When I went to look for the photos of my husband’s and my trip to Southern Styria with his parents, I had to go back to 2013 and I could...
Read More 
The Historical Background Blog
Where the journeys lead to stories and the stories lead to journeys.
THIS SUMMER, AS MY GARDEN BEGINS BURGEONING WITH FRUIT AND VEG, I'M GOING TO SHARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE RECIPES BEGINNING WITH A TURKISH ONE.
Read More How does an author go about creating a completely fictional character who is supposed to be experiencing the events of a historically accurate time-period? My inspiration for Kitty Larsson began...
Read More How does an author go about creating a completely fictional character who is supposed to be experiencing the events of a historically accurate time-period? My inspiration for Kitty Larsson began...
Read More How does an author go about creating a completely fictional character who is supposed to be experiencing the events of a historically accurate time-period? My inspiration for Kitty Larsson began...
Read More With her heart in her mouth, Kitty snuck into her husband’s study. She knew what she had to do to save her dearest friend from the Nazis. She just had...
Read More With her heart in her mouth, Kitty snuck into her husband’s study. She knew what she had to do to save her dearest friend from the Nazis. She just had...
Read More With her heart in her mouth, Kitty snuck into her husband’s study. She knew what she had to do to save her dearest friend from the Nazis. She just had...
Read More With her heart in her mouth, Kitty snuck into her husband’s study. She knew what she had to do to save her dearest friend from the Nazis. She just had...
Read More How the Ideas for My New WW2 Series Came to Fruition Did you know that most publishers rely on their authors to come to the...
Read More In 1991, 2004 and 2014, the Maidan in Kyiv was the stage for three major events that etched Ukraine into the European consciousness. These were the fall of the Soviet...
Read More In 1991, 2004 and 2014, the Maidan in Kyiv was the stage for three major events that etched Ukraine into the European consciousness. These were the fall of the Soviet...
Read More In this overview, Ukraine's history of conflicts, conquerors and political flux is illustrated via a timeline from 1200 to WW2, at which time Ukraine came under Soviet control. On August...
Read More How the Nazis forced Jewish filmmakers and writers to create concentration camp propaganda.
Read More The power of the subconscious: it wasn't until I was finished writing THE WOMAN AT THE GATES that I realized how very much my maternal grandfather's legacy had played a...
Read More The power of the subconscious: it wasn't until I was finished writing THE WOMAN AT THE GATES that I realized how very much my maternal grandfather's legacy had played a...
Read More One portrait of two women, my grandmother, and her sister, has followed me to four countries. When I sat down to write a fictional version of their true stories in...
Read More In this Q&A with the author, we prepared some possible book club questions that could be posed. Lucyk-Berger provides her insights and the background to writing the characters' lives in...
Read More I grew up with a very superficial understanding of what it means to come from a family of Ukrainian war refugees. The struggles, the hardships, where we came from—that was...
Read More A tribute to Stepan Lucyk and Ol'ha Lucyk as well as Yurko Lucyk. My journey to discovering how I am culminated into the novel, THE WOMAN AT THE GATES.
Read More In August 1948, the farmers of the Reschen Valley awoke to a storm alarm. The sky was blue. But water was seeping into their fields. The company that was building...
Read More In recent weeks, many of my readers have sent me links to various articles about how the remnants beneath the Reschen Lake Reservoir have “come...
Read More Easter is my favorite holiday, and with a Ukrainian Orthodox mother and a Ukrainian Catholic father, our family celebrated it twice a year, save for...
Read More Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer, and actress, known for her seminal role in producing Nazi propaganda.
Read More I do have a passion for storytelling; for visiting the fantasy worlds in my head and returning with something that must be transposed onto paper; a painting of words, one...
Read More I do have a passion for storytelling; for visiting the fantasy worlds in my head and returning with something that must be transposed onto paper; a painting of words, one...
Read More I do have a passion for storytelling; for visiting the fantasy worlds in my head and returning with something that must be transposed onto paper; a painting of words, one...
Read More Regardless of where I choose to set my next historical fiction novel, I have to do a lot of research. I try to travel to all of the destinations. My...
Read More In light of the memorials that have been destroyed and taken down from public spaces this past year, historian Hannes Obermair examines how monuments and memorials should depict both perpetrator...
Read More After the Great War, in the Austrian province of Tyrol a new conflict began. Imagine you are a German-speaking Tyrolean. You run an inn where,...
Read More Now working on the fourth book in the series (not including the prequel), I am dealing with the events that led the Third Reich and...
Read More Food is one of my passions, a close second to writing. When penning the scenes in the Reschen Valley series, I make sure that my characters eat and...
Read More The Italian woman must follow Italian fashion. Taste, elegance and originality have demonstrated that this initiative can and must be successful. –Italian Fascist Party edict...
Read More Each of my novels requires anywhere from 20 to 30 books of research about the era I’m writing in. For the Reschen Valley series, I read...
Read More In the second of this two-part series, I’ll introduce you to the top museums dedicated to depicting the historical battles of WW1 (and WW2) in the...
Read More In this two-part series, we’re going to take you on a hike through the Italian Dolomites in South Tyrolean territory. In our post in July,...
Read More Last month, I posted the first of two parts regarding the Catholic rituals and heritage of Palm Sunday through Easter Monday. Having grown up in...
Read More This year, my husband and I celebrated Catholic Easter in Pitigliano, Italy. Our “big bash” was on Orthodox Easter a week later. I grew up...
Read More Like the United States has George Washington as its iconic founding father, an Austrian province in the middle of Europe, called Tyrol, gives homage through...
Read More European Traditions and Culture Around Carnival and Lent Photo by Yeimi on Pixabay One of the things that never cease to amaze me when I...
Read More Before I started the Reschen Valley series, I was writing about Ukraine in WW2. Shortly after I completed my debut novel, I realized I still...
Read More The Treaty of St Germain. If you are in the least bit familiar with how WW2 came to a head, then you are also aware...
Read More Reinforcing a reader’s misconceptions is like feeding junk food to their intelligence. I am not a perfect author. I don’t even know what that is...
Read More This is going to be a short post. I am still reeling from watching The Promise last night, which takes place in 1914 Istanbul/Constantinople and reveals the...
Read More 
