Interveiw with Author D.E. Haggery

About D.E. Haggerty:

I was born and raised in Wisconsin but think I’m a European (a cloggy to be exact). After spending my senior year of high school in Germany, I developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to be cured. After high school I returned to the U.S. to go to college ending up with a Bachelor’s degree in History at the tender age of 20 while still managing to spend time bouncing back and forth to Europe during my vacations (oh the benefits of a long-distance relationship). Unable to find a job after college and still suffering from wanderlust, I joined the U.S. Army as a Military Policewoman for 5 years (the Peace Corps was too much paperwork). While stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, I met my future husband, a flying Dutchman (literally). After being given my freedom from the Army, I went off to law school. I finished law school and moved to the Netherlands with my husband and became a commercial lawyer for more than a decade. During a six month break from the lawyering world, I wrote Unforeseen Consequences. Although I finished the book, I went back to the law until I could no longer take it and upped stakes and moved to Germany to start a B&B. Three years after starting the B&B, I got the itch to try something else and decided to pull the manuscript for Unforeseen Consequences out of the attic and get it published as an e-book. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune, reading, playing part-time lawyer and running the B&B, I’m working on my 3rd book.


I was lucky enough to sign up for a book tour featuring D.E.'s new book Buried Appearances which I reviewed here recently. I had never read a historical fiction book before and it was incredible. After I read the book, I just had questions that only D.E. could answer for me. So I found her profile on goodreads.com and contacted her to ask her if she would do an interview with me. She said she would. I was so happy that she could give me some of her time. So here is my interview with author D.E. Haggerty:

1. According to your biography, you definitely were not, on the surface, geared to be a writer. You studied history, joined the Army, went to law school - and you mention your constant wanderlust. You have a great history of places you have been and things you have been involved in. What made you want to write?

Actually, I’ve always been writing. I wrote my first book on the bus to school when I was 10. I stopped for a while when I was 13 as I had a very discouraging teacher. Luckily, that was temporary. I’m always writing poetry and song lyrics (that no one ever hears!). I never thought writing would be a career. I know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet and I didn’t want that for myself. I’m lucky enough to have the support of my husband now and a business that only needs my attention for certain parts of the year.

2. Out of all of the genres of books, why did you decide to go with Historical Fiction?

I studied history because history fascinates me. Writing historical fiction is a combination of two things I love: history and writing. I also like working in the mystery genre as I love a good mystery. It helps that I worked as a military policewoman for 5 years.

3. Skylar was a very interesting, very strong, and very determined character. Is she at all like you? Or is her personality a mix of personalities of people you know?

She’s definitely a mix of personalities. I think my first book, Unforeseen Consequences, was really autobiographical. I’ve grown as a writer since then and now try to really create a character instead of reflecting myself in a character.

4. Did you ever see any way that Skylar could solve this mystery without going to Holland?

I had planned for the story to take place in Holland from the very beginning. I just had to find a way to get Skylar there.

5. The part about Skylar being alone her whole life and then having so much family she did not know about was so touching. Tell me how you decided to incorporate all of the extended family into the story.

I knew that Skylar would have to find family members or friends in order to move forward with her search for the truth. This is also very loosely based on my father-in-law’s situation. When he went looking for clues about his father (who died during the war), he discovered family members as well.

6. My favorite character, besides Skylar, was Ineke. Tell me more about her character.

I love Ineke too! Ineke is that cool Aunt that never married but loves life. She keeps up on current events and technology so she doesn’t seem old. Although it’s sad that she never married as she let the love of her life get away, I love that she’s overcome that. She hasn’t ever looked for love again because she knows it will never compare to what she let slip away.

7. Did you know how you were going to end the book? For example did you have the idea and know exactly how you were going to get from point a to point b. Or did you have some of your own surprises along the way while writing?

The story writes itself sometimes! I knew where I wanted to start – with a body found in the dunes - and where I wanted to end – but how to get there? I didn’t have a clue when I started writing. I went through several ideas until I worked it out. I did a lot of the researching while I was writing so the story was very organic. Sometimes I had to change things because the story I wanted just didn’t work with the historical facts.

8. The amount of history in the book was amazing. And you made it easy to follow. I will be honest, I am not very interested in history but your book was so intriguing. You mention at the back of the book that you did research and took just a few liberties with some facts. Being a student of history, how much research did you have to do? For example a lot, a whole lot, or did you know a lot of the history already?

I knew quite a bit of the history already as my academic focus was on modern history (with special emphasis on the rise of Nazism and Communism). But I did do a lot of very specific research for this book. I really wanted to get some specific facts about Dutch history, which is not taught at university in the U.S. and I wanted to find personal stories. I think personal stories are what make history so interesting. I probably spent a total of a month just researching the book. I will have to spend more time on other stories in the future, but this story hit very close to home and so I already knew a lot about what I wanted to write before I even started.

9. Why this particular story? What I mean by that is why have the whole mystery surrounding the grandfather? And on top of that why did Skylar seem to be the only one interested in solving the mystery? Or at least being the only one willing to do the work to solve the mystery.

This story is very personal to me. My father-in-law’s father was killed during the war and my father-in-law didn’t even know about his biological father until his adopted father died more than 3 decades after the war. Since I’ve known him, my father-in-law has been trying to find out more information about his biological father. I thought to myself – what if they found his body? Would we be able to know more about him then? And that’s how the idea started.
I think a lot of Dutch have just accepted that the war happened and moved on. Skylar was obviously stuck in the past. In order to move forward as a person, she needed to find out what happened. I think the other characters wanted to help her, but they didn’t personally have a need to find out what happened because they weren’t stuck in the past.

10. I know this is fiction, but is there any truth in here at all? Or is that a mystery too?

The story itself is fiction but there are numerous stories of resistance members that joined the NSB (the Dutch Nazi party) in order to hide their resistance activities and/or spy on the party. I think Americans see the war as black and white: The Nazis were bad, the Allies good. The Dutch, on the other hand, know that there are all kinds of grey in there. The movie, Zwartboek, really opened my eyes. Zwartboek is a Dutch movie that takes place during the war. It really showed me that all is not as it seems as far as the war was concerned. So, although the book is fiction, it could be a true story. Also, I’ve borrowed heavily from true stories to make up the characters’ stories.

11. Where is your favorite place to write? For example on your porch or patio, at a desk, in a comfy chair?

I write in my office. I am constantly thinking about the story I’m working on and writing notes everywhere, but when I actually sit down to write the story – it’s only at my desk in my office.

12. Do you have to have a certain snack when you are writing?

I drink a lot of coffee but try not to snack too much. If I have a snack, it’s gone before I even realize I’m eating!

13. What can we expect from you in the future?

I’m working on a psychological thriller at the moment. I think this is one of the hardest genres to write and it’s tough going for me at the moment, but once an idea is in my head I need to write the story. After that, I’m planning on going back to historical fiction. We’re moving to Istanbul and I hope to be inspired there.

14. Is there anything else that you would like to add.

Thanks so much for reading my book and taking the time to write a review and ask me questions.

You are more than welcome. I am exited about your new book and wish you a lot of luck in working on it and much success when it is published. And of course, when you go back to historical fiction I will be waiting to that book too.

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