The creation of a novel can sometimes be a relatively quick process or can take several years. The latter is true with my latest novel Three Brothers, which I have just finished the final edit of.
The aims of the novel changed somewhat from the original idea to what actually was written. What started as a simple desire to tell the little told story of Black September 1918 turned into something much bigger; the relationship between Ted, Felix and Max, three innocents caught up in world events, whose hopes and ambitions are shattered and changed by the conflict.
This has taken some five years so far, from the initial idea to getting this far. Not continuously, of course, but still a long time, and perhaps reflects how much these characters have come to mean to me.
The survivors' stories will continue, the second book will take them through 1919 and beyond. This is called The Black Crosses. I do want to return to Black September though, because it shouldn’t be forgotten.
It was a remarkable time, when the German Air Force, fighting on the retreat and with its country facing defeat, inflicted higher casualties on the Allied Forces - French, British and American - than at any time during the way, including the much more famous Bloody April, yet few, other than aviation history buffs have heard about it.
So why is this story little known? I believe the answer to that question is easy; it was pretty clear to everyone that, after four bitter years, the war would soon be over. Germany's allies were collapsing and, on the Western Front, the German Army had reached the end of its endurance. The 'black day' for it had been at Amiens on the 8th of August, after that there was only a retreat. A few setbacks in the air were accepted as a small price for completing the job on the ground.
I'm sure the allied air crews who were slaughtered didn't quite feel the same. Some 560 aircraft were lost in the month, twice as many as were lost during Bloody April (245). Things had changed though; in April 1917 those 245 machines and the crews that flew them were a high proportion of the then RFCs total complement. In September 1918 the 560 were a drop in the ocean of the Allied air forces who could quickly fill the gaps in both machines and manpower.
Most that were shot down fell to the guns of the Fokker DVII and many were types that were long past their prime, such as the Sopwith Camel, hence the theme that runs through Three Brothers. The story has been told in non-fiction (see Norman Franks' Black September 1918) but, sometimes, fiction can better put the reader in the times.
That's what I tried to do with Three Brothers. I hope readers feel the same when they get to read it. This will be a little bit delayed as I am going to try to find a mainstream publisher for it, but hopefully, it will be out in some form later in the year.
As they say. watch this space!
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