TheCO: Watch on the Rhine is set in John Ringo's Polseen Universe, when in the series does it fall?
TK: It actually extends outside the series. The first action is set in June, 1944 (an historic case, by the way) and the last sometime before Ringo and Williamson's Hero. The bulk of the book takes place between just after Gust Front and just before Hell's Faire.
TheCO: Are the cast of characters in this book mostly returning characters readers already love, or are they a new treat?
TK: With the possible exception of the Tir, and the brief appearance of a couple of minor characters (German Oberst Kiel, for example, who was mentioned but never seen in the core series) all the other fictional characters are new.
TheCO: Of the characters in this book, who would you most like to spend a night drinking and trading tales with?
TK: Unquestionably Gudrun...but then I've already done that. ;) Ohhh, you meant trading "tails"...my bad.
TK: Tough call. I've spent a few good nights...okay, oKAY, more than a few... drinking and singing with various of the kind of people I wrote about, some of whom are in the book in small ways. Let's see...Hans Brasche's a boy scout. Krueger's just an evil bastard I'd rather shoot than talk to, and then only if there were no rope available.
TK: Muehlenkampf, or his real life self, Wilhelm Moehnke. Sadly, my Quija board is down for maintenance so Moehnke is just right out as he died a couple of years ago.
TheCO: What type of story would you term this book as? Coming of age? Something deeply introspective? A cautionary tale?
TK: How do you have a coming of age story for men who are pushing 100 years old?
TK: What you want, a simple answer, is not that simple. There are a couple of characters for whom the story _is_ about coming of age, but in a hellish time. There's one significant one, a French woman (who is very much real, by the way, very left of center but an impressive woman for all that) for whom the story is not about coming of age so much as it is about finally growing up, being stripped of the usual European illusions and delusions by a harsh new reality that cannot be avoided, ignored or hidden from.
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