Spotlight on Aubrey Reiss Taylor

Aubrey Reiss Taylor unites a fascination for history with a passion for redemption, creating a unique brand of gritty, honest wartime sagas, written from the German perspective. She is the mother of three, and married to her best friend Brian. When she’s not writing or taking care of home and family, she enjoys making music, dancing, reading, and spending time with friends.

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How do you approach the delicate balance of crafting an entertaining story while also ensuring it carries a clear spiritual message?

While I no longer write specifically for the Christian market, my faith still influences my books. I make it clear that sin has consequences, such as in Dearest Gunter, where, by the end of the book, there’s not a reader who is not angry at him. His own brother, who is a bit of a rake himself, calls Gunter out on his selfishness. That said, I explore the reasons for Gunter’s foolish choices: a lot of it centers around his experience as a young soldier in WWI.

I also enjoy contrasting characters like Gunter with characters of faith. I hope this second type of character challenges those of us who are believers to reconsider the way we deal with the unbelievers and backslidden people in our lives. At the end of the day, I want my books to meet people where they are at, just like God is faithful to meet us where we are at, even while we are still in our sin. 

How do you handle writing about difficult topics like doubt, suffering, or spiritual warfare in a way that is both honest and hopeful?

I seem to specialize in difficult topics! I guess that’s why I joined the Brave Authors group. I still write from a Biblical worldview, even though I’ve pivoted to the General Market. I want the support of godly colleagues, and if there are Christian readers out there who don’t mind the grit, I want them to have access to my books. It seems that Christian Fiction is starting to edge that way anyway, because we are all aware there are places in life where people desperately need the hope of Christ.

In my novella Schneewittchen: A Retelling of the Snow White Story Set in WWII Germany, it becomes clear that Thomas, the hero of the story, was born out of wedlock. The story of Thomas’s father is central to the Separate Ways series, but one can easily pick up Schneewittchen without having read the series. I feel obligated to address things like this because they are a very real part of life.

I know that a lot of readers want stories tied up neatly by the end of one volume, but life is rarely like that. That is why my characters often have a long, multiple-book redemption arc. Sometimes, it takes that long for us to realize God’s love for us, and take the necessary steps to receive His forgiveness and become who He created us to be.

In your opinion, what is the unique power of fiction to minister to a reader’s heart in a way that non-fiction sometimes can’t?

Being an author of German-perspective World War II fiction, I hope that my stories put flesh and bone on something that a lot of people still don’t want to touch. People continue to see the war as black and white—good against evil. We give so much lip service to knowing that history was written by the victors, but I’m not sure we really believe it because we still cling to the same stereotypes and tropes that Hollywood uses.

After four and a half years of researching WWII from the German perspective, I have come to understand just how nuanced history really is. There were a lot of men who were good guys and even “heroes” that simply can’t be remembered that way because they wore a German uniform.

Also, people minimize the things that happened to Germany (and in Europe as a whole) during the interwar period, but once you really come to understand the bigger picture, it casts the entire story in a somewhat different light. That is not to say that there aren’t ugly truths—I don’t deny that—but other parts of the world often see what we don’t see in here in the States. It’s tough for people to stomach, but it has to be talked about, and those themes are easier to introduce through fiction. You get to digest the story one tiny piece at a time, rather than trying to take in everything at once.

Without giving too much away, can you tell us about the journey of your latest main character and what you hoped readers would learn through their struggles?

Even though he only gets a bit part in Schneewittchen, Gunter Schrader is the central character of the Separate Ways Series. As I said above, I don’t think there is a reader who isn’t mad at him by the end of Dearest Gunter. The fact of the matter is, though, I wrote the END of Gunter’s redemption arc long before I wrote Dearest Gunter. It makes me think of how God already knows the end of my story, and I hope that readers enjoy the fact that though it is a lifelong process, Gunter’s story ends in a beautiful, God-honoring and selfless way.

A second thing I think will challenge readers is that in Schneewittchen, the SS is cast in a more positive role. Remember that my writing is German-perspective, and a girl in my “Snow White” character’s situation certainly would’ve seen them that way. My goal is not to excuse them for their crimes, but to show another piece of the “big picture”—the SS was a huge organization with many different parts. There were also many good-hearted young men who never shed innocent blood. Thomas certainly falls into this category, and it is evident from what we read about Gunter in Schneewittchen that by 1944, he has matured and become something of a hero as well.

Can you give us a hint about what you’re working on next? What themes or questions are you exploring in your current project?

I feel like I am intensifying my focus on balancing truth and nuance, navigating historical fact with what has become mythologized, especially when it comes to World War II. I am currently working on two things: the first is a rewrite of my book, Sani: the German Medic. I am thrilled about this project because I feel I have grown as an author and also deepened my understanding of “the German perspective” in the last five years.

My other project is a sequel to my book Dearest Gunter, which will continue Gunter’s journey and also give an honest and objective look at life Germany between the two wars. I do not want to take the usual stance of “the coming darkness,” but remind people that Weimar Germany itself was a corrupt and dark place, the crimes of which were in every way comparable to what is going on in our world today. Again, people make light of the fact that things “sound a lot like” Weimar Germany, but it’s easy to give lip service to that without truly understanding the implications.

Schneewittchen: A Retelling of the Snow White Story Set in WWII Germany:

Gerda Gatzke is unsure whether life on a Bavarian homestead with six boys and an ailing woman is right for her, but she is determined to get away from her stepmother, and from the war that draws ever closer to her doorstep.

With little more than the clothes on her back and a treasured family heirloom, she arrives at the disheveled smallholding only to discover that she is no safer there than she was at home. The boys who were initially her charges soon become her protectors.

With his mother’s illness growing worse and his family in danger, Thomas Jodl determines to return home for the first time in five years. His heart is warmed by the kind-hearted young woman who has come to care for his mother and six brothers.

Thomas does not hesitate to place himself in danger, but when the threat neutralized, a new question arises: what will become of any of them once the war is lost?

Schneewittchen is part of A Worthy Love: Four Historical Fairy Tale Retellings from Beyond the Bookery

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