Lovely Karen Banes, an editor and author herself, hosted me on her blog. She sent a list of thoughtful interview questions that I really appreciated.
Here are two of them:
KB: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
TS: The belief in an external, hierarchical, patriarchal God is one of the greatest sources of evil in human civilization. It is my firm belief that God as love is internal, inclusive, merciful, and non-gendered.
KB: How much of the book is realistic?
TS: As I said before, I researched this era in Paris thoroughly. Many of the details are accurate, such as the way Parisians were always hungry during the occupation. Several documents said that Parisians ate only about 800 calories per day at this time. Also, over a million French men had been taken into compulsory work service in Germany, so the Resistance drew on women, high school students, and the elderly. At one point, Alia the protagonist, who is a fallen angel, is walking down the street wearing a jaunty red hat. There are references to those red hats as a kind of subtle rebellion; French fashion continued during occupation.
Read the interview here and check out Karen’s informative books here.
