Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Bruce J. Berger, author of The Flight of the Veil, winner of a Bronze Award in General Fiction from Illumination Christian Book Awards, The Music Stalker, finalist (Suspense) in the Next Gen Indie Book Awards contest, and To See God.

The three novels have been grouped together by the publisher as the Forgiveness and Faith novel series.

Bruce has also published more than fifty stories and poems in a wide variety of literary journals.

He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Laurie, and their dog, Whiskey, and down the street from his grandson Cole and granddaughter Neely, to whom he has dedicated To See God.

Norm: Good day Bruce and thanks for taking part in our interview.

Why do you write? Do you have a theme, message, or goal for your books? What do you think over the years has driven you as a writer?

Bruce: All human beings, I believe, have a creative instinct; it’s hard-wired into our DNA. So I get the pleasure that one feels, not only from writing creatively, but from composing music, fashioning a sculpture, painting a landscape and so on.

But, as I’m a novelist these days, I have additional reasons, the first and most important of which is to entertain the reading audience. If the reader doesn’t feel grabbed and strongly motivated to keep turning pages, if the reader doesn’t feel transported into the world of the novel, then I have failed for that reader.

And, it’s true that my novels all have more or less of a spiritual component. That’s just me being me. I’m happy as long as my reader thinks and feels along with my characters on spiritual matters, but I’m not trying to push a particular religious point of view.

Norm: Do you ever worry about the human race?

Bruce: All the time. We’re bombarded daily with negative news about our fellow human beings – wars, excessive police use of force, terrorism, to name a few categories --  and so how could we not worry about the human race? To tie this more directly to my novels, part of the idea behind the first, The Flight of the Veil, was that we might need to subscribe to more miracles as a counterbalance to the depressing aspects of our being.

Norm: What helps you focus when you write?

Bruce: I often listen to music that’s apropos of the characters I’m writing about. In writing The Music Stalker, for example, a story mostly about a piano prodigy, I would listen to the classical music I imagined Kayla Covo was playing. And in writing about a Greek woman’s monastery or the solemn prayers that occur there, in The Flight of the Veil or To See God, I would listen to Greek Orthodox chanting. Not every character can be so clearly linked to a particular musical style or tradition, though. Often, I would just listen to Beethoven string quartets. 

Norm: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

Bruce: I have a Conservative Jewish upbringing, and so my stories often are about Jewish characters. Often, my Jewish characters don’t always share my beliefs.

Some are atheists despite their Jewish heritage, and some are much more observant than I am.

I feel that my own religious upbringing helps me get into the heads of these characters, even though they’re not quite like me.

When my characters are Christian, then I do more research and rely strongly on the views of my close Christian friends as to whether what I’ve written holds together as a story and stays true to their own religious traditions.

Norm: In fiction as well as in non-fiction, writers very often take liberties with their material to tell a good story or make a point.

But how much is too much?

Bruce: I guess that depends upon what you mean by “taking liberties.” If one is trying to write historical fiction about the Holocaust in Greece and writes as if most Jews from Salonika survived the death camps – something completely wrong from a historical point of view – you will have many people discard your writing, and rightly so.

That would be “too much.” On the other hand, fiction is all about taking liberties. You’re trying to create a believable world – based only on ink markings on a series of piece of paper – and tell a compelling story about that world. The writer should take as many liberties as necessary to tell that compelling story, to keep the reader turning pages. 

Norm: Do you feel that writers, regardless of genre owe something to readers, if not, why not?

Bruce: Absolutely. A writer is asking a reader to spend something very valuable, in addition to the cost of the book, namely, that reader’s precious time. Time is that thing that all of us have the least of. If I wrote a novel that, in retrospect, I did not feel merited the reader’s substantial commitment of time, I would be remiss if I nonetheless tried to publish it.

Norm: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Bruce: I am always surprised by how easy it is for my characters to surprise me. By that I mean that I’m not one of those writers who plots everything out meticulously before he starts writing.

I present my characters – many of whom I’ve been writing about since before I started on the novels – with problems and predicaments and then write to see how they will behave.

When, for example, Sister Theodora has a dream about her brother’s grandson, Jackie, and concludes from that dream that Jackie is the Second Coming of Jesus, I was more than surprised. I was shocked, actually, but there it was. Theodora’s urgent desire to be in the presence of her seven-year-old grandnephew propels the rest of the story.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process. 

Bruce: I think I’ve touched on this, but I will say in response that my writing is much more by intuition, at least the first draft, when I find out what happens.

Logic comes more into play in the subsequent drafts, when I very much want to see things as a reader might see them.

That requires trying to make every part of the novel consistent with every other part of the novel – something that’s not easy to do, given the length of the typically novel – and it requires characters to stay in their own unique voices throughout (unless part of the story is that they’ve changed).

On a more granular level, I typically write in chunks of small chapters; I have an idea that there should be a chapter between Character X and

Character Y in which they discuss Issue Z. So I set out at that particular writing moment with a modest purpose, not even sure that the chapter will survive as part of the novel, and then I see what happens.

If I can make what happens interesting and fit in well with the rest, then there’s a good chance that chapter will make the final cut.

Norm: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of To See God?

Bruce: I’ve always been interested in the intersection of Christianity and Judaism, ever since, in my 1950’s grade school, I had to sing Christmas carols. I also had to help in my uncle’s department store during the Christmas rush. And I became even more fascinated when I heard about miracles with a Christian theme occurring in the life of one of my cousins.

What does it mean for a young man, born into a Jewish family, to experience such a miracle? Where does that lead him? What contact might he continue to have with the rest of his Jewish family, who have not experienced such an event?

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Bruce: My main goal is to present a compelling story. Ultimately, the readers will decide for me if I succeeded. If To See God develops a readership, meaning that, by word of mouth, people continue to seek out and read the book, then I feel I will have succeeded. 

Norm: How much of the book is realistic? 

Bruce: I feel the whole book is realistic. Sister Theodora’s dream, for example, is the kind of experience that can happen to anyone, although she, perhaps more than other people, is more likely to try to follow up on her dream, to believe that it’s a message from God, and thus to try “to see god” by visiting him halfway across the globe.

Norm: What would you say is the best reason to recommend someone to read To See God?

Bruce: Number one, in my opinion, it’s a good story. Number two: It focuses on belief, family, and trying to satisfy one’s basic urges for connection with the Divine. And, by the way, an important subplot is the custody battle that takes place in court between Jackie’s mother, Kayla, and his father (who has been absent for many years). 

Norm: It is said that writers should write what they know. Were there any elements of the book that forced you to step out of your comfort zone, and if so, how did you approach this part of the writing? 

Bruce: I don’t believe that writers should write what they know. Writers should write what they need to know. Thus, for the author, the best writing is about discovery. I honestly don’t believe that compelling stories emerge from comfort zones.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and your books?

Bruce: The books themselves will say a lot about me. Beyond that, however, I keep up an active presence on Facebook and also on my WEBSITE 

Norm: What is next for Bruce J. Berger?

Bruce: There’s a fourth novel in the series that I’ve started, tentatively named Forgiveness, but now that the Spring Semester has started at American University, I’m spending most of my time teaching. With luck, I will have a first draft of the new novel completed by the end of summer.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, if you could invite three novelists (dead or alive) to your dinner table, who would they be and why?

Bruce: My three favorites these days are John Fowles (author of The Magus and Daniel Martin), Charles Frazier (author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons), and Margaret Atwood (who’s written so many novels, but among those I like best are The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace).

I would start off the dinner with Grey Goose martinis. Then I would just want to hear them talk to each other about writing and hope that some of their genius might rub off on me.

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors

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