Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Fischer
Hi Max, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As mentioned in a previous article, my family emigrated to America in 1951, and I was born a year later. My mother survived the aerial bombardment of her passenger train on the outskirts of Berlin while my father survived the Russian Front and the bombing of Dresden while in the German army. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always had an innate infatuation with history. My sixth grade teacher, Mavin Corbin, caught onto that interest and had me give an airplane model building presentation to our class one Friday afternoon. It was our library time, and a small group of students were excused every few minutes or so to go and check out a book and return. I was working on a gray, plastic model of Charles Lindbergh’s plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis”. The first group to return chuckled as they said there was a radio report in the library saying President Kennedy had been shot. Their nervous giggle spread across the room, only to turn into tears when moments later, the school intercom broadcast the harsh reality of that tragedy.
On so many levels, the world changed that day. The nation and the world lost a vibrant, young leader. Anyone my age and older can tell you explicit details of their life on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 unlike any other day of their distant past. That event embedded the plane-modeling episode in my brain as a sample of Mr. Corbin’s unique instructional style, inspiring me to become a teacher. He engaged his students on so many levels and modalities to allow them different avenues towards achieving success.
I carried the torch of individualizing instruction as much as possible through my four decades of teaching. During the second half of my career, I taught history to seventh and eighth graders. Realizing the sterile nature of textbooks, I sometimes turned to short excerpts from novels of historical fiction to offer a richer, more personalized, version of the events that formed our early nation.
Witnessing a greater student engagement with the novels and having my own affinity towards the written word, I vowed to write my own young adult historical fiction about critical periods in American history when I retired.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In the two years leading up to my retirement, I knew I had the kernel of my first novel. A twenty-something George Washington, long on confidence and short on experience, arguably lit the match that started the North American front of Great Britain’s Seven Year War with France–the French and Indian War. I created a mix of characters–a precocious eighth-grader with his mysterious father, CIA agents and numerous eighteenth century natives and soldiers–and connected them to a time warp app. Through it all, I blended in the theme of learning from one’s mistakes. In six months I’d written “The Corkscrew App”.
Four months after querying “The Corkscrew App” to about twenty publishers, I was offered a contract by a traditional publisher. It was a small publishing house, but a legitimate one catering to school libraries. It seemed like a good match. This was easy, right? Not so fast.
Shortly thereafter, this publisher decided to take on a different business model and focus more on curriculum ideas for teachers and home schoolers. I had written two more manuscripts, but despite a few nibbles of interest, rejection became the norm. Over two hundred publishers and/or agents passed on my manuscripts, and I became somewhat frustrated.
I did have support as I was part of a writers group of about a half dozen individuals who met twice a month to review our writings and discuss writing techniques and trends in publishing. Their tactful, objective critiques improved my writing while their encouragement kept me vigilant in sharing my stories. Ultimately, I took the bold step toward independent publishing via Kindle Direct where my subsequent three novels were published on Amazon.
As an indie author, marketing my books has become my main challenge, an expensive one at that. With forty million books on Amazon, calculating the most cost efficient strategies towards breaching the marketplace can be daunting.
In the meantime, my latest book, “Hobbadehoy Rising”, was released by Historium Press of Macon, Georgia, a publisher of historical fiction. Historium has relieved some of my marketing pressure to allow me to focus on what I do best and enjoy most—write.
Despite the ongoing marketing difficulties, I’ve learned that if you’re driven by your stories, you’ll keep striving to write them in order to reach a potentially receptive audience. Also, at the very least, I’ve improved the quality of my writing with each new release.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I usually begin my novels focusing on either a bizarre episode in American history or an era of internal national conflict—a mysterious epidemic that drives some folks to believe the dead are feeding off the living, the internment of German Americans in the Texas desert during World War II, seventeenth century accusations of witchcraft in order to gain property rights, the ravages of life for street kids in 1850’s Manhattan, the competing forces of Nazism and communism to undermine democracy in the 1930’s. In two of my novels, I’ve even blended historical fiction with science fiction.
Once I settle on a topic, the fun begins. Researching the background for a book–from the critical ideology of the era to its people, clothing, food, modes of transportation, and even slang–enriches my plot like turning spongy white bread into robust, whole grain fare into which you can sink your teeth. I may have a broad idea of the path of my book in the beginning, but uncovering the details of the time period will give my story the organic trail of twists and turns to engage my reader. Books and online sources about the era are very helpful, but I’ve found literary gold in online newspaper archives. Reading news stories from a point in history about which I’m writing offers not only the accurate supporting details with which to embellish the setting for my readers, it also affords me fodder for plot twists along the way.
History is thousands of years old, and technological advancements have helped shape it, even as they are shaping our present world. However, there has/and always will be one constant factor in our history—human nature. It rarely varies, and that is something with which I try to infuse a healthy dose into my characters’ words and actions.
As alluded to in the following reviews, researching the historical backdrop of my novels pays dividends for my readers, transporting them back in time.
“The strength of “Hobbadehoy Rising” lies in its immersive storytelling and richly drawn characters, particularly Pencil, whose journey from orphaned street rat to fledgling artist is both compelling and poignant.”—Amazon review of Hobbadehoy Rising March 27, 2024
“This book makes you feel as though you are launched back into the 1850s and the characters are as divided and dynamic as the age. It’s well worth the read.”—Amazon review of Hobbadehoy Rising January 6, 2024
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the decade I’ve been involved with the writing and publishing of books, I’ve noticed a decline in small publishers and a rise in indie authors, many of whom self-publish on platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct. Although I can’t pretend to be omniscient about near future trends in publishing. I would hazard to guess that indie authors will continue to rise in numbers and, similar to other industries, a few dominant mega-publishing houses will prosper.
Pricing:
- “American Brush-Off” on Amazon . . . e-book $2.99/paperback $10.24
- “Revelations from the Dead: Chronicles of the Night Waster” on Amazon . . . e-book $2.99/paperback $10.24
- “The Reformation of Nate Adare” on Amazon . . . e-book $2.99/paperback $5,24
- “Hobbadehoy Rising” on Amazon e-book $4.99; paperback on Barnes & Noble and The Historical Fiction Company $15.99
- “The Corkscrew App” on Amazon . . . paperback $5.99
Contact Info:
- Website: www,maxwilli.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxwilliauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MWILLIFISCHER
