The background of Riddle of Berlin is an international thriller, similar in overall nature to Ian Fleming or Robert Ludlum books. The actual story lines are about the possibility of redemption of the characters.  I hope that intertwining emotions of real people in the context of a fast-paced, page-turning thriller will be meaningful to readers.  We all seek redemption at various times in our lives.  It is the fundamental element of all religion.  We believe because we hope for redemption.

In Riddle of Berlin, there are nine main characters, each of whom seeks his or her own redemption.  I hope that reader can find a character that feels familiar.  These characters are:

a. John Jaëgerman — a middle aged man who has lost his way in life and is depressed;

b.    Carmen Pacifica — a 40ish woman who has escaped her own hell and hopes for new life;

c.    Lucius Alcorn — vice president of the US (a black Army general in background) who has lost the love of his life (they kept it secret, and she dies heroically in the story) who has greatness on the horizon;

d.    Daidre Patton — an over-achieving Army Ranger officer who is ready for a life in the open with Lucius, but who give her life to the effort to solve the Riddle of Berlin;

e.    Moriah Jaëgerman – John’s daughter who believes he is alive and will stop or be thwarted until she achieves her goal (saving her father);

f.    Nell Jaëgerman — who lost her husband, and comes to terms with the need to move on in life;

g.    Lucy Anton — a high school teacher who finds strength and courage;

h.    Mark Anton — a over-achieving young man who is victimized

i.    The Lion — the bad guy, who seeks his own salvation, written simply in the Riddle of Berlin which is misunderstood in the throes of horrendous terrorism (that he foments)

The bombings, explosions and violence of the thriller background provide a stage on which these characters can evolve, perhaps even making a good movie.  But the heart and soul of the book is the characters, their struggles, and their denouements.

I love to write and make up the imaginary worlds of fiction, whether in the context of thrillers or other genres. My background lends itself well to the thriller format. I have worked away for 30+ years in the world of international business, fiscal affairs and controversy. I have also been luck enough to have had wealthy background in the ways of people and the world.

In the process, I have experienced a vast wealth of people, histories, and impressions to weave into stories, whether it is how to design money laundering schemes, outline where the Fourth Reich probably exists today (a manuscript entitled The Phoenix Scenario which is mostly set in Switzerland and Dallas), what happened to the so-called Jewish Gold following the Holocaust and WWII (a manuscript entitled Harvest of the Gold, which is largely set at Cedar Creek Lake in East Texas), or what the world stage will look like 10 years from now and how a President would react in global crisis to learn that the bad guys have kidnapped a daughter he did not know to exist whom his assumed to be dead wife hid from him and gave away to others to raise at birth (the manuscript I am working on right now entitled 30,000 Camels, and which involves, as you might have guessed, Lucius Alcorn and Daidre Patton and their daughter Angelica — the sequel to Riddle of Berlin), or the ordeal that each of us goes through at some point in our lives to find the missing part of us (the manuscripts entitled The Other Half of Me and Ghosts of the Past, which I have been outlining and will undertake in due course, perhaps as short stories).

I hope that Riddle of Berlin becomes a useful means for readers to enjoy a fast-paced, page turning thriller as they also contemplate the emotional experience of the characters. I enjoy developing my thoughts about books in discussions with friends in book club format (my little group we call the Philosophers Club) and others wherever they occur and invite me to do my thing.

Based on my experience in presenting Riddle of Berlin to book clubs, which I thoroughly enjoy doing, I thought it might be useful to list here the questions and discussion points that I have found to be of interest, both of my own thought as well as the readers who have been kind enough to share their thoughts with me.

a. Why did Jaëgerman jump into the Seine?

i. Have you ever experienced these emotions?

ii. Have you ever wanted to jump?

b. Why did Carmen save the almost dead meat in the cold waters of the Seine?

i. Have you ever saved someone?

ii. How did it make you feel?

iii. Have you ever let someone suffer, not being brave enough to step forward and take the risk of intruding into something that is none of your business?

iv. How did you feel about that?

c. Why did the Lion create so much chaos?

i. Do you know a Lion?

ii. Would you stop them?

d Do you like Lucy Anton?

i. If someone set out to destroy you, maybe steal your identity, what would you do?

ii. If someone made a sex video imposing your face on someone else’s body, would you do what Dr. Lucy did?

iii. Dr. Lucy is a strong woman. How do you feel about such a character in a thriller?

e. Moriah Jaëgerman is another strong woman.

i. Have you had a mud pit experience in your life?

ii. If so, what did you learn about your father?

iii. Your mother?

iv. Your siblings?

v. Did it help you later in life?

vi. Have you had an Orange Girl experience?

vii. Have you been tortured?

viii. Did you survive as a better or worse person?

f. What was Mark Anton seduced by?

g. Was Carmen an angel?

i. What you imagine that a real angel would do if she saw Jaëgerman floating in the water?

ii. If you were Jaëgerman and awoke in arms as he did, after having jumped intending to end your life, what you think upon hearing her voice, feeling her touch, and looking up at her face as consciousness took hold inside of you?

iii. Are angels warm and soft?

iv. What do you think an angel would be like if she held you?

h. Would a sane person risk her life for a corpse in the water?

i. Would you vote for Lucius Alcorn?

i. Why is he the most popular politician in the world?

j. Would you try to bring in Orinth Hemme as Daidre Patton did?

i. What was her motivation?

ii. Do you believe in anything that strongly?

iii. Would you sacrifice your life for that?

k. Why did Jaëgerman decline the Congressional Medal of Honor?

i. Was he correct in his action?

ii. What would you have done?

l. What should Lucius Alcorn have done when he learned of the Riddle of Berlin?

m. Would you intervene in the criminal proceedings of a teacher who took an interest in you as a youth and helped mold you to experience your future?

n. Why did Jaëgerman invite Lucius Alcorn to the remote mountaintop in the Czech Republic?

i. Should Alcorn have proceeded without security?

ii. If Vice President Alcorn had asked you about the trip, what would you have advised him?

o. What you have done if you had been Nell when advised of your spouse’s death?

i. When you learned that your spouse was alive and were asked to come to Europe?

ii. When you saw your spouse’s disfigured appearance?

(a) Would you love your spouse then?

iii. When your spouse advised of love for another?

(a) Would you love your spouse then?

iv. What would you have said to your spouse after saving you and Moriah in Paris?

(a) Would you love him then?

p. Can you imagine what Del felt at the Place de Pyramides in Paris when Moriah emerged from the van and recognized you?

i. What Moriah felt?

ii. What Nell felt?

iii. What Lucius Alcorn felt?

q. If you were Jaëgerman’s daughter, what would you have said to him when you met in Paris?

r. If you were Nell, what you have said to your husband in Paris?

s. Can you imagine what Jaëgerman (Del) must have felt when the Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to his daughter post- mortem?

t. If you were Del, and the choice to make that he did between returning to life with Nell and Moriah, or meeting Carmen and making a new life in Slovakia (having officially been declared dead), or talking some other path, what would you do?

u. Do you like the combination of thriller context and emotions of real people?

i. Did Riddle of Berlin work for you?

ii. Would you like to read the sequel – 30,000 Camels?

4 What is the Role of Religion in Riddle of Berlin?

How do you feel about the following comments about the religious learning to be found in Riddle of Berlin?[1]

a. Two Lost Souls

Jaëgerman felt an inner shame – lost touch with his wife – he perceived something supernatural (sirens in the river) luring him to his death.

Note: What is the real reason Jaëgerman wants to commit suicide? Is he looking for idyllic love? Is he looking for purpose? What is causing his depression? What happened that was so traumatic that it caused a loss of memory?

Carmen was the victim of an abusive husband – felt in her soul she would find happiness with a better man.

b. Death and Resurrection

Jaëgerman tries to commit suicide by drowning and is found by Carmen on the brink of death – a bloated body; a grotesque shape barely recognizable as a person. “The chalky pallor of death emanated from the body.” No clear pulse – no discernable heartbeat.

c. Salvation and The Good Samaritan

Carmen extracts him from the water and with great effort painstakingly bring shim back to life, and restores his strength. She literally uses her own body as a blanket to warm his body.

d. Immediate and Unconditional Love from the “Angel”

Carmen sits with him night and day, praying that he would awaken; looking for a sign of life; ministering to him; not noticing smells of infection; expressing her love in songs to this grotesque unconscious man she has never met.

e. Answered Prayer

When Jaëgerman finally awakens, Carmen thanks Jesus for bringing her man home to her. Carmen says “I have been waiting for you. Now you have come.”

f. Visions of Heaven

Jaëgerman thinks that he has died and gone to heaven. “Jesus, am I home?” is the first thing he says.

Even later, Jaëgerman, “still assumed he was on a journey to heaven, escorted by his own personal angel.”

g. Rebirth

After Jaëgerman woke, the souls of Jaëgerman and Carmen met for the first time. “The man was reborn in the natural environment of warm water and human, motherly touch.”

h. Inner Peace

After Jaëgerman awoke with Carmen ministered to him “peace was in his eyes.”

i. Realization of the Reality of the Supernatural (Prophesy)

The reason there was peace in his eyes was that Jaëgerman realized that, “This Angel, this siren who appeared only in his dreams, was real. Carmen’s dream had become a reality.”

Jaëgerman ultimately determines that the salvation, the peace, the love that he was expecting to find after death has actually come to him as the result of his near death experience through the pure, totally trusting and unconditional love of a good and beautiful woman.

His Angel and his savior is a real flesh and blood woman, although their coming together was preordained, reconceived and orchestrated by spiritual and supernatural means.

j. Continuing unconditional love and guardianship from the Angel

Carmen willingly satisfies all of Jaëgerman’s sexual desires, and he satisfies hers. He says, “Angels are warm and delicious. She is swept along in a “channel of ecstasy.”

Carmen supplies Jaëgerman with a new name and a new identity.

Carmen comforts Jaëgerman (“Del”) when he has nightmares in his sleep, “curling up as a baby in the womb, held securely by Carmen.”

Carmen fees and pampers Jaëgerman during his recuperation, while still working full time every day. Del continues to call her an Angel from God. She calls him her deliverer. They are madly in love without even speaking the same language.

When Del asks Carmen to leave the ship to take Mark to live with her parents in Slovakia, she immediately agrees without asking why or how it would be paid for, knowing only that it would be dangerous for her people. She left immediately, even though she and Mark had to swim at a frantic pace to avoid drowning in the cold water. She intuitively knew that this was all necessary and implicitly trusted Del.

When Del was thrown on the bank of the Danube from the explosion that sunk his ship, it was Carmen who somehow found him because she had been following the ship on a bicycle to watch over him. After plowing three dead bodies to find him, she single handedly lugged him home to Slovakia covered in dung and straw before collapsing with exhaustion. When Del awoke form unconsciousness and rasped like a baby searching for his mother, she jumped from a deep sleep and ran to his side and soothed him in Slovakian.

---

[1] These comments were made by my friend Robert Thornton, a prominent litigator in Dallas, as part of our Philosopher Club discussion of the manuscript in February 2008.

I began writing Riddle of Berlin in about August of 2000.  I began with the thought of what is the process of redemption in the walking around world, not in religious terms or the after-life as contemplated in all religions.  I set it in Paris because that is where I was at the time.  I also described a running path along the Seine and around the Ille St. Louis that I had undertaken countless times over the years.  It was always a pleasant process, as is the writing of stories.

The writing took about 18 months, working part-time as time allowed by my day job.  Much of the writing was done on airplanes, largely American Airlines, flying across the Atlantic and Pacific.  My anti-jet lag regimen has always been to drink about a bottle of champagne before I get on the plane and then keep on drinking (mixed with Tokaji, Plum Wine, or other after-dinner drink) until I reach a level of free creativity (my routine today as well).  This takes 3-4 hours and in that zone of mind is a wonderful place to let fingers loose on the keyboard of a laptop.

The manuscript was read by a few friends and then collected dust on a shelf until about the summer 2006 when my sweetheart Dale Lyrane suggested that I dust it off and see if it had any commercial potential.  In due course this led to engaging iUniverse to provide editorial and other publication preparation services.

I should note that iUniverse is a publishing arrangement in which I retain ownership of the copyright and iUniverse provides disaggregated publishing services on a fee basis.  This process has been phenomenal.  I feel like I have received a Ph.D. in creative writing and editing.  While the editing has consumed fully 12-16 months of time (because I wanted to do the revisions and learn in the process, not due to the slowness of the publisher), I am amazed at how the manuscript has taken shape in what I hope will be a well-accepted commercial product.

One question that I am always asked when I appear to discuss Riddle of Berlin is why did  I choose a self-publishing route instead of seeking an agent and then a mainline publishing house.  The reason is simple enough.  I have always succeeded in life by doing things my way.  Had I followed conventional wisdom in developing a legal career, investment of money or conduct of life, I would have ended up in a much different situation than I have.  I am very fortunate.

I have had a long career in the non-fiction world of publishing professional, international taxation books.  In that world, I was lucky early in my career to have been chosen by one of the prominent professional publishers (Warren Gorham Lamont, which ultimately became part if Research Institute of America and which, in turn, became part of the Thomson Publishing empire).  WG&L has been a splendid writing partner.  I do the writing and they have a world class editorial, publicity, field service, and other infrastructure.

“So what do I know about the fiction publishing world?” I asked the man in the mirror once my sweetheart said I should find out about the commercial potential of the manuscripts that I had written and she was good enough to read (all described below, and to be finished in due course).

“Nothing!” came the answer from the experienced, worldly, curly grey-headed visage on the wall.  So I asked my lawyer, Bill Adams of Salt Lake City, “what I should do?”  His sage advice was “keep the copyright.  Don’t sign it away to someone or some company you do not know, at a point in time when you have no idea whether it has any commercial value.”  Well, I have learned to follow my lawyers’ advice.

Hence,  iUniverse.  If my stories have legs and an agent or commercial publisher has interest, then Mr. Adams can do his thing, while I write away at my lake house in Texas (pictures of my writing context appear below under “My Space”) or on airplanes for my day job.

Well, it finally happened.  In the mail today came the first hard and paperback copies of Riddle of Berlin.  My first fiction book to be in print.  I am thrilled, of course.  It has been a labor of love.  It is like holding my babies long ago wondering what they would become in life (after counting their fingers and toes to make sure that they seemed functional).
I have never suffered from a lack of confidence.  Accordingly, it never occurred to me to wonder what critics would have to say about the book in print.  Of course, I hope it is received with rave reviews.  But I think I understand the process, so I must be patient and let it be.
I was amazed to see the first review posted within hours of the book’s availability on Amazon.com, as follows:

Keeps It Moving With Extraordinary Characters, July 7, 2008
M. Yeates “Accidental Reader”
(Dallas, Texas, USA)

First-time author Cym Lowell creates a page-turner with extraordinary characters appearing in unexpected places. This thriller will be enjoyed by those who love reading about: Paris, international action, family members sacrificing themselves for each other, the redemption of those who have given up on life, and contentment arriving unexpectedly. That’s something for almost everyone. I look forward to his next effort.

Well, we shall see.  It will be exciting.  I look forward to as much feedback as possible, through this blog, on Amazon.com, or otherwise.
I am finishing the next thriller, entitled Harvest of Gold, the cover for which will appear in the website shortly.  There is also a sequel to Riddle of Berlin in process, entitled 30,000 Camels.
Warms, Cym

As a writer, I find myself constantly turning over in my mind questions that seem to have no logical answer based on history, philosophy or other tangible touchstones, as least for me. In the world we live in today, one of the critical questions is What is a terrorist?

In the West, we are programmed by contemporary events to think of terrorists as being Islamic fundamentalists willing to kill innocent people in order to achieve perceived religious obligations.

When I think of terrorists, I find myself asking questions from a different time. For example, were we white European settlers terrorists against the British? Were the French who provided American revolutionaries with material and people resources, aiders and abettors as we currently declare Iran and Syria?

In the famous movie Braveheart were the Scottish nationalists terrorists? What about the IRA? And, in the late 1920s, were the pre-cursors of the Nazis terrorists?

What about Christians? Were we terrorists against the Romans? And in the Crusades? Who were the terrorists then? Does it depend upon which set of years are considered?

In the time of the Civil Rights Movement, were radical blacks terrorists?

I am not sure about the technically, or culturally, correct answer to these questions. I suspect that terrorism, like most things in life, is in the eye of the beholder.

In fiction, we are able to explore these concepts, myths and situational realities.

What do you think a terrorist is?

What is the definition of . . .?

In the world of fiction, as I said, we can explore anything that we want. What is it that you find to be of interest from the standpoint of definitional reality?

I have long been fascinated with the writing of thrillers and current events.  As writers, we are asked “where did you come up with this plot, character or what not?”  Sometimes, the answer is elegant. “Well, I was working on an undercover assignment and I happened upon this woman who needed to end her involvement in some activity (perhaps life).  I learned that . . . .”

But most of the time, in my case anyway, the actual answer is “I read it in the newspaper.”  In my experience, most story ideas come from real life, personally experienced or in print.  I am an avid reader of about anything I can get my hands on, and this is where I inevitably find ideas or storylines and characters.  In the press on a daily and weekly basis, there are amazing thriller plots just sitting there.

On a blog like this, I think it would be cool  to have a dialogue about such ideas.  Life is stranger than fiction, so life can become fiction when mixed with a bit of imagination and make believe.  Like Linux software, it is amazing what can evolve from such dialogue.

In  this vain, I offer a few thoughts about current events in terms of thriller plots.

1.    Evolution of the UN as a Real Force and End of War and Genocide

The world is now divided in a variety of different ways in terms of politics, religion, economic progress, disease and from innumerable other standpoints.  There is no longer any dependable source of order.  It could now be 2007 or 2017.  For someone of my age (60), it could be any time after 1984 (the definition of future for Baby Boomers, which was the title of George Orwell’s mapping of the future in Animal Farm).

I wonder what the world would look like if some leader, perhaps like Lucius Alcorn in Jaegerman, were to facilitate the emergence of the United Nations as a real global force, complete with police and military capability.  With such a unified political and military power, it may be that regional wars and genocides could effectively be precluded. It might even be possible to eliminate war (unless there are other worlds that need to be addressed).

Say this were to be the case, what would become of military arms contractors. Would they simply go away. Ormight they seek to destabilize the world to create new markets for the products.  This is the stuff of thrillers.

Interestingly, the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland focused on just such an emergence of the United Nations, or NATO.  It is enough to make a thriller writer want to imagine future resurgences of force, as has occurred in the past. This was a central element of the Third German Reich. Could there be a Fourth Reich?

2.    North Korea as a Private Equity Investment

The stories of the efforts of the rest of the world to address the nuclear ambitions and threats of the regime in North Korea are legion.  It has often occurred to me in reading these stories that a food company, or an arms producer, for example, might find investment in North Korea to be an interesting private equity play.  If such a firm can acquire a company with the market capitalization of many smaller countries, why not acquire a company and operate it on a for profit basis, using its resources and assets as would be the case with any other investment.

Perhaps a wealthy investment fund assassinated Kim Il Jung, developed a puppet to be the dummy for the ventriloquist of the investor group.  It takes control of the country’s reigns of power, rewarding friends,killing foes,maintaining the wall around the country, all as occurs at the present time so there is no apparent change in direction.  Funds are extracted from the Group of Seven and other countries for humanitarian relief, suspension of nuclear weapons development and so on.  The country also continues its business of arms export, ranging from missiles to other systems.  The people remain impoverished and starving, again as has been the case for generations so there is no apparent change.  The funds are used for . . . well, just let your imagination roam across the horizon of possibilities.

3.    Trading in Nuclear Materials

There are recurring stories of the location of stockpiles of highly-enriched, weapons grade uranium, typically from former elements of the Soviet Union.  There are also grim suggestions that so-called dirty bombs could be smuggled into populated areas and exploded, causing unspeakable suffering, reminiscent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What if there were a means of trading such materials, like other commodities.  If copper futures can be bought and sold, why not nuclear fissionable materials?

4.    Satellite Destruction

In late January of 2007, the global press was full of the Chinese military shooting down one of its own old satellites. It took the Government of China weeks to publicly comment on the event, suggesting that perhaps it was done by rogue elements of the military or the Government itself was playing Cold War-type cat-and-mouse games with the rest of the world.

Just imagine what the world might look like if bad guys (take your pick) had this capability.  Maybe such folks infiltrated the Chinese Army.  Maybe they can manipulate Chinese defense systems to shoot down guidance or communications satellites, perhaps even spreading disease and death throughout the world.  Is this possible?

Could make an intriguing thriller plot.

5.    Cold War II

With the rise again of a monolithic Russia, could Cold War II be on the horizon, the New York Times wondered on 18 February 2007.  What a world.  Robert Ludlum has gone on, perhaps there is a genre here for the next generation of international thriller writers.

6.    Drones for Sale

The Japanese press was full of a story of a prominent car company selling drone helicopters, designed for spraying agricultural chemicals, to a possible front company for the Chinese military.  The drones could easily be adapted to transport and launch missiles systems.

To a novelist, the plotlines noted above don’t seem very far-fetched. Now do they?

Thank you for having interest in my International Thrillers. The world is a thrilling place, in which we live and breath every moment. It is also a dangerous place, which danger can ensnare each of us at any moment. We trust Government to protect from sinister forces. What if it does or can not? What if you and I are threatened with painful death at any moment no matter where we are? Who would save us? Who would we turn to?

I enjoy describing cataclysmic events that could happen right now, as I also envision the forces in the world that could seek to place you in danger to achieve their own evil purposes. They may not be the folks who Government points to.

I also enjoy exploring the emotions of people ensnared in these thrilling stories. Heroism can arise in any of us when placed in a position where the choices are limited. I think you will find the characters vibrant, wanting them to become your friends. I hope you will cheer for them to survive.

I also hope that this blog becomes an effective venue to share thoughts about the world of thrillers, fictional and non-fictional.