens undoubtedly were.

More and more, as I visit ancient sites and have opportunity to view ancient art, such as this, I see scholars seeking to determine what colors various statuary once were, so that recreations can be made. When few traces of paint are visible, this is done with the use of lasers. Amazingly enough, some statuary still has traces of paint, or like this incredible Athena, the paint has miraculously survived.

Another of the most famous statues of Roman art has to be the Prima Porta Augustus. Prima Porta is located just outside of Rome, and Livia, Augustus's wife owned a lovely villa there. This statue of her husband (Octavian Caesar, for my readers) was discovered inside. ​It now abides within the overcrowded and oft-times difficult to access Vatican Museum, but is worth seeing. Some years ago, it was scrutinized by scholars, seeking to discover what its paint-job might have looked like. This recreation on the right is what they came up with. It also led me to changing Octavian's hair color in my story from blond to reddish-blond.

It makes me wonder whether generals always painted their breastplates. For those of you who enjoy scholarly reading and hunger for more about the Roman world--specifically the Augustan period, be sure to pick up Paul Zanker's The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. It's  loaded with the meanings and symbolism that Octavian (the original spin-doctor) used in his propaganda.

Sculpture during Augustus's reign changed dramatically. It really doesn't matter whether you visit museums in Egypt, Rome, Greece, Israel, or Croatia. Throughout the entire Roman world, there was one likeness of Octavian Augustus which never aged throughout his reign. My husband, who openly admits he's no expert on Roman art can now walk inside a museum anywhere in the world and point out a bust of Augustus! There's one treasue inside the Capitoline Museum that I personally love to view whenever I visit. It's a bust of Octavian as a very young man. In fact, he's sporting a beard, so it may have been sculpted right after Caesar's assassination. It's the only likeness of him I've seen that is veristic, prior to his spin on sculpture.

Augustus started a trend in Roman art. From about 30 BC onward, verism took a backseat to the youthful, Greek-like portraiture of the Julio-Claudian Age and lasted well into the mid-1st century AD. No more wrinkles, warts, and blemishes. From then on, it was viral handsome men, feminine, lovely women... and they were never portrayed as "aged".

​

​In the mid to later Imperial Period, styles of statuary seemed to revert back a ways to the late Republic. Again, verism became important, but one of the tricks to determing a statues age (unless it was an older piece that was  reworked, of course), is by looking at the eyes. In this bust of Caracalla, note that his pupils have been carefully drilled. That's usually a sign that a bust or statue is of a later date. 

Caracalla is another Emperor of Rome who's fairly easy to recognize. When I studied Roman Art while working on my Masters, I was told to "look for the X on his face!" That was the trademark of Caracalla.  And if you're still looking it's right in the middle, where his eyes and nose join. One can easily tell what type of guy he was. He's the Emperor who has successfully made it through history as perpetually pissed-off!

For a final sample, I wanted to share another personal favorite. Here is Commodus, the Emperor so delightfully played by Joachim Phoenix in Gladiator. Though he did sometimes fancy himself as a gladiator. When you're fairly insane and you're the Emperor of the world's most powerful nation, you can pretty much pretend to be whatever you want.

Sometime during his 2nd century AD rule, Commodus had himself memorialized as Hercules. There's plenty of outstanding symbolism here, showing who he was imitating. Atop his head is the lion skin, with it's paws on his chest. And of course, he's carrying a club. 

These later works from the Imperial court often show the artist's unbelieveable talent, as is the case here. Housed inside another favorite museum of mine--the Capitoline, visitors are able to walk right up into Commodus's face and get pretty much as close as one dares. It's the Bernini-like chiseling and depth perception in this bust that astounds me. Every curl has been articulately carved and the detail is mind-blowing. And it's so polished and shimmery. In such pristine condition, it's hard to imagine that it's as old as it is.

So, I'll stop here, hoping you've enjoyed this little tour of Roman statues and busts. Do let me know if you have ideas or subjects you'd like me to touch upon in the near future.

Next week, we'll get to hear from one of the world's most PROLIFIC authors. Griff Hosker is a master of writing historic adventures and has touched upon many periods. We'll be introduced to his most recent project, which I'm sure some of you will want to pick up.

Have a great week and READ ON!

Writing about my own ancestors has been a remarkable journey. Holding their documents, sitting with their portraits, and reading their words of hope, dreams and sorrows is an emotional process. And, knowing what lies ahead as they share their thoughts can be very harrowing. But, as a writer, realizing that these people lived and loved much the same way as we do today can also give me great joy as I tell their stories. It is an honor to bring them alive for today’s readers and remind us that we all have the same dreams and desires, even with centuries between us.
​
The Lydiard Chronicles, my historical fiction series, is named after Lydiard Park, the St.John ancestral home in Wiltshire. Full of portraits and memorials of my family, Lydiard House and adjacent Church of St. Mary's is a writer’s dream. Elizabethan monuments, Jacobean portraits and medieval wall paintings all provide a rich tapestry of images, calling across the ages for their stories to be told.

The characters in The Lydiard Chronicles are all real people, and their stories are drawn from a memoir from the 1660s. By fate—or maybe design—I came upon Memoirs of the Life of John Hutchinson many years ago in Nottingham Castle. Written by Lucy St.John’s daughter, Lucy Hutchinson, her vivid story of her mother brought my ancestors to life, and I was determined to honor the truth of her account of my seventeenth century family. As I researched more, I made the decision to only use contemporary sources to inform my fiction, and so as I read letters, court pleadings, dispatches, their voices started to come alive. And, as I immersed myself more in their world, they became part of my life. Because they were real people, and connected to me, I felt I had an obligation to interpret their lives authentically, while at the same time describing human behaviors that transcend time and place.

The first in the series, The Lady of the Tower, takes place in the early 1600s. The Tower of London is infamous for the famous prisoners it housed, the horrific torture that took place within its walls, and the tragic executions witnessed on Tower Green. But along with the kept must be the keepers, and the story of my ancestress, Lucy St.John, is that of The Lady of the Tower – the wife of the Lieutenant of the Tower.

Lucy first moved to the Tower in 1617, with a two year old baby boy and no warning that her life was about to change so drastically. She married Sir Allen Apsley after a heartbreaking betrayal by one of King James’ courtiers. Lucy hoped for a quiet life, marrying an older man and bringing up his two children. All that changed when her sister Barbara married Edward Villiers, brother to the Duke of Buckingham. The Duke, George Villiers, was the favorite of King James and his son, Prince Charles, and with that came the power to bestow all kinds of riches on his friends and relatives. As a result, Lucy’s husband was granted the position of Lieutenant of the Tower and moved the family into The Queen’s House, his official residence.

Once within the Tower, Lucy became a witness to history. She took care of Sir Walter Raleigh in his later years, encouraging his alchemy experiments by lending him her henhouse as a workshop. And, in an ironic twist of fate, Lucy became the guard of Frances Howard, Suffolk’s sister, when she was imprisoned in the Tower after instigating the murder of Thomas Overbury.

Along with the duties of organizing food for the prisoners, Lucy was also responsible for their physical wellbeing, as best she could.  According to her daughter’s diary, “to all prisoners that come into the Tower she was as a mother. All the time she dwelt in the Tower, if any were sick she made them broths and restoratives with her own hands, visited and took care of them, and provide them all necessaries; if any were afflicted she comforted them, so that they felt not the inconvenience of a prison who were in that place.”

I was also able to include many medicinal recipes within the novel that come from Lady Johanna St.John's Recipe Book (above), part of the Wellcome Foundation collection in London. Lady Johanna (left) was Lucy's niece, and since so many recipes were handed down and exchanged within the family, I felt it no stretch of the imagination to think some may have been Lucy's.

Once I had completed The Lady of the Tower, I realized that the story of Lucy and her family could not end. I set about writing the story of her children, Allen and Luce. Again, back to the Memoirs, Lucy Hutchinson’s extraordinary first-hand account of the English Civil War. The second book of The Lydiard Chronicles is named “By Love Divided” and follows the family into war. Lucy St.John embraced the Puritan cause and yet her son chose to fight for King Charles.

Writing about conflict and war from the perspective of those whose lives are gradually torn apart was harrowing, for I could see what lay ahead for them. It was important to me that although as a fiction writer I could foreshadow conflict and sorrow, I should also convey the day-to-day emotions of love, life and joy that permeated their lives. Luce’s accounts of dancing, music and happiness, falling in love and bearing healthy children were as important to me as the battle of Edgehill and the tragedy of a hero’s death. Based on these contemporary diaries, letters and documents, By Love Divided tells of the heart-wrenching choices my family faced, and how they remained loyal to each other through the conflict of civil war.
​
In the third book of the series, Written in Their Stars, we travel with three cousins – Lucy Hutchinson, Frances Apsley and a new character, Nan Wilmot, wife of the Earl of Rochester. Through the challenges of Cromwell’s Commonwealth to the Restoration of King Charles, these women fight for their own future — and England’s. As courtiers, rebels and spies, they emerge from the shadows of history to reunite the family and look to the future.

                                                                                       The six St. John sisters in 1615.

​The St.John family motto is Data Fata Secutus, which translates approximately to “Following his allotted fate”. When I’m researching, writing or simply going through my days and a thought enters my head, I feel it might have been my destiny to share these voices of the past.
The Lydiard Chronicles are on sale worldwide through Amazon, Kobo and other retailers.

​Author Bio
​
Elizabeth St.John was brought up in England, lives in California, and spends most of her time in the 17th Century. To inspire her writing, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Nottingham Castle, Lydiard Park, and Castle Fonmon to the Tower of London. Although the family sold a few castles and country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them - in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their imprint. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story...

www.elizabethjstjohn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJStJohn/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElizStJohn
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjstjohn/
Elizabeth St. John's books: https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

In my last blog, we looked pretty deeply at the four different styles of Roman wall-painting, as differentiated within discoveries  near Mt. Vesuvius. It never ceases to amaze me how these pieces survived over twenty or more centuries. 

The same can be said of mosaics, though due to their composition, vivid colors and delightful artistry are preserved even more so than wall-paintings. Mosaics are my favorite medium of Roman art. The intricacy and bold designs that artists from so long ago employed, boggle my mind and ever make me yearn for more. 

Roman families used mosaic art in both decorative and utilitarian ways. At right, is a lovely mosaic featuring a typical layout. Black and white geometric designs surround a vibrant polychrome (multi-colored) center, depicting fruit, fish, and fowl. In many Roman households, this particular type of theme would be popular in triclinia--dining spaces--since they suggested food sources/meals. Such a highly detailed piece likely came from an opulent household. 
​
Early mosaics in Greece could be highly detailed too, but the stonework was composed of actual pebbles. In Roman mosaics differed, for a tessura (tiny stone/glass piece) was cut into a cube like a tiny cobblestone. The phenomenal hunting scene below is from Pella. Look carefully at the bottom of the mosaic, and you'll see that the stonework was not cut to size, but instead are natural pebbles. Since this sample comes from the Macedonian kingdom of Pella and dates from around 300 BC, some scholars believe it depicts Alexander the Great (at right) and Hephaestion, along with Alexander's dog, Peritas. Regardless, it's a stunning example of a Hellenistic mosaic.

Now let's return to Roman mosaics and take a careful look at real tessurae, cut specifically for the intended design. Below is a utilitarian mosaic. It's from Pompeii and was located at the front entry of a domus, sending an important message: CAVE CANEM--"Beward of the dog"! This mosaic is a personal favorite of mine, since I'm a dog-lover, and what's incredible, is that we STILL post warnings like this in yards. This sample was more permanant,of course--built into the floor-space of a home's entry. Yet, one wonders whether this was what the household dog really looked like? And my dog today wears a similar red color to show off his sleek, black coat.

​Earlier mosaics were simpler and usually geometrical. One excellent example (below, right) is on the Palatine--inside the House of the Griffins. Note that the artist used a sort of early tromp l'oeil, which truly creates an illusion of geometrical, stair-step depth among the cubes. No lush scenes of maenads chasing Bacchus here, but instead a sombre, refined sense of order, which certainly rings true for the height of the Republican Period, the era from which this house  comes. Though the surrounding tiles are all black/white, the central design still introduces an additional color, staying true to the Roman love for varied hues.

​​The simplicity of the outer design speaks for itself. In fact, the central geometric piece draws the eye in, leaving the simple and sometimes haphazard tile order on the outside as trivial... almost unimportant.

A famous mosaic (below left) is that of a human skull, resting precariously atop wings and a wheel. To either side are garments. One is colorful and rich, while the other is simply a bedraggled tunic made of rags. 

Used in the HBO series ROME as part of the intro sequence, this mosaic represents the fragility of fortune and the ever changing balance of wealth versus poverty... success vs. failure.

The miniscule tessurae indicate phenomenal artistry, and when one backs away from the piece, it almost looks like a painting.

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As time passed, artistic styles changed, and usually that change was subtle, as in the wall-paintings. However, with mosaics, it's a little more obvious. Suddenly, the use of fine, tiny tessurae, used previously, were discontinued in favor of larger pieces of stonework, more colorful marble pieces, instead of tessurae, and themes that varied from mythological to (later in the Empire) Christian themes--especially in basilicas and Churches.

​One example of this form from the Late Empire is pictured below, from Ostia Antica. Note how the inlaid stonework is larger and more expansive in layout. These geometric designs are so encompassing, they no longer include outer surroundings in black/white. They speak for themselves.​

Just like wall-paintings discussed two weeks ago, Roman mosaics were bursts of color. They were refined, elegant, sometimes playful or used for specific purposes to send a message. Much of my information on mosaics, is referenced from Roman Art by Eve D'Ambra. All of the photos, except the one from Pella are my own.

​Read ON, everybody!

A Desperate Situation

When young reporter Nellie Bly approached the managing editor of the New York World for a job in September of 1887, she was desperate. She’d been in the city four months and her cash had dwindled to almost nothing. At the time, she was working as a correspondent for a paper in Pittsburgh where she got her start, but the pay wasn’t regular. She longed to get hired on in the capital of newspaperdom, where the best of the best worked for the leading dailies: The Times, The Tribune, The Sun, The Herald, and the largest of them all, Joseph Pulitzer’s World. So clustered were they along Park Row in Manhattan, the area was dubbed Newspaper Row.
 
The problem was, she was a woman. The World already had two on staff and wasn’t looking to add a third.
 
So, what could a young woman reporter do when she was running out of time and money?  How could she convince the editor, John Cockerill, to change his mind?


​A Bold Plan
Bly stepped out of her cab-for-hire on a crisp September morning and paid the driver with money she’d borrowed from her landlady. Minutes later she was ushered into Cockerill’s office. She’d met him once before on a story she’d written previously for the Pittsburg Dispatch. Even so, he must’ve been surprised to see her. 
 
She wasted no time in presenting him with a list of story ideas. But they weren’t the garden variety topics women journalists—few that there were at the time—tended to pursue (fashion, theater news, gossip).
 
Bly’s ideas were much bolder. They had to be in order to get Cockerill’s attention. But Bly was also a spunky young woman who abhorred the ladies’ pages. She found them dull to read and boring to write. No, the ideas she handed Cockerill required her to take on daring aliases for the purpose of getting a story that would draw attention to her and the particular brand of stunt journalism she would become known for: provocative stories that exposed the plots of the greedy and dishonest, or aroused pity in the misunderstood or marginalized.
 
Cockerill didn’t turn her down, nor did he offer her a job. Instead, he told her to come back in two weeks for his answer. He paid her twenty-five dollars and told her to go nowhere else with her list.
 
His stall tactic was most likely to seek Pulitzer’s blessing. Cockerill was Pulitzer’s right-hand man and carried more than a little power, but Pulitzer was a fanatical micro-manager involved in the minute details of his paper.

The Assignment
When Bly returned on September 22, Cockerill had his answer. He wanted Bly to fake her way into an insane asylum for women on Blackwell’s Island, a slim strip of land in the East River that was home to the city’s misfits and malcontents. She was to remain for ten days and report upon what she found when she returned.
 
For a woman who was just twenty-three, Bly had already shown a remarkable predisposition to grasp whatever opportunities that came her way and think about the risks later. Cockerill, for his part, was just the sort to dish them out without compunction. He was also, of course, testing Bly. Did she really have the nerve to execute such a bold feat?
 
He left all the planning to her. She’d have to figure out on her own how to convince nurses and doctors (and a judge and a few police officers as it turned out) that she was mad. All Cockerill promised was that, in ten days’ time, a representative of the paper would come get her out.
 
Bly accepted.

​A Place of Despair
Why the Blackwell’s Insane Asylum? For one, the island itself was just the sort of vulgar backdrop that would pique the interest of the World’s legion of readers. The island had long been known as a place of misery. A ferry ride over was often a one-way trip to hell.
 
It was home to a penitentiary for the criminal, a charity hospital for the poor and infirmed, an almshouse for the poor and disabled, and a workhouse for minor criminals, vagrants and the able-bodied poor. The women’s asylum housed the lunatic poor, where 1600 female inmates lived in a space originally built to accommodate just 850.
 
The asylum had a long history of mismanagement but in the summer of 1887, just months before Bly showed up in Cockerill’s office, some interesting tidbits had surfaced in the papers. The Times reported that two young nurses had filed charges against doctors that brought the doctors’ characters into question (a veiled Victorian reference, no doubt, of unwanted, ungentlemanly behavior toward them). Both the nurses and the two doctors were later suspended.
 
Additionally, the World alleged in two editorials that on Ward’s Island (which housed the city’s lunatic males), gross mistreatment of the inmates had taken place. Two attendants at the Ward’s asylum were indicted for manslaughter for the killing of an inmate.
 
These stories, and others, triggered the papers to call for an overhaul of the men’s and women’s facilities. However, further investigation by the press was thwarted. Those who ruled at Blackwell’s and Ward’s apparently wanted to keep their goings-on under wraps.
 
Bly’s assignment couldn’t have come at a better time.

More About Tonya Mitchell

Tonya Mitchell is the author of A Feigned Madness, the tale of pioneering journalist Nellie Bly and her ten-day undercover ordeal in an insane asylum in 1887. It will be published by Cynren Press in October 2020 but is available for pre-order here. Tonya’s short fiction has appeared in The Copperfield Review, Words Undone, and The Front Porch Review, as well as various anthologies, including Furtive Dalliance, Welcome to Elsewhere, and Glimmer and Other Stories and Poems for which she won the Cinnamon Press award in fiction. She is a self-professed Anglophile and is obsessed with all things relating to the Victorian period. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society North America and resides in Cincinnati, OH with her husband and three wildly energetic sons.


Find her on social media:
Website: https://www.tonyamitchellauthor.com/
Twitter @tremmitchell
Instragram @tmitchell.2012
Facebook @TonyaMitchellAuthor
Email: tremitchell.2012@gmail.com

To pre-order A Feigned Madness, click on the bookcover icon below:

Before I get to this week's blog, don't forget to subscribe to my website for my June 7th Summer Giveaway!!! One reader will win BOTH of my books. If you're already a subscriber, then you are already entered!

Though my next few blogs will be interspersed with a few guest-bloggers, I'm going to spend some time discussing something I adore: ROMAN ART. We're going to explore Rome in technicolor--this week, focusing on an especially prolific form of Roman art: wall-paintings. 

Contrary to the Holly-Rome perception one gets from 1950's and 1960's film grandeur, Rome was not all white marble and starched togas. Judging from the many examples of Roman art that I've encountered, the Romans were passionate about vivid hues. Sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and others in different locations previously encompassed by the Roman Empire have proven that domestic life was colorful and full of lively scenes, themes varying from theatrical to mythological and even sexual in nature. And that being said, I'll add that it wasn't just walls that were colorfully painted or decorated, but also columns and statuary. But more on that in another post!

Classicists have categorized Roman wall-paintings into four separate styles. The first and oldest is the First Style (also known as the Masonry Style). My top right photo, which I shared several weeks ago in discussion of the House of the Griffins, is typical of the First Style, which was prominant from about 200-80BC. It's easy to see how it was given its second name--the Masonry Style--since it was composed of faux marbling and stonework. Not as many examples of First Style have survived, so the House of the Griffins is a true treasure to those who appreciate early Roman art.

Needless to say, the horrific Vesuvian eruption in 79 AD was a tragedy for the Pompeiians and Herculaneans, but an utter GODSEND for Classicists and archaeologists in our time. Literally, a time-capsule was left to us to learn more about Roman culture.

Amid the ruins are some truly excellent examples of more styles of wall-paintings. The one at left is a perfect illustration of the Second Style, which was popular from about 80-20 BC and incorporated the larger expanses of a wall, giving it an "open" feel. Also Second Style paintings are loaded with architectural elements. This particular painting from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, shows fluted columns and what appears to be a louvered door. Ironically,  an actual plaster cast of an original louvered door was preserved in this very villa!

Second Style paintings often attempted to create illusions. If one looks at the figures in the famous Dionysian wall-painting at Villa of the Mysteries, one can visualize them as escaping from their space, yet also remaining a part of the overall "architectural feel". One other interesting thing is the use of First Style design at the top and far bottom of the fresco.(More marbling!)

If you ever visit Pompeii, the Villa of the Mysteries is not to be missed. And the wonderful thing is that it remains in a more secluded portion of the site, away from cruise ship crowds! 

This fresco was recently restored and the colors simply dazzle. During my visits, I've found it difficult to believe that it's over two-thousand years old.  It's truly a masterpiece of Roman art and speculation remains on whether it's meant to portray Dionysian rites or possibly a wedding. I'll add that this would have been the type of art Marcus Antonius would have been used to seeing when at home in Rome, so naturally, I'm a bit partial to the Second Style! :) 

Third Style wall paintings, popular from around 20 BC to 40 AD, appeared as though pictures were "hanging" from the walls, while architectural elements were often still emphasized. The sample at right, from Herculaneum, is heavier in the "picture-hanging" than the architectural.






The photo below is Third Style in all of its glory--again from Herculaneum. Walls in Third Style sometimes have stands with figures poised atop them, as in this sample. I've noticed that of all the colors used in Roman wall-paintings, the rich, dark red color, which was eventually entitled "Pompeian Red" was often favored as a background. 

​

Picture an impressionable teenager reading Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott for a book report assignment. Thoughts of Hollywood blockbusters such as Prince Valiant and Knights of the Round Table resurface, romanticizing a violent era where heroic knights save the day amid insurmountable odds.
 
Visit the library, choosing biographies of historical figures whose feats of daring have transcended time. El Cid, the Spanish knight, combatting the Moors. King Richard I, the Lionheart, joining the Third Crusade. Edward, the Black Prince, victorious at Poitiers. William Wallace, fighting to free Scotland of the English tyrant, King Edward I.
 
There are the legends, Arturius and Lancelot, and Robin Hood, larger than life icons, in all probability, a composite of actual warriors whose daring feats were memorialized.
 
We must not forget the fictional portrayal of knightly virtue. Prince Valiant, characterized on the big screen, was also a featured comic strip that was distributed weekly to American newspapers.
 
That was then, and this is now.
 
Recently, the TV series, Knightfall, sheds light on the deeds of the Knights Templar, the most recognizable military Order established during the Crusades. On the big screen, Ironclad, Arn: The Knight Templar, and the Kingdom of Heaven re-established interest in the Crusades. In the carnage arises courageous heroes, enticing a new generation of followers, incurable romantics, which isn’t such a bad thing.

                         The Knights Templar

​​The First Crusade resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Crusader States. With the city in Christian control, European Pilgrims flocked to the Holy Land. The lengthy journey was dangerous, which necessitated the formation of a protective force, ensuring the safety of Christians.
 
In the early twelfth century, a small group of knights established the Poor-fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, better known as the Knights Templar, headquartered on the Temple Mount. A holy site where the First Temple once stood.
 
The original knights promised to protect the pilgrims, creating the vows of the Templar, based upon Benedictine rule, living an austere life. The knights swore oaths of obedience, celibacy, and poverty, giving their wealth to the Order. Prayer was a significant part of daily life with devotion to the Virgin Mary.
 
As the Order grew in size and stature, they developed a financial enterprise, leaving a quarter of the warrior monks to fight. They developed the first banking system, which made the Order very powerful and wealthy.  The Templars were a feared fighting force for almost two hundred years before King Philip IV of France, who was in debt to the Order, had the knights arrested on Friday, the 13th. Suffice it to say these brave warriors suffered torture and death, being condemned on trumped-up charges to fill Philip’s coffers with Templar wealth and, of course, eliminating his debt.

The Hospitallers of Saint John
 
In the early eleventh century, the Hospital of Saint John was established in Jerusalem. The mission was to care for the sick, poor, and injured Pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. After Jerusalem fell to the Christians in 1099, the community’s work increased, more hospitals were founded. Eventually, the Order became known as the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Hospitallers, also known as the Knights of Malta or the Order of Saint John, became a Military Order.
 

​The Knights of Saint Lazarus
 
Based in Jerusalem, the Knights of Saint Lazarus was founded by leper knights. Most of its members suffered from the contagion. Anyone who had contracted the disease within the Hospitallers Order joined the Knights of Saint Lazarus. The Lazarists wore a green cross upon their mantle.
 
King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was a leper, who fought alongside the Knights Templar against Saladin in the late twelfth century.

Etienne
 
I decided against romanticizing Etienne’s character in the story. Yes, he is a brave knight, skilled in warfare, and loyal to his overlord. But he is also human with flaws. He has good and bad traits and, like all of us, struggled with his conscience when tempted. Etienne was real, a role model if you will, with all the frailties of the human condition. You might agree or disagree with his choices, but at the end of the day, he took responsibility for his actions. 

Publication date: 12/04/2020
Publisher: Whispering Legends Press
 
Twitter Handle: @BritonandDane @maryanneyarde
 
Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #Crusaders

 
Crusader's Path 
By Mary Ann Bernal

From the sweeping hills of Argences to the port city of Cologne overlooking the River Rhine, Etienne and Avielle find themselves drawn by the need for redemption against the backdrop of the First Crusade.

Heeding the call of His Holiness, Urban II, to free the Holy Land from the infidel, Etienne follows Duke Robert of Normandy across the treacherous miles, braving sweltering heat and snow-covered mountain passes while en route to the Byzantine Empire.

Moved by Peter of Amiens’ charismatic rhetoric in the streets of the Holy Roman Empire, Avielle joins the humble army of pilgrims. Upon arrival in Mentz, the peasant Crusaders do the unthinkable, destroying the Jewish Community. Consumed with guilt, Avielle is determined to die fighting for Christ, assuring her place in Heaven.

Etienne and Avielle cross paths in Constantinople, where they commiserate over past misdeeds. A spark becomes a flame, but when Avielle contracts leprosy, Etienne makes a promise to God, offering to take the priest cowl in exchange for ridding Avielle of her affliction.

Will Etienne be true to his word if Avielle is cleansed of the contagion, or will he risk eternal damnation to be with the woman he loves?

Amazon.com:www.amazon.com/Crusaders-Path-Mary-Ann-Bernal-ebook/dp/B084F3PGRQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=crusader%27s+path&qid=1590367826&sr=8-1
AmazonUK:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crusaders-Path-Mary-Ann-Bernal/dp/B086Y5JKJY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=crusader%27s+path&qid=1590367895&sr=8-1
 
Mary Ann Bernal
 
Mary Ann Bernal attended Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, where she received a degree in Business Administration. Her literary aspirations were ultimately realized when the first book of The Briton and the Dane novels was published in 2009. In addition to writing historical fiction, Mary Ann has also authored a collection of contemporary short stories in the Scribbler Tales series and a science fiction/fantasy novel entitled Planetary Wars Rise of an Empire. Her latest endeavor is Crusader’s Path, a story of redemption set against the backdrop of the First Crusade.
 
 
Connect with Mary Ann: Website • Blog • Whispering Legends Press •  Twitter • Facebook.
 
Website: http://www.maryannbernal.com/
 
Blog: http://maryannbernal.blogspot.com/
 
Whispering Legends Press: https://www.whisperinglegendspress.com/
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBritonandtheDane/
 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritonandDane
 

Before I launch into this week's blog-post, be sure to subscribe to my website so you're automatically entered in my SUMMER GIVEAWAY!!! I'll be giving away both of my books to one lucky reader. If you're already subscribed, then you're already entered. And if you've read both books and win, consider giving them as a gift or donating them to your local library.

This week, we're off to the ancient site of Philippi. It was first called Credides by the Greeks in the 4th century BC. Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, conquered it and renamed it after himself--Philippi. It was a growing city through Hellenistic times and into the Roman and Byzantine periods. Then, during Ottoman rule in the 14th century, it was finally abandoned. It's worth knowing that Philip of Macedon made an attempt to drain the marshy wetlands described in my book, Antonius: Second in Command, but eventually abandoned that effort. They were certainly still there during Antonius and Octavian's visit!

Philippi was the site of the famous Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, described in my story. This took place after Caesar's assassination, when Octavian and Antonius joined forces to defeat Brutus and Cassius. 

The Via Egnatia was the all-important east/west highway threading through Greece. Both Brutus and Cassius, as well as Antonius and Octavian knew of the importance of holding this route, since it was the overland road for supplies. However, Brutus and Cassius held the eastern Via Egnatia all the way to a city on the coast, which at the time, was known as Neapolis (Kavala, today). Since it was a seaport, and the conspirators had a very reliable navy in the Adriatic, their supply route was ensured.

Antonius & Octavian were less fortunate. Because of the conspirators' fleets in the Adriatic, they were struggling to keep dependable supply routes open, despite holding most of the Via Egnatia as their own. Brutus and Cassius's ships simply sailed the long way around the Peloponnese to replenish their stores, and were a formidable blockade, preventing provisions from arriving to bolster Antonius & Octavian. Portions of the Via Egnatia can be seen all over Greece. This narrow but important road in the picture at left ran straight through Philippi proper, and has been identified as the Via Egnatia.

All of Greece is so lovely. If you've never visited, I encourage you to do so. And though this is a general statement, I've been so moved by the overall warmth of the Greek people. Humble, welcoming, and so, so helpful to visitors.

The photo at right is what would have been the battleground during Phase I of the war. I've probably mentioned this before, but  I still have trouble wrapping my head around how huge theaters of war in ancient times could be. And yet, these battles were fought and won without any modern communication devices or munitions. Antonius's camp would have been located somewhere in the central part of this photo(to the right)--just outside of town. Octavian would have been to Antonius's left. To the rear of this photo, behind where I stood to take it, were some lofty outcroppings, north of the theater. Some evidence of Republican era fortifications have been discovered there, suggesting the camps of Brutus and Cassius.

​My guide was from the area and indicated a good-sized mound in the middle of the flat plains. He explained that some archaeologists are anxious to excavate it, as it quite possibly could be a funerary mound from the battle. Philippi was one of Rome's bloodiest civil wars. Evidently, this site--visible in the photo at left--is privately owned, so has not been evaluated by archaeologists. However, farmers working the land have discovered numerous period artifacts, including arrowheads, shot, and pieces of chain mail, worn by legionaries.

Don't forget, it's GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

On Sunday, June 7th, I'll be drawing a name of one of my readers to win both books (autographed!) in the Antonius Trilogy. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to my website. If you've already done that, you're automatically included!

This week, we're taking a virtual tour to Ephesus, located in Kusadasi, Turkey. Perhaps the most famous building in this historic site is pictured at the right. This is the Library of Celsus, built in the early 2nd century AD by Titus Julius Aquila to honor his father. I'd consider this a mighty slick Fathers' Day gift! This is only the facade, and ruins of portions of the walls can be seen behind it.

As in previous sites, many things that I saw in Ephesus, such as the Celsus Library, wouldn't have been built at the time of Marcus Antonius's story. However, Ephesian ruins were more generous than those in Alexandria, when it came to showing remains from the 1st century BC. And the city of Ephesus will be featured boldly in my next book, Antonius: Legend. 

Our first stop will be the magnificent Terrace Houses, dating from the 1st century BC--during the Late Republican period into the Imperial Age. There is some evidence to suggest that a few of these dwellings were still in use by the 7th century AD. 

Apparently, there had already been some lofty terraces built on this hillside during the Hellenistic Age, and when the Romans came along, they began building private homes, using the massive terrace stonework as a base. These were obviously homes of the rich and famous, as they had both hot and cold running water, and huge, open views. However, that large open view was the only window in each house, so it was grandiose, since it provided the only source of natural light for each one. To the left is an overview of one of the Terrace Houses. Upon visiting, one follows a stair-path, highlighting mosaics, wall-paintings, and other architectural features. Without a doubt, this portion of Ephesus was my favorite, and became inspiration for Marcus's visits to the city in my story.

​My husband took this photo on the right and I'm so glad he did, as it is a perfect example of how the Romans plumbed a home (domus). Behind the lovely frescoed decor are pipes that brought in fresh water for the families living here. Remains of hypercaust baths have also been discovered, so these wealthy inhabitants had a pretty sweet life in the Terrace Houses.

Above are two pieces of the abundant art that has been discovered in the Terrace Houses. On the left is a fabulous Medusa mosaic. In this rendering, the artist actually succeeded in making the snake faces rather cute! On the above right is a second-style theatrical fresco from the late Republic/early Imperial period. Even in the House of Augustus on Rome's Palatine Hill, one can find similar wall-paintings with theatrical masks as the subject. Theater was such a popular entertainment in the Classical Age, and as you scroll down, you'll see that Ephesus had its own phenomenal venue for shows.

 Most ancient cities had a main thoroughfare, similar to streets like Broadway in NYC. In Rome, it was the Via Sacra, Alexandria had its Canopic Way. In Ephesus, it was the Arcadian Way, and it's pretty certain that Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra used this entry into the city shortly before their showdown with Octavian. The lovely columns decorating the sides of the road were added later, but Marcus and Cleo saw all of the busy shops, some of whose walls can still be seen in this photo. 

The Canopic Way led straight to the enormous theater complex, and Paul the Apostle found that handy, as he spoke there, during the earliest days of Christianity. Rich and poor alike used this road, and I found it intriguing when taking photos that someone carved a circular game-board, similar to ones I've seen in the Forum Romanum, right in the middle of the thoroughfare! (See below, bottom right.)

,




​When people visit the city these days, the Arcadian Way and Theater complex are now toward the end of the tour, where one exits the archaeological site. However, one has to use imagination to think how fantastic the ancient city would have looked to a visitor approaching on the Arcadian Way, seeing the theater for the first time. And look at the paving of this road...gorgeous marble slabs would have been shimmering!

From this angle, you can see how the Arcadian Way would have approached the theater. WOW! What a view! By the Roman Imperial Age, this complex seated 25,000 spectators.

That being said, it was built in phases. Lysimachus of Thrace was likely the designer during the early 3rd century BC, beginning the theater concept by building atop an earlier structure. During the 1st century BC, a second phase included lower seats in the cavea and a two-level stage/scaenae frons--a very typical Roman theater design. It was this second phase that would have been seen by Marcus, Cleopatra, and Paul.

Later, in the Flavian period, the upper level seats were added, along with yet another in the scaenae frons, allowing for even more elaborate staging. All-in-all, Ephesus's theater was one of the ancient world's grandest.

Next week, I'll be finishing up the series Through My Lens, by sharing my trek through ancient Philippi! Hope to see everyone there. Until then, don't forget to subscribe to my website for the giveaway and... READ ON!

This week's blog features an exciting and dramatic preview of a brand new book: THE ROAD TO LIBERATION. I'd like to give a warm welcome to author, Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger one of several writers who collaborated on this tremendous work. To introduce the book's content is a lovely blurb:

Riveting stories dedicated to celebrating the end of WWII.

From USA Today, international bestselling and award-winning authors comes a collection filled with courage, betrayal, hardships and, ultimately, victory over some of the most oppressive rulers the world has ever encountered.

By 1944, the Axis powers are fiercely holding on to their quickly shrinking territories.
The stakes are high—on both sides: Liberators and oppressors face off in the final battles between good and evil. Only personal bravery and self-sacrifice will tip the scales when the world needs it most.

Read about a small child finding unexpected friends amidst the cruelty of the concentration camps, an Auschwitz survivor working to capture a senior member of the SS, the revolt of a domestic servant hunted by the enemy, a young Jewish girl in a desperate plan to escape the Gestapo, the chaos that confused underground resistance fighters in the Soviet Union, and the difficult lives of a British family made up of displaced children..

2020 marks 75 years since the world celebrated the end of WWII. These books will transport you across countries and continents during the final days, revealing the high price of freedom—and why it is still so necessary to “never forget”.


Writing Magda’s Mark: A Holocaust Story from the POV of a Gentile Heroine
By Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger
 
I was facing a dilemma. I set out to write a story about a woman, a gentile, who performs a bris on a Nazi SS officer’s newborn son in the Sudetenland. How can something like this logistically, religiously, psychologically — any number of -lys — take place, you ask? But it did. This anecdote is the one true event that happens in Magda’s Mark.

itoměřice—across the river from Theresienstadt—is a real town in the former Sudetenland, with two mining tunnels nearby. These tunnels were fortified in 1944 by some five hundred prisoners brought in from Dachau. The inmates were ordered to prepare the tunnels to house two factories: a tank motor manufactory and an electrical components factory (today Audi and Osram—although Audi did send their tank motors to the Richard I tunnel, Osram never made the relocation to the Bohemian district). More prisoners were brought to the camp to work there.
 
These prisoners were placed in a concentration camp not far away. TB and typhus killed thousands between 1944 and 1945. In the chaos, the Litoměřice concentration camp commander released the prisoners by bringing them to the bridge and releasing them. The majority had only one destination available to them: Theresienstadt. Doctors from Prague rushed to the camp to help and faced one of the worst horrors many had witnessed in the war. Widespread disease and epidemics were killing hundreds of people daily. Crime rates in the district escalated, the squalor contributed to the diseases, and there was utter chaos in a multitude of languages for quite some time.
 
Berlin insisted that the Germans hold Litoměřice. It was the last bridge to the west. As the Germans fled from the Red Tide, they hoped to land in American zones, where they knew they would be treated better, especially the officers. Litoměřice presented their last chance, and it is one theory that some merciful soul—perhaps the concentration camp commander—released the inmates on the bridge before fleeing themselves.
 
All of these factors play on the fringes of Magda’s story. Again, because she was not directly in the camp and could not have been, it was exciting to find ways in which information would filter down to her, the final impacts only known to her at the eve of the war. Instead of feeling as if I were cheating the reader of a Holocaust story, I feel I have enriched it by telling Magda’s version of falling in love with a Jewish family that treated her kindly, that treated her as if she were their own daughter, and blurring the lines that the Nazis so rigorously drew between Jew and gentile. In fact, Magda is defiant of the whole Nazi’s ideologies towards the Jews that she commits the act of circumcision, so that the SS commander’s son “can never fight for Hitler.”
 
We follow Magda’s story throughout the war - her one hope being that at the very least, the Tauber children survive - but in the end, she must confront the person she has become and decide - avenge the Taubers or face the realities of the camp - the reality being, she knows all too well that the Taubers could not have possibly survived three years there.
 
Imagine this: you are the wife of a commanding officer, who is head of a the Moravian (Sudetenland) district. Your reputation has been built upon your selfishness, your unhidden contempt for the local “Slavs” and you are known to wield power with a strong hand; of reporting any slip of a misdeed directly to your husband. Imagine you are pregnant. You need a midwife. You give birth one night, and the midwife goes to clean up the baby. You, in the meantime, are given something to help you rest. When you awake, you find the baby has been returned to you. And he has been circumcised…at a time when Jews are being rounded up and deported to concentration camps…
 
That is what happened to my friend’s mother-in-law. My friend’s husband was that baby boy. And as soon as I heard that story, my jaw dropped to the floor. I needed to know who had been pushed so far and under which circumstances to take that great of a risk. Thus, the first seeds of Magda’s Mark were planted alongside those questions.

After getting permission from my friend, I set out to write it. And I had to imagine backwards how this person got there - how Magda got there, because first came the name. A Magd in German means maid, a servant, which immediately brought to mind Jesus’ Magdalena from the Bible. I was getting closer except that in my first attempt to start the story, I pictured a young woman - almost still a girl, really - hiding the “extra” coupons from the SS officer’s wife in the sleeve of her coat and from the outset, I knew the character was already too strong. Instead, I needed someone a little meeker who then grows into the position I needed - into someone so angry, so righteous, that she would take it out on a young child, only to realise what she had allowed herself to become… I needed that to happen.
 
So I did what I always do: I typed the name into Google and began to search for meaning. I trust my instincts when the name comes up justlikethat. A photo popped up in my photo research. A young woman with a huge birthmark on her face. And there it was. I suddenly knew everything about my character. I understood her immediately. That was the easy part.

The hard part was now teaching a gentile how to go about doing a circumcision. Where would she learn such a procedure? And this as a woman in 1941? Where would she have the nerves, the ability, the tools? Dr Johannes Tauber materialised in my mind. Next question: what would drive Magda to take out “revenge” on an innocent child? In that she was in love with Dr Tauber and, when the Nazis commit their atrocities against the doctor, Magda vows to avenge him?
 
That was too melodramatic for my tastes. Why not turn the love into something more pure? Why not have her love the entire family? The doctor, his wife, their children… and then I saw a fire, and a meek Magda acting heroically for the first time in that she rescues the Tauber’s daughter, whom she loves very much.
 
The rest, as the saying goes, “was history.” My next step was to choose a setting. I needed something bigger than my friend’s husband’s little birth town. I was going to be writing a pretty dramatic story (none of us knew what happened to whomever had circumcised her husband). I needed enough “space” to play things out. I found Litoměřice in Google maps and liked the look of it in the photos.

I still, however had a dilemma, because I could justify Magda’s role as sandek - a role traditional for a man, the one who holds the child in his lap during the circumcision - but how was I going to build in the Holocaust story from a gentile’s point-of-view? When I searched concentration camps in the area, I had no idea that, right across the bridge from Litoměřice, was Theresienstadt, but it is called Terezín in Czech. And suddenly things began to fall into place. I travelled there and the research at Theresienstadt was so rich, I almost regretted having to tell it from Magda’s point-of-view. In fact, I had the extra special challenge of getting her to know anything about what went on behind the walls.
 
So, I created the Underground, and Karol Procháska’s character — a young Jewish man from Prague — whose escape from Theresienstadt was a hodgepodge compilation of stories I from my research on escapees.

It is first important to understand this: Theresienstadt was a centuries-old military base that housed a regiment of Czechoslovakian military personnel in 1938. After the Germans annexed Moravia and Bohemia (the German Sudetenland) in the fall of that year, the Czechoslovakian guards were dissolved and the Wehrmacht took over.
 
The Gestapo set up its prison and headquarters in the Small Fort. Political prisoners and criminals were held there. The Wehrmacht was housed in the various barracks in the town outside of the Small Fort.
 
In the fall of 1941, that Wehrmacht was replaced by male prisoners from German camps, who were then given the task to fortify the barracks and to reconstruct the spaces and the town to accommodate what would later become the Theresienstadt Jewish ghetto. In the spring of 1942, women and children were included in the deportations and sent to Theresienstadt. The crackdown and the initial subjugation of the Jews in the ghetto was harsh and unmerciful. However, when word got out about the treatment of the Jews there, Christians and Jews alike protested across the Third Reich. By the end of summer 1942, the Nazis allowed letters and parcels and eased up on the inmates. They quickly learned to use that to their advantage as a propaganda tool.

In 1942 and in 1944, two films were produced in Theresienstadt for the purposes of propaganda. In 1942 the Nazi administration held a contest for best screenplay. In 1944 the famous film director and Jew, Kurt Gerron, was ordered to produce a film. The Nazis built a swimming pool, renovated the facades, provided food and clothing, a park, and entertainment to make it all look so very…appealing. As one friend said, “It sounds worse than a Stephen King story.” It was.
 
At first the ghetto was used as a transit depot for sending Jews and prisoners from the west on to other camps established in the newly won territories of the Reich, mostly Poland. At the end of the war, as the Nazis became trapped between the Soviet and American fronts, the inmates from camps in both the east and west were transferred to Theresienstadt in a final effort to “save” labor resources. However, many of the railroads were sabotaged by resistance fighters, and many of those prisoners were forced on long death marches before—and if—reaching Theresienstadt.

Litoměřice—across the river from Theresienstadt--is a real town in the former Sudetenland, with two mining tunnels nearby. These tunnels were fortified in 1944 by some five hundred prisoners brought in from Dachau. The inmates were ordered to prepare the tunnels to house two factories: a tank motor manufactory and an electrical components factory (today Audi and Osram—although Audi did send their tank motors to the Richard I tunnel, Osram never made the relocation to the Bohemian district). More prisoners were brought to the camp to work there.
 
These prisoners were placed in a concentration camp not far away. TB and typhus killed thousands between 1944 and 1945. In the chaos, the Litoměřice concentration camp commander released the prisoners by bringing them to the bridge and releasing them. The majority had only one destination available to them: Theresienstadt. Doctors from Prague rushed to the camp to help and faced one of the worst horrors many had witnessed in the war. Widespread disease and epidemics were killing hundreds of people daily. Crime rates in the district escalated, the squalor contributed to the diseases, and there was utter chaos in a multitude of languages for quite some time.
 
Berlin insisted that the Germans hold Litoměřice. It was the last bridge to the west. As the Germans fled from the Red Tide, they hoped to land in American zones, where they knew they would be treated better, especially the officers. Litoměřice presented their last chance, and it is one theory that some merciful soul—perhaps the concentration camp commander—released the inmates on the bridge before fleeing themselves.
 
All of these factors play on the fringes of Magda’s story. Again, because she was not directly in the camp and could not have been, it was exciting to find ways in which information would filter down to her, the final impacts only known to her at the eve of the war. Instead of feeling as if I were cheating the reader of a Holocaust story, I feel I have enriched it by telling Magda’s version of falling in love with a Jewish family that treated her kindly, that treated her as if she were their own daughter, and blurring the lines that the Nazis so rigorously drew between Jew and gentile. In fact, Magda is defiant of the whole Nazi’s ideologies towards the Jews that she commits the act of circumcision, so that the SS commander’s son “can never fight for Hitler.”
 
We follow Magda’s story throughout the war - her one hope being that at the very least, the Tauber children survive - but in the end, she must confront the person she has become and decide - avenge the Taubers or face the realities of the camp - the reality being, she knows all too well that the Taubers could not have possibly survived three years there.

Buy Links:
 
Amazon US
 
Amazon UK
 
Amazon CA

​
 
Author Bios:
 
Marion Kummerow:
 
Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany, before she set out to "discover the world" and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she's now living with her family.
 
After dipping her toes with non-fiction books, she finally tackled the project dear to her heart. UNRELENTING is the story about her grandparents, who belonged to the German resistance and fought against the Nazi regime. It's a book about resilience, love and the courage to stand up and do the right thing.
 
Marina Osipova:
 
Marina Osipova was born in East Germany into a military family and grew up in Russia where she graduated from the Moscow State Institute of History and Archives. She also has a diploma as a German language translator from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. In Russia, she worked first in a scientific-technical institute as a translator then in a Government Ministry in the office of international relations, later for some Austrian firms. For seventeen years, she lived in the United States where she worked in a law firm. Eventually, she found her home in Austria. She is an award-winning author and a member of the Historical Novel Society.
 
Rachel Wesson:
 
Rachel Wesson is Irish born and bred. Drawn to reading from an early age, she started writing for publication a few years back. When she is not writing, Rachel likes to spend her time reading and playing with her three kids. Living in Dublin there are plenty of things to do, although the cowboys and Indians of her books rarely make an appearance. To chat with Rachel connect with her on Facebook - authorrachelwesson. To check out her newest releases sign up to her mailing list.
 
JJ Toner:
 
My background is in Mathematics and computing, but I have been writing full time since 2005. I write short stories and novels. My novels include the bestselling WW2 spy story 'The Black Orchestra', and its three sequels, 'The Wings of the Eagle', 'A Postcard from Hamburg', and 'The Gingerbread Spy'.
Many of my short stories have been published in mainstream magazines. Check out 'EGGS and Other Stories' - a collection of satirical SF stories. I was born in a cabbage patch in Ireland, and I still live here with my first wife, although a significant part of our extended family lives in Australia.
 
Ellie Midwood:
 
Ellie Midwood is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning historical fiction author. She owes her interest in the history of the Second World War to her grandfather, Junior Sergeant in the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the First Belorussian Front, who began telling her about his experiences on the frontline when she was a young girl. Growing up, her interest in history only deepened and transformed from reading about the war to writing about it. After obtaining her BA in Linguistics, Ellie decided to make writing her full-time career and began working on her first full-length historical novel, "The Girl from Berlin." Ellie is continuously enriching her library with new research material and feeds her passion for WWII and Holocaust history by collecting rare memorabilia and documents.
 
In her free time, Ellie is a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, neat freak, adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama. Ellie lives in New York with her fiancé and their Chihuahua named Shark Bait.
 
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger:
 
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger was born in Minnesota in 1969 and grew up in the culture-rich neighborhood of "Nordeast" Minneapolis. She started her writing career with short stories, travel narratives, worked as a journalist and then as a managing editor for a magazine publisher before jumping the editor's desk and pursuing her dreams of writing and traveling. In 2000, she moved to western Austria and established her own communications training company. In 2005, she self-published a historical narrative based on her relatives' personal histories and experiences in Ukraine during WWII. She has won several awards for her short stories and now primarily writes historical fiction. During a trip into northern Italy over the Reschen Pass, she stood on the edge of Reschen Lake and desperately wanted to understand how a 15th-century church tower ends up sticking out of the water. What stories were lying beneath? Some eight years later, she launched the "Reschen Valley" series with five books and a novella releasing between 2018 and 2021.
 
For more on Chrystyna, dive in at inktreks(dot)com.