P.M. Terrell's Blog
April 24, 2026
An Army Fueled by Meth
One of the surprises that readers encounter while reading Padlocked is the background to the use of methamphetamines in the Nazi military. Two of the main characters, Hank and Rafe, are photojournalists caught behind the lines as Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Captured by the Nazis and used to develop propaganda for Berlin, they begin bribing soldiers with Pervitin, which becomes increasingly scarce, in order to build an underground network to get the real stories out to the world. It becomes one of the lines they cross when the world they knew of laws and international order turns upside down.
Below is an excerpt from the book.
Before the war, Pervitin was a commonly available over-the-counter medicine, much like aspirin in the United States. Unlike aspirin, which targeted pain, Pervitin made a person more alert. It could be used by students studying all night, long-distance drivers, shift workers, or even doctors performing lengthy operations. It was so popular and reliable that it soon caught the attention of top military brass.
The problem with soldiers was that they needed rest. A man could only march so far before his body grew tired, and even forced marches required breaks to keep the men from passing out. They also needed sleep. And when a soldier was sleeping, it meant he wasn’t marching.
All that could—and did—change with Pervitin and a similar product, Isophan. Both made soldiers so alert that their minds failed to register the need for breaks or sleep. As a result, they could advance deep into enemy territory without the need to sleep for as long as seven days. The pills ensured Blitzkrieg, a rapid advance by air, vehicles, and infantry, could overwhelm the enemy forces with such speed that the enemy was woefully unprepared for the advance. It created the myth that the Nazi army was filled with a superior Aryan race of superhumans.
One pill could cause alertness. Several taken over time could create feelings of superiority and grandiosity. As the soldiers continued to take them, it resulted in escalating forms of aggression.
The problem, Hank quickly observed, is that some soldiers became addicts because the active ingredients in Pervitin and Isophan were methamphetamines.
Below is an excerpt from the book.
Before the war, Pervitin was a commonly available over-the-counter medicine, much like aspirin in the United States. Unlike aspirin, which targeted pain, Pervitin made a person more alert. It could be used by students studying all night, long-distance drivers, shift workers, or even doctors performing lengthy operations. It was so popular and reliable that it soon caught the attention of top military brass.
The problem with soldiers was that they needed rest. A man could only march so far before his body grew tired, and even forced marches required breaks to keep the men from passing out. They also needed sleep. And when a soldier was sleeping, it meant he wasn’t marching.
All that could—and did—change with Pervitin and a similar product, Isophan. Both made soldiers so alert that their minds failed to register the need for breaks or sleep. As a result, they could advance deep into enemy territory without the need to sleep for as long as seven days. The pills ensured Blitzkrieg, a rapid advance by air, vehicles, and infantry, could overwhelm the enemy forces with such speed that the enemy was woefully unprepared for the advance. It created the myth that the Nazi army was filled with a superior Aryan race of superhumans.
One pill could cause alertness. Several taken over time could create feelings of superiority and grandiosity. As the soldiers continued to take them, it resulted in escalating forms of aggression.
The problem, Hank quickly observed, is that some soldiers became addicts because the active ingredients in Pervitin and Isophan were methamphetamines.
April 17, 2026
F. Scott Fitzgerald
I came across a movie recently entitled Beloved Infidel. I almost passed on it because of the unappealing title, but when I discovered it starred Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr, I knew the acting would be superb. It turned out to be based on Sheilah Graham’s autobiography about her relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald during the last three years of his life. I highly recommend it. The book carries the same name as the movie.
It turns out that for a lifetime of writing, which included 164 short stories and 68 books, Scott earned around $250,000 in today’s dollars, with the highest payment of $15,000 paid for The Great Gatsby in 1925. By the time he met Sheilah Graham, he was paying for his wife Zelda’s stay in a mental institution and their daughter’s boarding school. Years of living beyond his means had reduced him to near-poverty, and he took a job writing screenplays in Hollywood to pay the bills, a job he was fired from because his expertise in novel writing did not translate to screenwriting.
Sometimes, timing is everything. Books about the Gilded Age, such as The Great Gatsby, were initially well received. However, following the stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression, readers no longer wanted to read about how decadently the wealthy lived. Many were struggling to pay for food, let alone a book. Book sales fell so low during this time that the major publishers instituted the policy of selling books on consignment, an arrangement that continues to this day.
In one scene in Beloved Infidel, Sheilah and Scott learned that the Pasadena Playhouse was staging a play based on one of his short stories, and they became very excited. Scott rented a tux, and Sheilah wore an evening gown and fur stole. They also rented a Rolls-Royce limousine. When they arrived at the playhouse, they discovered the play was put on by high school students, who all thought he was dead. Scott was understandably devastated.
Scott died of heart failure in 1940 at the age of 44. He’d suffered from a heart condition for several years, which was worsened by alcoholism. His works did not gain widespread critical acclaim until the 1950s. He is now considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Zelda died in 1948 in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, where she was a patient.
Sheilah Graham passed away in 1988 at the age of 92.
Scott’s daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, became a writer and passed away in 1986 of cancer. She had two children, Thomas and Eleanor.
It turns out that for a lifetime of writing, which included 164 short stories and 68 books, Scott earned around $250,000 in today’s dollars, with the highest payment of $15,000 paid for The Great Gatsby in 1925. By the time he met Sheilah Graham, he was paying for his wife Zelda’s stay in a mental institution and their daughter’s boarding school. Years of living beyond his means had reduced him to near-poverty, and he took a job writing screenplays in Hollywood to pay the bills, a job he was fired from because his expertise in novel writing did not translate to screenwriting.
Sometimes, timing is everything. Books about the Gilded Age, such as The Great Gatsby, were initially well received. However, following the stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression, readers no longer wanted to read about how decadently the wealthy lived. Many were struggling to pay for food, let alone a book. Book sales fell so low during this time that the major publishers instituted the policy of selling books on consignment, an arrangement that continues to this day.
In one scene in Beloved Infidel, Sheilah and Scott learned that the Pasadena Playhouse was staging a play based on one of his short stories, and they became very excited. Scott rented a tux, and Sheilah wore an evening gown and fur stole. They also rented a Rolls-Royce limousine. When they arrived at the playhouse, they discovered the play was put on by high school students, who all thought he was dead. Scott was understandably devastated.
Scott died of heart failure in 1940 at the age of 44. He’d suffered from a heart condition for several years, which was worsened by alcoholism. His works did not gain widespread critical acclaim until the 1950s. He is now considered one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Zelda died in 1948 in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, where she was a patient.
Sheilah Graham passed away in 1988 at the age of 92.
Scott’s daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald, became a writer and passed away in 1986 of cancer. She had two children, Thomas and Eleanor.
April 10, 2026
The Author's Experience
Unlike jobs that pay a salary or hourly rate, authors often write their books “on spec,” which means they write the entire book in the hope that it will resonate with a publisher, bookstores, and readers. Writing, editing, and polishing the story can take months or years, an unpaid labor of love and passion for the subject.
A single manuscript often must be sold multiple times: to a literary agent, a publisher, retailers, and ultimately to you, the reader, who often serves as a judge of its worthiness.
The author is paid for the hundreds of hours worked, one sale at a time, at the tail end of the project, when the story is produced, published, and distributed. Depending on the publishing agreement, that can amount to $1 to $5 per copy in royalties. It means that in order to reach a minimum wage, hundreds of copies must be sold. To reach a living wage, thousands must be sold, and the story must demonstrate “staying power,” with sales extending well after publication. If it doesn’t, the publisher has the right to pull the book off the market.
One story can also help to support others besides the author: editors, graphic artists, agents, production staff, retailers, and others. That story, taken with millions of others, supports an entire industry.
The cost of a book might be less than ten dollars, but each time you purchase one or ask your library to carry it, please know that you are helping to keep an industry alive.
Thank you for every book you have purchased and every author you have supported. You, the reader, make all the difference.
A single manuscript often must be sold multiple times: to a literary agent, a publisher, retailers, and ultimately to you, the reader, who often serves as a judge of its worthiness.
The author is paid for the hundreds of hours worked, one sale at a time, at the tail end of the project, when the story is produced, published, and distributed. Depending on the publishing agreement, that can amount to $1 to $5 per copy in royalties. It means that in order to reach a minimum wage, hundreds of copies must be sold. To reach a living wage, thousands must be sold, and the story must demonstrate “staying power,” with sales extending well after publication. If it doesn’t, the publisher has the right to pull the book off the market.
One story can also help to support others besides the author: editors, graphic artists, agents, production staff, retailers, and others. That story, taken with millions of others, supports an entire industry.
The cost of a book might be less than ten dollars, but each time you purchase one or ask your library to carry it, please know that you are helping to keep an industry alive.
Thank you for every book you have purchased and every author you have supported. You, the reader, make all the difference.
April 3, 2026
The Easter Rising
This Easter Monday marks the 110th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising. While others prepared for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, a small group of poets, authors, teachers, and actors prepared to lead Ireland toward declaring its independence from the United Kingdom. In the preceding months, they had formed groups that often practiced marching through Dublin with brooms and mops, while illegal shipments of guns and ammunition arrived from America.
They chose Easter Monday to read the proclamation of independence at the General Post Office (GPO) in downtown Dublin. Although Europe was in the midst of the Great War, the revolutionaries purchased an additional load of arms from Germany that was to arrive just before the big event. England’s intelligence agencies intercepted information regarding the purchase and stopped the ship before it reached Ireland’s shores. The captain ordered the arms sunk to the bottom of the Irish Sea rather than allow them to fall into the hands of the British Navy.
This led to a cancellation of the event through a cryptic notice in the Irish newspapers. Patrick Pearse, an Irish teacher and poet, along with a handful of others, decided that the time was still ripe to declare their independence. Though the arms were lost, they fully expected Germany to come to their aid; however, they made it clear that they served “neither King nor Kaiser” but wanted an independent Ireland.
Pearse read the proclamation outside the General Post Office in Dublin on Easter Monday as Irish rebels fanned out across the city. They expected Irish citizens to rise across the island from Belfast to Galway, and from County Cork to the Inishowen Peninsula. Because the newspaper notice had canceled the event, there was much confusion, and the masses did not join them. Instead, chaos reigned in Dublin as people took advantage of the bedlam to loot businesses, crashing through windows, breaking down doors, and spreading debris throughout Dublin.
Britain responded with a heavy hand. Their soldiers were seasoned from years of fighting in the Great War, and the thought that Ireland could join with their enemy, Germany, was enough to cause alarm. British soldiers arrived in Ireland with orders to put down the rebellion. Martial law was declared, and men, women, and children were shot down in the middle of the streets. They even went from rowhouse to rowhouse with axes, breaking through the thin inner walls rather than going through the doors. People were arrested indiscriminately, even though the rebellion was a small group of people.
The Easter Rising, as it became known, stretched for five days in 1916. Some areas fell immediately back into British hands. Dublin Castle, with its internal communications systems, was never breached. Other areas remained firmly in the hands of the rebels, such as the General Post Office. But when Patrick Pearse, who had been wounded in the fighting, witnessed an older man gunned down in the street by the British because he wanted to fetch his car and leave the city, he decided to surrender.
Four hundred eighty-five people were killed during those five days of fighting. More than half were civilians. One-third of the casualties were British, while sixteen percent were Irish rebels. Over 2,600 were wounded.
Fourteen of the Easter Rising leaders were immediately found guilty and executed at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. The swiftness of the convictions, lack of public trials, lack of public defenders, and the quick executions were met with world condemnation. Pearse was executed by firing squad on May 3, 1916, just days after the Easter Rising ended. James Connolly, another leader, was one of the last to be executed. He had been wounded in the fighting and was unable to stand, so he was strapped to a chair and killed by firing squad on May 12.
The Rising might have been declared a failure, but the British heavy-handedness turned sentiment against England and in support of the Irish. One leader, Eamon de Valera, held dual American citizenship and was spared from execution, while another, Countess Markievicz, was released because she was a woman. With pressure from America and other countries at the end of the Great War, Britain agreed to begin negotiations to allow Irish sovereignty. It stretched on, however, through the Irish War for Independence and the Irish Civil War. The latter began because the agreement split Ireland into two parts, the Republic and Northern Ireland. The two parts exist today, and some in the north are still fighting for independence.
Eamon de Valera became the first President of the Republic of Ireland, while Countess Markievicz became the first woman elected to the British Parliament.
I wrote about all of this in A Struggle for Independence. I stood outside the GPO, where bullet holes still remain in the brick. I also stood in Kilmainham Gaol, where the leaders were incarcerated and later executed by firing squad in the courtyard. I traveled to every location that I wrote about in the book. Here is a link toA Struggle for Independence my website, which includes buy links to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, and others: https://pmterrell.com/a-struggle-for-...
They chose Easter Monday to read the proclamation of independence at the General Post Office (GPO) in downtown Dublin. Although Europe was in the midst of the Great War, the revolutionaries purchased an additional load of arms from Germany that was to arrive just before the big event. England’s intelligence agencies intercepted information regarding the purchase and stopped the ship before it reached Ireland’s shores. The captain ordered the arms sunk to the bottom of the Irish Sea rather than allow them to fall into the hands of the British Navy.
This led to a cancellation of the event through a cryptic notice in the Irish newspapers. Patrick Pearse, an Irish teacher and poet, along with a handful of others, decided that the time was still ripe to declare their independence. Though the arms were lost, they fully expected Germany to come to their aid; however, they made it clear that they served “neither King nor Kaiser” but wanted an independent Ireland.
Pearse read the proclamation outside the General Post Office in Dublin on Easter Monday as Irish rebels fanned out across the city. They expected Irish citizens to rise across the island from Belfast to Galway, and from County Cork to the Inishowen Peninsula. Because the newspaper notice had canceled the event, there was much confusion, and the masses did not join them. Instead, chaos reigned in Dublin as people took advantage of the bedlam to loot businesses, crashing through windows, breaking down doors, and spreading debris throughout Dublin.
Britain responded with a heavy hand. Their soldiers were seasoned from years of fighting in the Great War, and the thought that Ireland could join with their enemy, Germany, was enough to cause alarm. British soldiers arrived in Ireland with orders to put down the rebellion. Martial law was declared, and men, women, and children were shot down in the middle of the streets. They even went from rowhouse to rowhouse with axes, breaking through the thin inner walls rather than going through the doors. People were arrested indiscriminately, even though the rebellion was a small group of people.
The Easter Rising, as it became known, stretched for five days in 1916. Some areas fell immediately back into British hands. Dublin Castle, with its internal communications systems, was never breached. Other areas remained firmly in the hands of the rebels, such as the General Post Office. But when Patrick Pearse, who had been wounded in the fighting, witnessed an older man gunned down in the street by the British because he wanted to fetch his car and leave the city, he decided to surrender.
Four hundred eighty-five people were killed during those five days of fighting. More than half were civilians. One-third of the casualties were British, while sixteen percent were Irish rebels. Over 2,600 were wounded.
Fourteen of the Easter Rising leaders were immediately found guilty and executed at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. The swiftness of the convictions, lack of public trials, lack of public defenders, and the quick executions were met with world condemnation. Pearse was executed by firing squad on May 3, 1916, just days after the Easter Rising ended. James Connolly, another leader, was one of the last to be executed. He had been wounded in the fighting and was unable to stand, so he was strapped to a chair and killed by firing squad on May 12.
The Rising might have been declared a failure, but the British heavy-handedness turned sentiment against England and in support of the Irish. One leader, Eamon de Valera, held dual American citizenship and was spared from execution, while another, Countess Markievicz, was released because she was a woman. With pressure from America and other countries at the end of the Great War, Britain agreed to begin negotiations to allow Irish sovereignty. It stretched on, however, through the Irish War for Independence and the Irish Civil War. The latter began because the agreement split Ireland into two parts, the Republic and Northern Ireland. The two parts exist today, and some in the north are still fighting for independence.
Eamon de Valera became the first President of the Republic of Ireland, while Countess Markievicz became the first woman elected to the British Parliament.
I wrote about all of this in A Struggle for Independence. I stood outside the GPO, where bullet holes still remain in the brick. I also stood in Kilmainham Gaol, where the leaders were incarcerated and later executed by firing squad in the courtyard. I traveled to every location that I wrote about in the book. Here is a link toA Struggle for Independence my website, which includes buy links to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, and others: https://pmterrell.com/a-struggle-for-...
April 2, 2026
Padlocked in Top Eastern European Literature!
I want to thank everyone who purchased a copy of my latest release, Padlocked. I have been astounded to discover it is among the top books in Eastern European Literature! Never, in a million years, did I ever imagine one of my books sharing a list with Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, or War and Peace! It’s blown me away. It has reached 38 on the top 50, so I am a very long way (and lots of copies sold) from those giants, but it has been a thrill.
I will have information to share in the coming days regarding an online book club meeting. During the video call, we’ll discuss the ending, so you’ll need to have read it beforehand to avoid spoilers. If you haven’t purchased it yet, you’ll find links on my website at http://pmterrell.com/padlocked/ to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and more. Here are the direct links to Amazon:
eBook: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Large Print Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-Larg...
If you’d like to read it but can’t afford it, remember you can always request it from your local library!
I will have information to share in the coming days regarding an online book club meeting. During the video call, we’ll discuss the ending, so you’ll need to have read it beforehand to avoid spoilers. If you haven’t purchased it yet, you’ll find links on my website at http://pmterrell.com/padlocked/ to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and more. Here are the direct links to Amazon:
eBook: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-p-m-...
Large Print Edition: https://www.amazon.com/Padlocked-Larg...
If you’d like to read it but can’t afford it, remember you can always request it from your local library!
March 26, 2026
Padlocked in 47 Countries!
I am very excited that Padlocked will be released on March 30. The buzz has been building, and I’m told that the book is offered in almost 50 countries! It is an epic historical and visionary novel that follows the lives of a group of ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary, life-altering circumstances as Nazi Germany invades Poland in 1939. The novel is available in all major eBook formats, trade paperback, hardcover, and even a large print edition. It has already garnered attention on multiple continents.
Teenaged Agata is separated from her sister in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Agata made a vow that she would return to take Elsa to safety, but soldiers and barbed wire prevent her from entering the newly established Jewish sector. She is consumed with guilt over their separation, and when she discovers her sister was taken by train to a work camp near Krakow, she navigates her dangerous, war-torn country in search of her. Her quest will force her to confront a Hell on Earth to find her.
Max searches for belonging when he joins the Jungdeutsche Partei, or the Young German Party. Once bullied as a child, Max’s new affiliations promote him to a position where he can dictate life or death and settle scores. In order to thrive under Nazi occupation, he makes daily choices that impact his friends and family.
Two foreign photojournalists, an American and a Spaniard, are trapped between armies at Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, along Poland’s western border with Germany. It is Hank’s last overseas assignment, and he’s been counting the days until he can go home to North Carolina to be with his family. Rafe fled Spain after the dictator, Francisco Franco, targeted his family. The experience changed him, and he now sees the rise of fascism in Europe as a battle between good and evil. They will find themselves embedded with the Polish, Nazi, and Soviet forces at varying times, forcing them to face moral and ethical decisions in their struggles to survive.
While they don’t know one another at the start of their journeys, each will make decisions that have the power to transform them and place them on paths that ultimately converge on January 27, 1945, as the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front opened the gates to Auschwitz-Birkenau for all the world to witness.
This is ultimately a story about the strength of love, courage, faith, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hatred and obsession with power, and how every decision we make places us further along specific paths.
You’ll find links to various retailers where the book is sold on my website at http://pmterrell.com/padlocked/
Teenaged Agata is separated from her sister in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Agata made a vow that she would return to take Elsa to safety, but soldiers and barbed wire prevent her from entering the newly established Jewish sector. She is consumed with guilt over their separation, and when she discovers her sister was taken by train to a work camp near Krakow, she navigates her dangerous, war-torn country in search of her. Her quest will force her to confront a Hell on Earth to find her.
Max searches for belonging when he joins the Jungdeutsche Partei, or the Young German Party. Once bullied as a child, Max’s new affiliations promote him to a position where he can dictate life or death and settle scores. In order to thrive under Nazi occupation, he makes daily choices that impact his friends and family.
Two foreign photojournalists, an American and a Spaniard, are trapped between armies at Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, along Poland’s western border with Germany. It is Hank’s last overseas assignment, and he’s been counting the days until he can go home to North Carolina to be with his family. Rafe fled Spain after the dictator, Francisco Franco, targeted his family. The experience changed him, and he now sees the rise of fascism in Europe as a battle between good and evil. They will find themselves embedded with the Polish, Nazi, and Soviet forces at varying times, forcing them to face moral and ethical decisions in their struggles to survive.
While they don’t know one another at the start of their journeys, each will make decisions that have the power to transform them and place them on paths that ultimately converge on January 27, 1945, as the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front opened the gates to Auschwitz-Birkenau for all the world to witness.
This is ultimately a story about the strength of love, courage, faith, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hatred and obsession with power, and how every decision we make places us further along specific paths.
You’ll find links to various retailers where the book is sold on my website at http://pmterrell.com/padlocked/
March 20, 2026
An American in Poland
Padlocked begins:
“The day dawned like any other, but ended like no other.
Hank Mullins was a long way from home.”
Indeed, Hank was nearly 5,000 miles from his home in America on January 27, 1945, and from his wife, Dottie, and their three children, Mary, Susanna, and Ray. He was born in 1898 in rural North Carolina to the publisher of a small newspaper and his homemaker wife. When he turned 18, he joined the military to fight in the Great War. It was 1916, and he spent the next two years, from 1916 to 1918, trying to survive the war and return home to Dottie, whom he had married the day before he was deployed.
During his deployment, he realized he was far more suited to carrying a camera than a weapon. When he returned home, he worked for his father’s newspaper before moving to a magazine as a junior foreign correspondent. He covered the aftermath of the Great War in Europe and the rise of fascism in Spain, including the Spanish Civil War and the rise of dictator Francisco Franco.
After Franco seized power in 1939, he was sent to the border between Poland and Germany. The assignment was expected to last four weeks, and Hank was looking forward to working in America, closer to home, when his latest assignment ended. But as he photographed the border at Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen on September 1, he witnessed the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Caught behind the lines with his co-correspondent, Rafe Cabrera, Hank would spend the entire Second World War trapped in Poland.
Hank embarks on an odyssey that includes an initial capture by the Polish Army, followed by the Nazis, and finally, the Red Army. His talent with a camera makes him ideal for war propaganda, pitting his survival instincts against his morality, and the war will change him in significant ways.
“The day dawned like any other, but ended like no other.
Hank Mullins was a long way from home.”
Indeed, Hank was nearly 5,000 miles from his home in America on January 27, 1945, and from his wife, Dottie, and their three children, Mary, Susanna, and Ray. He was born in 1898 in rural North Carolina to the publisher of a small newspaper and his homemaker wife. When he turned 18, he joined the military to fight in the Great War. It was 1916, and he spent the next two years, from 1916 to 1918, trying to survive the war and return home to Dottie, whom he had married the day before he was deployed.
During his deployment, he realized he was far more suited to carrying a camera than a weapon. When he returned home, he worked for his father’s newspaper before moving to a magazine as a junior foreign correspondent. He covered the aftermath of the Great War in Europe and the rise of fascism in Spain, including the Spanish Civil War and the rise of dictator Francisco Franco.
After Franco seized power in 1939, he was sent to the border between Poland and Germany. The assignment was expected to last four weeks, and Hank was looking forward to working in America, closer to home, when his latest assignment ended. But as he photographed the border at Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen on September 1, he witnessed the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Caught behind the lines with his co-correspondent, Rafe Cabrera, Hank would spend the entire Second World War trapped in Poland.
Hank embarks on an odyssey that includes an initial capture by the Polish Army, followed by the Nazis, and finally, the Red Army. His talent with a camera makes him ideal for war propaganda, pitting his survival instincts against his morality, and the war will change him in significant ways.
March 13, 2026
Who is Abaddon?
Who is Abaddon? Turns out, he's the angel you never want to meet.
Padlocked is considered general or literary fiction. If you had to categorize it, it would be a cross-genre work that merges historical fiction with visionary fiction. In the first chapter and during the waning days of World War II, a grenade catapults several souls into the afterlife, where they encounter a padlocked gate and an angel guarding it.
Each soul faces a unique angel. For one unfortunate soul, a Nazi collaborator named Max, he encounters Abaddon.
I didn’t know about Abaddon growing up, as the church I attended never mentioned him. I dreamed about him in the same dream in which the entire book, Padlocked, was laid out before me. I was as surprised as anybody when I discovered he was real and he was mentioned throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.
The name Abaddon is Hebrew; a Greek variation is Apollyon. Both names refer to destruction. He is also referred to as the Abyss or the Angel of the Abyss. Abaddon is the most frightening angel you ever don’t want to encounter, and no one stands a chance against him, no matter how powerful they might have been in their earthly existence. He also works for God, which makes him even more formidable, as he not only embodies his own strength but also has God's all-encompassing authority behind him.
Abaddon is a significant figure in the Book of Revelation as he emerges to fight against Satan and all that is evil. It would not be the first time Abaddon fought Satan, as he is one of the angels mentioned who cast Satan and his followers out of Heaven. Religious scholars agree that a fight between Abaddon and Satan would result in Abaddon’s victory, as Satan cannot match Abaddon’s strength and God’s power behind him.
In Padlocked, Max is a Nazi collaborator in Poland who rises to a position that can determine life or death. As his evolution progresses, he turns his back on his mother, whom he once loved dearly, and embraces a hate-filled ideology. Once a skinny, under-sized boy who was bullied by classmates, he uses his newfound power to even scores. In some instances, scores are not even factored into his decisions, but a determination to be ever-useful to the Nazi occupiers. Even those people who protected him from harm as a boy cannot escape his malicious decisions.
In the afterlife, Max encounters a situation in which he has no control. He cannot claim he was only following orders, because he sits alone in judgment. Neither can he claim that he didn’t know what was going on, nor that he was hoodwinked. One cannot bargain with or debate Abaddon.
Fortunately, not everyone encounters Abaddon when they pass to the other side. It is only those who lack empathy and compassion for other beings, those who revel in doing harm to humans or animals, as all creatures have been created by God, and who have sought malevolence over benevolence. Max’s encounter is, perhaps, a warning to all those who might be tempted to live on the dark side.
Padlocked is considered general or literary fiction. If you had to categorize it, it would be a cross-genre work that merges historical fiction with visionary fiction. In the first chapter and during the waning days of World War II, a grenade catapults several souls into the afterlife, where they encounter a padlocked gate and an angel guarding it.
Each soul faces a unique angel. For one unfortunate soul, a Nazi collaborator named Max, he encounters Abaddon.
I didn’t know about Abaddon growing up, as the church I attended never mentioned him. I dreamed about him in the same dream in which the entire book, Padlocked, was laid out before me. I was as surprised as anybody when I discovered he was real and he was mentioned throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.
The name Abaddon is Hebrew; a Greek variation is Apollyon. Both names refer to destruction. He is also referred to as the Abyss or the Angel of the Abyss. Abaddon is the most frightening angel you ever don’t want to encounter, and no one stands a chance against him, no matter how powerful they might have been in their earthly existence. He also works for God, which makes him even more formidable, as he not only embodies his own strength but also has God's all-encompassing authority behind him.
Abaddon is a significant figure in the Book of Revelation as he emerges to fight against Satan and all that is evil. It would not be the first time Abaddon fought Satan, as he is one of the angels mentioned who cast Satan and his followers out of Heaven. Religious scholars agree that a fight between Abaddon and Satan would result in Abaddon’s victory, as Satan cannot match Abaddon’s strength and God’s power behind him.
In Padlocked, Max is a Nazi collaborator in Poland who rises to a position that can determine life or death. As his evolution progresses, he turns his back on his mother, whom he once loved dearly, and embraces a hate-filled ideology. Once a skinny, under-sized boy who was bullied by classmates, he uses his newfound power to even scores. In some instances, scores are not even factored into his decisions, but a determination to be ever-useful to the Nazi occupiers. Even those people who protected him from harm as a boy cannot escape his malicious decisions.
In the afterlife, Max encounters a situation in which he has no control. He cannot claim he was only following orders, because he sits alone in judgment. Neither can he claim that he didn’t know what was going on, nor that he was hoodwinked. One cannot bargain with or debate Abaddon.
Fortunately, not everyone encounters Abaddon when they pass to the other side. It is only those who lack empathy and compassion for other beings, those who revel in doing harm to humans or animals, as all creatures have been created by God, and who have sought malevolence over benevolence. Max’s encounter is, perhaps, a warning to all those who might be tempted to live on the dark side.
March 6, 2026
Writing with real locations
Below is an excerpt from Padlocked, followed by more information about the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen:
Hank, Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, September 1, 1939
Hank lay prone on the rough ground as he peered over the hill at the ground below. The sun’s path and the forest’s density had cast him in shadow all morning, but that would soon change. He aimed his shroud-covered camera at the unfolding scene, so only the lens was visible.
He was located along the easternmost edge of the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, or the Fortified Front of Oder, Warthe, and Bogen, in far western Poland, his sights set on the border with Germany. Rumored to be the Nazi’s most highly fortified underground network, it consisted of roughly one hundred pillboxes and defense structures, all interconnected underground in tunnels purported to be 25 miles long and up to 130 feet deep.
The Germans had begun constructing the military defense line in 1934. Oddly, they had claimed it to be a crucial defense against a possible Polish attack. As Panzers rolled over the uneven ground between the pillboxes from Germany into Poland, he’d watched countless men emerge from the fortifications on foot before forming loose infantry lines that continued their invasion into Poland. He was not one to overestimate, but he knew he was observing well over a hundred thousand men in his position alone. His report, which he would write this afternoon wherever he and Rafe found a suitable hideaway, would mean even more with these photographs.
The invasion had not been totally unexpected, though he was certain that the scale would take everyone by surprise. Earlier in the year, the Nazis had swept through Czechoslovakia, which the Germans called the Sudetenland, and Austria. Although parts of Europe had protested with fiery speeches in parliamentary halls, Hitler had not received so much as a slap on the wrist. There had been rumors for months about a Polish or French invasion, with the buildup along the Germany-Poland border partly obscured by the expansive underground tunnels and facilities.
Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen is a real location and was considered one of the most technologically advanced fortifications constructed by the Third Reich. It was built between 1934 and 1938 along the German-Polish border under the pretext of protecting Germany from Polish and Soviet invasions. It was captured by the Soviets in 1945, and only then did the full extent of the fortifications become clear. The central section, called the Boryszyn Loop, was up to 130 feet deep, contained twenty miles of tunnels, and even included a railway station, engine rooms, and barracks. The tunnels even had electricity, including an extensive electric light system.
Adolf Hitler visited the location in 1935, pleased with the advanced technology used in its construction. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the extensive network of tunnels and over one hundred pillboxes kept the build-up and initial advance underground and more secretive.
Oddly, it took only three days of fighting for the Soviets to capture it in 1945. This was partly due to the fortifications becoming undermanned in the waning months of the war as Nazi troops were deployed elsewhere.
Although the Red Army blew up much of the fortification to prevent its future use, parts of the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, now located within Polish borders, are open to the public today as tourist attractions. It is now one of the 10 largest hibernation sites for bats in Europe, housing approximately 40,000 bats across 12 species.
Visitors to the site can tour a museum that houses a variety of exhibits on the engineering and technological aspects of the tunnels and on their historical significance during the World War II era. If you plan a trip to Poland, some of the tunnels are open to visitors during the summer months. They are closed in the winter to protect the bats, and bat doors have been installed that keep people out while allowing the bats to move freely in and out of the tunnels. The short tour takes about 1.5 hours, while the long tour takes almost 3 hours. The closest town, should you want to visit, is Miedzyrzecz.
All other locations in Padlocked are real places, including Guernica, Spain, and these locations in Poland: Bedzin, Oswiecim, Warsaw, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Hank, Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, September 1, 1939
Hank lay prone on the rough ground as he peered over the hill at the ground below. The sun’s path and the forest’s density had cast him in shadow all morning, but that would soon change. He aimed his shroud-covered camera at the unfolding scene, so only the lens was visible.
He was located along the easternmost edge of the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, or the Fortified Front of Oder, Warthe, and Bogen, in far western Poland, his sights set on the border with Germany. Rumored to be the Nazi’s most highly fortified underground network, it consisted of roughly one hundred pillboxes and defense structures, all interconnected underground in tunnels purported to be 25 miles long and up to 130 feet deep.
The Germans had begun constructing the military defense line in 1934. Oddly, they had claimed it to be a crucial defense against a possible Polish attack. As Panzers rolled over the uneven ground between the pillboxes from Germany into Poland, he’d watched countless men emerge from the fortifications on foot before forming loose infantry lines that continued their invasion into Poland. He was not one to overestimate, but he knew he was observing well over a hundred thousand men in his position alone. His report, which he would write this afternoon wherever he and Rafe found a suitable hideaway, would mean even more with these photographs.
The invasion had not been totally unexpected, though he was certain that the scale would take everyone by surprise. Earlier in the year, the Nazis had swept through Czechoslovakia, which the Germans called the Sudetenland, and Austria. Although parts of Europe had protested with fiery speeches in parliamentary halls, Hitler had not received so much as a slap on the wrist. There had been rumors for months about a Polish or French invasion, with the buildup along the Germany-Poland border partly obscured by the expansive underground tunnels and facilities.
Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen is a real location and was considered one of the most technologically advanced fortifications constructed by the Third Reich. It was built between 1934 and 1938 along the German-Polish border under the pretext of protecting Germany from Polish and Soviet invasions. It was captured by the Soviets in 1945, and only then did the full extent of the fortifications become clear. The central section, called the Boryszyn Loop, was up to 130 feet deep, contained twenty miles of tunnels, and even included a railway station, engine rooms, and barracks. The tunnels even had electricity, including an extensive electric light system.
Adolf Hitler visited the location in 1935, pleased with the advanced technology used in its construction. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the extensive network of tunnels and over one hundred pillboxes kept the build-up and initial advance underground and more secretive.
Oddly, it took only three days of fighting for the Soviets to capture it in 1945. This was partly due to the fortifications becoming undermanned in the waning months of the war as Nazi troops were deployed elsewhere.
Although the Red Army blew up much of the fortification to prevent its future use, parts of the Festungsfront Oder-Warthe-Bogen, now located within Polish borders, are open to the public today as tourist attractions. It is now one of the 10 largest hibernation sites for bats in Europe, housing approximately 40,000 bats across 12 species.
Visitors to the site can tour a museum that houses a variety of exhibits on the engineering and technological aspects of the tunnels and on their historical significance during the World War II era. If you plan a trip to Poland, some of the tunnels are open to visitors during the summer months. They are closed in the winter to protect the bats, and bat doors have been installed that keep people out while allowing the bats to move freely in and out of the tunnels. The short tour takes about 1.5 hours, while the long tour takes almost 3 hours. The closest town, should you want to visit, is Miedzyrzecz.
All other locations in Padlocked are real places, including Guernica, Spain, and these locations in Poland: Bedzin, Oswiecim, Warsaw, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
February 27, 2026
The Significance of the Gate
I believe the cover of Padlocked is the most beautiful of any of my book covers. It was not AI-generated. The photograph, taken by Willie Forde Photography, shows the Smiling Bess Gate in Ireland when the Northern Lights were otherworldly, and Willie graciously allowed us to use it for the book cover.
There is significance to the gate. Padlocked begins on January 27, 1945, when six characters converge for the liberation of Auschwitz: two photojournalists, a camp guard and her sister, a Nazi collaborator, and a nurse. When a grenade is detonated by a fleeing guard, several find themselves on the other side, where they encounter a padlocked gate and angels guarding it.
They discover that they must review their lives before they are allowed to pass through the gate, and the book then returns to 1939 as Nazi Germany invades Poland.
The two photojournalists, an American and a Spaniard, are caught between two armies as Germany advances, and over the next six years, they encounter twists and turns that leave them embedded in turn with the Polish, Nazi, and Red Armies.
The two teenage sisters are separated in Warsaw during the Nazi siege. When one is deported to a camp in southern Poland, the other crosses the country to find and free her.
A young man becomes a Nazi collaborator and rises to gain power over life and death, while a nurse joins the Polish Underground Resistance in an attempt to save her country.
Each will discover that every decision they made placed them further along specific paths, and only their souls can open the padlocked gate to reveal the destination within.
Padlocked will be released on March 30, and advance orders are already being accepted throughout North America and Europe. You can view the buy links on my website at https://pmterrell.com/padlocked/.
There is significance to the gate. Padlocked begins on January 27, 1945, when six characters converge for the liberation of Auschwitz: two photojournalists, a camp guard and her sister, a Nazi collaborator, and a nurse. When a grenade is detonated by a fleeing guard, several find themselves on the other side, where they encounter a padlocked gate and angels guarding it.
They discover that they must review their lives before they are allowed to pass through the gate, and the book then returns to 1939 as Nazi Germany invades Poland.
The two photojournalists, an American and a Spaniard, are caught between two armies as Germany advances, and over the next six years, they encounter twists and turns that leave them embedded in turn with the Polish, Nazi, and Red Armies.
The two teenage sisters are separated in Warsaw during the Nazi siege. When one is deported to a camp in southern Poland, the other crosses the country to find and free her.
A young man becomes a Nazi collaborator and rises to gain power over life and death, while a nurse joins the Polish Underground Resistance in an attempt to save her country.
Each will discover that every decision they made placed them further along specific paths, and only their souls can open the padlocked gate to reveal the destination within.
Padlocked will be released on March 30, and advance orders are already being accepted throughout North America and Europe. You can view the buy links on my website at https://pmterrell.com/padlocked/.
