Katia, by Bruce Judisch (OakTara)

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A saying I use as part of my signature block on a writer's forum  goes, "Editing your manuscript is the revenge your characters get on you for thinking you're running their lives."  How true.

This is the reason my blog has been silent for nearly a month. When the heat is turned up under a project going into production, life elsewhere ceases. It's appropriate that Sunday marks the resurrection from that ceased life. Thanks to a tireless editor and a phenomenal design artist, Katia is on her way to the printer.

For those of you who aren't yet acquainted with Katia Mahler, you're in for a treat. I'll enter the synopsis below:

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“Seek the truth, embrace the pain, cherish the freedom.”

Spirited Madeline “Maddy” McAllister is a twenty-one year-old journalism major completing her year as an exchange student at the Freie Universtität, in Berlin, Germany. She has a career to launch.

Stalwart Katia Mahler is a sixty year-old German invalid who grew up in post-World War II East Berlin. She has a story to tell.

Enigmatic Oskar Schultmann brings together the journalist and the storyteller. Maddy’s task: to chronicle Katia Mahler’s life.

All three of them discover more to Katia’s story than they bargained for.

Cultures and generations clash, as the young American and the German matron strive to understand each other’s present and past. Maddy learns more than a personal history; Katia receives more than a memoir. And always in the background is Oskar, who gets drawn into the story in ways he never intended.

Peek behind the Iron Curtain and over the Berlin Wall as Katia’s story—the story of a lost generation from a failed state—comes to life through the scribbled notes of a girl struggling to grasp the significance of what she has written for her own life, as well as for future generations.

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Writing this story has been one of the joys of my life. It's based upon a scene I witnessed in Berlin, Germany, on November 10, 1989, the day after the Berlin Wall fell. A photo of the inspirational scene, along with a photo gallery depicting the events of that historic event, are on my Web site.

I'll keep you posted on the release date for Katia. I hope you'll give her a try!
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