Interview With Author Paul Marzell
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently reside in western Pennsylvania with my wife, Janet. I served in the United States Air Force in West Germany in the early sixties. I earned a BSBA degree from Temple University in Philadelphia and an MBA degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. My business experience includes thirty years in the airline industry in various nonmanagement and management positions with domestic and international responsibilities. I was also a customer service manager for a light industry company and an operations manager for a satellite TV provider. Heimat is my first novel.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The inspiration for writing “Heimat” struck me eleven years ago when researching my family tree in anticipation of my first grandchild’s birth. My goal was to compile a comprehensive documentation of his diverse heritage, spanning Dutch, English, Mexican, and German roots. Employing traditional resources like census and baptismal records, I augmented my project with invaluable documents inherited from my father, who immigrated from Germany in 1929.
Among these documents were my father’s birth certificate, immigration papers, passport, the ticket for the inaugural voyage of the TS Bremen across the Atlantic, and a collection of various German and United States government forms, including his World War Two draft registration. The letters he preserved from his mother, sisters, and other relatives, which he received both before and after World War Two, were of utmost significance.
Many of the letters were composed in Sütterlin Schrift, a script no longer taught in Germany. It took me several months to transcribe them into modern German script and then translate them into English.
Many of the experiences of some characters in Heimat are inspired by real-life experiences of people I know. At the same time, I’ve crafted other characters and their experiences entirely from my imagination. In the chapters where letters are utilized for foreshadowing, some are nearly verbatim from authentic letters, while others are consolidations of two or more correspondences. Additionally, there are instances where letters are entirely fictional. These letters not only served to establish the chronological framework for the narrative but also became an integral part of the storytelling.
Despite these creative liberties, the historical facts presented in my work are meticulously researched and accurate.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Nothing unusual. I am easily distracted. While writing, I can’t ignore all chores, e.g. cleaning up the dog poop, mowing the lawn, fixing the leaking toilet, staining the deck, ad infinitum. I never learned to type! I’m too old to learn now, although I try to do better.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I like to read historical fiction by Leon Uris, Herman Wouk, and James Michener and narrative historical nonfiction by Erik Larson, which feel like novels to me. I also like paranormal novels by Dean Koontz. Then there are also J. K. Rawling and R. R. Tolkien.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing a novel that is in its embryonic stage. I have two partial paragraphs started, and I vacillate on deciding which should come first. The storyline is far from developed, and the main character’s background, personality, and physical description are incomplete.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have not found any to be satisfactory yet.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do not be easily distracted like I am. While writing, do your best to ignore all chores, e.g. cleaning up the dog poop, mowing the lawn, fixing the leaking toilet, staining the deck, ad infinitum. Learn to type! I’m too old to learn that trick. Do not ignore your health!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When I was a sophomore in high school, I had an after-class detention assignment to write the following 200 times on lined paper in pencil: “The day I become a man is the day I will walk around a puddle instead of through it'” It wasn’t those words that had an impact on me. It was that I learned to work smart rather than hard. The sentence was short enough that it occupied one line on the page, so it was possible to use two pencils and write two lines simultaneously. In later detentions, I was skilled enough to use three pencils! Obviously, the “becoming a man” part came later in life.
What are you reading now?
I am reading Looking Down the Corridors by Kevin Wright and Peter Jefferies. It’s a non-fiction work about the Allies’ espionage flights over East Germany and Berlin from 1945 to 1990. I am reading it for research for my next novel and out of curiosity because I was stationed at Rhein-Main Airbase in West Germany when the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. The following year, I got a seat on a military flight from Wiesbaden Air Base to Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. The aircraft seats were normal passenger-style seats, but the flight was uncomfortable because the crew made me wear a parachute without explanation. I found the possible answer in Looking Down the Corridors, which described the type of aircraft I flew on as one equipped with surveillance equipment like long-range cameras and sensors hidden behind a bulkhead to spy on East German and Soviet military installations that can be seen from the edges of the air corridor from West Germany to Berlin.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Continuing research and development of the next novel, which has no title yet.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would bring books on how to build a boat, canoe, or raft to learn to navigate, forage for food and water on the island, and fish.
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