The author was eleven years old when World War II ended. An older brother died before Ken was born but Herschel would have been a GI if he had lived. In 1945, Herschel would have returned home with the woman he met while on vacation in France in 1940. This is her story: Marie-France Mirage has a promising career in grand opera when Germany invades France. Her uncle heads a resistance cell. He urges her to accept a German general's employment offer as secretary and translator then demands that she encourage General Fischer's advances; Marie-France becomes the general's mistress. With General Fischer's assistance, Marie-France is invited to sing for Hitler's birthday celebration. She and her uncle plan an assassination; the plot cannot be implemented but Marie-France returns to Paris with microfilm of Hitler's secret weapon, the V-1 rocket. For four years, Marie-France passes critical information to the Allies, helps downed airmen get back to England, and saves Jews destined for death camps. Everyone in her cell dies except Marie-France. The secret of her dual role is kept so well that she is accused and convicted of collaboration; in her case, a capital offense.
Sports and music have always been important to me. I played basketball in high school and was in the concert band. At Florida State University, I was drum major of the Marching Chiefs. In the Marine Corps, I played in the Parris Island post band, and became interested in fitness and martial arts; I was a member of the weight lifting and judo teams. I have two hundred skydiving free-falls, countless scuba dives and I've competed in numerous equestrian events. I've enjoyed water and snow skiing. I joined my church choir as a teenager and have sung in various choirs for fifty years. As a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus under Robert Shaw, I participated in three performances at Carnegie Hall. I was an Eagle Scout as a boy and a scoutmaster as an adult. For ten years, I mentored a boy through the Big Brothers of Atlanta program; he's now a father. I've been a farm laborer, plumber, electrician, soldier, door-to-door salesman, singer/musician, lab technician, personal trainer, bouncer, ballroom-dance instructor and dilettante. I've been in most of the states and traveled on every continent. My daughter, Frances, whose face appears on the cover of my novel The Lost Child, graduated from college with a degree in French. She then accompanied me to France for research on the novel. I'm retired but continue to work part-time as a personal trainer; I work with interesting clients who give me inspiration, insight, motivation...and pay me for something that I enjoy doing. I have a lot of experience and some imagination, I think, with time now to write. I should have begun long ago, of course, but that's no reason not to start now. I hope you want to read the complete novel...and the sequel that I'm working on...and a book on aging and fitness. What do you think of Survival of the Fittest or Second Wind as a title? Ken Haskins
