P is for Pickelhaube follows a man fighting internal battles with love, hatred, addiction, and abuse who also has to deal with the physical battles of the war. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story? The...
Ryan Weston Author InterviewP is for Pickelhaube follows a man fighting internal battles with love, hatred, addiction, and abuse who also has to deal with the physical battles of the war. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for the theme of my story came from a mixture of sources. As a lifelong student of history, I have studied countless accounts of combat ranging through the ages, and have always been keen to learn the effects of combat on the individuals directly and indirectly involved. I also was a living historian for a decade, and in my journeys met many individuals who had actually served in the military and had experienced extensive combat. Learning their personal accounts helped shape my understanding of combat in ways not available in textbooks. And finally, having experienced trauma in my childhood and knowing the ways in which these experiences have manifested in the decades that followed, I was curious to explore the combination of the different types of traumas and their effects on my set of characters.
Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?
I believe I achieved the thematic goals that I set forth when beginning my novel, and have left some further development of the characters that I wish to use in future writings.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
It was important for me to explore the pain that one suffers mentally when experiencing traumatic events, especially pain and anguish that an individual has buried in their own psyche as a defensive measure.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
The follow-up to my novel, P is for Pickelhaube, is titled S is for Stahlhelm, and will serve as a direct sequel to the first novel. As for a timetable, I’m afraid that I cannot comment directly on my progress, but hope to have something moving towards print in this coming calendar year.
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Broken trust. Broken promises. Shame, confusion, and guilt. Unimaginable violence. Then the War came, and the cycle started anew. This is the story of Kurt, a Bavarian infantryman serving somewhere on the Western Front during the First World War. He is like many of his comrades and not a few of his enemies: he fights a war within a war, a singular combat against what he knows of love, hate, sex, addiction, and abuse. A combat against monsters both real and otherwise. Combat in the First World War was a dehumanizing experience.Gone was glory and individual heroics. Gone too were the fluttering flags and colorful uniforms. Gone was color altogether. In this alien world death came from afar, the enemy hidden from view. New and terrifying technologies elevated killing to previously unheard-of industrial levels and rendered battlefields into lifeless moonscapes.Yet while surrounded by this maelstrom Kurt faces an enemy that is still very much human – himself. Which combat will prove more deadly? In war, when men are wounded, they are called casualties. But what are men called when they are wounded before their fight begins?
