Ask the Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Answered Questions (48)
Ilsa J. Bick
Thank you! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed that series! At the moment, I have no plans for a fourth book. I keep saying that the only way I’ll do another book in the series is if the characters speak up and let me know that they’ve got more story to tell.
I’m sorry if this is disappointing, but I really did end the story where it needed to end at the time I wrote it. But never say never.
You have a wonderful day.
I’m sorry if this is disappointing, but I really did end the story where it needed to end at the time I wrote it. But never say never.
You have a wonderful day.
Ilsa J. Bick
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Ilsa J. Bick
You’re not bothering me. It’s an interesting question. I had read STALAG WISCONSIN maybe a year or so before I even conceived of this book and that was where I discovered, for the first time in my life, that the US had POWs and camps during WWII. Not something we were taught in school. There were a lot of stories about the camps in various towns. I tracked down where the camp nearest my town had been and went to see the site. That sparked my interest in POWs in the US in general and I got a bunch of books. Being Jewish and truly living across the street from the town’s Hebrew cemetery, which is very old and about which I’ve written in another story, I also got very interested in figuring out what had happened to the town’s Jewish population. At one point, Sheboygan, the town next over from where I lived, was called “Little Jerusalem;” there were over a thousand Jews there and, as I recall, about three or four synagogues, maybe more. It’s said that the Lubavitcher rebbe thought of locating Chabad there because you could reach Sheboygan on the St. Lawrence Seaway but eventually settled on Crown Heights.
One, very famous (locally) shul was of a Sephardic design (very common in the mid-1800s and at the turn of the century; London’s lousy with them) and was called “The White Shul.” The Sephardim were in the original wave of Jewish immigration that happened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; they went all over (there used to be a huge presence, for example, down South, in places like Savannah). These also with German Jewish immigrants were better off than the immigrants who came later in mid-century (around the 1860s, during the Land Grant years) and from places in Eastern Europe and Russia. These were, by and large Ashkenazi Jews (German Jews are, kinda technically, also Ashkenazi, but many shuls, especially in other countries and cities—again, like London—very explicitly say that they’re of the German persuasion). These are the people you think of for things like gefilte fish, borscht, and matzah balls. There were a lot of them, too, and they were encouraged to keep moving west to settle land in the same era as, for example, Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about. (Her family was part of the same migration west.) The Ashkenazi eventually outnumbered the Sephardim and that’s why when you think of “Jewish,” you’re thinking of a particular brand of Jewish. The ultra-Orthodox black hats and Chasids, for example, are followers of the Baal Shem Tov, a Jewish mystic who originated from Poland. Not to denigrate anyone, but his followers were not as well-educated or wealthy, but there were many, many more of them and Sephardic influence declined.
Anyway, going back to the White Shul...the site still exists, but the original building’s long gone. Eventually, the Jewish population in the area dwindled for a variety of reasons and what remains of the site and building has been converted into a Christian ministry. The towers and minarets are gone; the only thing that survives from the original building is a stained glass window at the back of the building that you have to know to look for.
Finally, there really was a pretty intense strike at Kohler company, which is the next town over from Sheboygan, back in 1934, not their first strike and not the last. Things got ugly; shots were fired by Kohler security folks (I mean, they had a machine gun); two strikers ended up dead and the National Guard was called in the next day. There was no big fire; no Jews got barbecued, but given how badly Jews have treated throughout history and how they are still seen as instigators of socialism...it could’ve happened.
Anyway, that’s where I got a lot of the ideas; I just conflated the strike (sort of) and the history of German POWs and Jewish history in the area. It’s stunning how many people—like everyone other than the very old, who are just about all gone now—who don’t know that, despite this cemetery, the history of the Jewish presence in this town. In fact, the cemetery is quite unique and visited by tons of people because the graves are old, sure, but there are also many graves with the dead shown on enamel plaques, a discarded style at this point.
I hope that answered the question. Here’s a brief article about the Jewish presence and history in Sheboygan and shuls there (https://smallsynagogues.com/sheboygan... I personally knew all the people quoted) and another on Kohler’s strikes (https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/...). Here’s a link to STALAG WISCONSIN (https://smile.amazon.com/Stalag-Wisco... there are many books on POW camps in the US, in fact.
Wow. Just writing all this makes me homesick for Wisconsin.
One, very famous (locally) shul was of a Sephardic design (very common in the mid-1800s and at the turn of the century; London’s lousy with them) and was called “The White Shul.” The Sephardim were in the original wave of Jewish immigration that happened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; they went all over (there used to be a huge presence, for example, down South, in places like Savannah). These also with German Jewish immigrants were better off than the immigrants who came later in mid-century (around the 1860s, during the Land Grant years) and from places in Eastern Europe and Russia. These were, by and large Ashkenazi Jews (German Jews are, kinda technically, also Ashkenazi, but many shuls, especially in other countries and cities—again, like London—very explicitly say that they’re of the German persuasion). These are the people you think of for things like gefilte fish, borscht, and matzah balls. There were a lot of them, too, and they were encouraged to keep moving west to settle land in the same era as, for example, Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about. (Her family was part of the same migration west.) The Ashkenazi eventually outnumbered the Sephardim and that’s why when you think of “Jewish,” you’re thinking of a particular brand of Jewish. The ultra-Orthodox black hats and Chasids, for example, are followers of the Baal Shem Tov, a Jewish mystic who originated from Poland. Not to denigrate anyone, but his followers were not as well-educated or wealthy, but there were many, many more of them and Sephardic influence declined.
Anyway, going back to the White Shul...the site still exists, but the original building’s long gone. Eventually, the Jewish population in the area dwindled for a variety of reasons and what remains of the site and building has been converted into a Christian ministry. The towers and minarets are gone; the only thing that survives from the original building is a stained glass window at the back of the building that you have to know to look for.
Finally, there really was a pretty intense strike at Kohler company, which is the next town over from Sheboygan, back in 1934, not their first strike and not the last. Things got ugly; shots were fired by Kohler security folks (I mean, they had a machine gun); two strikers ended up dead and the National Guard was called in the next day. There was no big fire; no Jews got barbecued, but given how badly Jews have treated throughout history and how they are still seen as instigators of socialism...it could’ve happened.
Anyway, that’s where I got a lot of the ideas; I just conflated the strike (sort of) and the history of German POWs and Jewish history in the area. It’s stunning how many people—like everyone other than the very old, who are just about all gone now—who don’t know that, despite this cemetery, the history of the Jewish presence in this town. In fact, the cemetery is quite unique and visited by tons of people because the graves are old, sure, but there are also many graves with the dead shown on enamel plaques, a discarded style at this point.
I hope that answered the question. Here’s a brief article about the Jewish presence and history in Sheboygan and shuls there (https://smallsynagogues.com/sheboygan... I personally knew all the people quoted) and another on Kohler’s strikes (https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/...). Here’s a link to STALAG WISCONSIN (https://smile.amazon.com/Stalag-Wisco... there are many books on POW camps in the US, in fact.
Wow. Just writing all this makes me homesick for Wisconsin.
Ilsa J. Bick
Hey, Roberta! How are you doing?
So sweet of you to ask. In a nutshell, I've taken a bit of a detour into more adult action/adventure stuff but am veering back to my first love, YA. I've got two books out for nibbles and just started working on a third. I'd say they're "disturbing." ;-) I might actually revamp one of the two out now and amp up that disturbing quality. Nothing gratuitous...it's just that I leap over several really horrendous episodes and the more I think about them, the more I think people need to experience them as they happen rather than in hindsight.
Now all I need is someone to like the books!
Stay well, stay safe.
So sweet of you to ask. In a nutshell, I've taken a bit of a detour into more adult action/adventure stuff but am veering back to my first love, YA. I've got two books out for nibbles and just started working on a third. I'd say they're "disturbing." ;-) I might actually revamp one of the two out now and amp up that disturbing quality. Nothing gratuitous...it's just that I leap over several really horrendous episodes and the more I think about them, the more I think people need to experience them as they happen rather than in hindsight.
Now all I need is someone to like the books!
Stay well, stay safe.
Ilsa J. Bick
Hey, there,
Well, I have a lot of "favorite" authors because if I'm reading your book and you're telling a thumpingly good story, then you're my favorite author. If your story's really ORIGINAL, then I want to know how you did it. (China Miéville just did that to me, for example.)
Having said that, I guess I'd pick Stephen King, primarily because even when his books and novellas are only so-so, he still knows how to tell a really good story. His sentences aren't even that fancy-schmancy, although he'll get you every now and again with a real zinger. Of all his works, the one I've come back to most often is SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN. The ending is weak...King, I think, has trouble with endings...but the first time I read that, I was gobsmacked. I didn't see the twist and NOTHING surprises me. I must've gone back over that story five or six times, teasing it apart, figuring out how he did it and if he played fair. He did...from the very first paragraph, the stinker.
Well, I have a lot of "favorite" authors because if I'm reading your book and you're telling a thumpingly good story, then you're my favorite author. If your story's really ORIGINAL, then I want to know how you did it. (China Miéville just did that to me, for example.)
Having said that, I guess I'd pick Stephen King, primarily because even when his books and novellas are only so-so, he still knows how to tell a really good story. His sentences aren't even that fancy-schmancy, although he'll get you every now and again with a real zinger. Of all his works, the one I've come back to most often is SECRET WINDOW, SECRET GARDEN. The ending is weak...King, I think, has trouble with endings...but the first time I read that, I was gobsmacked. I didn't see the twist and NOTHING surprises me. I must've gone back over that story five or six times, teasing it apart, figuring out how he did it and if he played fair. He did...from the very first paragraph, the stinker.
Ilsa J. Bick
Hey, there,
I would be happy to answer this question, but it requires more time and a better keyboard that I have right now. I’m in the middle of traveling and I will get to this as soon as I’m back in-country.
I would be happy to answer this question, but it requires more time and a better keyboard that I have right now. I’m in the middle of traveling and I will get to this as soon as I’m back in-country.
Ilsa J. Bick
Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry for the delay! I just now saw this question! At the risk of making you crazy...well, what do YOU think happens? Your answer is at least as valid as mind 😏
Ilsa J. Bick
LOL! Yes, I know; I’m a horrible person ;-)
Actually, there were two reasons I left the end the way I did. One, Tom said to Chris earlier in the book, when he says he doesn’t have all the answers and can’t tie things up neatly with a bow. The story is so huge and has so many ramification, you really could write another three, four books easy—and I might. But I had finished the story that needed telling right then.
The second reason: if you look at my other books, I rarely provide neat and tidy answers. Almost all end with a question, and I do that for a reason: not to drive you crazy but because life is uncertain; the world is a random place; and while there are books that end with the promise of an HEA my experience has been that life is rarely that way. I wanted to end this in a more authentic way because there are TONS of unknowns and life will not be easy, if it is, indeed, even very long for many of my characters.
I guess there’s also a third reason. I look at the blank page that follows the end of a book as a blank slate for you, the reader. Anything I can imagine that happens next is easily as valuable as what you can imagine, and we all have our different takes. So I look at that blank page as an invitation for you to fill in the blanks.
I hope that makes sense. Will I return to this world? I think of it often, but it’s what I said in a blog post a couple years ago: the characters have to tap me on the shoulder and drop the dime. Their stories just HAVE to be so urgent, I must tell them.
So...possibly. I do have my ideas.
I hope this ends, and doesn’t drive you crazier, Clara. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my work and I hope you give some of my other books a try.
Thank you for getting in touch!!
Actually, there were two reasons I left the end the way I did. One, Tom said to Chris earlier in the book, when he says he doesn’t have all the answers and can’t tie things up neatly with a bow. The story is so huge and has so many ramification, you really could write another three, four books easy—and I might. But I had finished the story that needed telling right then.
The second reason: if you look at my other books, I rarely provide neat and tidy answers. Almost all end with a question, and I do that for a reason: not to drive you crazy but because life is uncertain; the world is a random place; and while there are books that end with the promise of an HEA my experience has been that life is rarely that way. I wanted to end this in a more authentic way because there are TONS of unknowns and life will not be easy, if it is, indeed, even very long for many of my characters.
I guess there’s also a third reason. I look at the blank page that follows the end of a book as a blank slate for you, the reader. Anything I can imagine that happens next is easily as valuable as what you can imagine, and we all have our different takes. So I look at that blank page as an invitation for you to fill in the blanks.
I hope that makes sense. Will I return to this world? I think of it often, but it’s what I said in a blog post a couple years ago: the characters have to tap me on the shoulder and drop the dime. Their stories just HAVE to be so urgent, I must tell them.
So...possibly. I do have my ideas.
I hope this ends, and doesn’t drive you crazier, Clara. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my work and I hope you give some of my other books a try.
Thank you for getting in touch!!
Ilsa J. Bick
So glad you enjoyed the ride!
I think it’s Tom who says to Chris they’ll probably never know what happened and, in the end, it’s almost unimportant: that what matters is what happens on the ground and to those closest to you. I agree with him ;-). So I deliberately leave that unanswered, but the EMP burst was definitely manmade.
I’m sure there are army camps all over; our guys just never left WI or the Upper Peninsula.
You bring up an interesting question about the survivors. I think I tried to point up that trauma had a lot to do with their survival, but that some of this was also hormonal mediated (for example, Lena). In addition, EMPs can cause DNA to break. Whether those would be inherited changes is less clear, but they might be if these breaks affect the germ line (say, eggs and sperm) and don’t cause a fetus to miscarry and there’s no way of knowing how this might then effect offspring. I had focused primarily on changes in the brain, but now that you bring it up...yeah, it’s definitely possible.
Thanks for reading :-)
I think it’s Tom who says to Chris they’ll probably never know what happened and, in the end, it’s almost unimportant: that what matters is what happens on the ground and to those closest to you. I agree with him ;-). So I deliberately leave that unanswered, but the EMP burst was definitely manmade.
I’m sure there are army camps all over; our guys just never left WI or the Upper Peninsula.
You bring up an interesting question about the survivors. I think I tried to point up that trauma had a lot to do with their survival, but that some of this was also hormonal mediated (for example, Lena). In addition, EMPs can cause DNA to break. Whether those would be inherited changes is less clear, but they might be if these breaks affect the germ line (say, eggs and sperm) and don’t cause a fetus to miscarry and there’s no way of knowing how this might then effect offspring. I had focused primarily on changes in the brain, but now that you bring it up...yeah, it’s definitely possible.
Thanks for reading :-)
Ilsa J. Bick
First off, thank you!
Second...oh, gosh, that’s a great question. In fact, I ask myself that all the time. If you read my blog about two years ago now, you’d see I was going through a horrible patch (don’t go read the entries; I keep thinking I should take them down, I’m so gloomy). There were and still are days when I think about just giving up and doing something—anything—else. I know artists who do that, too: take time off.
Having said that, I really haven’t. I just struggled through it, eventually. I think the best bit of advice I can offer is you setting aside a time to write that’s inviolate. I would start small—an hour, say—and that’s it. No email, no Facebook, no Twitter, no phone, no music. Just you and the screen. Even if you do nothing but your nails for an hour, that’s okay. The point is to train yourself to be in front of the computer ready to work. If that means you have to switch computers or rooms, do it. (Or just turn off your wi-fi.) I have a friend, very famous writer, who walked away from writing for a year and then got herself back into it doing just that. Eventually, you will be there for more than an hour and then it’s probably time to set another goal.
Whatever that goal is...it’s individual. I like to work from schedules and lists; I like to work from outlines. If you think of writing like flying a plane, it’s helpful to know where you take off and where you’re going. Sure, you can fly in the clouds, but I’ll bet you get there faster if you know the route.
Same thing with writing. This way, I’ve kind of told myself the story beforehand so I can see where the plot falls apart (the plot always falls apart) and where things work and which things don’t.
But back to the groove: start with time and then go for words, if you want. Start with an hour and then see if you get a page out of it. That’s about 250 words, you know. If you did a page a day, at the end of a year, you’d have a book. You will find that you do more than that, of course, but that’s an extreme example.
One thing that is also helpful to me is to be really excited about something in the book. Not just the story or the characters, but something kind of cool. For the ASHES trilogy, it was thinking through all the ramifications and what-ifs of an EMP pulse and then learning new stuff I didn’t know about Amish traditions, survivalism, even whether you really can blow up a pile of pine with a flare (you can). For SIN-EATER, it was reading about murders of kids who were thought to be gay. For the book I’m working on now, I’m all jazzed about this cool parasite I found, early 20th century attitudes about girls in medicine, residential Indian schools, enforced sterilization of Indian women and girls both here and in Canada, dog teams...the list goes on. Learning new stuff is exciting and stimulating (you just have to be careful not to overdo the research; you can spend the rest of your life learning stuff).
So, find something you are or become passionate about. Find a story you don’t think has been told and then it really is one step by one step. Just screw your butt to the chair for an hour and see what happens, and then do it again and again and again.
Speaking of which...
Second...oh, gosh, that’s a great question. In fact, I ask myself that all the time. If you read my blog about two years ago now, you’d see I was going through a horrible patch (don’t go read the entries; I keep thinking I should take them down, I’m so gloomy). There were and still are days when I think about just giving up and doing something—anything—else. I know artists who do that, too: take time off.
Having said that, I really haven’t. I just struggled through it, eventually. I think the best bit of advice I can offer is you setting aside a time to write that’s inviolate. I would start small—an hour, say—and that’s it. No email, no Facebook, no Twitter, no phone, no music. Just you and the screen. Even if you do nothing but your nails for an hour, that’s okay. The point is to train yourself to be in front of the computer ready to work. If that means you have to switch computers or rooms, do it. (Or just turn off your wi-fi.) I have a friend, very famous writer, who walked away from writing for a year and then got herself back into it doing just that. Eventually, you will be there for more than an hour and then it’s probably time to set another goal.
Whatever that goal is...it’s individual. I like to work from schedules and lists; I like to work from outlines. If you think of writing like flying a plane, it’s helpful to know where you take off and where you’re going. Sure, you can fly in the clouds, but I’ll bet you get there faster if you know the route.
Same thing with writing. This way, I’ve kind of told myself the story beforehand so I can see where the plot falls apart (the plot always falls apart) and where things work and which things don’t.
But back to the groove: start with time and then go for words, if you want. Start with an hour and then see if you get a page out of it. That’s about 250 words, you know. If you did a page a day, at the end of a year, you’d have a book. You will find that you do more than that, of course, but that’s an extreme example.
One thing that is also helpful to me is to be really excited about something in the book. Not just the story or the characters, but something kind of cool. For the ASHES trilogy, it was thinking through all the ramifications and what-ifs of an EMP pulse and then learning new stuff I didn’t know about Amish traditions, survivalism, even whether you really can blow up a pile of pine with a flare (you can). For SIN-EATER, it was reading about murders of kids who were thought to be gay. For the book I’m working on now, I’m all jazzed about this cool parasite I found, early 20th century attitudes about girls in medicine, residential Indian schools, enforced sterilization of Indian women and girls both here and in Canada, dog teams...the list goes on. Learning new stuff is exciting and stimulating (you just have to be careful not to overdo the research; you can spend the rest of your life learning stuff).
So, find something you are or become passionate about. Find a story you don’t think has been told and then it really is one step by one step. Just screw your butt to the chair for an hour and see what happens, and then do it again and again and again.
Speaking of which...
Ilsa J. Bick
Good question! I used to live not far from an Amish community, so I spent some time simply observing, going into shops, listening to conversations and such. For some of the more esoteric beliefs—which most would be unwilling to talk about to someone not in the community—I relied on several books, most notably, THE RED CHURCH by Bilardi, TRIALS OF HEX by McGinnis, and POW WOWING AMONG THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH by David Kriebel. I know I also looked through several books on barn art and hex symbols as well as a couple primers on herbal medicines.
Ilsa J. Bick
Heh-heh. At the risk of bein gauche...why I like Alex and Tom the most, I guess. Their romance is one I crafted, after all, and I tried it to make one that I might want for myself.
Ilsa J. Bick
Glad you asked! I don't have any particular fascination for zombies, and the Changed aren't really zombies anyway. They are teenagers whose brains have been fundamentally altered in ways that we don't understand, and all of a sudden, teens becomes these dangerous but contradictory beings--kind of like what parents think about teenagers already! ;-).
The reason I did this was because I'd already set up that the EMPs affect various age groups in different ways on the basis of brain development. (And, yeah, I still wanted to be as close to science as I could. Kincaid kind of says it: in contrast to the adult brain, kids' brains are quite plastic and malleable. Kids can survive traumatic brain injuries that would kill or make an adult into a head of cabbage. Teenagers' brains are already a bit bizarre. These are brains in active flux, flooded with chemicals and new potential (for real). They're highly creative; they're also very narcissistic. Their sleep-wake cycles change. All sorts of stuff is going on in there. Parents joke all the time that their kids have turned into aliens.
So that's why I did it. I took real biology, real science and tried to turn it on its head.
The reason I did this was because I'd already set up that the EMPs affect various age groups in different ways on the basis of brain development. (And, yeah, I still wanted to be as close to science as I could. Kincaid kind of says it: in contrast to the adult brain, kids' brains are quite plastic and malleable. Kids can survive traumatic brain injuries that would kill or make an adult into a head of cabbage. Teenagers' brains are already a bit bizarre. These are brains in active flux, flooded with chemicals and new potential (for real). They're highly creative; they're also very narcissistic. Their sleep-wake cycles change. All sorts of stuff is going on in there. Parents joke all the time that their kids have turned into aliens.
So that's why I did it. I took real biology, real science and tried to turn it on its head.
Ilsa J. Bick
Oh, nothing is firm. It's that I would have to have something else to say and for that to happen, the characters have to tap me on the shoulder. Right this second, they haven't, but I've been distracted by other projects.
So...not at all. The characters just have to drop a dime ;-)
So...not at all. The characters just have to drop a dime ;-)
Ilsa J. Bick
I read this YA apocalyptic book that was very good but just way too tame. Like NO ONE broke into this girl's house; roving gangs only ransacked a neighbor's (empty) place...stuff like that. I thought that was just way too tame. All you have to do is look at what happens in a disaster to know that people become animals pretty fast. So I wanted to do a book series where some people are noble and a lot are not; where people would be counted on to live down to their worst impulses. I also thought that plagues and viruses had been done to death and decided to go for a very plausible scenario where civilization craters in a heartbeat and things go to hell fast.
Ilsa J. Bick
Oh, thank you, sweetie!
I like to write about anything...weird. Seeing as how I'm weird myself ;-). Seriously, my work always tends to veer to the weird and the dark.
I like to write about anything...weird. Seeing as how I'm weird myself ;-). Seriously, my work always tends to veer to the weird and the dark.
Ilsa J. Bick
So sorry to be late getting to this; my computer's been punting all my Goodreads question to spam!
DICKENS MIRROR releases as a paperback in March 2017, last I heard.
DICKENS MIRROR releases as a paperback in March 2017, last I heard.
Ilsa J. Bick
Jaydin, I think I answered you on my website or through the mail, right? Sorry, I didn't see this until just now; my mail's been punting all my Goodreads stuff to the spam folder :
But I kind of love them both, you know? I can't write about characters I don't love. I also wanted to include a soldier because, frankly, I don't they're well-represented in YA literature and yet a lot of young adults serve.
But I kind of love them both, you know? I can't write about characters I don't love. I also wanted to include a soldier because, frankly, I don't they're well-represented in YA literature and yet a lot of young adults serve.
Ilsa J. Bick
Unfortunately, no Book III. It was only a duology.
Ilsa J. Bick
Well, what do you think happens? :-)
Sorry to take so long to answer you; my Goodreads string has been ending up in the spam!
Sorry to take so long to answer you; my Goodreads string has been ending up in the spam!
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more