I interviewed the lovely MCV Egan and here is what she had to say:
Is The Bridge of
Deaths really a culmination of 2 decades of research? Why are you so interested
in WW II History?
Yes,
at least a good eighteen years of research. I was so clueless when I began to
dig around the plane crash that killed my grandfather in 1939 so I guess
someone with a better historical background would have never taken that long.
I
am embarrassed to admit that I had to look up almost every incident I came
across even something as common knowledge as The Munich Pact.
I
know I had to have studied it at some point in school or university but to be
honest I know I did fail history at least once.
Why are you
releasing a revised edition and what is different from the original?
When
I released the original in 2011 I was so afraid that people would dispute some
of the files I used that I carefully and meticulously added footnotes for
EVERYTHING, over 200.
To
my surprise some people loved that, mainly lawyers! But it felt like awkward
reading for some, and it was understandable, especially in the e-book format as
the footnotes can be distracting. In the revised version I added the necessary
footnotes to the narrative and got rid of all of them. I also summarized two
parts that were loaded with information and detail and added them to the back
as appendices for the more curious readers.
The
book is formatted in a very user friendly way so the reader can go from one
chapter to the other or to the appendices.
To
give it a more up to date touch, as the book takes place in 2010. I added an
epilogue in the summer of 2012.
The
new cover has the image of my grandfather’s watch which is part of the story.
Over 200 footnotes? So this is
not a novel, or is it?
Oh
yes it is a novel. It has fictional elements so it must be categorized as such.
The characters that sift through the data are fictional even if two are
strongly based on real people; one of whom is me!
I
also used very “unorthodox” ways to research such as psychics and past life
regressions; not my own, and that to many is fiction.
How did you use psychics and past
lives?
I
have two watches, one that was my grandfather’s and another sent to us by
British Airways LTD. The use of psychometry is not that scoffed at, I mean the
FBI has used it, so I thought, Why not? It was just amazing, with no photos or
previous knowledge a psychic started describing the bridge and another the
lettering on the wing of the plane.
The
most shocking was that all described to a T another of the men who died for the
second watch, no spoiler! I won’t tell you which but it was uncanny. There were
five people gifted in psychometry who did this for me.
The
individual who had the long past life regressions, five in total has asked to
remain anonymous, but I was allowed to sit in and take notes, they were also
recorded but the quality is horrible which is a shame because just like Maggie
in the book, I did ‘go under’ and slept through one of them!
I've heard that you speak 4 languages, which
languages are they?
I was
born in Mexico City and spent my childhood there so SPANISH is my mother
tongue. When I was twelve years old my entire family moved to Washington D.C. I
had already lived in Louisiana and spoke Southern but in my many years in the
D.C. are I honed in on ENGLISH.
At
eighteen I had no idea what I wanted to do and my dad’s employer the World Bank
paid for our studies if we chose to go abroad; super cool huh? I chose France
and attended The Catholique University in Lyons, France and fell absolutely in
love with the culture and the language FRENCH.
At
the age of twenty two I married a Swedish fellow, Lars; at the time I was very
Catholic and I assumed that we would have children, I did not want to be the
funny, different looking, foreign mom with the strange accent so I worked
really hard at learning SWEDISH.
Tell me why you started writing?
I am the sixth of
eight children and being heard was not easy. Writing was a refuge, then when my
family re-located and I missed my friends long letters became my favorite form
of communication.
What made you write about past lives?
In the late 1990s I
was approached by a man who now has asked for complete anonymity. He said that
he had visited a psychic who had impacted him. Apparently the psychic said “The
most important thing you need to know is that in your nearest past life you
were a pilot” He agreed to participate in past life regressions and that I
could record them and be present.
It was amazing his
voiced changed into a different mode and accent as did Bill’s in the book, and
the journey he took us in, the past life regressionist (is that even a
word?) And myself, was just
extraordinary.
We would sit around
with the notes and over beers and cigarettes discuss what he had seen, when it
was fresh in his mind.
This man NEVER
suffered from phobias or bed-wetting but after the regressions he did become a
super focused and different person, he went on to surprise himself and others
and now has a most successful life, not compatible with the past life
regressions of his youth.
Chocolate or Vanilla?
I am absolutely
addicted to chocolate, that being said Vanilla Ice-cream covered in chocolate
sauce is the best of the best!
If you could go anywhere in the world and have dinner with
anyone past/present where would you be and who would you be with?
This was hard, because
of course as The Bridge of Deaths is about my Grandfather, he is the obvious
choice. As I get to pretend and it is impossible I will chose my favorite
author, who I am sure loved food as much as I do. W. Somerset Maugham and I
would go to some spectacular world famous restaurant in the French Riviera.
*****
I'm sure after learning more about her and her work you are interested in learning more about the book so I'm not going to leave you hanging. So here is a little bit about her book, and some contest information.
"M.C.V. Egan twists truth
and fiction until you question your perceptions...it is a story of real love,
triumph and search for self."
- Beckah Boyd @ The Truthful Tarot
5 out of 5 stars:
"An unusual yet much
recommended read." - Midwest
Book Review
On
August 15th, 1939, an English passenger plane from British Airways Ltd. crashed
in Danish waters between the towns of Nykøbing Falster and Vordingborg. There
were five casualties reported and one survivor. Just two weeks before, Hitler
invaded Poland.
With the
world at the brink of war, the manner in which this incident was investigated
left much open to doubt. The jurisdiction battle between the two towns and the
newly formed Danish secret police created an atmosphere of intrigue and
distrust.
The Bridge of Deaths is a love story and a mystery.
Fictional characters travel through the world of past life regressions and
information acquired from psychics as well as archives and historical sources
to solve "one of those mysteries that never get solved." Based on
true events and real people, The Bridge
of Deaths is the culmination of 18 years of sifting through conventional
and unconventional sources in Denmark, England, Mexico and the United States.
The story finds a way to help the reader feel that s/he is also sifting through
data and forming their own conclusions.
Cross The Bridge of Deaths into 1939, and dive
into cold Danish waters to uncover the secrets of the G-AESY.
About the author
M.C.V.
Egan is the pen name chosen by Maria Catalina Vergara Egan. Catalina was born
in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959, the sixth of eight children, in a traditional
Catholic family.
From a
very young age, she became obsessed with the story of her maternal grandfather,
Cesar Agustin Castillo--mostly the story of how he died.
She
spent her childhood in Mexico. When her father became an employee of The World
Bank in Washington D.C. in the early 1970s, she moved with her entire family to
the United States. Catalina was already fluent in English, as she had spent one
school year in the town of Pineville, Louisiana with her grandparents. There
she won the English award, despite being the only one who had English as a
second language in her class.
In the
D.C. suburbs she attended various private Catholic schools and graduated from
Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland in 1977. She attended
Montgomery Community College, where she changed majors every semester. She also
studied in Lyons, France, at the Catholic University for two years. In 1981,
due to an impulsive young marriage to a Viking (the Swedish kind, not the
football player kind), Catalina moved to Sweden where she resided for five
years and taught at a language school for Swedish, Danish, and Finnish
businesspeople. She then returned to the USA, where she has lived ever since.
She is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Swedish.
Maria
Catalina Vergara Egan is married and has one son who, together with their
five-pound Chihuahua, makes her feel like a full-time mother. Although she
would not call herself an astrologer she has taken many classes and taught a
few beginner classes in the subject.
The
celebrated her 52nd birthday on July 2nd, 2011, and gave herself self-publishing
The Bridge of Deaths as a gift.
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"...a highly enjoyable read. ...really fed my child-like wonder of all things magical." - Amanda Price, Amazon Reviewer, about The Strings of the Violin (Hadariah Chronicles, Book 1)
It has been nearly two years since the events in†
Alisse Lee Goldenberg is an author of horror and Young Adult fantasy fiction. She has her Bachelors of Education and a Fine Arts degree, and has studied fantasy and folk lore since she was a child. Alisse lives in Toronto with her husband Brian, their triplets Joseph, Phillip, and Hailey, and their rambunctious Goldendoodle Sebastian.
Find Alisse†on her†