Q&A With Ronald H. Balson

 Literary agent & Senior Vice President of Trident Media Group Mark Gottlieb was kind enough to connect me with New York Times Bestselling Author of Historical Fiction, Ronald H. Balson. Ronald has written Once We Were Brothers, Saving Sophie, Karolina’s Twins, The Trust, The Girl From Berlin & coming out next month on September 9^th, The Righteous. 

Q: Ronald welcome to Book Notions! I’m very excited about interviewing you! I also look forward to reading your books. Would you like to give brief descriptions of each of your novels beginning with your upcoming release The Righteous? 

A: Oh, that’s a big job.  The Righteous is my 10^th novel, all historical fiction.  It began with Once We Were Brothers, many, many years ago.  It was a story that came to me when I was working on a lawsuit in Warsaw, Poland.  It was about a Jewish family in the Polish town of Zamosc during World War II.  Saving Sophie came next.  It was a story that took place in present day Israel.  It was about a American diplomat, who met, fell in love and married a beautiful Palestinian girl, much to her father’s objection. They moved to America and had a baby, Sophie.  The woman tragically died of an illness, and during a visitation, the father-in-law kidnapped Sophie and took her back to his home in Israel’s West Bank.  Number three, Karolina’s Twins, was based on a survivor’s memory of what she lived through and observed during World War II.  Twin babies born to a friend of hers, were abandoned in a field by their mother in order to save them from being killed by the Nazis.  In a miraculous series of events, the babies were rescued and later met up with each other.  True story.  Number four was a story that took place in Northen Ireland called The Trust.  It followed a family during the period that was called “The Troubles.”  Number five was Eli’s Promise which followed a family from Warsaw to a post-war displaced persons’ camp to finally settling in Chiago.  Book Six, The Girl From Berlin, was a story about a young woman violinist who played with the symphony in World War II Berlin, and later Northern Italy.  Book Seven, Defending Britta Stein is about a woman who grew up in Copenhagen, and recalls the incredible story of how the entire country of Denmark came together to rescue and save its 7,600 Jewish residents after the Nazis ordered them condemned to be shipped to a concentration camp.   Affair Of Spies is my eighth novel that tells the story of how the U.S. and Germany competed to develop the first atomic bomb.  Number Nine is a novel that takes place in Amsterdam during World War II.  A Place To Hide concentrates on the efforts of ordinary Dutch citizens to rescue Jewish citizens by setting up individual rescue groups.  Number ten, The Righteous, is a novel about Hungary and its neighboring countries during World War II.  An Axis Member with Germany, Hitler did not conquer Hungary or interfere with the way it treated its Jewish citizens.  Until he did in 1943.  The Righteous then focuses on the efforts made by those special people we call “Righteous” who came together from around the world to rescue as many groups of Jewish citizens as they could.

Q.  Why do you write historical fiction?

A.   I have always been fascinated by history.  What happened? How did it happen?  Why did it happen?  I was even a history major in college.  I love to write about history as if I were there.  But Historical Fiction?  It’s such a contradictory term, isn’t it?  History happened.  It’s authentic, It’s full of details that occurred.  On the other hand, Fiction never happened.  We made it up.  It’s created.  And that’s what makes it so special.  We create characters, believable characters, to tell the historical story to the reader, to take the reader back to the place and time.  We stay true to the historical facts.  If a fictional character is artfully done, and that’s the tough part, it will draw the reader into the time and place as though he or she was there living it with the character.  When the reader can identify with the characters, then the reader can feel like he or she is a part of the story.  Then history comes alive, and it becomes memorable.

Q: I read your bio on Amazon, & you spent time in Warsaw & southern Poland in connections with a telecommunications lawsuit and during your time there you were moved by the scars and memorials of World War II which inspired you to write Once We Were Brothers. Your travels to Isreal and the Middle East inspired your second novel Saving Sophie. So would your advice to future historical fiction authors is to travel as much as you can for research as well as sightseeing? What were your favorite places to see in Poland, Israel and the rest of the Middle East? 

A: I think there is a lot to be learned from visiting a country and meeting the people.  There is nothing like sitting in a pub in Northern Ireland to give you a feeling for the populace.  It helps when you go to write the book.  Hopefully those feelings find their way into the story.  I visited many places in Poland and each one is a little different.  Karolina’s Twins took place in Czarnow, which was a lovley small town.  Warsaw and its many memorials is a lesson in history.

Q: How long does it take you to research and write your historical fiction novels? 

A: A year to a year-and-a-half.  It depends on what else is going on in my life.

 Q: Can you reveal details for the next novel you are currently working on or is it too early? 

 A: Shhhh…  It’s about a rescue train from the Balkans to Palestine.  Don’t tell anyone.