As music plays a big part in my newest re-release, I figured I’d blog about that how I’ve incorporated that into my fiction for this month’s post. I play violin in a local orchestra, and taught piano for ten years so many of my characters are musicians and/or music does feature as part of my stories.

Definitely so with Winter Duet, book 2, of my WWII Echoes Rising series.

Two of the characters—Kristopher and Michel—are musicians. Kristopher plays violin, and Michel the flute, and they’ve promised each other a duet if they survive the war. Although the title reflects that promise, it also refers to a duet of another sort as the team is split into two for a good portion of the story.

I’d attended a lecture on music code as part of one of my music papers at uni, and had always wanted to use it in a story. I also studied Schubert’s Winterreise as part of the same paper, and given the setting of Winter Duet, using it as part of the story worked perfectly. The lyrics for the music come from a collection of poems by Müller so I used lines from one of the poems—Frühlingstraum’—as code phrases used by the Resistance. Kristopher takes the conversation about music a step further and devises a code which he and Michel can use to leave each other a written message that will not be easily deciphered if found by the enemy.

Music code was not only used in WWII but long before that. Bach used musical notation to spell out his name in his compositions. Modern musical notation was developed from modes—in German ‘B flat’ is ‘B’ and ‘B natural’ is H—and phonetics. Later, Schumann used several musical cryptograms in his music, spelling out not just his own name, but that of Clara Wieck, who would later become his wife. Other codes were based on pitch, motifs (repeated music phrases) and note lengths. There are many more examples and variations out there across a range of different composers.

And yes, Clara Lehrer, Kristopher’s sister, is named after Clara Schumann.

Winter Duet, book 2 of my WWII Echoes Rising series is now available for on Amazon and in KU for the first time.

• WWII
• Action/Drama
• Spies
• Diverse Characters
• Found Family
• #mmromance

Who do you trust when no one is who they seem?

Germany 1944

Fleeing German physicist Dr Kristopher Lehrer and his lover, Resistance fighter Michel, are caught up in an Allied bombing campaign. Separated from Michel after discovering an injured RAF pilot in the Black Forest, and pursued by the SS for the information he carries, Kristopher is frantic to reunite, unaware that Michel has been recruited by the Allies for a rescue mission.

Time is running out. The Gestapo is closing in. How can they decide who to trust, when the dagger pointed at Kristopher’s back could be wielded by a friend?

Author’s note: This is the third edition of Winter Duet. The first and second editions were released by another publishing house. This story has been re-edited, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.

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