All of my books begin with the seed of an idea. For everything I’ve written up to this point, the research was more casual. I would visit a place and imagine my characters there. But for the historical novel I’m currently working on, “I Will Find You”, the fact-finding mission has been much more serious and intense. I’ve been reading non-fiction accounts of Paris during World War II, both anecdotal and factual books, about exactly what happened to that magnificent city and its inhabitants.
For example, I didn’t know that there was a real effort to hide the priceless art from the pilaging Nazi soldiers and that many Parisians risked their lives for those paintings and sculptures. I visited Tel Aviv twice to spend time with the docent at the bullet museum there. Without giving away too much, those two places form the plot of my book. I’ve been doing the research for close to two years, and now as I write, I fill in the details from the copious notes I took along the way!
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