Author Interview with Christoph Fischer, Author of "The Luck of the Weissensteiners" and "Sebastian."
Today I welcome the Author, Christoph Fischer to the blog. Christoph presently has two books out, the first of which is The Luck of the Weissensteiners. This is set in war torn Europe and incidentally, is one of the top ten indie books for August 2013.
Hello Christoph, and welcome. It's great to speak with you today and to learn a little more about your books, the Three Nations Trilogy.
Hello Sue and thanks for inviting me to your blog.
Hello Christoph, and welcome. It's great to speak with you today and to learn a little more about your books, the Three Nations Trilogy.
Hello Sue and thanks for inviting me to your blog.
Always
a pleasure to host a fellow writer of historical fiction. Can I
begin by asking what was it that influenced you to explore such
periods of history?
When
my interest in family history arose a few years ago I realised how
little I knew about any of it, particularly Czechoslovakian history
before and during WWII and about the places where my family came
from. There was nobody I could get first-hand information from so I
had to get my head into the archives and history books.
I am
not a ‘pure’ German and have often felt a little bit like an
outsider in Germany. Now I even live as an ‘alien’ in the UK and
maybe that is why my interest was drawn to periods in history where
Nations were drawn together or separated.
The
fascination with what I found led to my first book, “The Luck of
the Weissensteiners”. [My ancestors had different experiences to
the characters in my book but they infiltrated my story a lot.]
Vienna
and the early 1900's have always been mentioned in the literature I
read for book one as a perfect place in history. I wanted to find out
if that was true, which is why I chose it as the setting for my
second book “Sebastian”. There were some unanswered questions and
themes from the first book that I wanted to explore further and so I
decided to write the Three Nations Trilogy. The breaking down of the
multi-cultural Austro-Hungarian Empire in “Sebastian” serves as a
useful and sharp contrast to the pan-Germanic Third Reich and offers
a point for reflection between the two books.
Many authors state that it’s vital to establish a regular
writing routine, but a few stress that they write only when the muse
strikes. How would you describe your own writing process or routine?
I
tend to write very early in the morning. Often I get up when it is
dark and walk my dogs, then I sit down and write undisturbed until
the rest of the world wakes up and starts making its demands on my
time. I have been lucky in that I never experienced massive writer’s
block. I have good writing days and bad ones. Usually after a few
lousy days I am on a roll and catch up quickly.
There's something special about writing in the early hours while the household sleep on. Describe
your favourite writing place.
I
used to travel for a living while I wrote the first few books. Any
place was good as long as it was
quiet and left me undisturbed. My window at home overlooks our garden
and I would be lying If I said that the views didn’t inspire me a
little. The greatest environment was probably a Japanese Spa retreat
during a family holiday.
Some authors never deviate from their preferred genre, whilst others have a mix. Is
historical fiction your only genre or do you have a desire to delve into
others?
I
have another four drafts for novels in my drawers, one of which is
also Historical Fiction, but the other three are about contemporary
themes, such as Alzheimers, mental health and society drop outs. So
far all my ideas for books have come to me quite naturally. I am not
fixed on history, but it has a special draw for me. I am however
always happy to try out new genres. Currently I am even working on a
comedy.
A comedy sounds very interesting. It sounds as if you're following your calling.
I'm well aware that writing Historical fiction can be a mammoth task. I know that my own novel has taken up many hours of research. Did you have to do a great deal of research for all three books?
I'm well aware that writing Historical fiction can be a mammoth task. I know that my own novel has taken up many hours of research. Did you have to do a great deal of research for all three books?
For
the first book I definitely did. For several months prior to writing
I studied history books, surfed the Internet and read a lot of
fiction set in that period as well. I interviewed people who were
alive around those times and I continued looking for relevant fiction
and non-fiction books and read them while I was already writing and
re-writing.
Interviewing people is possibly one of the best ways to gain real info, especially to inject the personal touch into your work. My
grandparents served in the Second World War but sadly, like many of their generation, they never discussed it. Do you know of any
family members who served in either World War?
I
know of one uncle who served in the last days of the war, at the
young age of 15. He was always foolishly proud of his “bravery”.
And one great uncle of mine never came back from Russia after the war
but he was the only one ever mentioned. Both my grandparents had
physical problems that exempted them from military duty. As Germany
wanted to move on from its shameful past after the war people did
‘not to mention the war’, that is where the sitcom cliché has
its true origins.
It's sad to hear about your great uncle. I'm aware of the labour camps in Russia during that time and it's something that is not well known of today.
As an author, you will no doubt be a prolific reader. I find myself dipping into one book one day and another the next. I must have several books by my bedside. What book(s) are on your bedside table right now?
As an author, you will no doubt be a prolific reader. I find myself dipping into one book one day and another the next. I must have several books by my bedside. What book(s) are on your bedside table right now?
“Chesapeake”
by James Michener, and next up on my kindle “Shattered Dreams” by
Jyotsna Ramani and “To Fame's Proud Cliff” by Bob W. Dunbar.
I like the title of the last one by Bob W.Dunbar. That's one I'll be looking up later.
Should any new writers seek advice, what words of wisdom would you impart?
Should any new writers seek advice, what words of wisdom would you impart?
Believe
in yourself and don’t give up. And the more you write the better
you get (I hope lol)
I'm sure you're right, Christoph. Sound advice. Now, writers
sometimes talk about establishing the right mood or atmosphere
within which to work. For me, music is key. Do you find listening to
music aids your own creativity, or is there something else besides
peace and quiet?
I
prefer silence and a (imagined) Do-Not-Disturb-Sign outside my door
but sometimes, when it finally is quiet, that distracts me actually
more. I like to know that my partner is downstairs and love it when
one of the dogs falls asleep on my feet. The grounding effect tends
to spur me on.
That's interesting and I suppose we all have our different, multifaceted ways of creating.
So, just as there are many different reasons we become writers, who or what was it that enticed you to take the writers path?
So, just as there are many different reasons we become writers, who or what was it that enticed you to take the writers path?
Writing
was originally just an experiment for me. I had time and ideas and I
read a quote somewhere that said that if you are a writer you should
be writing and not just thinking about it. Something along those
lines. So I wrote down my ideas for a novel and began writing, fully
expecting to run out of steam at any moment, but then I finished it,
re-wrote it, edited and eventually passed it along to my friends to
read and give me feedback. While they took their time to read it I
wrote the next one and so on.
The
chronological period covered by book one and two is interesting.
Book one, being set during the Second World War, and book two,
during the Great War. Is there a single, overall message or multiple
messages that you wanted to convey from your Three Nations Trilogy?
The
trilogy is about Nations and identity. While we see in Book one what
happens when the idea of nationalism is taken too far, we see in Book
two that trying to keep ethnic groups together against their will can
be impossible. Both led to horrible wars.
As
borders and political nations can change and be redrawn at short
notice, what is it that defines us as individuals and as groups?
Religion, culture, loyalty to a thrown or leader, humanity,
ideology?
Mine
is not a statement message but an open question.
The
other theme is a little clearer and is a message about being human.
Everyone is fallible and slightly flawed, everyone can change and
nearly everyone has a redeeming factor somewhere in their character.
That's very interesting as well as being some very complex themes to explore.
Finally,
can you tell us a little about the last installment in
the trilogy? Is it set before the Great War or is it set in the
future?
“The
Black Eagle Inn”, my last book in the Trilogy, is about post war
Germany, something that was not often discussed in my childhood. How
had the Nation risen from the ashes to the place I knew when I grew
up there in the 1970s?
“The
Black Eagle Inn” is another family saga between 1945 and 1975 in
Bavaria. The fictitious town of Heimkirchen is an isolated place that
was affected very little by the war directly because of its remote
location. But nobody can escape the post-war politics and
modernisation and my characters struggle with challenges of different
kinds. One of the themes in the book is the arrival of workers from
Italy and Turkey in Germany the 1950s, the so called Gastarbeiter,
and their reception.
The
book should be available later this year, hopefully in October 2013.
Christoph
Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border, as the son of
a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in
the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of
belonging and home in Bavaria. He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his
studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years
he moved on to the UK where he is still resident today. ‘The Luck
of The Weissensteiners’ was published in November 2012; 'Sebastian'
in May 2013.He has written several other novels which are in the
later stages of editing and finalisation.
The
Luck of the Weissensteiners by Christoph Fischer
In
the sleepy town of Bratislava in 1933 a romantic girl falls for a
bookseller from Berlin. Greta Weissensteiner, daughter of a Jewish
weaver, slowly settles in with the Winkelmeier clan just as the
developments in Germany start to make waves in Europe and re-draws
the visible and invisible borders. The political climate in the
multifaceted cultural jigsaw puzzle of disintegrating Czechoslovakia
becomes more complex and affects relations between the couple and the
families. The story follows them through the war with its predictable
and also its unexpected turns and events and the equally hard times
after.
But
this is no ordinary romance; in fact it is not a romance at all, but
a powerful, often sad, Holocaust story. What makes The Luck of the
Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance to consider the many
different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the
military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust
experiences. This is a wide-ranging, historically accurate
exploration of the connections between social location, personal
integrity and, as the title says, luck.
Sebastian
by Christoph Fischer
Sebastian
is the story of a young man who has his leg amputated before World
War I. When his father is drafted to the war it falls on to him to
run the family grocery store in Vienna, to grow into his
responsibilities, bear loss and uncertainty and hopefully find love.
Sebastian
Schreiber, his extended family, their friends and the store employees
experience the ‘golden days’ of pre-war Vienna and the timed of
the war and the end of the Monarchy while trying to make a living and
to preserve what they hold dear.
Fischer
convincingly describes life in Vienna during the war, how it affected
the people in an otherwise safe and prosperous location, the
beginning of the end for the Monarchy, the arrival of modern thoughts
and trends, the Viennese class system and the end of an era.
As in
the first part of the trilogy, “The Luck of The Weissensteiners”
we are confronted again with themes of identity, Nationality and
borders. The step back in time made from Book 1 and the change of
location from Slovakia to Austria enables the reader to see the
parallels and the differences deliberately out of the sequential
order. This helps to see one not as the consequence of the other, but
to experience them as the momentary reality as it must have felt for
the people at the time.
Great interview, and the books seem very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHi Lucy and thanks for visiting. Glad you liked the post. The author has had many great reviews and as I said at the beginning, book one was featured as one of the top ten indie books last month. Let me know what you think, should you decide to grab a copy. All the best.
ReplyDeleteI love Christoph Fischer's work and he is also a wonderful individual. I cannot wait for “The Black Eagle Inn” Great interview Suzy
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. I'm looking forward to the third book myself. It sounds very interesting and I confess that I don't know very much at all about the post war period in Europe.
DeleteThanks ladies! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Christoph. Now go and have a cup of tea and a well earned rest.
Delete