Author: Erika Davis

In a 1956 letter, sent forty-two years after her house was built, Anna Bach continued to extend architect Frank Lloyd Wright her “richest blessings” in gratitude for it. It was, she described, “not only a livable house but a loveable home.”

And now, sixty-three years after that letter and 105 years after the home was built, author Robert Hartnett offers his own blessings and analysis.

Master Wings’ 2019 title, Frank Lloyd Wright’s $10,000 Home: History, Design, and Restoration of the Bach House, details with heavy imagery both the creation and renewal process.

Author Bob Hartnett sat down with us and answered a few questions on the title. Learn more about his creative process and why you should add this book to your reading list:

1. If you could ask Frank Lloyd Wright one question, what would it be?

I would like to ask Frank Lloyd Wright what he thought were the major influences on his architecture. Many people have said that Wright was influenced by five major themes, including: (1) Louis Sullivan, (2) nature, (3) the Frobel Blocks, (4) Japanese Art Prints, and (5) music. I would like to know if Wright would agree with the items listed here, or if he would have a completely different list, or if he would even have a list at all.

2. Are there any other architects or buildings that you are interested in? Why?

I have been interested in both Louis Sullivan’s work and Henry Hobson Richardson. Both men had an influence on Wright’s early work. I have liked Sullivan’s work for his interpretation of natural elements in his designs. Richardson’s work, which has become known as Richardson Romanesque, also has such an interesting and dominating look.

3. Did anything surprise or particularly impress you when researching?

I would say one of the things I found most surprising and rewarding was how forthcoming and helpful all the people I interviewed for the book were. I spoke with people from Oregon to Massachusetts, and each person I spoke with was supportive and willing to share their time and experience with me.

4. What are you reading or watching currently?

During the quarantine, I have kept busy watching some different television series. Very recently, I started watching the movie series (don’t laugh) The Hobbit, and I plan on following that up with the rest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The two books I have read most recently were Mind Hunter by John E Douglas and Mark Olshaker, which was about the creation of the FBI’s behavior analysis unit, and I Hear You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, which is the story of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran’s life as a MAFIA hitman, and his involvement in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.

5. What is your writing process like?

I try to start with an outline of sorts, and then begin to research the topic I have chosen. I have several books on Frank Lloyd Wright in my personal library, so that is where I began to flesh out the story I am trying to convey. Sometimes this can be difficult, because I will find out that what I found in one book is contradicted by another author. In my writing, I work to get conformation from multiple sources before using a particular fact.

6. What was the hardest part of the project?

I would say that one of the hardest things to deal with is the amount of misinformation there is in the “Wright World.” Often, something will be written down that was taken out of context to make an author’s point, and then that statement gets repeated by others until it is taken as a fact, when it might not actually be completely true. When I have come across items like this, I must always ask myself, “What makes you an expert?” I do not have a degree in art, architecture, or even journalism, but I do work to be a detailed researcher.

7. Why should people read this book?

I think anyone who has an interest in Wright’s architecture would enjoy this book. One of the chapters I am most proud of is the chapter on Wright’s use of elements from Japanese architecture in this mid-western home. I think people who read this chapter in the context of the Bach House will then be able to transfer the principles I have pointed out to other work Wright had done. I also think that the book provides a good account of Wright’s 1910 – 1915 career.

Click here to order your copy of Frank Lloyd Wright’s $10,000 Home: History, Design, and Restoration of the Bach House today!

Check out this new review of one of our first titles, The Monroe Building: A Chicago Masterpiece Rediscovered. Just like the building the book is about, this large coffee table volume continues to captivate and inspire long after its creation.

The author of this review is Heidi Ruehle, who is currently the Executive Director at Unity Temple Restoration Foundation.

Unity Temple, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a National Historic Landmark and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. If you’re interested in learning more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s works, you can peruse Unity Temple Restoration Foundation’s website or our other architecture title, Frank Lloyd Wright’s $10,000 Home.

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The Monroe Building: A Chicago Masterpiece Rediscovered, is not just a book about the glorious rehabilitation of a prominent, early Chicago skyscraper, it also delves into the history of the numerous players who brought the building to life.

The most notable figure in the Monroe Building’s rebirth, owner Jennifer N. Pritzker, demonstrates her passion for architectural preservation while upholding her commitment to the long-term economic value of the building. It appears no detail was overlooked in the painstaking process of restoring and reproducing original design elements that were damaged, destroyed, or merely forgotten. Pritzker has gifted Chicago with an extraordinary example of the city’s architectural prominence and resiliency.

Authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams devote the first half of the book to weaving together the personalities and relationships of the developers Peter and Shepherd Brooks, architects Holabird & Roche, building manager Owen Aldis, notable tenants, and other relevant contributors. The authors engage readers with historical photos and interesting accounts of the building’s contractors, craftsmen, and even architectural critics of their time.

Part II is dedicated to the comprehensive restoration and rehabilitation of the Monroe Building, filling the pages with the contemporary photos of Alexander Vertikoff. His eye for detail and composition helps readers fully realize the beauty and elegance of the building in relation to its imposing neighbors. Vertikoff’s thoughtful photography reveals the Monroe Building’s remarkable craftsmanship and complex materials, inviting readers to experience the building from points of view not readily available to bystanders at street level.

The Monroe Building was an absolute pleasure to read, fostering a newfound appreciation for a building designed to embrace the past, predict the future, and stand the test of time.

Review by Heidi Ruehle, Executive Director, Unity Temple Restoration Foundation

The Other Side of the Wire by Harold Coyle offers a plethora of resources for diverse parties. Aside from the comprehensive appendix full of historical context within the novel itself, its publishing company Master Wings Publishing has also worked to provide resources online. Check out a reading discussion group questions here, an analysis of the cover design here, or an author interview here.

Below is our next contribution: a curated pulled passage followed by reading comprehension questions suited for and created conscious of the requirements and the question types present in the SAT.

As per the SAT standards, these questions and text selection offer best application in the range in level from grades nine to ten to postsecondary entry levels.

This practice test can be used for free and includes an extensive answer key with explanations and details on question types.

If you would like a pdf or other version of this template, please reach out to us.

We would love to hear from you if this worked in your classroom for your own practice – and if you’re gripped and want to read more of Hannah’s story, The Other Side of the Wire is available for purchase here.

Directions:

Each passage or pair of passages below is followed by a number of questions. After reading each passage or pair, choose the best answer to each question based on what is stated or implied in the passage or passages and in any accompanying graphics (such as a table or graph).

Questions 1 – 4 are based on the following passage.

LITERARY NARRATIVE: This passage is presented from the novel The Other Side of the Wire by Harold Coyle (©2020 by Master Wings Publishing)

1. Over the course of the passage, the main focus of the narrative shifts from the

A) reservations a character has about the present to the concerns a character has about the future.

B) willingness of a character to challenge surroundings to fear of disruption of expectations.

C) role of a character in immediate environment to a different external role expected of the character.

D) positive values a character attaches to family to a rejection of that sort of hierarchy in favor of personal accomplishment.

Content: Rhetoric (big picture/main idea)                  Key: A

Objective: You must describe the overall structure of a text.

Explanation: Choice A is the best answer. There are a couple of reservations detailed in the beginning of the passage, specifically about Riese (line 14) and Hannah’s rocky relationship with other members of the household (lines 25- 26). Hannah’s conversation with the cook about these current concerns leads her to extrapolate expectations and fears of the future, and she demonstrates “despair” (line 40) and is “troubled” (line 49).

Choice B is incorrect because while Hannah does fear the expectations set for her, as shown in her presentation as a “troubled girl” (lines 49-50), she does not show a strong effort to challenge her surroundings at the beginning of the narrative. Although Hannah is confused by her father’s choice in orderly, she explicitly “didn’t bother to ask” questions, something that is depicted as a regular practice of hers (line 17).

Choice C is incorrect because while Hannah is told to expect a future where she will run a household and have a family of her own (lines 45 – 49), she is already playing a similar role of maintaining a “warm, safe home” in her current situation as noted by the narrative (lines 35 – 39). Hannah’s current situation and expected future situation are expected to be same.

Choice D is incorrect because while Hannah does seem unsatisfied with the idea of a future defined by her role as a caretaker, (lines 50 – 51), at no point does she explicitly reject her family or express a concrete decision of terms of new priorities for her future.

2. In the context of the passage, the author’s use of the phrase “such a worm of a man” (paragraph 1) is primarily meant to convey the idea that:

A) Hannah is not attracted to Riese.

B) Riese is a lowly creature dominated by others.

C) Riese is disliked by his peers.

D) Riese is incompetent and unable to complete his responsibilities.

Content: Rhetoric (function question)                        Key: B

Objective: You must determine the main rhetorical effect of the author’s choice of words.

Explanation: Choice B is the best answer. Riese acted after just a “frown while glancing in his direction,” (line 13) and it is openly stated that Hannah terrifies and intimates him. (line 22, line 27). He is an underling (line 5) and responsible in this passage for taking care of the dirty laundry (line 17) which is historically not a prominent position.

Choice A is incorrect because although Hannah does seem “troubled” (line 49) at the prediction that she will end up with a man like Horst (line 46), this line is in reference to Riese and Hannah’s romantic feelings toward Riese are not mentioned in the passage.

Choice C is incorrect because while Hannah’s distaste for Riese is made clear, there is no reference to how others feel toward Riese. If anything, the fact that he holds his position and was spending time recreationally in Hannah’s home implies that Riese is thought of positively by others.

Choice D is incorrect because while Riese does spring into action upon Hannah’s suggestion, (lines 16-20), he has not failed at his task. He may be slightly behind or delayed, but he does seem to be capable and active.

3. The descriptions in the final paragraphs indicate that what Hannah has in conflict with Frau Sander is her

A) expectations for the future.

B) ability to frighten others.

C) optimism for the future.

D) love for her family.

Content: Information and Ideas (detail question)       Key: C

Objective: You must characterize the relationship between two individuals in the passage

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer. Frau Sander is smiling (line 44) but Hannah is troubled (line 49) and feeling “desperation” (40).

Choice A is a tempting answer, but it is incorrect because while Hannah is not excited about the future, she does believe that Frau Sander is not incorrect in her predictions. They both have the same expectations.

Choice B is incorrect because while Hannah is able to intimidate Riese where Frau Sander is not, Frau Sander’s prediction for Hannah’s future despite her good intentions does upset Hannah. They both have frightened someone in this passage.

Choice D is incorrect because although Hannah is worried about a future focused solely on family, she does care for her family (lines 35-36) and works to provide them with a warm, safe home just as Frau Sander does. Consider Frau Sander “humming” as she prepares a meal (line 3).

4. As used in line 8, the word “ersatz” most nearly means

A) traditional.

B) old.

C) inferior.

D) cheap.

Content: Rhetoric (vocabulary in context)                 Key: C

Objective: You must determine the meaning of a word in the context in which it appears.

Explanation: Choice C is the best answer because the context makes clear that “ersatz” was in contrast to something someone was “enjoying” (line 7), something “real” (line 7), and something one had to “settle for” (line 9).

Choice A is incorrect because although ersatz is an old word that rose to prominence during WWI, at no point in the relevant sentence does it refer to or imply that the opposite coffee is modern.

Choice B is incorrect in a similar fashion to Choice A. The opposite of “real” (real 7) and enjoyable (line 7) is not old.

Choice D is incorrect because while it may be implied by the narrative that Hannah lives a comfortable and wealthy life, it is not explicitly stated nor tied to the household’s choice in coffee. There is no reason to think that the coffee is expensive, though it does seem exclusive.

In the publishing world, a book cover is a critical component to success. Compelling design makes a strong first impression before the audience even reads a single word. It sets the mood and takes the first swing at a sales pitch. The cover’s overall purpose is to give away just enough to persuade the reader and capture the story inside, without revealing too much.

There are overt themes to Harold Coyle’s newest work of historical fiction, The Other Side of the Wire, like World War II and coming-of-age, but there are quieter points of investigation as well that are still prominent and important: ideas like identity, isolation, and innocence. When designing and selecting a cover for this recent Master Wings Publishing release, it was important that the final choice would as much as possible represent the full picture of the novel. This was, in the end, why the final cover was chosen over other options. As the author Harold Coyle explains, it “comes closest to reflecting all the themes of the story.”

Below you can see a few initial drafts for the cover that were not selected. While they are all striking, and definitively demonstrate an understanding of the text, we decided the final cover of the child standing alone, peering through a fence, pulls sentiment more strongly than the smoke and flags of draft one, for example, and illustrates the searching and role of the novel’s main character better than the face-on appearance of the second option. We wanted the audience to know upon simply viewing the cover that this was a book about a child, set in World War II, striving for identity and justice in a large and oppressive world. Cover one gives us no depiction of the protagonist, potentially leading a causal viewer to think it was a maneuver and military heavy title, and the protagonist on cover two sits far more strongly, largely, and passively than the actual main character behaves.

Which cover do you like best? Why? Do you agree with our decision?

The book is available for purchase here. For some other discussion points and investigation of themes check out our list of discussion questions here.

When educator Tiffany P. picked up The Other Side of the Wire, she could not put it down. “I read it in one night because it was so gripping,” she wrote. “I felt like I was there, in that point in history.”

Harold Coyle’s latest work is a thought-provoking, historical fiction book that not only tells an empathetic, coming of age transgender story, but also delivers on Coyle’s thorough research of the WWII time period.

Recent Master Wings Publishing release, The Other Side of the Wire, is a great book club pick, as it explores a wide range of subjects that inspire not only internal introspection of themes and expectations but also an external exploration of both the past and present. Below, we have pulled together several questions to help kickstart discussions on the title.

Caution: some oblique spoilers follow.

Focus on individuals:

1. How did your opinion of the characters change as the book progressed?
2. Were you ever mad or frustrated with Hannah, the main character? Why?
3. Consider Hannah’s relationship with Wolfgang and Siegfried. Is she a good sister? What makes a good sibling?
4. When growing up, Hannah and her friends nickname a hated teacher “the Blonde Cow.” What cruel nicknames have you encountered in your own life? Were they deserved?
5. Throughout the novel, Hannah repeatedly insists that “luck has nothing to do with this or anything else I do.” Do you believe in luck? Do you think Hannah is lucky?

Focus on family:

6. Have you ever disagreed with your parents/ family? What about and why?
7. Hannah’s biological and adopted family tried to shield her from the reality of the world. Did your family ever keep difficult truths from you? How did you feel when you found out the truth? To what extent is this kind of action acceptable?
8. Do you see family, like Ernst Richter did, as an escape isolated from the rest of the world?
9. Hannah reacted very differently to losing her biological father as she did to losing Lena Richter. Why were these responses different? Have you ever lost someone close to you? How did you react?
10. Hannah is pressured to consider Peter Bauer and then Horst Fischer as acceptable matches. Have you ever experienced similar romantic pressures from your family? How did you react?

Focus on community:

11. Have you ever been willfully ignorant, as Hannah was? Was there a tipping point where you could no longer ignore things?
12. Do you feel pressured by the public’s perception of your gender to play a certain role?
13. When Hannah meets her idol, Madam Delome, it does not at all go as she expected. Have you ever met someone you admired/ a celebrity? How was the experience? Did they live up to your expectations?
14. What scene has stuck with you the most, and why?
15. What surprised you the most about the book? Did you learn any new historical information? Were you inspired to investigate any topic in further detail?

To see how the author, Harold Coyle, answered some questions of their own check out this interview.

If you are interested in ordering bulk copies of this book for your book club, reach out via email to discuss discount opportunities.

We would love to hear any of your thoughts on these questions—feel free to comment on this post or find us on social media.

Master Wings Publishing recently released The Other Side of the Wire by Harold Coyle, a thought-provoking fictional novel that not only tells an empathetic transgender story, but also delivers on Coyle’s thorough research of the time period.

The book is available for purchase here.

With an extensive glossary and sixteen pages of historical notes included, The Other Side of the Wire and Master Wings Publishing work hard to be a resource and spark varied interests. And beyond that, we are happy to share now five titles that provide valuable accompanying material for anyone reading The Other Side of the Wire, or for anyone interested in its subjects of WWII, coming-of-age stories, Jewish heritage, and gender identity.

1. The Mascot: Unraveling The Mystery Of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem

ISBN: 9780452289949

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Link: http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/85162077

When a Nazi death squad raided his Latvian village, Jewish five-year-old Alex escaped. After surviving the winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Latvian SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little “corporal” in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre.

If, after reading Hannah’s tale in The Other Side of the Wire, you wanted to know more about the struggle and conflict that comes from the effort to survive as a Jewish child amongst Nazis in WWII, Mark Kuzem’s The Mascot is the choice for you. Its publisher describes it as “a survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama” that “asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness.”

2. The Nazi Officer’s Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn-Beer

ISBN: 9780062378088

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Link: http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/42027548

Edith Hahn was a law student and outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith’s protests and even her eventual confession that she was Jewish, he married her and kept her identity a secret. In wrenching detail, Edith recalls a life of constant, almost paralyzing fear.

It is, as Publishers Weekly notes, “important both as a personal testament and as an inspiring example of perseverance in the face of terrible adversity. Edith Hahn-Beer’s gripping memoirs offer a true glimpse of the particular internal conflict that formed the basis for The Other Side of the Wire’s characters.

3. When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation 1940-1944 by Ronald C. Rosbottom

ISBN: 9780316365987

Genre: Nonfiction

Link: http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/883357213

On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. When Paris Went Dark evokes with precision the detail of daily life in a city under occupation, and the brave people who fought against the darkness. It relies on a range of resources–memoirs, diaries, letters, archives, interviews, personal histories, flyers and posters, fiction, photographs, film, and historical studies– to produce a vivid and haunting picture.

Hannah, the main character of The Other Side of the Wire, spends some critical time in occupied Paris and this title expands on that sphere, also illuminating the context of supporting character Madame Delome. With this work, Rosbottom offers the reader a more precise understanding of a world Coyle brushes up against and several of his characters are shaped by.

4. Survival in Auschwitz and The Reawakening, Two Memoirs by Primo Levi translated by Stuart Woolf

ISBN: 9780671605414

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Link: http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/12810204

The author describes his twenty month ordeal in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in what one Amazon reviewer describes as a text “bereft of memory’s distorting fiction yet enriched by a compassion for suffering.” Through much of The Other Side of the Wire’s text, Hannah is ignorant of the horrors around her—this is a painful but necessary account of those horrors.

5. The Brigade: An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and World War II by Howard Blum

ISBN: 9780060194864

Genre: Nonfiction

Link: http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/library/online-catalog/view/oclc/46504694

This nonfiction title recounts the activities of three men known as the Brigade, who, amidst the turmoil of post-war Europe, eliminated Nazi officers in hiding and engineered the rescue and transportation of Holocaust survivors to Palestine.

If you wanted to know more about vengeance and activity immediately following the war, a topic that The Other Side of the Wire touches briefly on in its final chapters, this is the book you should read. A carefully researched work, The Brigade adds a harrowing but triumphant accounting.

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There are many vital and important titles on this subject matter. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a list that will help any individual better understand the period and its implications. As Coyle writes, to ignore this past “is to condemn future generations to the horrors and suffering our forebears endured.” Read Coyle’s full interview on our blog here.

All of these titles and many more, including film and podcasts, are available for members to borrow at The Pritzker Military Museum and Library, which is now carefully reopening and offering express library service. Visit this link for more information!

Harold Coyle broke into the literary scene with his techno-thriller novel Team Yankee in 1987, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. “Coyle’s unusual skill as a novelist brings to life the realities of combat as very few writers are able to do. I found it absorbing, exciting, and was literally unable to put it down,” writes author W.E.B. Griffin on Team Yankee. This book was followed by other works of speculative military fiction as well as historical novels set in the French and Indian War, the American Civil War, and, more recently, World War II.

The author’s latest piece of work, titled The Other Side of the Wire and published by Master Wings Publishing, is a thought-provoking, historical fiction book that not only tells an empathetic coming of age story, but also delivers on Coyle’s thorough research of the time period.

To give you an inside look into the author’s new books and the characters you will encounter, we interviewed Harold Coyle. Learn more about his process as an author and why this should be the next book on your list below.

What motivated you to write this book? How did this story first come to be?

Two films, Europa, Europa and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas caught my interest, in that they presented storylines that were unique and compelling.

Europa, Europa is the true story of Solomon Perel, a German Jew who survives the Holocaust by being adopted by a German army officer and assuming the guise of a dedicated member of the Hitler Youth.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a fictional story that tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of a camp commandant’s eight-year-old son who befriends a Jewish boy interned in his father’s camp, ignorant of what goes on in the camp or the fate that awaits the boy in the striped pajamas.

What did you learn when writing the book? Did anything surprise you?

Three items stand out.

The first was just how important the families of men responsible for the Holocaust were to them, for they provided them with the social support they needed that allowed sane, rational men to cope with what they were doing in the camps. While the men did their utmost to shield their families from the horrors they were perpetrating, the adult members of the families went to extremes to either avoid finding out what was going on in the camps or pretend it was not happening.

The second was just how involved Adolf Eichmann, and by extension, the Nazi Party, was in attempting to coerce and, to some extent, aid in the emigration of German and Austrian Jews to Palestine under the Haavara Agreement, which was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist Federation of Germany.

The final item concerned the early effort in the field of gender reassignment. Contrary to popular beliefs, gender reassignment was being aggressively pioneered by Dr. Ludwig Levy-Lenz, a gynecologist associated with Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexology in Berlin between 1925 and 1933. He performed the first known male-to-female reassignment surgery on Dora ‘Dorchen’ Richter in 1931. Even more surprising was the fact Levy-Lenz was allowed to return to Berlin in 1936 as part of the Nazi Party’s effort to stifle anyone’s concerns about what was going on in Germany during the run-up to the 1936 Olympics. Of course, when the games were over, Levy-Lenz was once more banished.

Was the main character inspired by a real person? If so, who?

Solomon Perel, a German Jew born in 1925. In 1935 his family fled Germany to Lodz, Poland when Perel was ten after the shoe store owned by his father was pillaged and he was expelled from school. Through a series of misadventures that prove fact is, indeed, stranger than fiction, Perel was adopted by a German Army officer and became a member of the Hitler Youth. After World War II, Perel immigrated to Israel where he fought in the 1948 Israeli war for independence and, after the war, became a businessman.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Write what you know and when the story is ready to be written.

What are you reading currently?

Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War, Volume I: July 1937-May 1942 by Richard B. Franks. I am also listening to the audiobook Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell when exercising.

Do any authors/titles have a strong influence on your writing?

James Michner and Shelby Foote, both of whom possess a narrative style that does not get in the way of the story.

What did you edit out of the book?

In an effort to maintain the focus of the story on Hannah and what she saw and experienced, I intentionally avoided any depictions of what occurred in the camps. The closest I come is in Chapter Nineteen when Madam Delome tells Hannah and Frau Sanders what she does in the camp.

What is your writing process like?

For lack of a better way of describing it, it is episodic. When a story is ready to be written, I write it, usually between the hours of 2:00 AM and 7:00 AM when the house is quiet, and I am rested. Intellectually, I’m pretty much a basket case after 12:00 noon, good only for feeding the animals here on the farm or mowing the lawn.

What was the hardest scene for you to write? Why?

Chapter Twenty, The Report. All items listed in the report mentioned in this chapter were lifted, verbatim, from ‘The Frank Memorandum’ dated 26 September 1942, issued by August Frank of the SS Main Economic Administration Office. The cold, dispassionate manner with which they were enumerated is, to me, disquieting, for each of those items meant something important to the person they were taken from. This was especially true of the gold teeth, brutally yanked from the mouth of corpses, and prams that once carried infants who were no more. Even now, the mere thought of this subject evokes a strong emotional response within me.

What life experiences have shaped your writing the most?

Writing the concept of operations that is found in paragraph 3, Execution, of the U.S. Army’s standard operations order. Seriously. In laying out how subordinate units will carry out an intricate combat operation, from start to finish, is not as easy as it sounds, especially when the people reading it are usually sleep-deprived, short on time, under pressure, and expected to carry out their role in the forthcoming operation on their own. Get it wrong or do a poor job, and the consequences, are immediate and consequential, even during training exercises.

Can you share any thoughts you might have on the character’s lives post the novel? Hannah’s childhood friends, or Horst?

In 1956 the West German government estimated that 570,000 German civilians died in World War II from all causes. If they survived, the lives of Hannah’s friends, Sophie and Gretchen, could easily have followed several, very different paths. Some Germans were virtually untouched by the war, either because they lived in small rural villages that were not on Bomber Commands target list or they were part of a family that were able to escape to secluded retreats in the Alps. Others were far less fortunate. 3.6 million homes out of sixteen million homes in 62 cities were destroyed, rendering 7.5 people homeless. To alleviate this problem, Allied powers in both East and West Germany ordered all women between fifteen and fifty to participate in post-war cleanup. These women came to be known as Trümerfrau, or ruins women who worked nine hours a day, earning 72 Pfennigs an hour. Another, less savory path to survival was prostitution. A lucky few, some 20,000 between 1945 and 1949, married American servicemen and emigrated to the United States as war brides.

Horst was a survivor. He became an ardent Nazi in order to escape the persecution of men like him suffered under the Nazis. In the immediate wake of the war, he would have fled Germany via the ratline, popularly known in literature and the Odessa organization, or ingratiating himself with the Western Allies occupation authorities by working for them in some capacity. In time, he would become a lawyer or a bureaucrat with the West German government in Bonn.

Wolfgang, raised by his grandparents, would go to college and become a professional of some sort, possibly an architect. He would spend the rest of his life revering his father, working with other children of high-ranking Nazis to rehabilitate Ernst’s memory and joining others who sought to deny the Holocaust ever happened.

Why should people read this book?

The Other Side of the Wire is a cautionary tale. Nelson Mandela said, “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.” This abuse can come in many forms. In the case of Nazi Germany, the entire educational system was structured to separate Germany’s youth from the traditional values that had made Germany a culturally and intellectually advanced society, replacing it with an ideology driven by hatred and blind, unquestioning obedience.

The ease with which the German youth were seduced by the Nazi leadership is a story that cannot be ignored, for it is happening again in various parts of the world today. As Hitler himself stated in a speech on November 6, 1933, “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already. . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time, they will know nothing else but this new community.’”

To pretend things to be otherwise is to condemn future generations to the horrors and suffering our forebears endured. To me, that would be a crime that makes what the Nazis did all the more terrible.

Click here to order your copy of The Other Side of the Wire, a Master Wings publication, today!

What’s harder to read than a doctor’s shorthand? An 18^th century doctor’s shorthand.

When putting together a manuscript that prides itself on its selections of primary source reference material, the value of typing up handwritten items is clear. The goal of any nonfiction project is accessibility—establishing legacy and providing to an audience greater than the author themselves. This is achieved through a presentation of primary source materials and analysis. And in most cases, these primary sources are presented in text form, typed up for the reader in the interest of flow and ease of understanding. The audience’s time is valuable, and the argument goes that they shouldn’t have to spend five minutes deciding if an n is an m.

But there is a clear benefit as well in presenting the image of the primary source directly. Hard-to-describe aspects like drawings and handwriting are best understood when seeing the item itself. These aspects can provide valuable data for analysis as well. Instead of several sentences detailing the type of stationary, the reader can take in this content with one glance.

Therefore, the best way forward for comprehensive titles dedicated to providing their audiences with the best product is to provide both transcription and image of primary source itself.

In Master Wings’ 2019 title, Frank Lloyd Wright’s $10,000 Home: History and Design of the Bach House, the book opens with a brief 1945 correspondence between Anna Bach and her architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Although Wright’s response is typed, Mrs. Bach writes pages in looping cursive that can be difficult to read. And moreover, these are photo reproductions printed in a six by nine inch book. A text version of these items is critical.

However, beyond the analysis we can make of the text itself—the brief but warm words of Wright, the evocative language of Mrs. Bach—with the image of the correspondence we can additionally consider things like: the significance of the handwritten note vs the typed one, what the elegance of Ms. Bach’s handwriting tells us about her character, and the absence of any errors or crossed out words in Ms. Bach’s letter.

Without the words, the burden would be placed upon the reader to decipher rather than allowing them to appreciate and analyze. Without the images, the reader would miss visual details and have a harder time of reconciling at the whole and the specific to pursue understanding.

The existence of a primary source in nonfiction in any form extends access and ethos to the item, but a thorough reproduction allows for the best experience and an elevation of understanding that could not arise from something partial. To that end, you’ll frequently see both an image and its transcription in many Master Wings titles.