Cycling through Time: Why It’s Important to Study the Past and Q&A with the author

By Melanie Dobson

An imposing statue stands outside the National Archives in Washington, DC. On the limestone throne of this monument is a sculpted man with a scroll in one hand and a massive book in the other. Etched below his studious pose is this inscription:

Study the Past

But why is it important for us to study the past?

Writers and historians dig through ancient scrolls and books for countless reasons, but as I searched for the answer to this question, I discovered three reasons why we should all be students of history. Why we should all read the stories of those who’ve gone before us.

Identifying Trends

Racism, the suppression of free speech, rioting, a pandemic—four of the primary issues our country is facing right now are the same threats that the historical and contemporary characters confront in my new time-slip novel The Curator’s Daughter. While I wrote this work of fiction in 2019, I had no crystal ball to see into the future. The stage, sadly, was already set for a crisis.

Identifying trends is one of the main reasons why we should all study history. The Curator’s Daughter is mainly a story about the Holocaust, but it circles back almost seven hundred years to the Black Death, which ignited a violent anti-Semitic blaze across Europe. The Jews, their enemies said, caused the plague by poisoning wells. As a result, more than two hundred Jewish communities were destroyed.

Hundreds of years after Jews were murdered because of the plague, another blaze of hateful rhetoric and lies hit Europe. Adolf Hitler convinced millions of Germans that the Jewish people instigated their humiliating loss of the Great War. His hateful words soon turned into action, and a different kind of plague killed more than six million Jews and countless others from around the world.

At times, this hatred feels like a never-ending cycle as the spokes of another year, decade, century circle around. And free speech, one of our nation’s most valuable commodities, is being threatened as well.

Instead of studying the past today, identifying trends through the years, our society often edits history. In the name of respect, we try to erase the most shameful events. Cover up the embarrassing pieces of our history when we should be shining light on the most horrific of times, sifting through these events to find out what went wrong.

Chronological snobbery is what C. S. Lewis called a civilization that believes it is above repeating the catastrophic events of the past. But instead of believing ourselves to be better than those who came before us, we should humbly admit that we are susceptible to a repeat. As a society, we must identify what went wrong in the past to stop the cycle today. A hard brake before we crash again.

Defeat Evil 

We must study the past so we don’t repeat the genocide from hatred, the animosity that destroys people and communities alike. Then we utilize this information so these same evils don’t cycle again on our watch.

Each individual has a different role in stopping the destruction, a different weapon to wield in fighting evil. When we see the attack coming from afar, how do we gird up for a battle? What weapon do we have to fight?

For our first responders and military, it might be a literal weapon, but for most of us, we fight with our words. Some of us battle by stepping into the political arena or writing down our stories or teaching our children lessons from the past so they can fight evil alongside us. Others stop the onslaught of evil with love and forgiveness as they care for those who have been wounded in the midst.

Tosha Lamdin Williams, the founder of Family Disciple Me, recently wrote an article called “The Tale of Two Harriets” (linked) about two heroic women in history—Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both women balked at the cultural norm of slavery in the mid-1800s and fought in their own way to free slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe battled the evil of slavery with written words while Harriet Tubman escorted slaves to freedom. Instead of running away, hiding from evil, these Harriets fought with the weapons of grace and truth.

We read history so we can learn the stories like these and the strategies of how others defeated the evil around them. Then we get to work right where we live, searching for ways to redeem the ruins in our world.

Finding Hope 

Finally, we study the past in hopes of replicating good choices and replacing bad decisions with better ones. We study it to find hope after a cycle of hatred, peace after a pandemic, reconciliation after a family rift. In the pages of history, we find victory that we can cling to as we seek restoration.

We are inspired by the stories throughout history of ordinary people like the two Harriets who did extraordinary things to care for their neighbor. By those men and women courageous enough, even when they were afraid, to stand for what was right.

On the other side of the National Archives door is a second statue, this one of a robed woman engrossed in another book. The words under her sandaled feet read:

What is Past is Prologue

Both statues in front of the National Archives doors were carved in the 1930s—a prologue for us living in 2021—but the reminders on these towering monuments are just as relevant today as we write a new prologue.

Our society is at a crossroads again. Will we wield our words with grace and truth today, or will we be defeated by the evil around us? As we circle again this labyrinth of time, it’s critical that we step mentally into the past and study it. Search for ways to defeat evil and find doors of hope for the next generation.

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Stay tune for a special Q&A with Melanie, plus a chance for you to win a copy of Melanie's latest release, The Curator's Daughter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melanie Dobson is the award-winning author of more than twenty historical romance, suspense, and time-slip novels, including The Curator’s Daughter, which releases from Tyndale House Publishers in March 2021. Melanie is the former corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family and owner of the publicity firm Dobson Media Group. When she isn't writing, Melanie enjoys teaching both writing and public relations classes. Melanie and her husband, Jon, have two daughters and live near Portland, Oregon.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW with Melanie & Annie

1. Hi Melanie! Welcome back to Seekerville! Thank you for your stopping by. Can you tell us a bit about you, especially for those readers that haven’t met you yet? 

Thanks so much for having me! I’m excited to join you again. I am the mom of two teenage girls (both of them were babies when I started writing fiction!). I love learning the stories in history and am on a quest to follow the teachings of Jesus in my daily life. After seven solid years of writing, rejections, and rewriting, my first novel was published in 2006, and I have now published almost thirty time-slip, historical romance, suspense, and resource books. Just typing thirty is surreal …

2. You've shared about writing time-slip novels the last time you were here. What is it about the WWII era that interests you to continue writing books set during that time?

I like telling the stories from World War II because so many seemingly ordinary people stepped up with courage during that time, even when they were scared, to stand against evil. And what they accomplished was extraordinary. Because many of these heroes were killed, my desire is to keep their legacy alive. Keep telling the stories so we can all remember together and stop the cycle of hatred from repeating itself. 

3. Can you tell us a bit about your latest release, The Curator's Daughter?

Absolutely. This is a story about an archaeologist named Hanna Tillich who cherishes her work for the Third Reich, searching for the Holy Grail and other artifacts to bolster evidence of a master Aryan race. But when she is reassigned to work as a museum curator in Nuremberg, then forced to marry an SS officer and adopt a young girl, Hanna begins to see behind the Nazi facade. Eighty years later, a researcher named Ember Ellis becomes intrigued by Hanna’s story. What she uncovers will force her to confront the heartache of her own past and ultimately the man who wants to silence her forever.

I wrote this book in 2019, but it is also about racism in the name of righteousness, the suppression of free speech, rioting, and a pandemic. Don’t know exactly how that happened except the stage was set for a crisis in our nation long before 2020.  

4. In your latest, The Curator's Daughter, what do you think will surprise readers when it comes to picking it up, particularly if they've read your previous novels? 

I know the stories from that era are endless, but after researching and writing five novels based on events from World War II, I was surprised to learn about the devoted research division of the Nazi Party (Ahnenerbe) that was developed to prove the Aryan heritage of the German people and then some of the frightening details about SS-program called Lebensborn that justified kidnapping thousands of Jewish children from Eastern Europe. Readers might also be surprised at the direction of the present-day plot in this story. I won’t give anything away, but the tone is a bit different than my other novels. 

5. Archaeology plays a key role in The Curator's Daughter. How has research of this profession help or drive any aspect of the storyline?

Becoming an archaeologist was my dream when I was a girl. I loved learning the stories of history and being outside and all the romance of discovering remnants buried for hundreds or thousands of years. As part of my research for this novel, I took an archaeology class and what I learned in those weeks helped drive Hanna’s personality and her passion for this work along with all the logistics of this profession. It also helped me realize that I am much more passionate about crafting stories about the past than digging for artifacts.

My research for this book also took me to Washington, DC, Martha’s Vineyard, and eventually to Nuremberg. If readers would like to read more about my research journey to write The Curator’s Daughter, they can find that info here. (link: https://melaniedobson.com/research/research-trips/curators-daughter-trip/ )

6. Which part of the book is your favorite? Can you share a line/paragraph (without a spoiler)?

I enjoyed writing all the sections with Lilly, the girl taken from her home in Poland. Her story just poured out of me, and I realized later that her journey really represented what many people in Germany experienced at the time—shock, fear, confusion, resignation, and for some, like Lilly, a determination to live much differently that what was intended for her under National Socialism. 

Much later in life, Lilly says, “All King David needed was the stone that God gave him to kill Goliath, and I need to use whatever gifts that God gives me to defeat the giants in my world.” 

7. Let’s chat a bit more about you. Besides reading and writing, what other hobbies do you like?

Wait…there are other hobbies beside reading and writing? ☺ I’m not sure that these would be considered hobbies, but I love to travel and hike and play board games with my family. On most days, I really do enjoy tucking myself away in my favorite coffee shop with a green tea or lavender latte and dream up my next book. 

8. If you had to choose 1 book you've read in the past year that is an absolute must read, what would it be?

Set the Stars Alight by Amanda Dykes. This is a magical, lyrical, time-slip novel, and I will butcher the description if I attempt to describe the plot. Set the Stars Alight is an experience as well as a story. I rarely lose myself to a book these days, but I was immersed in every page of this one. 

9. Which one of your books would you suggest to first time readers of your books to get to "know you" as a writer?

Oh, that’s a beautiful question. Thank you. Catching the Wind is a reader favorite, especially the audiobook which ended up winning the Audie Award for Faith-Based Fiction in 2018 because of the incredible narration by Nancy Peterson. To really get to know me as a writer, though, it would have to be Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor. That was the story of my heart.

10. And to end, what’s next for you and what other can your fans expect?

I just finished my next time-slip novel, and I am so excited to share it with my readers! Sadly, that won’t happen for another year, but this story is about an American Quaker woman named Grace who rescues children from a French internment camp during World War II. Two of the children, a brother and sister, join Grace in Oregon, and they struggle over the decades to restore the brokenness in their story.

Thanks so much for having me back! My life was changed from  researching and writing The Curator’s Daughter, and I hope the lives of readers are changed a bit as well when they finish this story.  

Many thanks to Melanie for stopping by Seekerville today and for your time in answering my questions! We're always thrilled to have you here. 

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GIVEAWAY

Tyndale Publishers is giving away a copy of The Curator's Daughter to one reader today. Just leave a comment below for Melanie and you're entered.

(Seekerville's Giveaway rules applied. Open to US residents with a US mailing address only.)

Interview Do's And Don'ts

 

Happy Wednesday, dear Seekerville! 

As a blogger, I have the privilege of interviewing authors on a weekly basis. Sometimes the tables are turned and I'm the one being interviewed. Either way, it's always an honor and something I don't want to take for granted. I also want to be respectful of the authors I interview - respectful of their time, their privacy, and their work. 

Lately, I've been observing some common feedback from authors and some pet peeves of my own and, to help all of our interviews be the best they can be, I thought I'd suggest a list of do's and don'ts for interviewing people in the book biz. 

DO keep it short and sweet. 

A good rule of thumb is no more than 10 questions the interviewee needs to answer. 

Authors are busy people (I'm sure I'm not telling y'all anything new here. YOU are the busy authors of which I speak), and we need to respect their time as well as the people who will later read that interview. I know, for myself, when I am reading an interview - or answering interview questions - I zone out after about 10 questions/answers. 

DO offer options.

This is a good workaround on the 10 questions thing. If you want to send more than 10 questions, fine, but somehow have the interviewee pick which questions they want to answer.

This can be done in more than one way. For my own standard set of questions, I send 6 numbered questions (another way to look at them would be 'sections') - and all but one of those allows the author to pick the question they prefer to answer from that section. Other bloggers (such as our own Beth Erin) just send one list of several questions and allow the author to pick 10 or so from that list. There's no right way or wrong way to do this, as long as you are keeping the 10 question maximum in mind and somehow allowing the author to choose the questions they prefer.

DO keep it fun & be creative.

You never want to bore people - not the people who are reading the interview nor the people you are interviewing! 

I've found that readers respond best when they can get to know the AUTHOR not just the BOOK. Certainly, asking questions about the book they are promoting is key but so also are questions that really bring out the author's personality and what makes them unique. If readers can find something that they share in common with the author, or at least can identify with, they are more likely to a) buy the books and b) champion the author on social media.  

DO ask at least one question unique to your own brand.

You are of course spotlighting the brand of the author you're interviewing, but that doesn't mean you have to abandon your own brand in the process.

Again, this can be done in many different ways. It could be a specific type of questions you ask or questions along a theme that fits your brand. For instance, on my own blog ReadingIsMySuperPower I have one specific question that I ask every interviewee the first time they are on my blog - and it's related to my blog name. This not only provides consistency in every interview but it also helps people remember who is interviewing them, in case they want to tailor their answers to better relate to your audience, etc. 

DO be a good listener. 

If you are conducting the interview on a podcast or radio program, etc. it's important to not be in so much of a rush that you end up talking over them. 

Melony Teague suggests that you let them talk and wait for them to process the question and the words they want to say. Part of this includes always working to put them at ease, to dispel any anxiety they may be feeling about a 'live' interview. You may even need to rephrase the same question in different ways until you get the information you're looking for. 

DON'T ask eleventy-bazillion questions. 

I know I mentioned this in the DO section but it's because I want to doubly emphasize it. 

Ain't nobody got time to answer eleventy-bazillion questions, and asking them to do so will only irritate them and make them sooooo less likely to agree to another interview with you. Do all God's children a favor and limit your list to TEN questions (however you choose to do that - whether just a straight set of ten or a longer list from which the author can choose the questions they want to answer.

 

DON'T be an interview snob.

We all want to be unique and have exclusive rights to an interview but .... 

It's also okay on occasion to use an already prepared Q&A from the publisher - I've even seen some authors do this right before a new release. This goes back to the DON'T I mentioned above. As an interviewer you should always strive to make the interview as easy for the interviewee as possible. If that means that they don't have time to do 40 different interviews during the launch of a new book, then graciously accepting the prepared questions & answers is the right thing to do! AND if that means they don't have time to do an interview at all, graciously accept that answer and don't keep asking.

 

DON'T be afraid to be silly or off-topic.

This is related to 'keep it fun' from the DO list, but sometimes we all just need to loosen up!

It's okay to ask completely non-bookish questions, questions that may seem silly (are you more a golden retriever or a chihuahua? ) or have nothing to do with anything (who's your favorite Backstreet Boy?). Maybe do a section pitting classic TV shows against each other. Or a version of the Rip It Or Ship It craze on YouTube (you match a hero from one book or movie with a heroine from another and ask if the interviewee would rip that story up or 'ship it', meaning they can see that relationship working). Ask them for their bookish confessions - have they ever written a report on a book they've never read? do they hate a book or author that everyone else loves? Questions like this (while not suggested for the entire interview) help readers identify with the author you're interviewing and, as I said earlier, help that author find new diehard fans.

 

DON'T ask questions with one-word answers.

Unless this is a specific category of questions where you WANT one-word answers, try to phrase your questions for maximum answer-ability. 

A good tip here is to ask 'Why?' whenever you think a question may lend itself to a very brief answer. This encourages the interviewee to give a deeper, more thoughtful answer to that question instead and may even spark their own creativity to give you an answer that is truly fabulous and insightful. For instance, instead of asking 'Who is your favorite character in the book?' ask this 'Which of your characters in this book most spoke to you and why?' or 'Which character would you most like to hang out with in real life, and what would you most like to tell them?' 

DON'T forget to share it.

Algorithms are not our friends.

Gone are the days when you can publish a post on your blog and get hundreds or thousands of views without doing anything else. You can't even just post it to your FB page and expect anyone to see it. For maximum exposure of the interview post (which most benefits both you and the interviewee) you must share it in as many beneficial places as possible. Use the stats from your blog/website/social media page to determine where your traffic is coming from and then focus on that. DON'T waste time on social media that your audience isn't using. DO tag the author in your social media posts to a) notify them that you've posted and b) engage their audience. Share in various FB groups and join (and post to) group boards on Pinterest. Research the most effective hashtags on Twitter & Instagram. And DON'T forget to include the author's bio and social media/website links in your interview post. 

 

 What about you? 

What do you like most and/or least about being interviewed?
Do you have some fave tips that work for you? 

Let us know in the comments!

Carrie Schmidt is an avid reader, book reviewer, story addict, KissingBooks fan, book boyfriend collector, and cool aunt. She also loves Jesus and THE Story a whole lot. Co-founder of the Christian Fiction Readers' Retreat and JustRead Publicity Tours, Carrie lives in Kentucky with her husband Eric. She can be found lurking at various blogs and websites (because she can't stop talking about books) but her main home is the blog she started in 2015 - ReadingIsMySuperPower.org. You can also connect with Carrie on Facebook @ meezcarriereads and everywhere else social at @meezcarrie.