Bookpleasures.com welcomes our guest, J.T. Maicke whose newest novel, Iron Maiden, was just released in October. A self-described Germanophile, J.T. Maicke writes historical fiction novels that take place in Germany or among German-American communities in the Midwest. He has spent most of his life studying German history, geography, language, culture, customs, and cuisine. Maicke also spent several years living in and traveling throughout Central Europe, and he has visited many of the locations depicted in his novels. Maicke’s debut novel was ‘The Humble Courier.’

Welcome J.T. and thank you for taking part in our interview.

 Bee: Please tell us something about Iron Maiden that is not in the summary. (About the book, character you particularly enjoyed writing, etc.)

J.T.: I have a lot of fun creating my villains. I tend to have at least a couple of them in each of my stories and they range from the stupid, cruel, and obvious, such as Henry of Edinburgh in Iron Maiden, to the more devious and complex, such as August Bibermann and Chancellor Manfred von Eichenburg.

Bee: When did you first have a desire to write? How did this desire manifest itself?

J.T.: I’ve always wanted to be a fiction writer. When I was bored during high school classes, I would write serial stories with my best friends and myself as the lead characters. My buddies would pass them around between classes. I did quite a bit of writing in college and first published a magazine article during my senior year. I earned $50 dollars – a nice bit of money for a 2,500-word article back in 1982! I had planned to write novels when I was in my twenties or thirties but found myself putting it off due to the pressures of career and family. I finally came to realize that if I didn’t write a book soon, I was never going to do it. So, I knuckled down and published my first novel The Humble Courier when I was in my late 50s. I published my second story Iron Maiden: An Alternate History of the German Empire two years later.

Bee: How completely do you develop your characters before beginning to write?

J.T.: I had been writing my stories in my head for years before I finally started tapping them out on my laptop. Therefore, my principal characters were pretty much fully developed before I began writing. The secondary characters just seem to come to me as I write. I actually find the most interesting characters in stories to be the supporting cast. Writing the dialogue between the heroine—in this story, the Princess Christiana—and the secondary characters, both good guys and bad, is really a lot of fun. In Iron Maiden, my favorite supporting character is General von Heeringen, the Minister of War. He appears in numerous scenes throughout the story and I think his personality provides a lot of flavor. I also love inserting famous historic persons into my stories to interact with my fictional principals. In Iron Maiden, several British royals—including Queen Victoria and King George V—as well as Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt and others make cameo appearances.

Bee: Tell us about your cover. Did you design it yourself?

J.T.: I suggested to my publisher, Daniel Willis of DX Varos Publishing, to have Princess Christiana pictured on the cover standing in front of a famous Berlin landmark, such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Victory Column, or the Reichstag. Instead, Daniel chose the Berlin Cathedral, which I think works very nicely. The cover was designed by Ellie Bockert Augsburger of Creative Digital Studios. Ellie did a wonderful job and her depiction of Christiana is almost exactly how I pictured her when writing the story.

Bee: Christina seemed so courageous. Where did you find inspiration for her character? How did you decide she should become ruler of Germany?

J.T.: Several years ago, I read an excellent biography of Wilhelm II called The Kaiser and His Times by the English historian Michael L. G. Balfour. This outstanding book provoked the principal idea for Iron Maiden: how might the history of the 20th century have developed if Germany had been ruled by a monarch equipped with a more mature and integrated personality than Wilhelm II?

In my original plan for this novel, Wilhelm was to be succeeded by an obscure Prussian prince. After further thought, however, I asked myself “Why a man? Why not a woman?” Indeed, why not a princess, armed with intelligence and insight, an appreciation for the power and potential of democracy and modern technology, and equipped with a long-range vision of peace and prosperity, not only for Germany but for the whole of Europe? Moreover, what better way to initiate a break from the paternalism and overbearing masculinity that characterized Wilhelmine society than to put a woman on the Prussian and imperial German thrones?

Bee: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?

J.T.: I’ve always been interested in history and I began reading novels by James Michener (my favorites of his are Poland, Texas, and Alaska) and James Clavell’s stories of the Far East, including Shogun, Tai-Pan, Noble House, and King Rat) when I was a teenager. The historical fiction writers I most admire nowadays include Ken Follett—particularly his Kingsbridge series—Berhard Cornwell, Robert Harris, and the late George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman stories. Cornwell and Harris often put additional historical context in an Author’s Note at the end of their stories, a style which I have borrowed for my novels.

Bee: What do you do when you are not writing?

J.T.: I spend time with my wife, children, and grandchildren, often attending their sporting events. I also read (constantly) and work around our house and yard.

Bee: What are you currently working on?

J.T.: I write stories that take place in Germany or among German-American communities in the Midwest. I’m currently working on a sequel to my first novel The Humble Courier, the story of Father Hartmann Bottger, a brave German priest who resorts to violence to oppose the terror of the SS and the Gestapo during he 1930s. The sequel will cover the American branch of the Bottger family and takes place principally in Chicago and St. Louis. I’m also considering a sequel to Iron Maiden, which would be set in 21st century Germany.

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