ABOUT BOOK 4, building
Behind the scenes and ideas for book 4
TWO STORMS
The storm begins in the morning of the last day in book 3, and is still raging at the beginning of book 4.
This storm has two origins. During my time in rehab after my double mastectomy, we had several storms at the coast, and at night the storms would howl around the clinic. The sounds in BREATHE are as I recorded them in those nights.
Trees falling came into the story after a heavy storm in Berlin, some years ago, which uprooted quite a number of trees.
What made me really angry at the time was seeing a mother with a pram from my window who was walking to the park as if there hadn’t been clear weather warnings and as if it wasn’t obvious that this wasn’t a time to be outside.
And I thought, but this is us. We are always incredulous. Bad things happen to others, in stories. Rogue presidents exist in movies not in our world. No real person would starve a people. These things don’t happen. And especially not to us.
BREATHING OUT
In rehab, I was a bit bored in the breathing sessions, and so I started a little competition with myself: For how long can I exhale?
I considered exhaling for thirty seconds as really good.
Thinking about a beginning for book 4, I remembered this, and wondered whether I could breathe out for 39 seconds.
I just tried again and got to 38,42 sec, forcing myself to keep at it for the final seconds.
Why 39 seconds? Well, you could find out in the first chapter of book 4, building, part 1: campaigns.
WHY ENGLAND?
There is this thing about falling in love. As far as I can tell, it just happens without much considerations for who or where you are.
I first fell in love with English after we migrated from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1984, years before the fall of the wall. Maybe I’ll tell you the whole story another time. For now, I’ll fast forward to 2012 when I built the first Easy Town in my mind. Easy, the friend I named the town after, wouldn’t have wanted to go to England, and so the early on there were always two or three towns, usually one in Germany, another in France (he spoke French) and one for me in England.
When I finally read Terry Pratchett in autumn/winter 2013/4, I thought that Terry Pratchett might not want to get involved with the town project, but he might visit it. That was the first time that my friend had to suffer an English Easy Town and these two had a good time. I still have a short story with both of them somewhere, from 2014.
By 2016, the year I built the Easy Town you’ll find in the easy town story, I had settled for an English Easy Town. Mind you, there are by now over 80 ideas for towns with a purpose, and two of my favourites are in Romania and another in South Africa.
Falling in love. It’s such a strange thing. And in my case, it gets a little stranger. England is where my heart beats. Scotland where my soul breathes. And yes, I know what a contradiction this is.
THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND
Why would I give the Queen of England an active part in the story? And why not the real queen but a fictional?
The original easy town story was a thought experiment with no intention of ever publishing it. When I got to the point where the town team would finally get a site, there was one subject I was particularly worried about: property. How would I deal with property? And wouldn’t allowing people to buy property get in the way of the freedom the town needed for its experiments? Plus, shouldn’t the question of property be part of the experiments, too?
And then, I thought: Well, it’s a tricky question. What if you postponed it? What if the project got an estate it wasn’t allowed to fracture? And that’s how the queen got it. I let her make an offer that would make it impossible for Alice to sell any part of the estate. And yes, it was a good decision because it allows the project that freedom to question everything and to test every idea that might be beneficial.
But why a fictional queen?
I gradually shifted from Queen Elisabeth to Queen Lusana.
I had quite enjoyed the freedom of working with an invented Middle Eastern country (Otaon) in book 2, travelling. So I was generally open to the idea. But I think it was some of the Megan/Harry excitement that got even on my radar (which rarely happens where celebs are concerned), and I remembered those two boys which had to walk behind the coffin of their mother, and I thought, no. I don’t want to be another person who drags either of them into something. I’m glad, I made the decision. This story would never have been about portraying anyone real anyway. And Queen Lusana plus her granddaughter Princess Felicitas are the better challenge, I think.
The Jellybridge Estate
If you’re wondering about the name of the estate. Here’s the name’s fictional story from book 3, shaping.
Gregory, the gamekeeper, was riding next to Alice and said, smiling: ‘The story goes that the fifth duchess wanted to rename the estate Jollyridge. And her husband, known for his wit, renamed it Jellybridge, pretending it had been a spelling mistake by the authorities which couldn’t be amended. To which the duchess said: “Jolly, jelly, ridge, bridge— Well, why not?” Apparently it was the duke’s constant grudge that no matter what he tried, his wife couldn’t be provoked. Some people in the neighbourhood still call the estate Jolly Jelly.’
THE 15 AUGUST
Why did I start with CAMPAIGNS FOR OUR FUTURE today?
I had hoped to be ready for this in spring already, and when it was time to finally set a date, I eventually pushed it deeper into the summer to spend some extra time with my family. We only reconnected last Christmas, which makes this time extra special.
I also knew I couldn’t stay on Usedom once the campaigns in the story start because that’s going to be such an intense time that I can’t put it on anyone and will have to find places where I can solely focus on the work.
And that’s how the 15 August came into focus. My siblings are still here, and I have about another week with them while the first chapters and posts get out.
I smiled about the 15 August because from the second part of book 4 onwards, this will be a special date. A future main character will have his first full scene on that day which also happens to be his birthday, and in book 10, this day is a key day, beautiful and magical. And the birthday of another future character who is one of my favourite characters in the series.
THE BLUR
The beginning of book 4 was always to be written like a blur, everything happening at once, never a moment’s rest, always rushing on. I remember thinking that I should record the chapter rather than write it to capture the breathlessness of that time for the story’s team. And I was convinced that I could easily squeeze those ten weeks of the story into twenty pages. Maybe fifty.
Writing The Blur was one of the things I had been looking forward to doing for years. When I was recovering from overwork and a double mastectomy in 2024, I thought, I should treat myself to writing The Blur, even though book 3, shaping, wasn’t completed.
It was a great decision. The blur was everything I had hoped for and more. I began by reviewing the last chapters of book 3, shaping, and then set out to put together the fun, content-rich juxtaposition that is the first part of book 4.
Doing this was like solving a mystery or working on a great puzzle. Everywhere were pieces that could be squeezed into the breathlessness and more ideas kept coming, especially for the campaigns.
It soon became obvious that The blur would exceed the fifty pages I had considered a maximum. But despite the amount of content, I decided to write it in a condensed way, without paragraphs, with few headlines, always pushing on, always adding more, often foregoing descriptions and just using dialogue, often jumping from one event to the other.
I guess, it will be a relief for me and for readers to get to the second part of book 4, and finally have paragraphs and breaks for chapters again.
But for The blur, I want the reader to experience the breathlessness, too.