Recharging the Batteries

Warren Bell at the Matterhorn

To visit Switzerland is like visiting at least three different countries. The northern regions were affected by Germany, and Swiss-German is spoken in this area. The eastern part of the country borders France. French influence dominates the east, and French is the everyday language. The southern part of Switzerland abuts Italy, and many here speak Italian. The best features of neighboring cultures has been absorbed and morphed into a uniquely Swiss flavor.  

Switzerland has two official languages (Swiss-German and French) and a third semi-official one – Rumantsch, the aboriginal tongue. While not an “official” language, most Swiss people also speak Italian. And we Americans gripe about having to study a single additional tongue?

My wife, Annette, and I spent 10 days in this wonderful country in September and early October. Most of our time was spent absorbing the sights and local food and learning something of the culture. I stored all these details in my brain with relish. Visiting new places and learning about their culture is like recharging the batteries of the intellect. 

One fact I learned long ago is that while all humans may look alike, it can be dangerous to predict what others will do based only on your own culture. All humans come with the same “hardware” in their brains. The “software,” however, may be quite different and varies by culture. Years ago, I coined the phrase, “cultural programming,” to describe this phenomenon.

When writing about characters from cultures other than their own, writers can

easily fall into the mistake of having them react as, say, Americans would.  Even

more dangerous is for political leaders to fall into this trap (consider the Pacific War, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars). In my new novel, Hold Back the Sun, I write about how Americans miscalculating the Japanese mind made the Pacific War inevitable.   

Authors can avoid such mistakes by carefully studying the culture of the characters about whom they write. Actually visiting the countries involved is the most effective way to do this, but careful document and Internet research can also yield satisfactory results.  Due diligence is the key.

Surprisingly, I didn’t gain any weight during our Swiss tour.  I certainly ate enough food. The one that made the most impression on me was Rösti, hash brown potatoes cooked in butter. The Swiss serve them with many meal, and they are delicious beyond description. Fortunately for my waistline, we also spent a lot of time climbing steps and mountain slopes to burn off all the calories.    

My batteries are fully recharged now. Book launch for the paperback version of Hold Back the Sun is coming up on October 25^th, so I have work to do!  

Note:  Warren Bell's debut novel, Fall Eagle One, can be purchased at Amazon.com in either Kindle or Paperback form.  His newest novel, Hold Back the Sun, is available for Kindle, and the Paperback version will be available October 25th. 

Mixing Business with Pleasure

University of Zurich Library

When I was a young man just beginning my working life, my father warned me, “Never mix business with pleasure.” What he was talking about in the culture of 1950s South Arkansas was not to begin romantic entanglements with women at work. Although I think that Dad’s words are still good advice, I realize that the majority of romantic pairings in America today begin in the workplace. However, in the sense of having fun and moving forward one’s career simultaneously, it is possible to mix business with pleasure.

I am blogging today from beautiful Zurich, Switzerland, where my wife and I are on a tourist trip. Switzerland is a wonderful place to be. The scenic beauty is spectacular; the cities are clean and attractive; public transportation is efficient and plentiful. But most wonderful of all are the Swiss people. They are extremely courteous and friendly. Many go out of their way to help obviously puzzled tourists find their way around.  And very important for many of us, they all speak excellent English; they are also very tolerant of Americans who speak only English. The Swiss make visiting their country a great pleasure.

For a historical novelist who writes mostly about World War II, Switzerland is also a treasure trove of information and descriptive background. Zurich was the headquarters of Allen Dulles and a major office of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. From here, spies were dispatched and ran all over Nazi-occupied Europe. It was at the University of Zurich’s technical university that an OSS agent sat in on a lecture by Werner Heisenberg, head of Germany’s nuclear program, in December of 1944. If the agent determined that production of a German atomic bomb was imminent, he had the authority to shoot Heisenberg on the spot. With all thier actions potentially useful in future novels, my tourist visit has also become a research expedition.

For years I have been cataloging details about countries and cities I visit for possible future use in my writing. Taking lots of photographs of sites I may later use in my writing allows first-hand knowledge of how to write descriptive prose about these places. My favorite saying from the WWII German Field Marshal Rommel is, “Nothing is as important as going and seeing for yourself.”

So it is possible and profitable to mix business and pleasure after all.

Note: Warren Bell's debut novel, Fall Eagle One, detailing a fictitious but plausible assassination attempt on FDR during World War II, (Semi-Finalist in the Kindle Indie Book Review Best Books of 2012) is available for Kindle or in paperback on Amazon.com. His newest novel, Hold Back the Sun, has been released for Kindle in advance of the printed book launch on October 25, 2013. This new historical-fiction thriller, set in the Pacific, follows the US Asiatic Fleet in their battle with the Japanese in WWII.