Das Schreiben erlaubt mir, mich in die Welt meiner Charaktere zu versetzen. Ich probiere andere Leben aus und begebe mich manchmal auf recht abenteuerliche Wege.
– ROMANCE –
Romance ain’t stupid’ - modern romantic heroines are clever and witty, they experience life first hand and deal with all sorts of issues … and on the way, they meet a nice guy. Writing romance is fun, invigorating, inspiring – and indulging a secret wish most of us cherish: to live happy ever after. Take a bite at Romance!
Driven to Love
A suspense romance
He could be the enemy - her attraction fatal ... but how can she escape him? |
At the age of 29, tall, blond and strikingly beautiful Sarah is a sensible young woman with a mind firmly focussed on her career. She has just finished a Master’s degree in history at Sydney University and a job as a research assistant is waiting for her. Just as soon as she returns from her holiday to England where she is going to visit her younger sister, Maddy.
But Maddy has disappeared – leaving behind only a mysterious clue. Sarah is used to Maddy’s foolhardy adventures but this time she surely has gone too far. Not only joining an escort agency, but travelling to Switzerland in order to act as the go-between in a major drug deal for her boyfriend, Harvey, is a long way from establishing herself as a fashion designer!
The very next day, Sarah finds herself in Switzerland.
In a suspenseful game of under-cover detection, Sarah finds herself crossing wits with the mysterious Jonathon Lambert. Just which side does he play for? Is he a member of the drug gang,, or is he on the side of the law? Sarah needs to remain level-headed, as she plays for time – but just that seems impossible with Jonathon intent on driving her across Europe and towards an uncertain destination. Not even back home, in her native Australia, can she escape him.
Author's reflections - Driven to Love:
I always wanted to write a novel about a girl who runs out onto a dark road in the middle of the night, with a car slamming on its brakes, barely missing her, coming to a screeching halt …
Well, Driven to Love allowed me to do just that! Given the beginning, all I had to do was to let the plot develop ...
Claire Andersen (pen name for Sabine Nielsen) was born on the island of Föhr, Germany, but migrated to Australia when she was twenty years old. She worked as a teacher for a number of years, but now writes full time. She is the author of four mystery novels, all published in Germany. She has also written a biography of German migrants to Australia, which has been translated into English, and a number of children’s books. Writing suspense romance novels is another genre – and a little bit of an indulgence for this versatile writer. She lives in Melbourne.
Driven to Love (2016) is the second Suspense Romance by Claire Andersen.
Her first, Lovelorn, was published by Penguin Random House in 2014. It is available as an e-book by all major online book stores
Order here
Driven to Love (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-68418-517-7Published 18/10/2016
Written under the pen name Claire Andersen
Imprint: eBooks by acepub
Extent: 320 pages
But Maddy has disappeared – leaving behind only a mysterious clue. Sarah is used to Maddy’s foolhardy adventures but this time she surely has gone too far. Not only joining an escort agency, but travelling to Switzerland in order to act as the go-between in a major drug deal for her boyfriend, Harvey, is a long way from establishing herself as a fashion designer!
The very next day, Sarah finds herself in Switzerland.
In a suspenseful game of under-cover detection, Sarah finds herself crossing wits with the mysterious Jonathon Lambert. Just which side does he play for? Is he a member of the drug gang,, or is he on the side of the law? Sarah needs to remain level-headed, as she plays for time – but just that seems impossible with Jonathon intent on driving her across Europe and towards an uncertain destination. Not even back home, in her native Australia, can she escape him.
Author's reflections - Driven to Love:
I always wanted to write a novel about a girl who runs out onto a dark road in the middle of the night, with a car slamming on its brakes, barely missing her, coming to a screeching halt …
Well, Driven to Love allowed me to do just that! Given the beginning, all I had to do was to let the plot develop ...
Claire Andersen (pen name for Sabine Nielsen) was born on the island of Föhr, Germany, but migrated to Australia when she was twenty years old. She worked as a teacher for a number of years, but now writes full time. She is the author of four mystery novels, all published in Germany. She has also written a biography of German migrants to Australia, which has been translated into English, and a number of children’s books. Writing suspense romance novels is another genre – and a little bit of an indulgence for this versatile writer. She lives in Melbourne.
Driven to Love (2016) is the second Suspense Romance by Claire Andersen.
Her first, Lovelorn, was published by Penguin Random House in 2014. It is available as an e-book by all major online book stores
Order here
Driven to Love (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-68418-517-7Published 18/10/2016
Written under the pen name Claire Andersen
Imprint: eBooks by acepub
Extent: 320 pages
Lovelorn
A mystery romance set on the Australian coast
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When Mia Beaufort flees Melbourne after a scandal turns her life upside down, she finds refuge in the beautiful town of Lorne on the Great Ocean Road, Australia. There she's happy to keep her head down, working on illustrations for a children's book.
Then one evening, at the local Italian restaurant, Mia finds herself locking eyes with the tall, dark, devastatingly handsome Jack Brunelli – in a way that both excites and disturbs her.
Because Jack Brunelli appears to have taken a passionate dislike to her, despite - or perhaps because of - Mia's close friendship with his father, the elderly Signor Alberto. Could he have discovered the secret from her past? Is Mia falling hopelessly and helplessly in love with the man who could destroy her?
Author's reflections - Lovelorn:
Often a place inspires a new novel - an old pier, rolling hills, a creek meandering through the bush and my mind starts to create the characters who might fill the picture. The plot evolves from the setting …
Holidaying in Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula, I loved visiting the coastal resort of Lorne. On Lorne's beautiful white, sandy beach, strolling along in the morning, past the rock pools, towards the pier, you might just meet 'Signor Alberto' - Mia's elderly, galant friend. And amongst the many cafes and restaurants along Lorne's Esplanade, you are bound to find a place just like 'Brunelli's' - where Mia and Jack first set eyes on each other ...
Lovelorn was my first romance novel and my first e-book.
I chose the pseudonym 'Claire Andersen' for this very different genre and I enjoyed myself tremendously slipping into the character of the romance novelist.
Lovelorn (eBook)
ISBN: 978-0-857-98652-8
Published 01/11/2014
Written under the pen name Claire Andersen
Imprint: RHA eBooks Adult
Extent: 304 pages
Then one evening, at the local Italian restaurant, Mia finds herself locking eyes with the tall, dark, devastatingly handsome Jack Brunelli – in a way that both excites and disturbs her.
Because Jack Brunelli appears to have taken a passionate dislike to her, despite - or perhaps because of - Mia's close friendship with his father, the elderly Signor Alberto. Could he have discovered the secret from her past? Is Mia falling hopelessly and helplessly in love with the man who could destroy her?
Author's reflections - Lovelorn:
Often a place inspires a new novel - an old pier, rolling hills, a creek meandering through the bush and my mind starts to create the characters who might fill the picture. The plot evolves from the setting …
Holidaying in Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula, I loved visiting the coastal resort of Lorne. On Lorne's beautiful white, sandy beach, strolling along in the morning, past the rock pools, towards the pier, you might just meet 'Signor Alberto' - Mia's elderly, galant friend. And amongst the many cafes and restaurants along Lorne's Esplanade, you are bound to find a place just like 'Brunelli's' - where Mia and Jack first set eyes on each other ...
Lovelorn was my first romance novel and my first e-book.
I chose the pseudonym 'Claire Andersen' for this very different genre and I enjoyed myself tremendously slipping into the character of the romance novelist.
Lovelorn (eBook)
ISBN: 978-0-857-98652-8
Published 01/11/2014
Written under the pen name Claire Andersen
Imprint: RHA eBooks Adult
Extent: 304 pages
– LITERARY PORTRAITS of German migrants to Australia –
Australia is country of Migrants. Long after the First Nation People settled here, the Europeans arrived.
Modern Australia is a country of multiple cultures coming to terms with one another. Meet the Germans ...
Memories in my Luggage
Literary portraits of German migrants in Australia
In German, we have a word, Heimat, which means much more than just 'home' or 'homeland'. You can relocate your home and find a new homeland, but Heimat is what you carry inside: your memories, your connections to a place and people, a feeling of belonging – your roots. Migration has always been an essential part of life in Australia. After the First Nation People populated the country possibly as long ago as 125,000 years, most other settlers arrived relatively recently. Among the first waves of modern day migrants, there were Germans. Apart from scientists, who often supported the early explorers, many were farmers and wine growers. Sometimes whole communities left Germany to build new settlements, bringing along their own pastors,ca doctors and teachers. Descendants of these early German migrants still live happily amongst the Australian community – though sometimes not under their original names.
|
While the Germans were well-respected members of Australian commercial and cultural life, all changed at the onset of WWI – Britain and Australia were at war with Germany, the German Australians were ‘the enemy’, even if they had lived here for more than one or more generations. German townships changed their names, German men were interned or closely watched and a lot of families anglicised their surnames. German migration was halted for the duration of the war and anybody with a German background was classified an ‘enemy alien’. The same happened during WWII.
In between the two wars, some German migration into Australia took place – in Memories in my Luggage, represented by two families: the Fiebigs and the Steinigers. Herr Fiebig was a merchant, Ewald Steiniger a Lutheran pastor. Both men were interned during WWII.
After the war, the first Germans arrived here in 1948. Some were scientists, invited her under the ESTEA Scheme – the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens was part or the reparations Germany owed to the world. Others were displaced, people who had lost their homelands; persecuted for their faith (Jews and Templers), or those, whose homes and hopes had been destroyed by the war. They came with the wish to start a new life, anxious and eager to work and to build a future for themselves and their families.
They came to a country that was not only vastly different to their homelands – with a different climate, unfamiliar flora and fauna and a different language, it was also a continent that had been largely isolated from the Western World and lacked a lot of the advances – in culture, architecture, economy and science – that they had been used to. Australia was dominated by a British system of politics and social structure – and its citizens had only recently been at war with the Germans!
These are the stories of migrants who arrived in Australia from Germany in the years between 1933 and 1991. They were driven by need or curiosity; they came for love or to start anew. They came from different parts of Germany and they all helped to shape Australia and became part of the multicultural country which it is today. Join them on their journey towards integration, laugh, cry and participate in the adventure of immersing yourself in a new culture.
Author's reflections - Memories in my Luggage
First and foremost, I am a novelist. Writing a biography happened more or less by default! Researching historical background for my mystery novels set on the island of Föhr and Australia, I spoke to Germans who had migrated to Australia shortly after WWII. One of them, Ernst Erdmann, had been part of the Snowy Mountain Scheme (the Hydro Electric Scheme), his memories were just the sort of backdrop I had been looking for for my novel Die Frau des Marschbauern.
Fritz Schwab grew up as the son of a Jewish father in Berlin. Left to his own devices, he had to use his wits to survive under the Nazi regime. He allowed me to incorporate his daunting story in Die Stimmen der Villa Blanke Hans.
Inga Martinow told me about life for German women in war time. The sheer difficulty of surviving and fending for one’s children was mind boggling. It helped me to understand better the experiences that would have shaped my two main characters, the elderly aunts, Ruth and Willa, my ‘detectives’ in the four part mystery series.
Listening to Ernst, Fritz and Inga, I realized, to do them justice, their stories ought to be written down in full. Ein bisschen Heimat im Gepäck was the result.
Translating the book into English was a whole new experience! I worked closely with Michelle McKinley and our editor, Graeme Pettman, and learned an awful lot about the technical side of producing a book and realized: I’m quite happy to leave all that to the publishers!
More information on the book, including extracts and short descriptions of the portraits can be found at www.memoriesinmyluggage.com.au
Memories in my Luggage
ISBN 978-0-646-93080-0
by Sabine Nielsen
with photographs by Eva Maria Rugel
translated by Michelle Mckinley
Published 2014
Imprint: ihleo verlag, Husum, Germany Euro 19,95
Extent: 384 pages
Cover photograph: Migrants arriving in Sydney, 1966
by David Moore (1927–2003) © Estate of David Moore
Available at:
In between the two wars, some German migration into Australia took place – in Memories in my Luggage, represented by two families: the Fiebigs and the Steinigers. Herr Fiebig was a merchant, Ewald Steiniger a Lutheran pastor. Both men were interned during WWII.
After the war, the first Germans arrived here in 1948. Some were scientists, invited her under the ESTEA Scheme – the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens was part or the reparations Germany owed to the world. Others were displaced, people who had lost their homelands; persecuted for their faith (Jews and Templers), or those, whose homes and hopes had been destroyed by the war. They came with the wish to start a new life, anxious and eager to work and to build a future for themselves and their families.
They came to a country that was not only vastly different to their homelands – with a different climate, unfamiliar flora and fauna and a different language, it was also a continent that had been largely isolated from the Western World and lacked a lot of the advances – in culture, architecture, economy and science – that they had been used to. Australia was dominated by a British system of politics and social structure – and its citizens had only recently been at war with the Germans!
These are the stories of migrants who arrived in Australia from Germany in the years between 1933 and 1991. They were driven by need or curiosity; they came for love or to start anew. They came from different parts of Germany and they all helped to shape Australia and became part of the multicultural country which it is today. Join them on their journey towards integration, laugh, cry and participate in the adventure of immersing yourself in a new culture.
Author's reflections - Memories in my Luggage
First and foremost, I am a novelist. Writing a biography happened more or less by default! Researching historical background for my mystery novels set on the island of Föhr and Australia, I spoke to Germans who had migrated to Australia shortly after WWII. One of them, Ernst Erdmann, had been part of the Snowy Mountain Scheme (the Hydro Electric Scheme), his memories were just the sort of backdrop I had been looking for for my novel Die Frau des Marschbauern.
Fritz Schwab grew up as the son of a Jewish father in Berlin. Left to his own devices, he had to use his wits to survive under the Nazi regime. He allowed me to incorporate his daunting story in Die Stimmen der Villa Blanke Hans.
Inga Martinow told me about life for German women in war time. The sheer difficulty of surviving and fending for one’s children was mind boggling. It helped me to understand better the experiences that would have shaped my two main characters, the elderly aunts, Ruth and Willa, my ‘detectives’ in the four part mystery series.
Listening to Ernst, Fritz and Inga, I realized, to do them justice, their stories ought to be written down in full. Ein bisschen Heimat im Gepäck was the result.
Translating the book into English was a whole new experience! I worked closely with Michelle McKinley and our editor, Graeme Pettman, and learned an awful lot about the technical side of producing a book and realized: I’m quite happy to leave all that to the publishers!
More information on the book, including extracts and short descriptions of the portraits can be found at www.memoriesinmyluggage.com.au
Memories in my Luggage
ISBN 978-0-646-93080-0
by Sabine Nielsen
with photographs by Eva Maria Rugel
translated by Michelle Mckinley
Published 2014
Imprint: ihleo verlag, Husum, Germany Euro 19,95
Extent: 384 pages
Cover photograph: Migrants arriving in Sydney, 1966
by David Moore (1927–2003) © Estate of David Moore
Available at:
- Bookery, 9-11 Victoria Street, Fitzroy www.bookery.com.au
- Intext (Language International), 13-15 Station Street, Kew East www.languageint.com.au
- Jeffrey's Books, 40 Glenferrie Road, Malvern www.jeffreysbooks.com.au
- Bookworm - Australian Online Bookstore
About the author
An author’s tale
I was born in Germany in 1952, on a small island in the North Sea on the West Coast of Germany, called Föhr. It was an amazing place to grow up, surrounded by the sea, with beautiful beaches on one side, dykes and marshland on the other side of the island. Life on the island is dominated by the tides, at low tide, extensive mudflats appear and invite you to walk out several kilometres to the receding waterline. The climate is considered ‘mild’, similar to England. Still, it is quite possible for the sea to freeze over during winter, and ice skates and toboggans appear regularly during the winter season. We were a close-knit family, weekends were spent together - walking, ‘Kaffeetrinken’, games and music - and after school, I often helped out in one of my parents’ grocery shops.
I was bored at school, though, and left after Year 11. I had enjoyed German and English but did not do well at maths and sciences. At a loss what to do, I worked in the wholesale department of my parents’ business. But shorthand, typing and accounting did not enthral me either. When I met my future husband while holidaying in Spain, I jumped at the chance to migrate to Australia. In 1972, I arrived in Melbourne, Australia and I have lived there since.
On the road to writing
A lot of authors report scribbling stories almost from the crib. I didn’t – I read a lot and I made up stories in my mind, just for me. I still do that now – when I work on a book, I play out the plot and the dialogue in my mind, first. When it feels right, I start writing.
Plunged into a culture and society that was completely alien at the age of 20, meant embarking on a giant learning curve. First, I worked in turn in the deli department of a Supermarket; as a waitress in a restaurant and a kitchen hand in a boarding school. For a while, I trained as a Nurse’s aid, until it dawned on me that that did not necessarily lead into a career of a fully fledged nurse. Eventually, I chose to return to school and studied for matriculation. This time around, I excelled at school and went on to University to study English Literature and Sociology. I followed up with a Diploma of Teaching.
I always loved reading – best of all mystery and crime thrillers. When the time was ripe, for me to become an author, that was the genre I chose, novels where mysteries are waiting to be solved.
My two homelands, the island of Föhr and Australia, are always present in my writing. The migration theme weaves its way back into most of my novels – and then took a front stall, when I recorded the stories of German Migrants to Australia.
I enjoy exploring different genres – poetry, mysteries, children's books, short stories and, under the pen name Claire Andersen, romance novels.
Why write in English as a German author?
One part of me lives, speaks and thinks in English. Language is not just about words - nuances reflect experiences, culture, rituals, emotions, humour … To have more than one language is enriching. The temptation to write in English – to see what would develop – was too great to pass by.
Read more about writing and publishing in Sabine's blog: Taking the Scenic Road to Publishing
I was born in Germany in 1952, on a small island in the North Sea on the West Coast of Germany, called Föhr. It was an amazing place to grow up, surrounded by the sea, with beautiful beaches on one side, dykes and marshland on the other side of the island. Life on the island is dominated by the tides, at low tide, extensive mudflats appear and invite you to walk out several kilometres to the receding waterline. The climate is considered ‘mild’, similar to England. Still, it is quite possible for the sea to freeze over during winter, and ice skates and toboggans appear regularly during the winter season. We were a close-knit family, weekends were spent together - walking, ‘Kaffeetrinken’, games and music - and after school, I often helped out in one of my parents’ grocery shops.
I was bored at school, though, and left after Year 11. I had enjoyed German and English but did not do well at maths and sciences. At a loss what to do, I worked in the wholesale department of my parents’ business. But shorthand, typing and accounting did not enthral me either. When I met my future husband while holidaying in Spain, I jumped at the chance to migrate to Australia. In 1972, I arrived in Melbourne, Australia and I have lived there since.
On the road to writing
A lot of authors report scribbling stories almost from the crib. I didn’t – I read a lot and I made up stories in my mind, just for me. I still do that now – when I work on a book, I play out the plot and the dialogue in my mind, first. When it feels right, I start writing.
Plunged into a culture and society that was completely alien at the age of 20, meant embarking on a giant learning curve. First, I worked in turn in the deli department of a Supermarket; as a waitress in a restaurant and a kitchen hand in a boarding school. For a while, I trained as a Nurse’s aid, until it dawned on me that that did not necessarily lead into a career of a fully fledged nurse. Eventually, I chose to return to school and studied for matriculation. This time around, I excelled at school and went on to University to study English Literature and Sociology. I followed up with a Diploma of Teaching.
I always loved reading – best of all mystery and crime thrillers. When the time was ripe, for me to become an author, that was the genre I chose, novels where mysteries are waiting to be solved.
My two homelands, the island of Föhr and Australia, are always present in my writing. The migration theme weaves its way back into most of my novels – and then took a front stall, when I recorded the stories of German Migrants to Australia.
I enjoy exploring different genres – poetry, mysteries, children's books, short stories and, under the pen name Claire Andersen, romance novels.
Why write in English as a German author?
One part of me lives, speaks and thinks in English. Language is not just about words - nuances reflect experiences, culture, rituals, emotions, humour … To have more than one language is enriching. The temptation to write in English – to see what would develop – was too great to pass by.
Read more about writing and publishing in Sabine's blog: Taking the Scenic Road to Publishing