Cathy Gohlke and Free Books!

Rachel Kramer, daughter of an eminent Long Island eugenics scientist, confronts her own pride and sense of superiority to rescue a deaf child from elimination at the hands of the Nazis.

Before we visit today's author, I want to announce that the winner of the signed copy of Of the Persecuted, by Angie Brashear, is:

jrs362@ . . .

Congratulations! I'll email you today to get your mailing address, and we'll get your book to you right away. I encourage readers to keep commenting and/or subscribe at right (above my list of books) in order to participate in future book give-aways! Subscribers are entered a second time when they comment.

And now let's revisit with novelist Cathy Gohlke, author of Saving Amelie (Tyndale House Publishers, June 2014).

Cathy Gohlke is the best selling, two-time Christy Award winning author of Saving Amelie, Band of Sisters, Promise Me This, I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires, and William Henry is a Fine Name. She’s won the Carol Award and twice earned Library Journal’s highest distinction.

She and her husband have lived thirty-two years in Elkton, MD, but are finding the draw of their new granddaughter in Northern Virginia irresistible. They’ve been frequenting the railroad and interstates, but hope to find a longer term home in Virginia by fall.

Please tell us three random things we might not know about you.

--I’m thrilled to be a grandma for the first time!

--I’ve just returned from a wonderfully exciting research trip to England with friend and sister-author Carrie Turanksy, and from the Highlands of Scotland with a tour guided by Liz Curtis Higgs—both absolutely fascinating!

--I love Irish music and songs from WWI and WWII.

I enjoyed the Facebook posts about your trip to England and Scotland, Cathy! I'm looking forward to whatever new novels come from your research efforts.

Please tell us a bit more about the plot of Saving Amelie.

Summer, 1939 . . .

Rachel Kramer is visiting Germany when a cryptic letter from her estranged friend, begging Rachel for help, upends her world. Married to SS officer Gerhardt Schlick, Kristine sees the dark tides turning and fears her husband views their daughter—deaf since birth—as a blight on his Aryan bloodline. Once courted by Schlick, Rachel knows he’s as dangerous as the swastikas that hang like ebony spiders across Berlin. She fears her father, an eminent eugenics scientist, may know about Hitler’s plans for others, like Amelie, whom the regime deems unworthy of life.

But when she risks searching his classified documents, she also uncovers shocking secrets about her own history and a family she’s never known.

Hunted by the SS, Rachel turns to Jason Young, a driven American journalist whose connections to the resistance help Rachel and Amelie escape the city. Forced to hide in the Bavarian village of the Passion Play, Rachel’s every ideal is challenged as she and Jason risk their lives—and ask others to do the same—for those they barely know but come to love.

What is it about your lead characters that will make your readers care about her?

Striking Rachel Kramer craves the love of family while determined to escape the overbearing scrutiny of her adoptive father. She struggles with her own sense of pride and superiority but is desperate to save little Amelie, deaf since birth. Like most of us, she’s a compelling mixture of kindness and prickles, strength and weakness.

Jason Young, handsome, disarming and driven American journalist, is a crusader on a mission, but with a soft heart for Amelie and an appreciative eye for the beautiful Rachel Kramer.

If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your lead roles?

Katherine Heigl would make the perfect Rachel Kramer.





James Marsden might capture the role of Jason Young.





Many readers enjoy seasonally set novels. They read beach novels in the summer and Christmas novels in December. If you’ve written such seasonally-set novels, what are they? Or if you were asked to write such a novel, what season would you choose, and why?

I’ve always wanted to write a Christmas novel. So far, in every novel I’ve included a Christmas scene. I love the wonder and holiness, the absolute magic of Christmas. It’s a time of reverence and awe for the birth of our Lord, a time of cheer and goodwill among neighbors, and holds that “anything can happen” delight that we pull from childhood. Those are wonderful elements for a story.

What is the last novel you read that you would recommend?

I recently read Melanie Dobson’s new novel, Chateau of Secrets , for endorsement. Just my cup of tea, this book felt like a distant relative of the one I’m writing! Chateau of Secrets is the story of a courageous young Frenchwoman and her brother who risk their lives helping to hide French resistance fighters during WWII. Her granddaughter visits the family chateau seventy years later and discovers secrets kept all those years by family and locals.

What are you working on now?

I’m excited to be working on my first time-split novel: Upon the death of her mother, a young North Carolina teacher discovers family in Germany—including a Nazi grandfather grown wealthy through war crimes. In her attempt to unravel the past and gain information about the mother she never understood, Hannah works closely with a young German regretful of his own family’s war deeds—or lack of good deeds. Together, they find themselves struggling through a murky past while seeking to redeem her grandfather’s wrongs. Told alternately from the daughter’s (Hannah’s) viewpoint in the 1970s and her mother’s viewpoint as a young woman in the 1940s, Into the Valley of Secrets (working title) is a daring quest for answers and redemption.

Exciting premise as always.

Where else can readers find you online?

www.cathygohlke.com and on Facebook @ CathyGohlkeBooks

The book can be purchased in fine book stores and online via the following buttons:




CBD.com


Finally, what question would you like to ask my readers?

If you could be a hero/heroine in a novel, who would you be, in what novel, and why?

Thanks, Cathy, for visiting with us and telling us about your novel. Readers, Cathy has offered to give a signed copy of her book to the winner of our drawing on Monday, June 23. To enter, leave a comment below in answer to Cathy's question, above. "Please enter me" won't get you entered. Leave your email address, in case you win, like so: trish[at]trishperry[dot]com.

Be sure to check out my interview with Kimberly Rose Johnson, below. Leave an appropriate comment at the bottom of the post to enter the drawing for a signed copy of the book.

Also, I'd love it if you'd connect with me on Facebook. Just click on my name at the right of today's post.

Annoying legal disclaimer: drawings void where prohibited; open only to U.S. residents; the odds of winning depend upon the number of participants. See full disclaimer HERE.