This is not intended to be a major lesson, but I like to keep in touch with my readers and not much happened in the last two weeks.

My cover art designer and VA , Chris Haas,  told me in an email that my book ‘Trust to a degree’  is now available on Amazon in the paper back edition.

She also mentioned that she is battling some wasps ‘Yellow Jackets” .

This prompted me to ask her if she knew (what the English people consider )  the difference between garden work and yard work?

Here is her answer:

As of to day, September 22, 2013, I finished 7 chapters. We are still not sure about the title because the title should indicate what the book is about.

Not that easy to do when you consider that  the book will not only follow “Karl” from 1940 to the end of 1944, it will also describe the educational methods.

The schools in Berlin had to double up and triple up the number of students per class. Female teachers (some of them wearing lipstick)  (and you have no idea what that meant in 1942 ) were introduced in all boys schools. Shortage of teachers and facilities caused the introduction of a morning shift and an afternoon shift. To even it out the classes rotated every week.

The mandatory Junkvolk  demanded two afternoon sessions each week. Some parents embraced it, others not.

The list goes on and on and I am trying to write the book without sounding boring. But these details are important because in one of the reviews of Loyal to a degree,  a reviewer opinionated that “Karl” might have been “cleaned up”. Well, it cannot be denied that there was a highly concentrated effort by the Nazis to instill the Nazi doctrine into the minds of the children. It worked to their advantage that the children at that time were products of the Prussian upbringing, meaning unquestionable obedience.  But not all of us were numbed by it. Some of us had grandparents which were also influential on our developing minds.

Anyhow, I am getting ahead of myself. All I wanted to say was that I am still thinking about the title.

If I don’t experience too many interruptions, I hope to have the book published during the month of October.

In the meantime I like to thank my readers who bought “Trust to a degree”. I hope that you are enjoying it.

Don’t hesitate, if you have any questions about it, to leave a comment.

Chris Haas just emailed me that she is done with the formatting, and all the other details which precede the publishing with kindle. She was ready to do it today, but I was dragging my heels. I mean would you publish your book on Friday the 13th.?

See??

So we decided on tomorrow, Saturday, September the 14th. Better, much better in my humble opinion.

In the meantime I started to write the prequel and almost finished the third chapter today.

That’s for now.

Let me know how you liked “Trust to a Degree,” please.

First of all, please let me express my thanks for all your comments.

Frankly, I am a bit overwhelmed. The last two weeks were filled with writing and re-writing the final chapters of the second book, which kind of prevented me from paying attention to my website. I know that this is not a very good excuse because I should answer your comments in a timely manner. I will do better.

In order to answer your comments and questions in the most productive way, I  thought that it might be best to write this post. However, if I missed something, please let me know. It might take me a day or a week to get back to you, but, I will answer. Promise.

Now let’s start with Penny, who asked if some of the events were not true, since the book states that it is “Fiction based upon true events.” Penny, you are not alone with this question and I can assure you that all the events, places, and times are true. I took no literary license. I did however, change the names and family backgrounds, “father’s occupation” for example. The same is true of my second book “Trust To A Degree”. Again, no literary license has been taken. Due to the many questions I received regarding the time period between 1940 and 1945, I decided to write a prequel which will accurately describe how we were trained and schooled.  It will also describe the vast differences between the Prussian doctrine and the Nazi agenda. I am living now for over 50 years here in the USA and it is still interesting to me that most of my American  friends, as well as my readers, have no idea ( and how could they?) about the essential differences. Not to worry. The prequel will compel many readers to rethink, or at least understand, what was going on in the German school system as well as in the educational system under the Hitler regime. This book is not written by a “reporter” but by me. I entered the German school program in 1935. If you like to compare history, chances are you will find the prequel interesting.  No fluff,  just facts

Monika, I liked and I thank you for your comment in which you mentioned that your father was Russian. I understand why he traded his gold teeth towards his goal of freedom. I am sure that you are proud of him.  Your fathers story is very interesting and if you have any notes from him describing his fight for freedom you might think of writing a book about him. I am sure that you will find a wide audience. If you wish I’ll be happy to introduce you to my editor and my promoter and cover art designer. Just let me know.

My upcoming book “Partners To A Degree” will in a certain, however limited,  way touch on this subject. It will  report about the many Russian soldiers, as well as officers, who committed suicides when the “Iron Curtain’ came down and some of the Russian occupation troops were ordered back to Russia. There was no place to go for them….so they took  the easy way out! You had to know their alternatives  to understand.

Janie, thank you for your very kind words. Believe me, they are very much appreciated.  And you are right if you say that people don’t learn from history. But, on the other hand, Jamie,  it would be beneficial for these people if they would  keep one ear on the rails which lead from the past to the future. Believe it or not, you can hear a train coming, you always do!

Finally, Dorothy, thank you so much for your compliments. Coming from a retired school principal they mean not only a lot to me, but also show me that I am on the right track with my books. I am not trying to be a teacher or an educator. I am  just writing about a time in history when we “kids” did not have a voice.  Neither during the time things happened to us, like losing our parents,  or later on when we went hungry.  I am trying to give a voice to the children who died for an idea (not theirs) and the sad thing is, that they died believing that the SS  and the “Fatherland” was on their side.

No, I don’t know at this time what the name of the prequel will be, but I know that it will be published before the end of the year and between “Trust To A Degree” and “Partners To A Degree”. I will keep you informed.

If I missed someone, or a question, please let me know.

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During the last few days we had two (2) major events.

1)  Christina Haas, of Zenithbusinesssolutions, my promoter for the book , completed a stage of her public relation program and released the kindle version for two (2)  free days.

Today, the second day of the free days, by 10:21 am Pacific time, we experienced a total of 5037 downloads and we have still 1/2 day to go.

Yesterday, we were also  Nr. 1 in downloads in the Historical Fiction category and also Nr. 1 in downloads  in the World War Two category from Amazon.

As an unknown writer, I am more than impressed with the above numbers which are all due to Chris’s effort. If you ever need a virtual assistant, promoter or website builder, do yourself a favor and look her up. I have never met a more dedicated person to work with.  Have I mentioned that her services are extremely affordable?

I don’t know about our present standing because we are experiencing difficulties with our internet provider and our email provider.  From time to time we are being disconnected.

2) Chris also completed the formatting of our paperback book and released it yesterday. As of yesterday it is available here on our website and on createspace.com . We are told that within five days it will be available on amazon.com. It will also be available for ordering at your favorite book store. However, you  will not find it stocked at your regular bookstore because none of them will invest in inventory of an unknown author, but like I said, you will be able to order it.

Chris also designed the cover art for the paperback which is outstanding.  Thank you, Chris. Without your diligent work  it would be just a manuscript

I tell you, it is exiting for me to hold my first book in my hands. When Jenny, my wife, saw the proof copy of the paperback edition she shook her head and said to me : “I did not know that you know this many words.”

In the meantime I finished chapter 18 of my second book.  I am still close to my timeline to have the writing finished by the end of August. Release on Kindle by the middle of September? I will let you know.

We scheduled Tuesday the 13th of August and Wednesday the 14th of August as free days on kindle.

Please tell your friends.

Tomorrow I will bring you up to date in regard to our paperback releases.

A few days ago I drove to Las Vegas to visit my brother.

It was a nice and easy ride, Interstate 5 through Sacramento. Turning east on 58 through Bakersfield and Barstow , then on highway 15 to Las Vegas. All together 720 miles with a driving time of 11. 1/2 hours. The gas prices varied between $ 3.65  and $ 4.25. The traffic was light to none and there was not much difference between this ride and my usual annual rides during the last 20 years.

My surprise came when my brother took me downtown and I observed an unusual place. To make it short, they sold pre-mixed drinks, like Margaritas, to the passing tourists. No place to sit down, just the drinks over the counter.

So far, so good.

However, the prices were something else.  The least expensive drink was $9 and then up to $39. I was stunned, $20 on the average for a single drink. So I stopped and watched if this outfit really had customers. Well, I did not see anyone buying a drink for $39, however, there were plenty people who paid $15 – and then tipped another $5 on top of it.

The bartender did not even mix the drinks as they were all pre-mixed. They must be living in a different world than I am in.

On our ranch, we have to buy chicken feed and raise the chicks for over 1/2 year until they lay any eggs. Then we have to provide water and clean the chicken sheds, buy cartons for the eggs and finally sell the fresh farm eggs for $ 3.50 a dozen. . . and tips? What is that?

Hmmm……………..

Presently I finished chapter 12 of “Trust to a degree”.

I eliminated and changed many parts of previous chapters because I felt that there was no need to open up old memories and old wounds just to write about past events.

First of all, they are painful to remember, secondly they will serve no conceivable good,  thirdly there have been documents written about the atrocities committed following the surrender of Berlin………and ……nobody cared.

But more importantly nobody learned from it …..and I guess nobody ever will……..

I read in previous years that some of the allied “war reporters”  washed it away with the statement: “It was horrific, but after all the Germans had it coming”

Well, while this might be debatable,  there is one thing that for the life of me I don’t understand: ” How did the little 10 year old girls, being raped to dead, had it coming?”

So, I wrote what I witnessed and then deleted almost all of it. I “trashed”  it. That’s where it belongs. In the trash.

Therefore,  if you expect to read  detailed accounts about  brutality and rape….then I like to advise you not to read the book.  I choose d  not to write about it.

Instead I am writing about the strange  events as they unfolded for Karl and Harold by cooperating with a Russian political commissar.

It was a cooperation based upon mutual trust.

In retrospect, I think that in “normal”  times the relationship of trust, between 14 year old kids  and intelligence officers would be highly unlikely.

But, in 1945, in Berlin, given the complex personalities of the various Soviet political commissars and Russian military officers, combined with their personal  motivations, greed and revenge,…….well, I think that it might be worth your time to read about it,  because it is an interesting true account of highly unusual times.

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I think that I mentioned someplace before that we do some dog boarding.  (don’t worry, this is not a long drawn out post about pet sitting)  However,  this week our dog care service turned into a challenge.

My book cover designer, (yes, it is Chris Haas, again, she is a multi talented lady) informed me that she designed a new book cover for our upcoming  paper back edition.

She also decided to replace our current cover for the Ebook with the newly designed one.

I really like her art work and if you have any comments about it, please feel free to express yourself.

Personally, I never picked up a book because of it’s “Cover Art Work”,  but, the experts tell me that before a book is bought, it has to be picked up by the buyer. (sounds obvious?)  Anyway, these experts furthermore assert that about 80 % of the books being picked up are being selected because of the book’s cover.  (Really?)

So, who am I to argue?  I am happy to keep on writing and leave the rest up to people who know more about the intricacies of book publishing.

But, I do like the new cover.   A lot.