Q&A with M.M. Downing and S.J. Waugh

 

M.M. Downing

 

M.M. Downing and S.J. Waugh are the authors of the new middle grade novel Berlin Breakout, the third in their Adventures of the Flash Gang series. Downing lives in New Jersey and Waugh lives in Connecticut.

 

Q: This is the third installment of your Adventures of the Flash Gang series—do you think your characters have changed over the course of the series?

 

A: Definitely. Episode three takes place a little over a year after episode one. Aside from the obvious aging of the characters, what the gang experienced in these past months has had an impact. 

 

They’ve survived a flood, a few kidnappings, a bitter winter. Streeter life has lost some of its appeal under the strain of gnawing hunger, cold, and persistent rain. Also, fathers—the absence of one, the reappearance of another—have recently tested the gang members’ loyalties. 

 

Specific to the two main characters, Lewis is relying on more on his friends, understanding that being a loner isn’t the best choice even if it once felt emotionally safe. Pearl has thrown herself fully into being a streeter and a mother hen to rest of the gang. She hasn’t learned to look before she leaps yet, however. She might never learn that! 

 

S.J. Waugh

Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?  

 

A: While we were writing the second book - Treasonous Tycoon - we realized that it was quite possible Lewis’s father was alive and might very well be in Germany. One of us was terrified by the idea of setting a book in Nazi Berlin, but one of us clearly saw that the story demanded we go there. (She was right.)

 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Like the other episodes in the series, this third installment started with a street map and a crash course in the daily happenings in 1936 Berlin. Between Hitler and his Nazi party growing into full power and the summer Olympics, there was plenty to dive into. We tracked down every film clip of city life that we could find, to observe and try to feel what it might be like to live in that world.

 

Maybe not surprising, but still upsetting, the clips show that Berlin was quite orderly: clean streets, wide avenues, people going about their daily lives while on the very street corners they traversed were galling newspapers that spewed hate, and marching Hitler Youth.

 

We read numerous books, including In The Garden of Beasts, by Eric Larson, Oliver Hilmes’ Berlin 1936, and William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich  - which is a tome but an absolutely indispensable first-hand account of living through the Nazi ascension to power as is his account in The Nightmare Years. 

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Lewis and Pearl?

 

A: They join forces in book one, have their loyalty is tested in book two—all to say that what they weathered has only brought them closer in book three.

 

Trust and admiration is key: Pearl believes Lewis is the smartest, most clever boy in the world, and Lewis admires how Pearl embraces the world, flaws and all, all while insisting she can make it a better place. Their differences balance each other. Rich versus poor. Creative versus logical. Daring versus reserved. They are the best of friends.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We are still fascinated by the pre-WWII era in the US. The 1920s and ‘30s were two decades of extraordinary events—counterpoints of frivolity and heartbreak—and so we’re toying with another story set in that time, replete with some young mystery solvers!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It is important to repeat that what surprised us when writing these books is how timely this story is. The rise of fascism, the fracturing of alliances, authoritarian rule, job insecurity, the widening gap between wealth and poverty in the 1930s is a harbinger of some of the struggles we see today. We began this tale imagining a period romp of orphans and car chases and murky alleys. It became so much more.

 

On a lighter note, we are thrilled to have received a trifecta of stars from Kirkus for this trilogy. And that Kirkus named Episode Two, Treasonous Tycoon, a Best Indie of 2024. Check out our website, https://downingwaugh.com, and Instagram (@Downing_Waugh).

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with M.M. Downing and S.J. Waugh.