My historical novel about WWII and the Sudeten Germans is moving along nicely now. It has a tentative title of Breadcrumbs and Bombs. I say tentative title because book titles often change before the book is published.
This book, as I’m writing it right now, is set in four places: Sacramento, California, in current times; the former Sudetenland during WWII; Prague, Czechovslovia also during WWII; and Bavaria, Germany, during and after the war. With all those settings, I have to have multiple point-of-view characters and I have to create their worlds. Not an easy thing to do. But I’m having lots of fun with this project.
I have all of my characters’ names and backgrounds figured out now, and most of the plot figured out, as well. I’m almost finished with the third chapter and from here on out, the writing should be faster than while I was working on the beginning of the book.
The research I’ve had to do for this book has been mind-boggling. Interesting, but also very sad and horrifying. As I continue writing the book, I still have do more research. What I’m learning is especially interesting for me because my mother’s family was greatly affected by the war. She and her mother and siblings were expelled from the Sudetenland and sent to Germany. They had never lived in Germany before, and I remember my aunt telling me that the Czechoslovakians didn’t want them and the Germans didn’t want them. It’s hard to think about their suffering, but I hope my book, when it’s finished, will help tell the story that many have kept quiet about for too long.