Just when I thought I had my plot all figured out for book two in my Tangled Roots historical series, I discovered I have too much planned to fit into a single book. The story as originally planned, follows five main characters during WWII.
To narrow the scope and allow readers to get more emotionally involved with the characters, I will likely divide this plot into two books, focusing on three young German girls in book two, Bloodlines and Barbed Wire, and then two teens in book three (untitled), thus continuing Lucas Landry’s research of his German ancestry through book three.
Book Four, then, will probably be about Lucas’s search for either his American ancestors or for his wife’s South African ancestors.
I’m really excited to plan out all of these books. The most difficult part in all of this is sticking to one book at a time. I’m too eager to get them all written.
If you haven’t read the first book, Breadcrumbs and Bombs, please check it out on Amazon.
ABOUT BREADCRUMBS AND BOMBS:
In this riveting genealogy mystery and world war 2 historical novel, a young American, Lucas Landry, traces his ancestry, using breadcrumbs found in old WW2 diaries of two German girls in Germany and the Sudetenland.
Twenty-eight year old Lucas Landry, a Sacramento, California native, is a counseling psychologist specializing in drug abuse treatment, yet couldn’t save his own opioid-addicted father. His feelings about his father and his death get complicated when he discovers his father hid many secrets about their ancestry from Lucas and his brother. Lucas embarks on a journey to find answers: What secrets had his father hidden, who are the Landrys, and where did they come from? Are Lucas and his estranged brother destined to repeat their ancestors’ mistakes? A hidden attic in Lucas’s father’s old Victorian house is a goldmine of memorabilia and clues from the past, clues which seem to lead to Nazi Germany and the former Sudetenland, breadcrumbs to other lives.
Ten year old Christa Nagel is an ethnic German living in the Sudetenland near the Polish border in 1943 with her parents and five younger siblings. When her father is conscripted into the Wehrmacht, leaving Christa and family alone to fend for themselves, she is horrified and worried for him. After a while, though, she’s not sure which is worse, fighting in the war or trying to keep their family together and safe. When the war ends, she and her family, as well as millions of other ethnic Germans face expulsion from their home, marched away into the unknown.
Fifteen year old Ilse Seidel, a German girl living in a small Bavarian city, knows more about danger than anyone her age should know. She’s survived bombings, lost loved ones, and witnessed Jewish friends being carted away from their homes. She wants nothing to do with the war or with soldiers. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she finds a wounded soldier in need of help.
Lucas is determined to assemble these breadcrumbs, find out how their stories intertwine, and reveal his ancestry. Will what he learns make him feel better about himself and his family, or worse? Breadcrumbs and Bombs is about war, secrets, lies, prejudice, betrayal, guilt, love, genealogy, and what it means to be a family.