Author Interview and New Release with Bookouture Author Catherine Hokin
- DK Marley
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
Catherine writes historical fiction set primarily in Berlin, covering the period from the 1930s up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and dealing with the long shadows left by war. The Girl Who Told the Truth will be her thirteenth novel with Bookouture and there are more to come. Her books have been published by Grand Central Publishing in the USA and translated into a number of languages including French, Italian and, most recently, German. becoming a full-time writer.
She is from the North of England but now lives in Glasgow with her American husband. She loves to travel and spends as much time as she can in Berlin, where her son also lives. If she’s not at her desk, you’ll find her at the cinema or just follow the sound of very loud music.
Details of all her books can be found on her Amazon page at bit.ly/486KkDh or at her website, detailed below.
Social Media Links
https://bookouture.com/subscribe/catherine-hokin/ Sign up here and get a free WW2 short story, The Last Casualty
Blood surges through Annie’s veins as she stares into the cold eyes of the Nazi who hurt her mother. She knows she must finally make it right…
Germany, 1946. Annie draws a deep breath, trying to stop her hands shaking as she takes notes at the Nuremberg Trials. She isn’t just here to expose the horrors the Nazis committed, she also has a personal stake. And as soon as she lays eyes on Margarete, the Nazi who destroyed her family, a flame burns bright in her to deliver justice for her mother too.
Only Annie knows how dangerous Margarete truly is. Not only was she one of the last people inside Hitler’s bunker, she left there with a mission to continue his work. A mission that almost led to the murder of Annie’s mother. Now Annie must make a choice. Revealing Margarete’s true identity will also mean exposing her father’s secret relationship with the German woman.
In telling the world the truth, can Annie show the world who Margarete really is? Or will speaking out betray her father and destroy her family forever?
An achingly emotional page-turner about risking everything to protect those you love. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Roberta Kagan and Ellie Midwood.
The Girl Who Told The Truth: Synopsis
Blood surges through Annie’s veins as she stares into the cold eyes of the Nazi who hurt her mother. She knows she must finally make it right…Germany, 1946. Annie draws a deep breath, trying to stop her hands shaking as she takes notes at the Nuremberg Trials. She isn’t just here to expose the horrors the Nazis committed, she also has a personal stake. And as soon as she lays eyes on Margarete, the Nazi who destroyed her family, a flame burns bright in her to deliver justice for her mother too.Only Annie knows how dangerous Margarete truly is. Not only was she one of the last people inside Hitler’s bunker, she left there with a mission to continue his work. A mission that almost led to the murder of Annie’s mother. Now Annie must make a choice. Revealing Margarete’s true identity will also mean exposing her father’s secret relationship with the German woman.In telling the world the truth, can Annie show the world who Margarete really is? Or will speaking out betray her father and destroy her family forever?An achingly emotional page-turner about risking everything to protect those you love. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Roberta Kagan and Ellie Midwood.
Buying Link: bit.ly/489SV9k
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
I think the most fun one I’ve ever done was visiting the locations in San Francisco which feature in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series, including the famous steps at 28 Barbary Lane which is actually called Macondray Lane. That was a workout! The Steinbeck Centre in Salinas was also a fascinating place.
Tell us the best writing tip you can think of, something that helps you.
That when it comes to historical fiction, the facts are not the story. Research is essential, as is not playing fast and loose with the facts, but a lot of that is done to immerse you as the writer in the world you are creating. In other words, the reader doesn’t need to know everything that you do, and your characters often won’t know it either. I estimate about 70% of what I learn in the research process doesn’t, and shouldn’t, appear in the final book beyond the lightest details.
What are common traps for aspiring writers? Advice for young writers starting out.
The best piece of advice I can give comes with time and practice and a lot of reading, and that is to being able to identify the moment where your story starts. Too many people begin the narrative in the wrong place, which means the reader has to slog through too much exposition and may give up. Whether you start with setting or action or character, you need to show your reader that they are in for a treat. And also, if you are lucky enough to get an editor, work with not against them – they are your friend.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Success comes in waves and there may be lots of gaps in between the highs, so celebrate every one of them. And don’t treat writing tips as the holy grail, pick the things that work for you.
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
I don’t think it changed my process but it was certainly a crash-course in how the publishing industry worked. I was first published by a very small house who had challenges I didn’t understand and I made sure I was very skilled in all the stages between submission and publication before I ventured out there a second time. It also taught me that the experience is a roller coaster and has made me very grateful for my current success.
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
I think that started when I was old enough to choose and read books for myself. I was a very early reader and – although this may be coloured by my memories of teaching my own children to read – I understood that decoding the letters was a kind of magic. The first books I remember choosing myself was the Narnia series and once I realised the pages opened the doors to brand new worlds, I never looked back.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I love the research part, it is very varied, and I did a history degree so I feel I know what I’m doing – the skills learned then have helped me to be very disciplined so I don’t lose days down rabbit holes. In terms of time, there’s at least three solid months of nothing but research and then more ongoing bits while I’m writing. Once I have my initial idea, I do a huge resource search which includes primary and secondary sources in English and German, and also films and artworks and music, whatever is relevant. I keep detailed notes and cross-reference these to characters and plot points. I am also lucky enough to be able to visit the places I write about, so I walk in my characters’ footsteps and do a lot of photography. And I draw a lot of maps. For The Secret Hotel in Berlin, I also drew the interiors. It’s a very immersive process.
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
I love to read novels that challenge me structurally. Ones that come to mind are Lincoln in the Bardo, Milkman and The Bee Sting. They are absolutely not my style of writing but I am in awe of how these writers can bend the rules and enrich their stories by doing it. I would love to know more about their creative processes.
What are the ethics of writing about historical figures?
Be true to the facts and the chronology and don’t invent history. My newest novel, The Girl Who Told the Truth, is based on an actual person, but I make it very clear in the notes where the facts stop and the fiction starts. Read the widest variety of sources you can and make the figure as three-dimensional as they would have been in real life. Nobody is purely a villain, everyone has a private face which is as important to explore as their public one and the contrasts are where the human as opposed to the historical figure lives.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
I read them sometimes, but not as obsessively now as when I first began and I certainly don’t use them as a marker of success. Bad reviews aren’t great but people are entitled to their opinion, unless they tag you in to a nasty one of course which is just rude. Good ones are always a tonic, especially if someone has taken the time to email you. It’s important to accept that, once the book is out there, how it’s received is not in your control.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Letting go of the finished draft and sending it to my editor. Up to that point I can tell myself it’s going well. The synopsis, and the extended synopsis which I send once the overall arc is in place, have got the thumbs up. The research was fun. I’ve hit the word count. And then somebody else has to read it…
Tell us about your novel/novels/or series and why you wrote about this topic
My latest novel, The Girl Who Told the Truth, is set in 1930s and 1940s London and Berlin and was inspired by two people. One is Oswald Mosley, the leader of Britain’s violent and virulently antisemitic fascist movement before and after World War Two, which had close links with the German Nazi Party. The other is a woman called Else Krüger, the basis for my character Margarete. She was Martin Bormann’s secretary, and she escaped from the Berlin bunker after Hitler’s death, allegedly carrying a copy of his final testament and a bag of diamonds. She was arrested in Hamburg, taken to Nuremberg and married her interrogator before she settled in England, where she passed herself off as a Danish war bride. It’s an amazing story, but that’s where it ends – unlike the other secretaries and survivors of the bunker, Else never wrote a memoir or discussed her experiences, and the truth about the documents and the diamonds died with her. I wrote it partly because I wanted to look at how, and why, fascism has continued to flourish since 1945. And because Elsa’s story made for a wonderful and high-stakes conspiracy
What was your hardest scene to write?
So much of what I read and reference in my novels is deeply tragic and many of the scenes are hard to write. The experiments on female prisoners at Ravensbrook plays a part in the background to What Only We Know, the terrible fate of Warsaw and its ghetto is a key component in The Secret Locket and the T4 Euthanasia programme is part of the Hanni Winter series. In The Girl Who Told the Truth, writing about the murder of the Goebbels’ children in the bunker was tough. All my stories have the Holocaust and the dreadful carnage of WW2 looming behind them, so I can’t choose one but I do have a cardinal rule when writing about the atrocities and that is: get in late and leave early. I don’t want to dwell on suffering, or take advantage of that to write a book. It’s better to tread lightly.
Tell us your favourite quote and how the quote tells us something about you.
“Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That’s terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.” Nick Cave, one of my favourite musicians said that, and I live by it. I’m at my desk five days a week doing my job, because my job needs discipline.
Many thanks for posting this