📚 A Bookish Chat with 'The Humble Courier' Author J.T. Maicke #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

A self-described Germanophile, J.T. Maicke writes historical novels that take place in Germany or among German-American communities in the Midwest. The study of German history, geography, language, culture, and cuisine has been one of his life-long passions. He has spent several years living and working in Central Europe and has explored many of the locations mentioned in his stories. Maicke is a great fan of historical fiction and his favorite authors include Ken Follett, Bernard Cornwell, George MacDonald Fraser, Umberto Eco, Robert Harris, and Morris West. He was educated by Benedictine monks and nuns in the Midwest and several of his stories have a Roman Catholic theme.

The Humble Courier is his latest book.

Visit J.T. Maicke’s website at www.jtmaicke.com or connect with him on Facebook.

TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life! How did you come up with the idea to write your book?

J.T.: The study of German history, culture, customs, geography, and language has been a life-long interest of mine. I also am a practicing Roman Catholic who was educated by Benedictine monks and nuns in the Midwest. I combined my interest in all things German with my Catholic religious heritage to develop the plot and characters for The Humble Courier. The novel takes place in Germany during the turbulent years from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. It is the story of a German soldier who believes he has been called to the Roman Catholic priesthood and tasked with fighting evil and protecting the weak from the strong. Although the priest, Father Hartmann Bottger, initially employs passive resistance to fulfill what he perceives to be his mission, he comes to the conclusion that more aggressive—even violent—means are necessary to confront the terrible power of the SS and the Gestapo. Employing unlikely allies and extraordinary methods, Father Hartmann sets out to take the fight to his enemies, justifying his actions with St. Augustine’s proverb Punishment is Justice for the Unjust.

TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?

J.T.: This is the first page of The Humble Courier.

A solitary figure knelt in the first pew to the right of the center aisle, close to the sanctuary dimly lit by two large altar candles. He shivered against the early February cold that was trapped within the gray stone walls of the small church, like a large icebox. He mumbled through the psalms, the Pater Noster and the rest of the intercessions, trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

How could I have possibly forgotten how cold and damp it gets here, he thought.

Even though it was now February 1930 and he had for the past eighteen months served as the priest of St. Ludger’s Church, a small Roman Catholic parish in a tiny farming village in a forgotten corner of northwest Germany, Father Hartmann Bottger had never forsaken his Benedictine roots and its monastic discipline. He continued to wear the black, cowled robe of his order, now pulled tightly around his stocky body in a vain attempt to stave off the chill, and he still awoke at the appointed hours to pray the offices. Back in the abbey with his brother monks, he would have chanted the Matins aloud, but it was simply too cold in the church at two o’clock in the morning to keep his voice from shaking. He did not want to use any of his limited coal supply to heat the church until shortly before the daily Mass, so he continued to mouth the prayers silently to himself.

Father Hartmann was responsible for the cure of 135 Roman Catholic souls in the village of Himmelsdorf and the surrounding area. Located west of the northern German city of Oldenburg, it was one of the province’s small, Catholic islands in the midst of a vast, Protestant sea. Father Harti, as he was known by the villagers, had been born and raised in Himmelsdorf, lived there until he enlisted in the army in late 1917, and was intimately familiar with every one of its families. Harti’s name was technically Father Willibrord. Upon entering the Benedictine order, he had been directed by his novice master to select a new name reflecting his commitment to a new life of work, prayer, and contemplation. St. Willibrord had been an early Christian missionary and bishop in northern Germany. Despite that, everyone in Himmelsdorf had only known Harti by his birth name. They were uncomfortable calling him by the long, strange-sounding medieval saint’s name and simply called him Father Harti. Harti did not correct them, he preferred the name his parents had given him.

TWL: What part of the book was the most fun to write?

J.T.: I most enjoyed writing the scenes of dialogue between the hero of the story, Father Hartmann Bottger, and his archnemesis, the Gestapo officer Otto Kessler. One is a devout Catholic priest who opposes everything his enemy stands for while the other is a fallen Catholic, now an atheist and a committed Nazi. Although they are adversaries, Kessler cannot help but respect Father Hartmann’s courage and honesty and envy his religious faith—a faith the Gestapo man had lost years earlier and replaced with a belief in Hitler and the Nazi Party. These scenes not only allowed me to showcase Father Hartmann’s bravery and intelligence, but also to portray Kessler as a more complex character and not merely a mindless Nazi brute.

TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

J.T.: In my initial plan for this novel, our fictional hero, Father Hartmann Bottger, was to peacefully oppose the Nazis and pay the ultimate price by dying in a concentration camp. However, after further thought, I considered this plot to be unoriginal and entirely predictable. I then set out to examine the what ifs and, eventually, I fell upon a new plot for this story. What if a Roman Catholic priest, a brave and caring man who has opposed bullies great and small his entire life, somehow convinced himself that the use of force was the only—and indeed, a correct—option left to him to oppose the horrors of the Third Reich. I became intrigued with the thought of a priest-as-resistance-fighter, or perhaps a priest-as-terrorist, depending on your point of view.

TWL: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

J.T.: I am currently finishing another historical novel about the imperial German ruling family, the House of Hohenzollern, which takes place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I hope to publish some time in 2022. After this project, I plan on completing a sequel to The Humble Courier which will feature the American branch of the Bottger family in Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s.

TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

J.T.: I set out to write a novel about ordinary people, led by a courageous and selfless priest, trying to survive with their lives and faith intact while living in an extraordinary and brutal time and place. Father Hartmann is an aspirational character: he is devout, caring, selfless, and courageous. In short, he is everything many of us—myself included—wish we could be. The story challenges the readers to ask themselves questions: What would I have done under such circumstances? Would I have had the courage to do what I believed to be right, even if most others refused, and quite possibly at great risk to myself and my loved ones? In addition, the individual reader must determine for themselves whether Father Hartmann’s ultimate decision to utilize violence to carry out what he believes to be his mission was correct or not.

TWL: Do you have any final words?

J.T.: I’ve crafted a story that I believe has a new and interesting plot line, rich dialogue, and well-developed characters, including inspiring heroes that readers will root for and nasty villains they will love to hate. Several historical figures play roles in the story. The actual fates of some of these individuals, however, differ from their outcomes in the novel. I urge fans of historical fiction to give The Humble Courier a try. They will not be disappointed.

Title: THE HUMBLE COURIER
Author: J.T. Maicke
Publisher: Dreaming Big Publications
Pages: 321
Genre: Historical Fiction

BOOK BLURB:

Father Hartmann Bottger, a Benedictine monk and priest, has confronted bullies his entire life, including pompous clerics, local thugs, and callous and corrupt French Army occupation authorities in the German Rhineland. But Father Hartmann faces his greatest challenges with the rise to power of the Nazi Party and the brutality of the dreaded Gestapo, which threaten the rights of the Church as well as the lives and spiritual beliefs of Father Harti and the members of his small village parish.

The Humble Courier takes place in Germany during the turbulent years from the end of the Great War to the beginning of World War II. It is the story of a German soldier who believes he has been called to the Roman Catholic priesthood and tasked with fighting evil and protecting the weak from the strong. Although Father Hartmann initially employs passive resistance to fulfill what he perceives to be his mission, he comes to the conclusion that more aggressive—even violent—means are necessary to confront the awesome power of the SS and the Gestapo. Employing unlikely allies and extraordinary methods, Father Hartmann sets out to take the fight to his enemies, justifying his actions with St. Augustine’s proverb “Punishment is justice for the unjust.”