Alan A. Winter's Blog
July 24, 2024
upcoming course
NCORE PRESENTATION – BACK BY REQUEST!
92369. COULD WWII AND THE HOLOCAUST BEEN AVERTED?
Join author Alan A. Winter as he discusses the signs and opportunities ignored by the rest
of the world that could have averted WWII and the Holocaust. While hindsight is said to be 20:20, explore how and why historians, to this day, continue to ignore truths about Hitler and his plans to conquer Europe and then the world. Alan’s historical novels, “Wolf” and “Sins of the Fathers,” reveal Hitler’s days in a mental institution in 1918––and his unusual “cure”–– to the coup in 1938 that was minutes from happening to Stalin’s overtures to Chamberlain to form a non-aggressive pact against Germany in March of ’39. Why wasn’t Hitler stopped before or during WWII? Is history repeating itself now? This course challenges many preconceived notions regarding this dark time in history in the hope that exposing what “really” happened will better prepare us to respond to current and future events.
1 – 3 p.m. 1 session Monday, August 19. Please register online at liu.edu/huttonhouse/courses or call 516-299-2580.
92369. COULD WWII AND THE HOLOCAUST BEEN AVERTED?
Join author Alan A. Winter as he discusses the signs and opportunities ignored by the rest
of the world that could have averted WWII and the Holocaust. While hindsight is said to be 20:20, explore how and why historians, to this day, continue to ignore truths about Hitler and his plans to conquer Europe and then the world. Alan’s historical novels, “Wolf” and “Sins of the Fathers,” reveal Hitler’s days in a mental institution in 1918––and his unusual “cure”–– to the coup in 1938 that was minutes from happening to Stalin’s overtures to Chamberlain to form a non-aggressive pact against Germany in March of ’39. Why wasn’t Hitler stopped before or during WWII? Is history repeating itself now? This course challenges many preconceived notions regarding this dark time in history in the hope that exposing what “really” happened will better prepare us to respond to current and future events.
1 – 3 p.m. 1 session Monday, August 19. Please register online at liu.edu/huttonhouse/courses or call 516-299-2580.
May 6, 2015
Island Bluffs
Here is the Kirkus Review:
ISLAND BLUFFS
by Alan A. Winter
KIRKUS REVIEW
In this emotional thriller, a couple strikes a Faustian bargain in order to have a child.
Gabe and Carly Berk have been married for six years, and that whole time they’ve been trying to conceive a baby, without success. Desperately trying every strategy, they’re now willing to grasp at any straw. For them, “euphoria could not be spelled any sweeter than b-a-b-y.” The Berks are surrounded by a well-drawn cast of supporting characters who are either indifferent to their quest for a baby (such as Megan, a child from Gabe’s first marriage, now grown into a somewhat surly teenager) or puzzled by its urgency (such as Gabe’s father, the “quite lovable, rock-solid Yehuda Berkowitz”). But the couple’s fortunes take a sharp turn when they encounter “the renowned specialist of last resort” Dr. Isadore Teplitsky, who guarantees to solve the Berks’ fertility problems, but who asks quite a bit in exchange. First, they must pack up and move to Island Bluffs, a small, sleepy town on the Jersey Shore, near Teplitsky’s clinic. This strikes the Berks as odd, yet it’s nothing compared with the follow-up: Teplitsky will not only guarantee the couple a baby, he’ll guarantee them twins—one of whom must be surrendered at birth to Teplitsky, without hesitation or question. Gabe, who prides himself on making sound decisions, at first balks at this horrific bargain: “I didn’t sign up for us to have someone else’s baby.” Oddly, it’s Carly who overrides such concerns: “If this is the price we have to pay to have our baby, then we are doing it.” Gabe and Carly—and Megan and Yehuda—all move to Island Bluffs, and Winter’s sure-footed novel follows the twists and turns of their discovery of the secrets hidden behind its quaint facade. There’s a thick atmosphere of dread: the Stepford-esque conformity of most of the town’s inhabitants, the tyrannical sheriff, the well-developed tension when Megan and Yehuda find a pile of human bones in a locked basement room of the couple’s dream house. “What did we get ourselves into?” Gabe wonders at one point. “What did I get everyone into?” The dread only increases as the Berks steadily uncover more dark secrets, including an echo of the Nazi Germany that Yehuda only barely escaped. Winter (Savior’s Day, 2013) keeps what could have been a fairly predictable plot moving briskly, and the climactic series of revelations is handled with smooth control and a good deal of dark humor.
An atmospheric and engrossing modern-day Gothic tale about the lengths to which a desperate couple will go.
ISLAND BLUFFS
by Alan A. Winter
KIRKUS REVIEW
In this emotional thriller, a couple strikes a Faustian bargain in order to have a child.
Gabe and Carly Berk have been married for six years, and that whole time they’ve been trying to conceive a baby, without success. Desperately trying every strategy, they’re now willing to grasp at any straw. For them, “euphoria could not be spelled any sweeter than b-a-b-y.” The Berks are surrounded by a well-drawn cast of supporting characters who are either indifferent to their quest for a baby (such as Megan, a child from Gabe’s first marriage, now grown into a somewhat surly teenager) or puzzled by its urgency (such as Gabe’s father, the “quite lovable, rock-solid Yehuda Berkowitz”). But the couple’s fortunes take a sharp turn when they encounter “the renowned specialist of last resort” Dr. Isadore Teplitsky, who guarantees to solve the Berks’ fertility problems, but who asks quite a bit in exchange. First, they must pack up and move to Island Bluffs, a small, sleepy town on the Jersey Shore, near Teplitsky’s clinic. This strikes the Berks as odd, yet it’s nothing compared with the follow-up: Teplitsky will not only guarantee the couple a baby, he’ll guarantee them twins—one of whom must be surrendered at birth to Teplitsky, without hesitation or question. Gabe, who prides himself on making sound decisions, at first balks at this horrific bargain: “I didn’t sign up for us to have someone else’s baby.” Oddly, it’s Carly who overrides such concerns: “If this is the price we have to pay to have our baby, then we are doing it.” Gabe and Carly—and Megan and Yehuda—all move to Island Bluffs, and Winter’s sure-footed novel follows the twists and turns of their discovery of the secrets hidden behind its quaint facade. There’s a thick atmosphere of dread: the Stepford-esque conformity of most of the town’s inhabitants, the tyrannical sheriff, the well-developed tension when Megan and Yehuda find a pile of human bones in a locked basement room of the couple’s dream house. “What did we get ourselves into?” Gabe wonders at one point. “What did I get everyone into?” The dread only increases as the Berks steadily uncover more dark secrets, including an echo of the Nazi Germany that Yehuda only barely escaped. Winter (Savior’s Day, 2013) keeps what could have been a fairly predictable plot moving briskly, and the climactic series of revelations is handled with smooth control and a good deal of dark humor.
An atmospheric and engrossing modern-day Gothic tale about the lengths to which a desperate couple will go.
January 18, 2015
Island Bluffs
It has been years in the making, but "Island Bluffs" is in galley form, ready for publication. We are working on the final details of the cover design, which is quite exciting.
"Island Bluffs" is the kind of book that will appeal to many: those who like family stories, novels based on true facts, novels that teach little known facts about history, and novels that are riddled with mysteries and misdirection, making it hard for the reader to decipher the clues as they are carefully doled out.
"Island Bluffs" takes place on the New Jersey shore, in a town that has a secret it wants to preserve and has done so for two generations until the Berks - Carly and Gabe - buy a house that time had forgotten. Once they gain ownership, events unfold that are by turns, curious and dumbfounding, mysterious and spooky.
"Island Bluffs" is a love story while it asks the question, "Are children and grandchildren responsible for the sins of their parents?"
"Island Bluffs" is the kind of book that will appeal to many: those who like family stories, novels based on true facts, novels that teach little known facts about history, and novels that are riddled with mysteries and misdirection, making it hard for the reader to decipher the clues as they are carefully doled out.
"Island Bluffs" takes place on the New Jersey shore, in a town that has a secret it wants to preserve and has done so for two generations until the Berks - Carly and Gabe - buy a house that time had forgotten. Once they gain ownership, events unfold that are by turns, curious and dumbfounding, mysterious and spooky.
"Island Bluffs" is a love story while it asks the question, "Are children and grandchildren responsible for the sins of their parents?"
