Frequently Asked
My Inspiration...
I’m often asked what inspired my idea for the Changeling series, as well as what inspired the covers. The answer starts in the days of my childhood. My grandparents raised me. Granddaddy was stationed in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II, then he and the family lived in Japan and visited different areas of the Far East during the reconstruction years following the war. So, growing up, my house was filled with Japanese and Asian furniture, paintings, knickknacks, and other keepsakes. As such, I didn’t get an opportunity to hear much about the European side of the war. Grandma had a brother who was a German prisoner of war in Stalag IV-B following his involvement in the Battle of the Bulge, but all she ever really told me about that was that every week she’d go to the store and buy a carton of cigarettes to send him because he could trade them for something or other while he was in the POW camp.
In elementary school, I also didn’t hear much about the war… until the fourth grade, when my teacher, Mrs. O’Brian, assigned us to read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. I was hooked! I thought Anne was just about the bravest girl to ever have lived!
My grandparents had a child who was a year older than my mother. Her name was Dawn, and she died from a hole in her heart when she was fourteen. There were photos of Aunt Dawn all over my house when I was growing up. And after reading Anne Frank’s Diary, I was convinced that Anne (who died in 1945) had somehow reincarnated herself into my aunt (who was born in 1949). Back then, through the eyes of a child, I saw Anne Frank and Aunt Dawn as doppelgängers. Now, through the eyes of an adult, I still see a lot of similarities.
My admiration of Anne Frank led me to study and learn a lot about the European side of the war, and I’m particularly drawn to victims of Hitler and his minions. I don’t just mean, “Wow, that’s awful;” I mean, my heart literally hurts for them and all they endured. My feelings on this don’t only include Holocaust victims, but also those who had to hide to avoid being killed and those who were victims of the Blitzkrieg missions that destroyed so much of Europe and also claimed thousands of lives. And I have the utmost respect and admiration for the brave souls who risked their own lives to help the targeted people stay out of harm’s way.
While writing The Changeling of the Third Reich, I knew it was imperative to research the Holocaust as thoroughly as possible so as not to give the reader an excuse to deny the atrocity. But the cover also had to be perfect. The obvious solution for a book involving the Holocaust and the Blitz would be a swastika. But the mere idea of that really skeeved me out. I, personally, would not want to sit on a subway train with my nose buried in a book with a swastika on the cover, so I couldn’t ask any of my potential readers to do so either.
Since I dedicated my debut novel to my late Aunt Dawn, I asked for and received my mother’s blessing to use Aunt Dawn on the back cover and an altered version of her on the front cover. I’d like to think if she’d have lived and gotten to know me, hopefully, she’d read my work and be proud that I’d want to use her image. But lacking that possibility, if nothing else, I figure it will give her a little piece of immortality.
