Melissa Amateis
Nebraska native Melissa Amateis grew up on a farm near Bridgeport, Nebraska. She holds a BA in history from Chadron State College and an MA in history from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL). She is the author of two history books, Nebraska POW Camps and WWII Nebraska. Her debut historical fiction novel, The Stranger from Berlin, is forthcoming in August 2021 from Simon and Schuster UK. An amateur photographer, voracious Snoopy lover, and avid book collector, Amateis lives with her daughter in eastern Nebraska along with a rambunctious lab/border collie mix appropriately named Blitz and two kitties.
Twitter: @WW2HistoryGal
Instagram: @melissa_amateis
Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
I love all types of music, but if I'm writing, I can't write to pop or grunge or rock: it has to be either classic music or music from the 1940s, especially if I'm writing my WW2-set novels. Big bands like Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey, and singers like Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes, and Ella Fitzgerald take me right back to 1940s America. But I also love writing to classical music, especially Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, and Handel. When I really want to concentrate, I'll play classical music and lose myself in flow.
What period of history do you wish you knew more about?
Oh there are SO many! I have a BA and MA in history, and I will be starting my PhD in history in the fall of 2021, so I love lots of different time periods. I focus on World War 2 in my novels and in my academic career, but in graduate school, I had a tough time choosing between it and the American and French Revolutions. I find the founding of America to be an inspiring yet problematic narrative, and I'd love to someday delve more into it. I also love learning about the Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I'm also intrigued with Italian history, something I know very little about, but because my family came from the Piedmont region in northern Italy, I am intensely curious about Italy's history. I hope to be able to explore it more in depth some day - as well as travel to Italy to visit my cousins!
Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?
Besides books? I have LOTS of those! But yes, I do collect a few things. I love to collect items from the 1940s: sweetheart jewelry, magazines, and other odd bits of ephemera. But my true collecting passion is for Snoopy. I have been collecting Snoopy items since shortly before my daughter was born, and she will be 21 this year (2021). I have totes full of Snoopy items, large and small. When I sold my house last year and moved into an apartment, I decided to showcase my collection. My kitchen became a Snoopy haven as I took out things I'd never displayed before. Now I get to enjoy them every day! I also have a curio cabinet full of my more precious Snoopy items - rare collectibles and antiques. I even found some light switch plates in my collection and decided to use them. Why not, right? I think perhaps my favorite thing, though, is a vintage Snoopy lamp from the 1960s. It's of Snoopy as the Literary Ace, which is my very favorite of all of Snoopy's personas, and I use it as my desk lamp.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
This is a tough one, but I think I'm going to go with rural. My daughter and I took a trip to England in 2015, and we spent the first few days in London. Now there is a LOT to see and do in London, but after awhile, I grow tired of the noise and bustle. I need quiet. We took a train to Salisbury, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride through the English countryside. Though Salisbury is a city, it's not nearly as big as London, and feels much more like a small town. We loved walking to the town center, wandering around the quaint shops, and, of course, visiting the cathedral. In 2008, I went to England on my own and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Chatsworth, the ancestral home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Instead of taking a taxi or bus, I chose to take the walking path through the woods to the estate, and it was completely worth it. So peaceful and enchanting. Since I grew up on a farm, I often need to retreat to a rural setting to find my center again, so to speak. It has a way of calming my spirit and helping me to regain focus.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
I love to do mixed media. I'm not very good at it, but it's a fun hobby. I collage different pieces - scraps of paper, things torn from a magazine, buttons, etc. - and then use paint, ink, stamps, chalk, and really, anything my heart desires to create a piece of art. It's a fun, creative escape. Sometimes, when I'm stuck on a writing project, I can get "unstuck" by working on my mixed media. The only problem is that working in mixed media is VERY messy. My boyfriend graciously allowed me the use of his dining room table since he never uses it, even though I warned him it would get messy! But it's so much fun to just play and create. The challenge, though, is not to push for perfection. In this day and age of sharing everything on social media, I always have that in the back of my mind: hey, don't screw this up, you're going to share it on Instagram! and that really takes the fun away. I need a creative outlet that is not going to be judged by others; my books are enough! I also bought a digital camera last year after I started going fishing with my boyfriend. I've really enjoyed taking pictures of the wildlife we see - pelicans, birds, and other animals - and close to home, I have a squirrel who has been my subject quite a few times as he sits in the tree outside my apartment and stares at me. He's quite photogenic. It's been fun to play with different angles and settings, and is another great way for me to express my creativity.
