The Loyal German

Today, I’m celebrating.

Yesterday, I typed the words ‘The End’ into my laptop, completing the first draft of my next (and third) novel!

It’s a remarkable feeling to have finally put those words down, to finish telling my story from start to finish. There is still a crazy amount of work to do, but at least I’ve written the entire story and can, hopefully, stop agonizing over how to get from A to B to C to D. At over 106,000 words, I will have to pare it down to something around 80,000 to 90,000 which is the typical word count for commercial, historical fiction.
 
But that’s another day. Today, I’m celebrating!

The Loyal German is the story of a young Canadian newspaper correspondent, Clara Weber, who was raised by her father and indoctrinated to believe passionately in Germany’s cause. Determined to do her duty by serving the Reich, Clara travels to neutral Lisbon in 1941 where she works for the Nazis—until a shocking betrayal and the brutal realities of the regime begin to unravel everything she thought she knew. When Clara discovers her father is not who she thought he was, she is caught between his ideology and her growing conscience. Clara must decide where her true allegiance lies—even if it means sacrificing everything, she’s ever believed in.

In contemplating our current political climate, I became intrigued by the strict absolutism that seems to have gripped so many of us. We are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong. Our beliefs are infallible, and we would do anything other than admit there may be another viewpoint, that the world is not black and white. Shades of gray are unfathomable.

What would this look like for a young woman in 1941? How far would she go to exercise the ideology she has come to ascribe to? And what would it take to force her to re-evaluate her beliefs? By creating a character whose beliefs were entirely indoctrinated by her father, I wanted to explore someone whose misguided ideals were questioned, and see what this would do to her.

And so, another novel was born.

Just for fun, I like to imagine what my characters look like. Between my imagination and AI, here’s what the casting couch might look like when Hollywood comes calling. Hover over the photo to see who's who.
And stay tuned for a release date!

Clara Weber, protagonist

Walter Weber, Clara's father

David Paisley, Jr. Diplomat, British Embassy

Chip Sloane, American correspondent in Lisbon

Sophie Meitner, Clara's German handler

Mr. Willesden, SOE Agent

Jose, Portuguese fixer

Karl Brenner, German agent

Father Byrne