I am writing a novel about a magician who falls in love with a psychic. The magician is not a prestidigitator: He is a scientist and his science is sorcery. The psychic is naturally telepathic and telekinetic.
The magician explains that he is like a sailboat and his lover is like a motorboat. He is powerless but can make use of powerful forces. She is powerful but limited to what is innate.
The magician is a realist. The psychic is an idealist. He is Arnold Kess. She is Mary Ziegler.
Their world is like our own… but very different. The history and cultures are familiar, but not the same. Significant people are still significant, but in accordance with the differences of the alternate reality.
Arnold was a soldier until he was discharged for his racist views. He became a National Socialist and joined the SS.
Mary was a single mother with a biracial daughter. She worked for a living until moving into the home of Arnold Kess. He accepted her daughter, Faith Ziegler, despite his racism. He explained that “even inferior populations have superior specimens.” The man and woman spawn a daughter of their own, Elsa Kess, whom they raise as the sister of the older child.
Arnold participates in Action T4, a campaign to “euthanize” the disabled. Mary has visions of the helpless being murdered, many of them children. She confronts Arnold about it and he not only admits what he is doing, but unabashed. Mary takes her daughters and leaves Arnold, leaving him a note. He weeps as he reads her message, but lets her go. He makes no effort to take his daughter away from her, believing a mother is the most important person in a child’s life.
Riots erupt as the National Socialists act to remove “sub-humans” from their country. Mary and Elsa get separated from Faith. The mother hides the younger daughter and tells her to wait. Elsa is found by the SS and is returned to her father.
Years pass.
Elsa is raised by her father and becomes his apprentice. He becomes Senior Leader Kess and is given command of the 13th SS Air Assault Battalion. Elsa adamantly pesters him to let her serve under his command, arguing that as his apprentice, she is perfect for the job. He eventually relents and on her sixteenth birthday, she is accepted into the SS, despite Himmler’s reluctance.
Faith Ziegler is psychic, like her mother, but differently. The daughter is physically augmented by her powers rather than having the ability to move things with her mind. The mother and daughter become freedom fighters against white supremacy.
The novel is stories about a troubled family. Faith still loves Arnold as her father, and he hesitates to kill her. Elsa hates her mother, out of jealousy, and tries to kill her. Arnold wants Mary back but Mary refuses to condone his murderous actions.
I imagine magic versus psychic and without taking a side. I consider how they are alike and different. I do believe both are real, but as mysteries.
What if the Confederacy won the War Between the States and became the Empire of the Golden Circle, according to plan?
The novel is a drama. It is about its characters. I am
writing it for another reason, however. I am fascinated by the idea of the Confederacy
and the 3rd Reich as contemporaries. Both entities were capable
militarily but lacked the population, industry and resources to prevail. What
if they had each other? The odds would still be against them… but not so much.
