The Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Trabant and Showmanship

I was lucky enough to be living in Germany in 2009 during the 20^th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  It was celebrated by music and visits from foreign dignitaries.  The televised event was hosted by talk show host, Thomas Gottschalk, who is known as a flamboyant entertainer.  It would be a little like having Jimmy Fallon host the anniversary of the D-Day invasion.  Music and speeches were interspersed with fake replicas of pieces of the wall tumbling.  It was all showmanship and entertainment, and did not speak to the suffering and separation that went on during the division, and the conflicts, property disputes and economic difficulties that continued after reunification.  What happens after such a long separation?  Can there be a happy ending?  As a romance writer, I have to hope for one. 

Speaking of entertainment, on November 8th, the Spy Museum is hosting the 8th annual Parade of Trabants which they describe as follows:

"Despite their questionable performance and smoky two-stroke engines, these little cars are now affectionately regarded as a symbol of East Germany and the fall of Communism."

Here's the link:
http://www.spymuseum.org/calendar/detail/eighth-annual-parade-of-trabants/2014-11-08/

The spy museum's display showing how a Trabant could be retooled to hide multiple bodies inspired the way the character in Home Sweet Stranger escapes from East Germany. 

The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Truth, Fiction, and Hopes for a Happy End

The division of Germany was a painful divorce and in some cases the reunification was an uneasy remarriage.  Just because the Berlin Wall fell, doesn’t mean it took every barrier with it.  This is true in politics and debates about continuing inequality in the east, and the west’s financial burden.  But what about emotionally?  What happens to family and friends and to love?  Parents were separated from children through forced adoption, families were kept apart.  In many cases the parties had grown too far apart to ever come back together. 

The fall of the Wall could not automatically erase the atmosphere of distrust that had festered in East Germany, under the guidance of the Stasi—the secret police.  Simon Wiesenthal once said that the Stasi was more pervasive than the Gestapo.  The network of official members of the secret police was rounded out by countless unofficial members.  Neighbors spied on neighbors.  Spouses on spouses.  It raises the question, how could you trust anyone, even yourself?  The character that developed in this book, Home Sweet Stranger, Ellie Meyer, no longer trusted her parents after they took her with no warning from East Germany, she no longer trusted herself, wondering if she had done or said something that had put them in danger in the first place. When she is reunited with her former friend after the fall of the Wall, she no longer trusts her emotions.  What happens when your heart remain loyal despite what you’ve come to know is true?

The background in this novel is historically accurate to the best of my knowledge, based on what I’ve read, seen in documentaries and experienced living abroad. Forced adoptions were real, there were prisons that were not listed on maps, parents accidentally gave their children overdoses of sleeping pills to keep them quiet as they were smuggled over the border into West Germany. The East German car, the Trabant, could be retooled to hide multiple bodies (see The Spy Museum in Washington D.C. for a detailed and shocking display). Just like after World War II, when the allied forces employed former Nazis in administrative positions, not every former Stasi member was rooted out after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  In fact the BsTU, the Federal Commission for the Stasi Records was accused of using former Stasi members as  consultants and giving them unsupervised access to the archives.  Even a generation later, people are still coming to terms with what happened.  Those former East German towns are still losing their children who continue to migrate westward, not for freedom, but for economics. 

And the property dispute that drives the plot in Home Sweet Stranger is based on the over two million disputes and applications for restitution that arose after the fall of the wall.  Here's an interesting article about one of those disputes: 

http://www.dw.de/two-families-and-the-house-in-sch%C3%B6nwalde/a-17132400

Even 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall people are still coming to terms with reunification and what came before.  This book was my attempt to give the political remarriage a happy end on the personal level. 

Westward migration even 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

This book, Home Sweet Stranger, was inspired by a news story about small former East German towns that were losing generations of young people to the west even 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  They were looking, not for freedom, but for economic opportunity, and they were mostly women.  History was repeating itself, but with an ironic twist.  Germany is the country that invented the term “wanderlust” in part to describe the migration of young men on their way to become journeymen and masters in their trades. And now the men were being left behind. I thought, what if one of the lost daughters came back?

Back in the Saddle in time for the 25th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

This book took about five years to write and revise working on it on and off from the time I got the idea living in Freiburg, Germany during the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  But the story has really been more than 25 years in the making since a trip I took through East Germany to West Berlin as a student back in 1988. I will never forget that surreal experience of stopping near the border between East and West and having our passports checked, while outside the guards, accompanied by German Shepherds were poking mirrors mounted on long poles under the train looking for people who might be clinging to the undercarriage to escape.  Although that scene made such an impression on me, it didn't make it into the book in the interests of keeping the protagonist's story as authentic as possible.  She escapes East Germany as a child in the trunk of a Trabant, and I have to thank a visit to the Spy Museum in Washington, DC for that. On display there is a cut-out of the East German make of car showing how many bodies could be hidden inside it. 

Home Sweet Stranger is now available for pre-order at Amazon. 

http://www.amazon.com/Home-Sweet-Stranger-Adria-Townsend-ebook/dp/B00OV3M460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414335080&sr=8-1&keywords=home+sweet+stranger

 

The Numbers Game

I was in touch with Bufo Calvin again who writes the I love my Kindle blog (http://ilmk.wordpress.com).  He has a unique perspective having been in the brick and mortar business of selling books.  He also has the ability, not just to crunch numbers, but to create a picture from raw data that the rest of us can see too.  I asked him if he is surprised by the number of books being added to the kindle collection now compared to this time last year.  I also asked him to weigh in on one of Amazon's latest moves, establishing the lending library which requires 3 months of exclusivity from its authors.  I'll let Bufo take it from here:  

 

"The number of books added per month hasn't changed a great deal. After February, we could do a comparison to the previous February, but let's look at January 2012 to February 2011:

February 2011

39,643 added

January 2012

41,868 added

However, there are fewer days in February than in January. When we look at average book added per day to the USA Kindle store, it's closer:

February 2011

1,416 average approximately

January 2012

1,351 average approximately

Am I surprised? A bit...I might have guessed that the rate of books being added would have noticeably accelerated in that time.

I would still suspect that at least two thirds of these are independently published. The Big Six American US trade publishers ( Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Group, and Holtzbrinck (which includes Macmillan) just don't publish that many in a month. 

There isn't enough data yet on the KOLL (Kindle Owners' Lending Library) to really evaluate its impact on authors yet. Some authors clearly benefit from it, according to Amazon's press release about the first month. You may find this post of mine helpful on that:

http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/295000-borrows-from-kdp-select-in-december/ 

Exclusivity is a huge benefit, and worth a lot of effort. Amazon says that it has three main tenets; selection; price; and service. Price is getting very hard to leverage in the e-book world. The Agency Model books don't allow it, and independently published books are comparatively low-priced. A twenty percent discount on an $20 book has a bigger impact on sales than a twenty percent discount on a three dollar book. The costs of sale on a three dollar book aren't going to be less in ratio to the difference in price. In other words, three dollars is fifteen percent of twenty dollars. The costs of Customer Service, accounting, and so on, for a three dollar book aren't going to be only fifteen percent of those of a twenty dollar book. In fact, the Customer Service costs on independently publisher books may tend to be higher than on a traditionally published book: they often have more issues due to less of a development process (such as editing and proof-reading).

Since price becomes less of a factor, Amazon needs to increase their advantages on selection and service. Amazon does a lot of things to win on the service front (the seven day "return" policy on Kindle store books, for example...last time I checked, neither Barnes & Noble nor Sony allowed e-book returns at any time). Exclusivity is a way to tip the balance on selection."

Bufo Calvin's informative blog can be found at:

http://ilmk.wordpress.com 

 

In related news, my brother-in-law just sent me an article from the January 30-February 5, 2012 Bloomsburg Businessweek entitled AMAZON WANTS TO BURN THE BOOK BUSINESS.  Thanks, Don!  While we Indies might have a preference for letters and want to keep our noses in (writing) a book, it's so important to be aware of the numbers. 

Bella Andre Uncensored

Here are some quotes I swept up off the cutting room floor here at the Dime Store from the interview with Nyree Belleville, aka Bella Andre, Bella Riley and Lucy Kevin: 

The interview ran in the Albany Times Union on August 14, 2011:

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Love-in-the-Adirondacks-1979756.php

“I’m happiest when I’m writing.  When I sink into a story those are my best hours.  My friends joke I’m the most bounce-back person.  I might be down one day but the next, I’m like—‘I’ve got plans!’  I think I’ve got a good sense of when to quit.  I used to be a singer/song-writer, I played with Crosby, Stills & Nash, I toured the world, and at some point, I said, ‘I think I’m sort of done with this.’  I was definitely bummed when my contract with Random House was not picked up again, but it was the best thing that ever happened, because I got into self-publishing.  It’s ridiculously rewarding.  I don’t say when a door closed a window opened—it’s like the whole wall flew off!”

“I have a copy editor who also does content when I need it and a proofer.  And my critique partners!  Last night I was on the phone for a couple hours with one of my critique partners and as a result of that I’m going to throw out my ending."

“It helps that I had 11 books out through publishers.  I know the reader set and the process.  The upside to self-publishing?  It’s fun, I can say, ‘I’m going to do whatever I want!’ But there are nice things about having a publisher, and an editor, someone at the end who gives you the final rubber stamp that means you’re done.  That’s the toughest part of self-publishing, looking at your book before it goes up and asking, ‘is this good enough?’”

“I’ve always felt if I give up I’m not there with my lottery ticket.  You have to keep plugging away.  Keep putting stuff out there.” 

“I check Kindle boards a couple times a day.  It’s my news source.  Amanda Brice was on there well before her book came out, being involved, taking note.  I can see why she’s taking off.  She was out there picking up the knowledge.  She came out already breaking into the upper 2,000.”

For more info on this fun and clever writer, visit her website: 

www.BellaAndre.com

Bella Andre, Bella Riley and Lucy Kevin at the Dime Store

Here's the interview with Bella Andre, Bella Riley and Lucy Kevin that I promised to post a while back.  Three pen names--one prolific author!  She was so much fun to talk to.  I'll be sweeping up the cutting-room floor here at the dime store soon to post some of the Q&A that didn't make it into the article. 

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Love-in-the-Adirondacks-1979756.php

From the Albany Times Union, published August 14, 2011

Every summer, California girl Nyree Belleville trades the west coast for Piseco Lake in the Adirondacks. The romantic setting is the perfect getaway for a prolific romance writer who has published 18 books so far. It also proves the perfect backdrop for a new series. The first of her Adirondack trilogy, Home Sweet Home (Hatchette/Forever, 386 pages, $5.99) will be released September 27th under the name Bella Riley as both a mass market paperback and ebook. Bella Riley is just one of her pennames. The Times Union caught up with Nyree Belleville, aka, Bella Andre, Bella Riley and Lucy Kevin by phone.

Q: You were born and raised in California and live in Sonoma. How did you discover the Adirondacks?

A: My husband’s grandparents were from Linden, New Jersey and they built their Adirondack camp on Piseco in 1940, a few minutes outside of Speculator. He’d been going there every year of his life. Fifteen years ago, I started going with him. Five years ago we bought an hundred-year-old cabin across the lake.

Q: Do you plan to take a break at the lake?

A: I don’t take breaks, not recently. I work full, full time in California. I’m trying to look at my schedule though and load up more now; it would be nice if I could actually spend some time on the beach there.

Q: Can you tell us about your trilogy?

A: The Bella Riley books about the Adirondacks are set with the seasons on a lake I made up called Emerald Lake. The first has the fall festival on the lake. The next centers around maple tapping in the spring, and the third is about Christmas. In my mind I’ve created a perfect Adirondack town. I want to make readers feel how beautiful it is there, the blue water and the mountains. I don’t mention the bugs. I don’t want to ruin the fantasy. I always think, I’d better get my tan before we go. The bugs think I’m so delicious. I’m always wearing long sleeves, long pants and a hat. 

Q: You’re interested in not just the local landscape but local history as well. You say you get inspiration from the Adirondack book section in the Lake Pleasant library in Speculator, and from letters a lakeside neighbor has shared with you dating back to the 1920s. Does history make it into your novels?

A: The Shelburne Museum in Vermont has an old carousel that came from Speculator. When I saw it, I said, ‘that is going in my book.’ The plot in Home Sweet Home revolves around that carousel and land development.

Q: You’ve written very popular erotica under the name Bella Andre. Are your Bella Riley books different?

A: They are heart-warming, small-town romances. There are still love scenes in them, but I’ve revised them to tone them down and not use explicit language.

Q: Will there be any crossover of your audience who reads your Bella Andre books?

A: It helps I’m using the same first name. Bella is still Bella. Grand Central [a division of Hatchette Book Group] is designing the cover flaps to make it clear that Bella Riley writes as Bella Andre. As a rule people who read sexy stuff read everything.

Q: What was your first book?

A: I started in 2003, and wrote Ecstasy (published by Ellora’s Cave). It was a ridiculous amount of fun.

Q: You were a singer, a songwriter, you played with Crosby, Stills and Nash, you’ve been published with Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Hatchette Books, but you’re having your greatest success now as an independent author.

A: I was definitely bummed when my contract with Random House was not picked up again, but it was the best thing that ever happened, because I got into self-publishing. It’s ridiculously rewarding. I don’t say when a door closed, a window opened—it’s like the whole wall flew off!

Q: You have a total of 10 ebooks available online. How many have you sold so far?

A: 170,000 copies.

Q: You’ve cultivated your audience over the years and have a close relationship with your fans. 

A: We understand each other pretty well. They know the kind of book I like to write and I write the kind they want to read.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m about to launch the first of my 8-book Sullivan family series totally on my own. I’ve gained the skill set I need in the last year. Traditionally getting an 8-book deal would be difficult, the publishers would want to see how the first few do, etc. At the end of the day, the ebook revolution is fantastic and has created a lot of opportunity. But it all comes down to the story. It’s wonderful to make a good living. It’s really exciting to tell and share these stories.

Q: You’re extremely prolific and plan to have three more books out by the end of the year. What are your writing habits?

A: I do a lot of revision. My style of writing is not something I recommend. It’s fairly painful. The first draft comes very quickly [about a week sometimes]. I see a book take shape and see what it’s about. Unfortunately when I realize what it’s about I have to throw out a lot. Like the ending to the book I’m working on now. That’s 30 or 40 pages. It takes a long time to do those two or three final passes. I probably change every sentence four or five times.

Q: What’s it like having such a busy writing career and being the mother of two small children? 

A: My kids get who Mommy is. Mommy works a lot. My desk is in the playroom. I don’t write when they’re around. It’s impossible. But there are so many peripheral things that go on and I can do that kind of stuff once they’re back from school. My husband has picked up the slack and gone above and beyond. I have a really awesome husband.

www.bellaandre.com

paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Home-Sweet-Emerald-Lake-Novel/dp/0446584215

kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Home-Sweet-ebook/dp/B004QZ9PB0