Transylvania, 1463: Some secrets heal. Others kill.
Kate Webber, a 28-year-old Saxon healer, has long walked the line between reverence and suspicion. Trained in the healing arts under the guidance of Lord Vlad Dracula, she has learned that skill alone cannot protect a woman in a city ruled by fear. Her marriage to the powerful but secretive Magyar promised stability, yet left her silenced and watched. On a bitter Advent night, when a mother and her newborn face death, Kate defies her husband's command and steps into danger
— for life, not reputation.
If History Forgets, Who Remembers? Hidden Truths Behind When Secrets Bloom
There’s something about winter in Transylvania that seems to still and steal time. The snow not only softens the rooftops, it silences the noise of modern life and recalls echoes. In a land layered with German Saxon fortresses, Romanian superstitions and a contested rule that spanned centuries and still sparks feud, only memory clings to stones after names fade.
There, in my native land, while I added my muffled footsteps to those of countless generations before me imagining what lay beneath the surface — both literally and figuratively — I first asked myself this simple question: if history forgets, who remembers?
That’s where I began writing When Secrets Bloom, a novel born out of my fascination with forgotten women, medieval medicine, and the quiet resilience that blooms even in the coldest seasons.
I chose to tell When Secrets Bloom through the eyes of Kate, a Saxon healer moving through the dangerous, shifting layers of 15th-century Transylvanian society of Kronstadt (modern-day Brașov), where a woman’s knowledge could be her salvation or her downfall and every tie, personal or political, came at a cost. Kate must confront suspicion, an old love and the haunting legacy of her former mentor, Vlad the Impaler.
Brasov, Black Church and Council Square, 15th century buildings
Within the same fortress walls lives Moise, a Jewish apprentice at the city’s printing press who investigates the disappearance of a rare manuscript only to discover… that it was tied to Kate’s past and to a treasure that refuses to remain buried.
Kate and Moise face betrayal, unravel hidden lies and try to survive the forces rising against them. While the shadow of Vlad the Impaler, no yet legend but a fond memory, stretches silently between their fates. This is a time where knowledge is dangerous, silence is currency while betrayal, its price.
Beside visiting historical locations my price was… writing through the dark.
My writing routine is unconventional, between the hours of 3 and 6 a.m. when only wood creaks and the birds almost stir, while the world, as we know it, feels distant. Such silent hours connect me with the past. Later, after breakfast and family time, I return to mid-morning writing with a fresh mind. The first shift is for raw emotion and imagery; the second for structure and sense.
The hardest scene I wrote for When Secrets Bloom, both technically and emotionally, was the birth scene. As a mother of two and someone with a medical degree I’ve witnessed natural births. I wanted to render it truthfully; with urgency, but also with the awe I deserves. As for Kate, the healer, it was more than a medical challenge; it was a deeply personal moment, one charged with vulnerability, danger but also the hope of a new beginning. I wanted the reader to feel all of that.
The true challenge, though, was emotional. I was placing a woman in labor under the care of a shaman--woman already under suspicion of witchcraft, with no guarantee of safety. And while I needed to show the rawness of that moment, I also didn’t want the reader to feel uncomfortable or disconnected. So I turned to subtext, finding original ways to express vulnerability and tension and using what was unique to Kate: her training, her composure, her fear, her resolve. Her safe memories…
That scene set the tone for the entire book, where strength is quiet, danger is constant, and survival often begins in the most fragile places.
That sense of what lies beneath, unseen yet vital, carried into my research as well.
One unexpected discovery during my research was the city’s hidden water system. Old maps of Brașov reveal how natural streams once flowed downhill through what are now paved streets, running from the fortified noble district to the outskirts, from Council Square to cattle market and farther still, to the witches’ lake. As the Saxon town modernised these channels were gradually covered, but the water never stopped flowing. It was simply diverted, like the hidden lives of women in history.
Transylvania, by Mercator published by Janssonius 1644, ...
I found in this a perfect metaphor for Kate: a woman flowing through the cracks of history, unseen, but essential.
Equally fascinating (and heartbreaking) was learning that marriages between different castes or ethnic groups, such as between German Saxons, Szeklers, Vlachs (Romanians) or immigrants Jews, were forbidden. Love, like knowledge, had borders. For a woman like Kate, who walks both worlds, such rules were more than social; they were life-threatening.
Uncovering those buried layers, of city, of history, of character, reminded me that writing, too, begins beneath the surface.
To new writers, I offer this advice: begin with silence, with listening. Let your characters speak before you do. Just start. Write the first scene you see or hear. Do your research but only enough to anchor yourself in the place and time. Don’t drown in it. As you write, if more detail is needed, make a note and return to it later. And steer clear of movies; instead, research the places, the books, the scents. Touch and taste. And, above all, write the book you want to read, not the one you think you should write.
Because once that story is written, the next journey begins: finding the readers excited to walk its path.
Raising awareness about my books involves community and consistency. I try to blog regularly and take part in daily or seasonal X / Twitter hashtags to connect with readers and fellow authors. I believe in sharing not just the book, but the heart behind it: snippets of research, historical curiosities, forgotten voices. Sometimes a single image or sentence opens a door to a whole world. And that is where true connection begins.
In writing When Secrets Bloom, I sought to answer one question: if history forgets, who remembers? Not to romanticize the past, but to reveal it. To show how whispers carry strength, how fear walks beside purpose, and how even in the darkest hours, something brave and human dares to bloom.
Woven with tension and tenderness, Kate’s world is one where personal and political threads entwine and where Vlad Dracula’s shadow lingers not as myth, but as real memory. The novel offered me a glimpse behind the legend, into the man shaped by multiple exiles and survival, whose true power lay not in fear, but in the price of wielding it.
Through Kate, I explored not only wounds of war but what survival truly demands and how knowledge — especially in a woman’s hands — can both save and condemn. It’s exhilarating to stand between fact and fiction, past and present. If history is a garden, I hope my stories are the seeds that bloom where the world least expects.
I couldn’t say goodbye to Kate’s world that’s still alive in my mind.
When Secrets Bloom is just the beginning. I’m currently working on books two through four in the Blood of Kings, Heart of Shadows series, following the ripples left by Kate’s defiance across both past and present. The next book will delve deeper into political and romantic intrigue, exploring the delicate threads of medicine, faith, and folklore; always through the eyes of those overlooked by history.
Patricia Furstenberg
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About the Author:
Tony, thank you so much for the lovely feature! It means a great deal to me and I’m grateful for your support in sharing When Secrets Bloom with your readers and wider network. You’ve made this launch feel that much more special.
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