When I was writing Underground Soldier, there was a ton of research to do. I had to figure out what was going on in Kyiv before Luka was captured by the Nazis, and I needed to find out what the underground bunkers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army looked like, and figure out what an escaped slave would eat on the run, and where he would hide.
But there were also small day to day scenes that needed to be accurate. For example, what was growing in the field that Luka walked through once he jumped out of the wagon of corpses? Another thing I had to figure out is what the interior of the barn that he hid in would look like. I’ve been in barns before, but not until you have to write a scene inside a barn do you realize all that you need to know.
For my barn research, I called upon Marna Hamilton, a berry grower who lives not far from me. For years I have been buying berries in season from her farm, but while I was writing Underground Soldier, I noticed her barn. It’s about the same age as the one Luka would have hidden in. It’s in Brant County, not the Third Reich, but all barns of an era have some things in common. Marna kindly took me on a tour of her barn and answered all my questions. That was two summers ago. This week the strawberries are lush and so I dropped back by to get berries, but also to thank Marna for her help and to give her a copy of Underground Soldier. Here she is:
