Featured Interview With Mary D. Brooks
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Sydney, Australia where I’m still living. I don’t have any pets other than a stray kitty that comes by and eats the food I leave out for her.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was five years old and my older sister would read to me the Little Golden Books which fascinated me. I was eight years old when I wrote my first short story. I was beside myself with joy that I could create stories as well as read them.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I adore Agatha Christie, PD James, Peter David, Kathy Reichs and so many other great authors. My favourite genre is Murder and Mysteries.
When I was 14/15 years old I read a novel called I am Rosemarie by Marietta Moskin that inspired and transformed my way of thinking. Any writer who can do that to a teenager is inspirational – to change a person’s point of view for the better is amazing.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is called “Awakenings” and it’s a continuation of a series that started in a small Greek town under German occupation in World War II in 1942. They meet from opposite ends of the conflict. Together they worked for the Resistance and eventually fell in love. I wanted to take Eva and Zoe (my main characters) back to Larissa (Greece) and Berlin (Germany) and have them deal with their memories. Along the way they find out not everything is the way they remember it or the truth is what they think it is.
Eva was the daughter of the German commander in charge of the Greek village and was taken into a war zone by her sadistic father. He terrorized the young woman after finding out she was a lesbian and sent to her to an Austrian medical facility where her uncle was doing research on eliminating “undesirable” character traits using shock therapy and drugs. From there Eva had to deal with the anguish all the while working for the Resistance against her father.
Zoe, the other main character, was a teenager when the Germans invaded her village. Her brothers all died fighting the Italians and she was left with her mother on the farm. In a show of brutality the Germans executed her mother causing Zoe to vow to kill as many Germans as she could and one in particular. She set her sights on killing Eva because she thought the woman laughed while her mother lay dying in the mud.
Forced to work together in the Resistance, they developed a friendship and eventually shared a kiss. Now it’s years later and half a world away where they migrated to Australia after they survived the war.
They have to go back to Greece to reclaim Zoe’s property at the behest of the Greek government or lose it. In Larissa, they encounter memories they both wanted to forget and secrets they never knew existed.
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