Barbara Josselsohn

It was a simple train station, brick and stone, with a dark red door. Empty and abandoned, it sat nestled in the mountains of southern France. Truly, it was just a blip on an otherwise picturesque route that we were enjoying aboard the Tournon Steam Train one morning last June.   Along with my fellow travelers, I had been relishing the dramatic landscape—the steep, glistening cliffs and winding gorges below, the drop-off seemingly mere inches away from the tracks. And then the abandoned station house appeared. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew at that moment that I had to take a picture of it. I grasped my phone, my fingers clumsy because I was so anxious to capture the small grey building before it sailed by. Thankfully I caught the shot just in time—and the photo has been perched on my desk for the last several months, as I’ve set about writing my newest World War 2 novel. The novel doesn’t yet have a title, but it’s slated for release in August. And it’s set largely in the mountains of southern France where we toured last summer. Why does a particular object take hold of our senses without warning? What strange electrical impulses fire in our brains, alerting us that this thing—a thing that others might not even notice—must be remembered? We’d started our trip in France with a stop in Lyon, the city that Charles de Gaulle proclaimed to be the capital of the Resistance. And as we traveled further south in the following days, we heard so many accounts of horror and barbarity during the brutal occupation of France. But we also heard of many acts of courage and perseverance and determination. It felt as though the ground beneath our feet was rich with secrets and stories buried there many decades ago. And for me, the abandoned train station, with its closed red door, became a symbol of all the abandoned stories and secrets waiting to be uncovered and revealed to the world. That red door is my inspiration. And even though my book launch is a ways in the future, I’m so excited to share with you in upcoming newsletters some peeks into the history and people who proved inspiring and unforgettable to me. They have helped me shape the fictional characters, events, and themes that abound in my next novel. I hope they’ll be unforgettable to you, too!