Over the coming weeks, the IWSG Anthology blog will be featuring posts
from each of the authors in Voyager: The Third Ghost.
Our author today is Katharina Gerlach.
Katharina Gerlach on her short story "Winter Days" . . .
Being a bilingual author from Germany, I’m the odd one out in this anthology. However, that doesn’t really bother me since I’ve been the weird kid ever since I started school. I was a tomboy and a book nerd, a child who loved school and learning, and someone who could easily dream away whole days on end. Yes, I got bullied a lot during that time, but my experiences with the German-German border, as featured in my short story in this anthology, made me immune to the jibes of my school mates. When no one wanted to be my friend, I found tons of them in my books. And when that wasn’t enough, I’d write my own stories, turning school bullies into antagonists and tortured heroes or heroines. This remedy only failed whenever we neared that dreaded border. But although much changed when it finally opened in 1989, the fear stemming from suppression and bullying on a big scale can still be found in the world today. That’s one reason why I still write my stories (first in English, then in German).
Blurb
On a Christmas visit in 1979, twelve year old Katie, whose father fled the GDR 20 years earlier, fears her family’s arrest when a blizzard hits.
Excerpt
"Winter Days" by Katharina Gerlach
The car in front of us shifted forward, and so father started the motor again and moved up to a white line on the road. Another gray guard stood there, holding out his hand. Father cranked down the window while Mother held out our passports again.
“Where to?” The guard practically ripped the documents from mother’s hand. I flinched at the ice in his voice and because the cold air sliced through the comfortable warmth of the car’s interior. “Feldberg, Brandenburg.” Father snapped out the words, not adding an explanation or greeting or anything else. “Are those your children?” The guard bent down and stared into the back of the car. I’d never in my life seen brown eyes that looked so cold. I froze like a drop of water in winter and barely dared to breathe. Tim stiffened, too, and his hand squeezed mine harder. Even if we had wanted to, we couldn’t have uttered a word.
Bio
Coming on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 . . .
Next up is Roland Clarke who shares his backstory for "Feathered Fire," a tale of two brave sisters who, with the help of the mythical Firebird, match wits with evil in their Soviet motherland.
The release date for VOYAGERS: The Third Ghost
is May 5, 2020,
but purchase links are available,
and you can preorder a copy now.
Print 9781939844729 $13.95
EBook 9781939844736 $4.99
Juvenile Fiction - Historical / Action & Adventure / Fantasy & Magic
Dancing Lemur Press/Freedom Fox Press
Amazon - Print https://www.amazon.com/dp/193984472X/ Kindle https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Third-Ghost-Yvonne-Ventresca-ebook/dp/B083C4WPR5/
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voyagers-yvonne-ventresca/1135912991?ean=2940163430857
ITunes - https://books.apple.com/ca/book/voyagers-the-third-ghost/id1493413956
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/voyagers-the-third-ghost
from each of the authors in Voyager: The Third Ghost.
Our author today is Katharina Gerlach.
Katharina Gerlach on her short story "Winter Days" . . .
Being a bilingual author from Germany, I’m the odd one out in this anthology. However, that doesn’t really bother me since I’ve been the weird kid ever since I started school. I was a tomboy and a book nerd, a child who loved school and learning, and someone who could easily dream away whole days on end. Yes, I got bullied a lot during that time, but my experiences with the German-German border, as featured in my short story in this anthology, made me immune to the jibes of my school mates. When no one wanted to be my friend, I found tons of them in my books. And when that wasn’t enough, I’d write my own stories, turning school bullies into antagonists and tortured heroes or heroines. This remedy only failed whenever we neared that dreaded border. But although much changed when it finally opened in 1989, the fear stemming from suppression and bullying on a big scale can still be found in the world today. That’s one reason why I still write my stories (first in English, then in German).
Blurb
On a Christmas visit in 1979, twelve year old Katie, whose father fled the GDR 20 years earlier, fears her family’s arrest when a blizzard hits.
Excerpt
"Winter Days" by Katharina Gerlach
The car in front of us shifted forward, and so father started the motor again and moved up to a white line on the road. Another gray guard stood there, holding out his hand. Father cranked down the window while Mother held out our passports again.
“Where to?” The guard practically ripped the documents from mother’s hand. I flinched at the ice in his voice and because the cold air sliced through the comfortable warmth of the car’s interior. “Feldberg, Brandenburg.” Father snapped out the words, not adding an explanation or greeting or anything else. “Are those your children?” The guard bent down and stared into the back of the car. I’d never in my life seen brown eyes that looked so cold. I froze like a drop of water in winter and barely dared to breathe. Tim stiffened, too, and his hand squeezed mine harder. Even if we had wanted to, we couldn’t have uttered a word.
Bio
Although Katharina Gerlach was born in the late sixties, she’s still a child at heart.
She inherited her love of fairy tales and words from her mother, an ex-secretary and avid reader, and her love of all things nature and science from her father, an ex-forester.
She inherited her love of fairy tales and words from her mother, an ex-secretary and avid reader, and her love of all things nature and science from her father, an ex-forester.
Memories of her rather interesting life in Germany flow back at the smallest trigger, even though she tends to merge her three brothers into one when she tells stories about their childhood adventures.
And more often than not, she recalls events truthfully.
Supported by her husband and her three children and distracted by her dog and grandchild, she currently writes stories of varying length in fantastical and historical genres. She runs the Indie Authors’ Advent Calendar each year, a free for all story feast.
Supported by her husband and her three children and distracted by her dog and grandchild, she currently writes stories of varying length in fantastical and historical genres. She runs the Indie Authors’ Advent Calendar each year, a free for all story feast.
Coming on Wednesday, February 5, 2020 . . .
Next up is Roland Clarke who shares his backstory for "Feathered Fire," a tale of two brave sisters who, with the help of the mythical Firebird, match wits with evil in their Soviet motherland.
* * * * * * * * * *
The release date for VOYAGERS: The Third Ghost
is May 5, 2020,
but purchase links are available,
and you can preorder a copy now.
Print 9781939844729 $13.95
EBook 9781939844736 $4.99
Juvenile Fiction - Historical / Action & Adventure / Fantasy & Magic
Dancing Lemur Press/Freedom Fox Press
Amazon - Print https://www.amazon.com/dp/193984472X/ Kindle https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Third-Ghost-Yvonne-Ventresca-ebook/dp/B083C4WPR5/
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voyagers-yvonne-ventresca/1135912991?ean=2940163430857
ITunes - https://books.apple.com/ca/book/voyagers-the-third-ghost/id1493413956
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/voyagers-the-third-ghost
