1–What is the title of your latest release? THE BERLIN APARTMENT 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A newly engaged couple – Uli and Lise – gets separated by the Berlin Wall and fight to return to each other; but as time, distance and suspicion grow, how long can true love survive in the divided city? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I knew from the outset that the Berlin Wall was going to be a key feature of the story, so that gave me my location; however, it was something of a process to figure out where specifically in Berlin the story would take place. I considered several different sites along the Wall for the main action of the story, and my considerations for which neighborhood I would choose were much the same as for my characters: what is the soil composition? What does the underground infrastructure look like? How far apart are the “Berlin apartments” in question, and what do my characters see when they look out the window? 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! I would want to go out dancing with Uli, Lise…

What a year 2020 has been!  Most of us can’t wait to see the last of it, along with fervent prayers that 2021 will be a much better 365 days.  While we’re waiting to move on, what better to distract us than novels about famous, larger-than-life heroines? Elise Hooper’s FAST GIRLS: A NOVEL OF THE 1936 WOMEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM deals with women who aren’t as famous as the others we will feature—but ought to be.  Veteran of the first women’s delegation to compete in the 1928 Olympics, Betty Robinson overcomes a horrific accident to join two newcomers as part of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Track Team. Farm girl Helen Stephens wants to escape the hardships of rural life, while Louise Stokes sees excelling in competition as a way to overcome the restrictions placed on Black Americans. All three must fight against the prevailing view that women are too “delicate” for competitive sports and should confine their activities to the home.  Hooper sets the struggle for an increased role for women against the vivid backdrop of political intrigue that was the Olympics held in Hitler’s Germany. From talented but lesser-known to the center of international scandal, we have THE WOMAN BEFORE…