The Bridge of Deaths: 75th Anniversary Commemoration of the Crash of the G-AESY
Suzy Henderson
Tell
us a little about the idea behind The Bridge of Deaths.
The
Bridge of Deaths revolves around a 1939 plane crash in which my
Grandfather, a Bio-Chemical engineer working for Standard Oil of New
Jersey lost his life. I was raised to understand that the crash was
caused by sabotage and that the target was a British member of
parliament on board.
How
difficult was the research and how long did it take?
I
did not have the freedom or resources to research full time, so it
spanned over almost two decades. Some of the materials were not easy
to access and some were difficult to understand as they were either
in Danish or German.
Difficult
in this case is almost a matter of opinion as it was so interesting
to me that it felt doable even if it involved work.
Which
authors have been your greatest influence?
So
many! I tend to fall in love with an author and read all their work,
some have lost me though, which is scary but no book is for everyone. Among my favorites are W. Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Susan Howatch, John Irving, and Kurt Vonnegut. My list would really bore
you there are so, so many and I have discovered some Indie authors of
late Christoph Fischer and Paulette Mahurin that I admire so much.
What
are you writing at the moment?
I
am preparing a book; DEFINED BY OTHERS I hope to release in
Mid-October. It is an easy read and was my first attempt at
NANOWriMO.
You
mention some of the more unusual research methods, such as psychics
and past life regression. Can you explain how this aided your
research and with writing the book.
I
am not a historian and many of the documents left me with a huge
feeling of unease. I decided to visit a psychic with my grandfather’s
watch and have him hold it and tell me what he “saw”. It was
uncanny; at the end of the day five individuals separately with no
previous knowledge told a very similar tale. Also astounding was one
describing the bridge perfectly and another giving me the lettering
on the wing of the plane, uncanny.
The
past lives were documented from actual past life regressions from a
source who requested absolute anonymity, he approached me. In the late
1990's he said that he had visited a psychic who had impacted him.
Apparently the psychic said “The most important thing you need to
know is that in your nearest past life you were a pilot.” He agreed
to participate in past life regressions and that I could record them
and be present.
It
was amazing, his voice changed into a different mode and accent as
did Bill’s in the book, and the journey he took us in, the past
life regressionist (is that even a word?) And myself, was just
extraordinary.
We
would sit around with the notes and over beers and cigarettes discuss
what he had seen, when it was fresh in his mind.
This
man NEVER suffered from phobias or bedwetting but after the
regressions he did become a super focused and different person. He
went on to surprise himself and others and now has a most successful
life, not compatible with the past life regressions of his youth.
Is
The Bridge of Deaths really a culmination of 2 decades of research?
Why are you so interested in WW II History?
Yes,
at least a good eighteen years of research. I was so clueless when I
began to dig around the plane crash that killed my grandfather in
1939, so I guess someone with a better historical background would
have never taken that long.
I
am embarrassed to admit that I had to look up almost every incident I
came across, even something as common knowledge as The Munich Pact.
I
know I had to have studied it at some point in school or university
but to be honest I know I did fail history at least once.
Why
are you releasing a revised edition and what is different from the
original?
When
I released the original in 2011 I was so afraid that people would
dispute some of the files I used that I carefully and meticulously
added footnotes for EVERYTHING, over 200.
To
my surprise some people loved that, mainly lawyers! But it felt like
awkward reading for some, and it was understandable, especially in
the e-book format as the footnotes can be distracting. In the revised
version I added the necessary footnotes to the narrative and got rid
of all of them. I also summarized two parts that were loaded with
information and detail and added them to the back as appendices for
the more curious readers.
The
book is formatted in a very user friendly way so the reader can go
from one chapter to the other or to the appendices.
To
give it a more up to date touch, as the book takes place in 2010. I
added an epilogue in the summer of 2012.
The
new cover has the image of my grandfather’s watch which is part of
the story.
Over
200 footnotes? So this is not a novel, or is it?
Oh
yes it is a novel. It has fictional elements so it must be
categorized as such. The characters that sift through the data are
fictional even if two are strongly based on real people; one of whom
is me!
I
also used very “unorthodox” ways to research such as psychics and
past life regressions; not my own, and that to many is fiction.
I
have two watches, one that was my grandfather’s and another sent to
us by British Airways LTD. The use of psychometry is not that scoffed
at, I mean the FBI has used it, so I thought, Why not? It was just
amazing, with no photos or previous knowledge a psychic started
describing the bridge and another the lettering on the wing of the
plane.
The
most shocking was that all described to a T another of the men who
died from the second watch, no spoiler! I won’t tell you which but
it was uncanny. There were five people gifted in psychometry who did
this for me.
The
individual who had the long past life regressions, five in total has
asked to remain anonymous, but I was allowed to sit in and take
notes, they were also recorded but the quality is horrible which is a
shame because just like Maggie in the book, I did ‘go under’ and
slept through one of them!
The
Bridge of Deaths is, above all, a book based on history. Because the
events of the book took place just a mere two weeks before the start
of World War II, this year marks the 75th
anniversary of both the crash of the G-AESY (the central event in The
Bridge of Deaths) and the start of WWII. M.C.V. Egan has chosen to
commemorate both of these events with a 75th
anniversary remembrance—a part of which are a series of historical
retrospectives recounting the events that led to the start of WWII,
as well as a discussion of how these events were often linked to the
real-life characters of the book.
HISTORICAL
RETROSPECTIVE: January 30, 1939: A Nazi threat to the Jews of EuropeIn
a speech before the German Reichstag (Parliament), Adolf Hitler said: "In
the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have
usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for
power it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received
my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take
over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole
nation, and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish
problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some
time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face.
Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish
financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the
nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the
Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the
annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!" (Source)
A
link to The
Bridge of Deaths:
In
1939, there are many discussions in England regarding the Palestinian
Territories and Anthony Crossley (one of the men who died in the
crash of the G-AESY, recounted in The
Bridge of the Deaths)
stands out as the sole voice for the Arab cause (English Holocaust
denier David
Irving often mentions Crossley as a man most affiliated with
“nefarious” Jewish groups in his book, Churchill’s
War).
There is a strong Jewish lobby movement, and the ensuing discussions
are not unlike today’s discussions in America regarding illegal
immigrant children. European countries limited the entry of Jewish
refugees and also struggled with decisions that eventually resulted
in the birth of Israel.
About
The Bridge of Deaths
"M.C.V.
Egan twists truth and fiction until you question your
perceptions...it is a story of real love, triumph and search for
self." -
Beckah Boyd @ The
Truthful Tarot
5
out of 5 stars: "An
unusual yet much recommended read."
- Midwest Book Review
On
August 15th, 1939, an English passenger plane from British Airways
Ltd. crashed in Danish waters between the towns of Nykøbing Falster
and Vordingborg. There were five casualties reported and one
survivor. Just two weeks before, Hitler invaded Poland.
With
the world at the brink of war, the manner in which this incident was
investigated left much open to doubt. The jurisdiction battle between
the two towns and the newly formed Danish secret police created an
atmosphere of intrigue and distrust.
The
Bridge of Deaths is a
love story and a mystery. Fictional characters travel through the
world of past life regressions and information acquired from psychics
as well as archives and historical sources to solve "one of
those mysteries that never get solved." Based on true events and
real people, The Bridge
of Deaths is the
culmination of 18 years of sifting through conventional and
unconventional sources in Denmark, England, Mexico and the United
States. The story finds a way to help the reader feel that s/he is
also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions.
Cross
The Bridge of Deaths
into 1939, and dive into cold Danish waters to uncover the secrets of
the G-AESY.
About
the author
M.C.V.
Egan is the pen name chosen by Maria Catalina Vergara Egan. Catalina
was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959, the sixth of eight children,
in a traditional Catholic family.
From
a very young age, she became obsessed with the story of her maternal
grandfather, Cesar Agustin Castillo--mostly the story of how he died.
She
spent her childhood in Mexico. When her father became an employee of
The World Bank in Washington D.C. in the early 1970s, she moved with
her entire family to the United States. Catalina was already fluent
in English, as she had spent one school year in the town of
Pineville, Louisiana with her grandparents. There she won the English
award, despite being the only one who had English as a second
language in her class.
In
the D.C. suburbs she attended various private Catholic schools and
graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland in
1977. She attended Montgomery Community College, where she changed
majors every semester. She also studied in Lyons, France, at the
Catholic University for two years. In 1981, due to an impulsive young
marriage to a Viking (the Swedish kind, not the football player
kind), Catalina moved to Sweden where she resided for five years and
taught at a language school for Swedish, Danish, and Finnish
businesspeople. She then returned to the USA, where she has lived
ever since. She is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Swedish.
Maria
Catalina Vergara Egan is married and has one son who, together with
their five-pound Chihuahua, makes her feel like a full-time mother.
Although she would not call herself an astrologer she has taken many
classes and taught a few beginner classes in the subject.
The
celebrated her 52nd birthday on July 2nd, 2011, and gave herself
self-publishing The Bridge of Deaths as a gift.
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