Women, War and the Third Reich

When I arrived in Germany in 1973 I had no idea I would spend the next couple of years collecting oral histories but that is what happened. I suffered from culture shock in Germany and my response was to collect oral histories of the women I was living amongst. I asked them about their wartime and postwar experiences. 

It was hard work emotionally for both them and for me as they had often been traumatised by their experiences and had buried them as a way of coping.  My questions brought it all back.  Many women said they had not even told their families about what had happened to them and we wept together as they recounted their stories. 

It turned out to be the best medicine I could have wished for and over the course of those two years I learned to love my adopted home. Several of the women offered to help me publish the stories and I did find a publisher but unfortunately it folded before the book was out and by that time I had enrolled in a science course didn't have time to pursue it further.

The box of interviews (and the research I did in the Wiesbaden public library to help me understand the period the women were talking about) were put in a big box and have traveled with me ever since. I felt, and still feel, indebted to these women and wanted to make sure their voices were heard. I also wanted to publish them to help show how a country can descend into fascism, but we have seen other examples since then and the process probably no longer needs explaining.

So here they are, the voices from times past. Fascinating reading, even now, or perhaps particularly now as the women of this generation are mostly no longer living.  I didn't know whether to publish as eBook as well as paperback. Does anyone read such books on a screen? (Dear reader, if you would read it online, please let me know!) 

 

Available from Amazon and other outlets. Here are the Amazon links:

USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/098731226X

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/098731226X

AU:  https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/098731226X

 DE: https://www.amazon.de/dp/098731226X

 

On the Wings of an Albatross

Woo hoo .... Just published! A children's book, suitable for kids from 3-8.

Children's book: suitable for ages 3-8

This book is available as an ebook or as Paperback. 

This is an iso-book, unplanned but fun to do and here is the back story.

In May I joined an online art group that decided to draw an animal a day. I drew birds. At that stage of the pandemic it was very comforting to join others in a regular occupation. We shared our artwork  for comment and although I didn't know any of the participants personally, by the end of May I felt I knew some of them quite well.

As the month progressed I learned quite a bit about the birds I was drawing and I developed a particular affection for some of them ...the New Zealand Robin for example.

New Zealand Robin

One thing led to another and by mid June I was busy developing this children's book. It took a while to learn how the publisher software worked, in particular how to format for print editions.

But now it is done and I have just heard that the Paperback as well as the eBook versions are available online. I have linked them, but perhaps it takes a while to update the links so you can see both versions from the same page.

I tried to order a couple of copies of the print edition but Covid 19 has led Amazon to suspend deliveries to Australia for the time being, so I will have to wait.

In the meantime, if you have a young friend who would like an A to Z of Australian and New Zealand birds, it is available as an ebook ...and as Paperback in the USA, UK and other places with a local Amazon publishing operation. 

Addendum.

I have just looked at the price of the paperback on the various Amazon sites.
The price of you buy in the USA is extraordinary, even without postage. IIt is much less expensive elsewhere.

Amazon.com (USA) :
Paperback Price: USD 24.68 = £19.76 =€21.91
eBook: USD 3.43

Amazon.de (Germany)

Euro 5.33 ebook

Euro 13.84 for paperback (Taschenbuch)

https://www.amazon.de/Wings-Albatross-Z-Australian-Zealand/dp/0987312251

Amazon.co.uk (UK)

£11.75 Paperback 

£ 4.83 ebook

Surviving the Sydney Property Circus

After months of visiting open houses I finally have a new home. I move in next Wednesday.

There has been a pause in blog posts but that doesn't mean I stopped writing. I kept a diary of my property gyrations which is now a book called Surviving the Sydney Property Circus: a Seller's/Buyer's diary. It is available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08114TJH1

 It's an E-Book.

Addendum: the Paperback version is now available at:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Surviving-Sydney-Property-Circus-Sellers-ebook/dp/B08114TJH1

Not Your Average Nurse

I heard a few episodes of this book on ABC Radio's late night program last year, then missed the rest,  so I ordered the book. It was a good light weight alternative to Goerge Meridiths book.

The author says she wrote it to tell her daughter about her life before becoming an author. For anyone who started nursing in the 1960s-70s, it will bring back lots of memories, and for the rest of us it is a fun read as well.

Blue Tulips as Paperback

Yaay! I got my copy of Blue Tulips: A Love Story in the mail today!

It is looking good ... quite a hefty tome at 430 pages.

Blue Tulips: A Love Story is a book that demonstrates how potent Wagner's music can be as a love potion (and aphrodisiac!)

 Blue Tulips: A Love Story is now available as paperback

Available in the UK at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0987312219

Available in the US at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0987312219?ref_=pe_870760_150889320

Available as e-book at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1T64E0

Wagner's Music as Love Potion

Wagner's Music as Love Potion? Blue Tulips: A Love Story is a book that demonstrates how potent this love potion can be.

Blue Tulips: A Love Story is now available as paperback

Available in the UK at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0987312219

Available in the US at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0987312219?ref_=pe_870760_150889320

Available as e-book at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1T64E0

Women and War

Tapes, files, stories

I have been working hard on a book. The last book I wrote was a light-hearted look at love and infused with music.

This one is about war, structured around a series of interviews with German and English women that I recorded in the late 1970s. I wrote the work up at the time but then I got into university in Germany and this project landed in the bottom drawer.

I thought brushing it up would fairly quick, but I was wrong.

 First I reviewed the historical background (women's place in society at the time) that I wrote based on material I collected in the library in Wiesbaden just after I recorded the interviews. I was a bit doubtful about this part of the book because my German was just-learned and I was unsure about the credentials of the people who wrote the books I was quoting. I discover however that I kept excellent notes and collected enough material to enable me to back-check everything. The Internet now makes it easy to check credentials and my doubts about the material have been allayed.  The review is interesting and I have now included more of the material I collected at the time.

When I looked at the interviews themselves I discovered that instead of  translating the interviews verbatim I had summarised them. I have only re-translated one of the 30 interviews so far but it is so much more interesting than my earlier translation. I am not sure why I didn't translate verbatim before but perhaps because my own German was not so good at the time and I wanted to make a story out of the whole thing. Or perhaps I just needed to be older!

So three months into the project I am only part the way through. It is going to take much longer than I expected to revise, but it is proving fascinating and the stories themselves are really readable, or at least the one I have just translated is ... I can see the interviewee there before me in my mind's eye  and it is nearly 40 years since I saw her!

Under the duck's wing

Today I sorted through the boxes of materials I had accumulated while writing Blue Tulips. As I worked a tiny (about 3cm wide) circle of paper dropped out of one of the files. It was a small drawing from mid 2005 that had eluded my search when I looked for it to include in the book as an illustration. I had not remembered it was so small ... had probably looked for a larger drawing. It says a lot about my state of mind at the time when I drew it.

Under the duck's wing

I kept the cards, the letters, the original emails (not sure why these) but discarded the draft versions of the book. I had a lot of disc versions as I knew it would be some years before I could work on it again and I was afraid of loosing the material in the interim. I didn't guess there would be a seven year gap between finishing the story and publishing it.

Today as I sorted I thought of Richard Wagner who had a seventeen year gap between the third (well, half way through the third) and fourth operas of the Ring Cycle. Like me, Wagner moved a good deal and I suppose he also had boxes of materials he had to take with him. My sympathies Mr Wagner.