About the Book

Book: Faces in the Window

Authors: Andrew Busch and Melinda Busch

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Release Date: October, 2022

Franz Maedler, an officer in the Wehrmacht, loses a leg in Stalingrad and is evacuated just before it becomes impossible to do so. He returns to a desk job with the Army General Staff in Berlin but is deeply conflicted. His father is committed to the Nazi cause, as seems to be his brother Friedrich. Yet his girlfriend Katrin is a devout Christian, as was his now-deceased mother, and his conscience is haunted by things he was a part of on the Eastern Front. He wants to marry Katrin, but she will not agree until he decides who he is and who he follows. Then, unexpectedly, a moment of crisis forces Franz to choose. Will he side with the cross or with the swastika? And what will it cost him?

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About the Authors

Andrew and Melinda Busch were both born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, and were introduced in 1994 by their junior high school math teacher. They married in 1995 and have three grown children. They now live in Rialto, California.

Andrew teaches American government at Claremont McKenna College in southern California. He has authored or co-authored about two dozen books on American politics, government, and public policy. He received his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia. Melinda is a freelance author who has published numerous short stories and children’s books. She received her Master’s degree in education from Concordia University-Portland. Faces in the Window is their first co-authored book.

More from Andrew and Melinda

We came up with the idea for our book after a trip to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2006, but didn’t start writing it until late 2019. The COVID lock-down gave us a lot of time at home to work on it.

Writing together was fun. Sometimes one of us would draft a section and the other one would revise it and then we would go back and forth until we were satisfied with it. Other times, when there was important dialogue, we would each pick a character, go onto Google Docs, and have the conversation in real time. We had to be sharp, since our characters often found themselves in a tight spot. Though we planned out the story, sometimes the conversations took on a life of their own, and things went in a different direction.

One of us is a poet and an author of children’s books, fantasy stories, and fan fiction, while the other is a professor who has written extensively about American government but has never before dipped his toe into the vasty depths of fiction. Together, we had a great time!

Author Interview

When did you first discover you had a passion for writing?
I think when I spent part of the summer before fourth grade writing an historical account of the Battle of Beecher’s Island in eastern Colorado between the cavalry and the Arapahoe Indians. I had a little desk set up in our basement outside my Dad’s office. He would be working on assignments for his degree in Western History from Loretto Heights University in Denver, and I would be working on the Battle of Beecher’s Island. (Andrew)

From the time I learned to write, I loved writing stories and poems. I’ve been an avid reader since I was three, and writing was a fairly natural progression from that. (Melinda)

Are you a planner or a pantser?
I’m not sure I can say one or the other. I like to plan, so we started with a set of key characters and a rough outline of the action and important decision points in each chapter. Once we started writing, though, new characters emerged, and twists and turns developed. At the end, the book looked pretty much like what the outline called for, but only because the outline was not too detailed. (Andrew)
By nature, I’m a pantser. However, in writing this novel with my husband, I’ve learned the benefit of doing some planning and then being open to plans changing. (Melinda)

What was the most challenging part of bringing this story to life? 
Keeping the suspense alive, especially keeping secret the secrets some of the characters have. Also making all the characters human, even the bad guys no one is or should be rooting for. (Andrew)
I’ll agree with the hubby on this one. It was a real challenge not revealing certain things too early in the story. (Melinda)

What was the most rewarding?
The process of writing with Melinda. She is the real fiction writer. Most of my writing has been of the non-fiction academic variety, so learning to think in terms of story and letting the characters speak and carry the story forward was a new thing for me. I especially enjoyed writing sections of the dialogue when we would each take a character, go on to Google Docs, and write the dialogue back and forth in real time. We wrote a large part of the book during COVID, so being able to focus on it together during that time was special. (Andrew)
I loved the time spent with my husband, bringing a dream to fruition. (Melinda)

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
1) Things in life are never quite what they seem. 2) It isn’t how you start the race that is most important—it is how you finish. 3) God wants and expects us to stand up for what is right, even (maybe especially) when it isn’t easy. (Andrew)
I’ll echo my husband on all three points here, especially number three. Choosing to do what’s right can end up costing everything, but it’s still better than taking the easy way out. (Melinda)