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The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Steven Burgauer (view source)
Revision as of 16:01, 13 December 2016
, 16:01, 13 December 2016no edit summary
But my genre switching may go further than you suspect. I have written an investment guide — ''The Wealth Builders Guide'', a serial mystery book with SF-great Philip Jose Farmer — ''Naked Came the Farmer'', and a story about Neanderthals interacting with humans 40,000 years ago, just out now with a new Kindle edition — ''The Night of the Eleventh Sun''.
* '''BB: ''Nazis'' and ''bayous'' are two subjects which most people would not ordinarily associate together. Yet these subjects are the foundation on which Nazi Saboteurs of the Bayou are built. How did you come to put them together for this historical thriller?'''
SB: It was not until I visited the National WWII Museum in New Orleans that I came to grasp the central role that city played in winning the war. The steel-ramped landing boats that made beach landings possible at Normandy and North Africa and on every Pacific island were designed and built in New Orleans by the hundreds each month and mostly with unskilled labor. While it is a well-established fact that Nazi saboteurs targeted East Coast steel mills and boat assembly yards as part of Operation Pastorius, I theorized that the Higgins boat plants might be targeted by the Nazis as well. On this premise I built the central storyline. The idea began to take shape as I studied the full-scale model of a restored Higgins boat parked in the lobby of this wonderful American museum.
* '''BB: Many historical novels have been written about World War II. What makes ''Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou'' unique?'''
INITIALS: Other World War II stories, both fictional and nonfiction have been written about Nazi efforts to undermine the Allied war effort both at home and abroad. But most of the stories that take place in the U.S. focus on Operation Pastorius, where Nazi commandoes targeted manufacturing facilities in the northeast, New York, New Jersey, those areas. I believe my book to be one of the few books — if not the only one — to center the story on the Higgins boat plants in the New Orleans area. Also, while not unique, I have introduced the role of the Sicilian mob, both in the Allied war effort as preparations for the North Africa amphibious landings got underway, and their out-sized influence on the labor markets where Andrew Higgins had to find his factory workers.
* '''BB: Do you have any tips for aspiring writers who believe they have that book inside them? For instance, is there anything you would definitely recommend they do and anything they should definitely avoid?'''