A Sinner's Cross Novel, Book 2
Historical Fiction
Date Published: 07-04-2022
Publisher: One Nine Books
On the eve of what will be known as The Battle of the Bulge, the survivors of Sinner's Cross are scattered all over Europe. Halleck, the tough Texan who drives men like cattle, finds himself surrounded in the snow-blanketed forests of the Eifel Mountains riding herd on greenhorn soldiers; Breese, the phony hero with a chip on his shoulder the size of Rushmore, embarks on a bloody mission of redemption behind enemy lines; Cramm, the one-eyed, one-armed German staff officer, tries to balance duty against his lust for vengeance against those who crippled him. Three men separated by war will once again converge... in The Very Dead of Winter.
Winner of the Literary Titan Gold Medal and the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award.
Interview with Miles Watson
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
I wanted to write a WW2 novel that avoided the usual tropes and clichés, conveyed the emotional and tactile experience of battle, and showed the conflict through the eyes of ordinary men. I wanted to put the reader there in a visceral way they wouldn't be able to shake. The positive feedback I've gotten from combat veterans tells me I got something right.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
The novel is told in three acts through three P.O.V. characters: Halleck, Breese and Zenger. Their stories interweave and overlap in a non-chronological way, but tie up neatly in the end. Like most writers, I'm a Bohemian, which is a fancy way of saying I'm a disorganized slob, so getting the timing and structure right was extremely difficult.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Each of my three characters is under immense pressure, and responds to it according to his nature. I knew precisely what sort of people Halleck and Zenger were, but Breese was an enigma to me. I couldn't get a handle on him. Then I hit upon a solution: I asked myself, “If I were in his shoes, how would I have behaved?” The answers were not flattering...but I found them very illuminating and curiously cathartic. We all like to think of ourselves as brave, strong, resourceful. In the end, I was OK with the idea of him (meaning me) not being anything close to a hero.
Where there alternate endings you considered?
Oh yes. The toughest part of writing this novel was figuring out how to bring it to a close. I was very invested in these characters and didn't want to see any of them die. I tried killing this one, that one, all of them, none of them. My editor was a big help in helping me see, if I may paraphrase Shakespeare, which one of them “owed God a death.”
Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?
I didn't meet anyone during the writing of the book, but I credit my older relations for giving me an interest in the subejct when I was still very young. A very large contingent of my family served in WW2, and when I was still a kid I was able to interview many of them about their experiences for a school project. My great-uncle Adam, for example, made the mistake of calling Gen. George S. Patton “buddy” and lost his stripes over it. He fought in that war from 1942 – 1945, saw extremely heavy combat, and came back a changed man. In retrospect I think I see his generation a little more clearly because I came to understand they were not icons, but ordinary people going through extraordinary times, and not always handling them as well as we'd wish to believe.
What genre of books do you enjoy reading?
I will read anything that I think is well-written, and never mind the genre. Just give me a good story, good characters and good dialog and I'm all in.
About the Author
Miles Watson is the x15 award-winning author of the CAGE LIFE and SINNER'S CROSS book series as well as the short story collection DEVIL'S YOU KNOW. A veteran of both Hollywood and law enforcement, his first and last passion is writing, and he intends to publish in every genre before he cashes in his chips.
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1 comments:
This sounds like a good historical fiction story. The cover looks great.
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