The World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle
BBC Radio 4 ran a compelling show last Friday about The Stasi Jigsaw Puzzle--the shredded documents that form the core of my novel, The Puzzle People. As the Berlin Wall was coming down so...
Thousands Protest Removal of Wall
In 1989, tens of thousands of protesters tore down the Berlin Wall. But as The New York Times points out, the irony is that in 2013 people are protesting because they want the Wall to stay...
How Prayer Brought Down the Berlin Wall
This week, as the world observed the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the forgotten stories from the amazing year of 1989 was what took place in Leipzig, East...
Location, Location, Location: Doing Novel Research On-Site
NOTE—An earlier blog, Doing Your Research Right, discussed my research habits when writing historical novels. This is a follow-up blog.
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I guess I should have known what day it was when I showed...
The Blood Cries Out
Teenager's Death on the Wall is Still Remembered Almost 50 Years Later
Two teenage boys made a mad dash out of a deserted building, and the guards opened fire with automatic weapons from about fifty...
Swords and Plowshares in the Heart of Berlin
When I was writing my novel The Puzzle People, I came across a photo of the Church of Reconciliation as it was being blown up in 1985 (shown on the left). But what caught...
The Greatest Escape
I trudged along a canal in Berlin back in 2011, hoping to see the inside of one of the few remaining watchtowers in the city—a guard tower where East Berlin soldiers kept an eagle...
Why is the Berlin Wall in My Living Room?
Okay, so the Berlin Wall in my living room doesn't quite match the real Wall's dimensions. But it comes close.
The last generation of the Wall before it came down on November 9, 1989, stood...
The Church From Below
How the Church Helped Bring Down the Berlin Wall
With the last name of "Fuhrer," he made an unlikely German hero.
His full name was Christian Fuhrer, and this pastor led a movement that helped to...
