Deni Murillo asked Jennifer A. Nielsen:

How did you get so much knowledge of the situation in Berlin for A Night Divided and also for Resistance?? How much research do you have to do before starting to write a historical fiction book? Do you base your books on the research? Or do you focus more on your story and then just make sure that it agrees with what happened in reality?

Jennifer A. Nielsen Hi Denisse - The research for A Night Divided was all the usual sources, but I also did a lot of viewing of YouTube documentaries with interviews from people who had lived in East Berlin. That way, I got first person information, unfiltered through other channels.

Resistance was heavily researched from everywhere I could get information, and that really got into the details, including German aerial maps of the Warsaw Ghetto, so that if I said there was a sewer entrance on that street that led to the outside, then there was.

I do a ton of research before beginning any historical novel, enough to have a foundation of the environment in which the novel will happen. While researching, I look for certain keys that ought to be part of the story I have in mind - facts and details that may become key aspects of the plot. Then I start to write, and continue to research all along the way.

For example, in my next historical, RESCUE, I needed to know enough about Nazi-occupied France to know where in the country to set the story, and when, and the kind of activities the main character might have been doing to get through the war. I knew she was going to meet someone involved with the British SOE, so I needed to know more about them. But once I had that foundation, I could start to put the story together, and along the way, I'd research whatever was necessary.

flag