Steve Anderson
Lines of Deception
DOSSIER: When you applied for the Fulbright Fellowship program and ended up going to Munich, how much did you know about what you were getting yourself into? Were you interested in going to a country other than Germany, was there a different avenue of research you wanted to pursue, or was it all about getting a beer stein locker at the Hofbräuhaus and finding a date?
ANDERSON: I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I was so grown up then, a real-life grad student in history. But I was still in my 20s, not even bald yet. It was always going to be Germany because I’d lived there before and wanted to get back. Beer and beer halls definitely played a big role. I can say all this now, years later, without having my Fulbright yanked. I never thought I’d get the Fulbright Fellowship—that was a huge surprise. For the application, I picked the wild early days of the US Occupation of Germany. In a roundabout way, this actually led to my first fiction manuscript, which later, after a million rewrites, became my novel Liberated, the second in this same Kaspar Brothers series.
DOSSIER: Your Kaspar Brothers novels are published through Open Road Integrated Media. As a longtime writer who’s written several novels, short stories, and screenplays, where do you see the publishing landscape most welcoming to new writers who haven’t landed the kind of publishing deal most people are hoping for?
ANDERSON: Most established writers can tell you they haven’t landed the kind of publishing deal they were hoping for! I josh, but there’s a point to be made about staying realistic. Whatever deal you get is always going to involve compromises. It’s all about getting your foot in the door. If you can find a publisher who does quality editing and clearly works hard and responds to your emails within a reasonable time, that’s a great start. Hopefully that publisher is trying out new things as well, because all the old ways clearly aren’t working. As my new publisher, Open Road has been great and I feel lucky.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Absolute silence/music playing/Portland’s biggest Oktoberfest tent?)
ANDERSON: The Portland area has some legendary Oktoberfests, so I like your suggestion. I could set up right next to the oompa band. Things get so wild, I’m not sure anyone would notice. I write mostly first thing in the morning as well as on the weekends when I can. Even when working around a day job, as I’ve often done, you’d be amazed how much of a manuscript you can write over months when you’re devoting even just an hour and a half or so to writing every weekday alone. As for where I write, it’s a standard setup with sit-stand desk and a big monitor to expand on my laptop. The only music I can listen to while writing is classical or ambient, anything that doesn’t have lyrics. If I start hearing words, I can’t type my own. Oh, I also have two stalwart assistants: Monty and Trina. I pay them in hard-earned cat food, because they’re cats.
DOSSIER: LINES OF DECEPTION is the fourth Kaspar Brothers novel you’ve written (available 4/12/24), and since living in Munich, you’ve always found ways to use captivating settings to trick us into learning something interesting about an overlooked bit of history. With that backdrop, how are you topping yourself with Max and Harry in this new installment? Are there more books ahead in the series, or are we going to hear about how they’ve joined a German cycling community and decided to disappear from public life?
ANDERSON: Thank you. I don’t know if I’m topping myself, but I am making things tougher for Max and Harry right when they thought things were settling down. They went through hard times during the war and right after and now this new Cold War is making them commit to doing what’s right (to them) all over again. Harry saved Max’s life once, basically, so now Max has to go save Harry, who’s gone rogue behind the Iron Curtain. I like your cycling community idea, so I’m going to steal it. Thank you! But I have other ideas too. The early days of the West German government involved plenty of intrigue, what with all those Nazis trying to creep back into powerful roles. Max and Harry really do not like Nazis. Each brother is different though. Max is a former entertainer and lover of the good life and commits reluctantly. But he’s also found there are similarities between being an actor and operating with a cover, for example. Harry, he’s the more idealistic one, but with more of a hard edge. He wanted to change the world but is finding that doing so threatens to change him as well.
DOSSIER: In an offline discussion about the appeal of living overseas, you’ve spoken to The Dossier about the possibility of relocating to Europe. Since we’ve both spent a great deal of time living outside of the US, how do you see the experience of residing in say, Prague or Nuremberg, influence the process for future fiction writing?
ANDERSON: My wife and I have a long-term goal of making it work, but we have to get it right. Adventure takes planning. You might get this ideal image of writing in the tower of some 500-year-old villa while sipping Fernet in front of a roaring fire but you could also end up at a busted old IKEA desk in a corner of your tiny moldy basement kitchen because your job teaching English doesn’t pay near enough.
Working in an amazing place like Prague or Nuremburg with so much history could really inspire me. There came a moment on my Fulbright where I discovered the love of writing—it was dumping snow in Munich and I sat at the window for hours banging away on my MA thesis, which was a mess, but the process still felt magical—creating something from nothing right in the very place where history transpired. It’s a feeling I’m always trying to replicate. Nowadays it’s me and my characters and the story, and if you get it right, the tale starts to write itself. That’s what we do it for. And if you get back over there, let’s go get a beer!
Website: Steve Anderson | Amazon Page
Jeff Circle 