How I came to write books in German
After studying medieval German literature in Munich, I didn’t want to go back to America just yet, so I started writing for English-language newspapers, from “The European” to “Variety” and “The Hollywood Reporter,” and I even got a few articles in papers like “The Washington Post.”
When I turned 40 it was definitely time to go back, but there was one thing I still wanted to do – all my life I had dreamt of traveling through Germany in search of the Middle Ages. So I stayed on to do that, and a German publisher was interested, so I wrote the book about it in German.
After that, it was natural to write articles for German newspapers (about politics, culture, society and German-American relations), then more German books, then novels.
All that time, I kept postponing the books I wanted to write in English.
When I turned 60 I realized it’s now or never – so after dozen books in German, I dug out my list of English-language books I wanted to write and sat down and got to work.
From Planet America to
America Without the Bullshit
Of alL the books I wrote in German, the one that I most want to rewrite in English Is “Planet America” – an issue-by-issue examination of all the misconceptions Germans, Americans and the world has about America. But I want to rewrite it for an American audience.
In other words: “America without the Bullshit.”
Before the book come the videos:
I have begun writing and producing “America without the Bullshit” as a video series, chapter for chapter, step for step, and I will begin uploading them soon.
Hope you like it.
How I came to write books in German
After studying medieval German literature in Munich, I didn’t want to go back to America just yet, so I started writing for English-language newspapers, from “The European” to “Variety” and “The Hollywood Reporter,” and I even got a few articles in papers like “The Washington Post.”
When I turned 40 it was definitely time to go back, but there was one thing I still wanted to do – all my life I had dreamt of traveling through Germany in search of the Middle Ages. So I stayed on to do that, and a German publisher was interested, so I wrote the book about it in German.
After that, it was natural to write articles for German newspapers (about politics, culture, society and German-American relations), then more German books, then novels.
All that time, I kept postponing the books I wanted to write in English.
When I turned 60 I realized it’s now or never – so after dozen books in German, I dug out my list of English-language books I wanted to write and sat down and got to work.
From Planet America to
America Without the Bullshit
Of alL the books I wrote in German, the one that I most want to rewrite in English Is “Planet America” – an issue-by-issue examination of all the misconceptions Germans, Americans and the world has about America. But I want to rewrite it for an American audience.
In other words: “America without the Bullshit.”
Before the book come the videos:
I have begun writing and producing “America without the Bullshit” as a video series, chapter for chapter, step for step, and I will begin uploading them soon.
Hope you like it.
Driving Through the Dark Ages
I dreamed of searching for and finding the Middle Ages since I was a kid:
So when I turned 40, I took a year and drove around Germany in the footsteps of 9 medieval persons and found out how and where they lived. I slept where they slept, I interviewed experts to reconstruct their times.
Then I wrote a book about my journey: “Die Nibelungenreise.”
Planet Germany
One day a guy wrote a book about “How We Germans Became American.”
You know the theory – America has corrupted the rest of the world with jeans and rock and roll and stolen their culture. As I read the book, I realized – not only did this guy not understand America, he didn’t understand his own culture.
So I wrote a book telling Germans who they really were – and how different they were from everyone else. I did it with a pinch of humor and it was a modest bestseller.
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Germany
My follow-up to “Planet Germany:”
A quiz book with some 50 questions about Germany most Germans can’t answer – and never really asked in the first place.
But I asked them, and I found answers
The Little Town that Roared
When the Berlin Wall came down, Germany officially became the biggest and most powerful country in Europe.
Our satirical novel is about a small town in the hills of Odenwald forest that discovers vast riches under their soil – and how they go crazy trying to deal with their newfound fame and fortune.
The Fine Art of Nagging
The Germans like to complain. They do it well, they do it constantly, and they know it. For them, it is a matter of pride, of identity, even a fine art. Even they will tell you that.
This is everything you need to know about the fine art of complaining, bellyaching, griping, whining, whinging, nagging and more (believe me, the list of synonyms in German is much longer).
Forbetter your English
Like many other ex-pats, I earned my way through Germany in my first years teaching English.
Doing that for years, I noticed that all Germans make the same mistakes. It’s because they are speaking English, but still thinking in German.
So I wrote down “the mistakes,” added a little humor and a few anecdotes, and put them into a book.
Planet America
By this time I’d written a number of books telling Germans who they are – it came as no surprise when Germans started asking me, “Why don’t you do the same thing with your country?”
So I did.
In “Planet America” I take everything Americans think they know about themselves, from how their country works to issues like slavery and racism, the Indians and the Puritans, and more, and tell it without the propaganda, wishful thinking and straight-out lies.
The result is portrait of a country that is unlike any other.
The Frightened Superpower
Germany is de facto the leader (some say dictator), of the European Union in the 21st Century. That makes German the leader of a superpower.
This begs the question: When are the Germans going to step up to their responsibility?
The American Provocateur
Every week for 2 years I provoked, prodded and parodied the Germans for their politically-correct and at the same time anti-American thinking in a weekly satirical column in Germany’s leading newsweekly “Die Zeit” (online).
Then the woke outrage and shouts of “American go home!” became too much for the editors and I was canceled. But it was fun while it lasted.