Heinrich Schmidt’s iconic image of Austerlitz-hof in the late 1920’s
At last.
After—how many years is it? roughly ten?—I just submitted the first volume of Two Suitcases to the publisher, WingSpan Press, the same people who published my fantasy, Journey to Mythaca, in 2006.
Red Vienna will be available in paperback or ebook format in about six weeks. I’m working on a website for it, which can be seen in its incomplete state here. At this point, nothing will happen if you push the “buy the book” button because there isn’t a book to buy yet, but if you sign up for the email list, you’ll be among the first know when it becomes available.
The trilogy, Two Suitcases, will eventually cover 1929 to 1942, from when the main characters, Gisi and Max, meet until they leave for America. The first two volumes are set in Vienna and the third in France.
When I began the book, which I thought would be one book and not three, I intended it to be a work of non-fiction, telling the story of my parents’ escape from Nazi Austria as accurately as possible. Early on, though, the characters began to claim their independence, and I made the decision to let the story unfold as it wanted. So, though most of the main characters are based on real people and some of them are historical figures, it’s not only the dialogue that I added. What could I do? The characters fell in and out of love, they developed quirks, their lives followed trajectories that might have happened, given the setting, but probably didn’t. It’s fiction.
I tried much harder to keep the setting accurate, which I think it is. Writing historical fiction is entirely different from writing fantasy. It takes years of reading and researching, probably the main reason all this has taken this long.
If you’d like a look into my writing process, much of it is explored on this blog in posts tagged “Two Suitcases.” Some of the posts are linked below.
The second volume, tentatively called Underground, is about half written and now I’m eager to get back to it. I hope it takes less than ten years to finish.
December 2018 “Two Suitcases- an update
January 2016 “Two Suitcases – in process”
January 2016 “Two Suitcases – an update and an excerpt”
January 2016 “Two Suitcases – an update and an excerpt”
August 2015 “Two Suitcases – progress and a little taste of what’s to come”
Eve Neuhaus 
Wonderful news! The current state of the world is such that the lessons of the era your books illuminate will provide essential cultural nutrients. There was a time and place when young people not only had hope, but were living that hope and building a future. Somehow, that energy was blunted, and a time of extreme and violent oppression overcame their generation, forcing many into desperate journeys, both geographical and inner. The frontier between lived hope and violent oppression has become almost as intense today; let us hope that your books can be widely and deeply read and can help guide today’s generations, worldwide, toward effective resistance to all forms of oppression and toward mutual empowerment to build tangible lives out of their (our) highest hopes!
Thanks so much, Eric. I hope it does some good. We’ll be in California in December. Hope to see you then!
EVE CONGRATULATIONS. HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT. EAGER TO READ IT.
LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO YOU AND TOM….JUDY JONES
Thanks so much, Judy!
Hello Eve! I plan