Welcome back to the Extra Edition newsletter! I’m excited to bring you bonus content each month with a special inside look at my novels and the history behind them.
Welcome to my new subscribers from the past few weeks’ craft fair events! Also, Congratulations to October’s giveaway winner of Secret Dwellings, T!
What’s in this Edition:
- New Audiobook – Broken Lines Now Available
- Between Loyalties in Broken Lines – German-American Discrimination during WWI
Broken Lines Now in Audiobook
I’m thrilled to announce that Broken Lines is now available in audiobook! This is the first book in my World War I duology with the audiobook of book two, Unsettled Shores, coming by the end of 2025. Just as in Larksong Legacy, my narrator Tawnya Rollingson, nailed these characters, including so…many…accents. German, French, American, British, weird British/American/German (I’m looking at you, Emil.) She was a rockstar for putting up with this crazy story. Every book, I’m amazed at the results. There is simply no AI substitute for an authentic author-narrator working relationship.
And yes, you may have noticed that the cover is different than the original version. Fear not, the version with Amara on the cover is still available in paperback. That cover wasn’t transferring well to audiobooks’ required square layout, so I decided to try something new. I really like how the poppies show the Great War with the sunrise offering a glimmer of hope.
Between Loyalties in Broken Lines – German-American Discrimination during WWI
One of the key themes in Broken Lines is German-American discrimination both before and during World War I. Before the United States entered the fight on April 6, 1917, it became a common occurrence for foreign-born Americans to return to their homelands and join the military. This was true of all nationalities from English to French to German and Austrian. In the first chapter of Broken Lines, our Amara is told by her brother, Peter, to stay safe in America while he, per their father’s request, goes back to their German homeland to fight for the Deutsches Heer. Whether Peter agrees with Germany’s stance or not, he goes because it is what is expected of him, despite the dangers Amara may now face alone.
Initially this behavior was not cause for concern as America held a stance of neutrality. However, as tensions increased, including the continued destruction of Allied vessels by German U-boats, Americans began to grow increasingly suspicious of anyone siding with the Central Powers or speaking out against President Wilson or his military tactics. German-Americans, especially, began to face extreme prejudice, frequently being called on to prove their loyalty and remove anything sounding remotely German from daily life.
Street names changed (Berlin Avenue in St. Louis became Pershing Avenue), food names changed (sauerkraut became liberty cabbage), and some families even chose different surnames to avoid suspicion. Many German newspapers and organizations closed, and the language was no longer taught in schools. People stopped frequenting German-American owned businesses and began spying on their friends. In Iowa, the state Amara moves from, the Babel Proclamation made public speaking of any foreign language, not only German, a criminal offense. It is important to note, however, that the United States was not the only country to impose such restrictions. Nations on both sides of the war had similar and sometimes farther reaching discrimination.
It is this fear that drives many of Amara’s decisions within Broken Lines, leaving her with divided loyalties. The war can only have one winner, but either way she’ll lose something she loves. The newspaper below shows the front page announcements Amara would have seen the night the United States declared war on Germany:
The following excerpt from Broken Lines draws directly from those same headlines:
Amara had spent the better part of an hour suppressing full-blown terror, black newsprint swimming before her eyes.
“President proclaims war; German Ships Seized.”
“Rules to Govern German Citizens in This Country.”
“To Germans here: Obey the Laws and Keep Mouths Shut. No need of Fear If Aliens Obey.”Those were only the front page headlines. Surrounding them were article after article about the training of troops, reserves called out, German-owned vessels now held in port by the U.S. government—exactly what her brother most feared.
She ran upstairs then, locking herself in her bedroom, one hand pressed to her heaving chest as it strained against her corset. The time had finally come. The dawn of war, the twilight of peace. Oh, Peter, she thought. What has become of you? Are you even alive? Was he already sliced open from a Frenchman’s bayonet or riddled through by a British rifleman’s blows? Perhaps it was too late for worry as he lay in a foreigner’s grave dug by unfamiliar hands, prayed over by a nameless chaplain. Dead or alive, would she ever know now? With her mind reeling, she could focus on only one directive—safety.
Read the rest of Amara’s story.
Until next time, happy reading!
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Kelsey
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