The Colonial Era

Colonizing foreign territories by stronger neighbors has been an ongoing political/military strategy for easily several thousand years. The Ancient Egyptians had trading ‘sites’ through much of the Mediterranean including what is now Greece and Italy.

Read More

The Wittelsbach Dynasty

The earliest known inhabitants in the area of present-day Bavaria were the Celts. Romans conquered the region about the beginning of the Common Era. They divided the southern part into Raetia andNoricum and built fortifications along the northern boundary…

Read More

La Belle Époque

After the Franco Prussian War of 1871-72, and the emergence of Germany as an Empire with colonies scattered around the world, a wonderful period of peace, beauty, Art and culture enveloped Europe, Russia and America. The industrial revolution…

Read More

New Historic Inventions

While most of the characters in my first book, ‘Kalvarianhof, The Perilous Journey’ are fictitious, their lives play out against the background of amazing real inventions that we still marvel at today. Imagine going from horse and buggy, to the first automobiles, some powered by steam, some electric, but most by a gas engine, ( Benz autos in Munich).

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #1

As many of you know, I am writing a five book historic fiction series about three generations of two German families during the first half of the twentieth century. To keep avid readers informed of this ongoing saga, my progress in creating it, and to give you…

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #2

Chaos reigned in Germany. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the warring powers signed an armistice ending the fighting in World War 1. Before the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war, Germany’s ruling family fled…

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #3

Happy holidays! The holiday season is a busy time. In addition to working on book 3, this year I gave the keynote lecture to the World War One Memorial Association’s Armistice Remembrance luncheon, at Oakland’s Wedgewood Country Club.

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #4

I’ve heard people say that there is a book in each of us. More recently, I’ve heard people saying this is the best time in history to be an author! More people are reading more books than ever before. The two biggest reasons are …

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #5

At the start of March a dear friend wrote to me saying she’d written a review for The Storm That Shook the World, my second novel. I opened the attachment and was floored. She wrote two and a half pages about the subtleties of the story…

Read More

Soellner’s Dispatch #6

The Storm That Shook the World, my second historic fiction novel, takes place in the years 1909 to 1919, the time before and the time of The Great War, World War One. In the era before radio, television and other modern technologies…

Read More