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Meet Taco Loving Catholic Historical Writer Leah Fisher

Meet Taco Loving Catholic Historical Writer Leah Fisher

Last updated on: October 8, 2026 at 10:11 am by Mark Wilson

Meet Taco Loving Catholic Historical Writer Leah Fisher 2026-10-08T10:11:09-05:00 Mark Wilson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Whenever I get a new interview submitted to my Meet the Writer series, I wonder how it will be creatively different from the previous interviews given to me. After reading Leah’s answer to my first question I knew I was in for something quite different than previous writers.

Thursday Slow Down and . . . I Forgot | Legends of Windemere

Some of Leah’s answers reminded me of this man.

Leah’s answers are Creative, Colorful, Cheerful, Charming and Clever.
They are fun and historical as she is a historical fiction writer.

If anyone has any questions about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his family, and the German resistance during WWII, she’s your lady. The Angel Studios conglomerate can’t hold a candle to her labors of love! -Avellina Balestri

So you in for a writer’s treat as you…

Meet Taco Loving Catholic Historical Writer Leah Fisher

I’m not sure whether either of these will suit your purposes well, but here are two pictures, formatted differently. It is my hope that one might provide you with the desired dimensions.

1. Tell something interesting about yourself.

Were there anything of spectacular interest, I should like to write it here. Therefore, I shall ask the audience to kindly think of something of some noteful* worth that might give them pause to admire and attribute that (quite unrightfully!) to me.

*In the meanwhile, I suppose I make up words. That might be notable.

Words Word Animated GIF Logo Designs

2. What makes a good Catholic writer?

I quite like Tolkien and Balestri, Chesterton.—who may, upon reflection, have been Anglican—and these others who minister the message of Christ with conviction by their pens, whether through fact of narrative.

3. What do you like about being a Catholic/Christian writer?

I embrace writing as an application of evangelical preaching. It thrills me to think that I am given the opportunity to share Christ, through my writings and storytelling, with a soul who might need Him, who might never have heard a sermon otherwise, whose heart was closed to the Gospel divorced from the trappings of another world. I was, myself, embraced by Christ through the witness of a man immortalized in the realm of historical fiction; so, this concept is very near to my heart.

Gifs Beoite Hearts

4. What is the main focus of your particular writing or what do you like to write about?

I always endeavor to present the world through a Christian lens. My writing tends to be very character focused. Whichever genre I find myself writing, that is always the goal: to glorify God and to share the realities of Him with the audience through storytelling. To me, the key to a good sermon is to make the audience buy in to the premise, and that requires good characterization. I want to “make it look believable”. I like to write about real people struggling with real life, whether that’s in a fantasy realm, a little town with werewolves, or a world much like our own. I embrace the hard questions that we don’t think about until it matters: what it means to love God, what it means to love my neighbor, and the moral quandaries that accompany the everyday when we try to live that in our daily lives.

Werewolves Of London Werewolf Of London Meme - Werewolves of london ...

5. How does your Christian faith influence your writing?

In the same way that my conscience and devotion influence every aspect of my life. The decisions that I make, as a follower of Christ, are entirely other than those decisions I would, at times, make of my own accord. My writing is imbued with the breath of the Most Holy, because I know Him, I am His servant, and He has breathed me back to life. Because He has gifted me to write, therefore I write for Him.

6. What’s your favorite article/Post/book/story you have written?

It isn’t done yet, but I think I’m most proud of the biography I’m in the midst of writing presently. The days of my toil with it have been long and hard, but I have so loved them. I think of any book I’ll ever write, I will forever treasure this one.

It’s about a high-ranking German jurist who documents governmental corruption and eventual atrocities in hopes of putting Hitler and his administrative officials on trial. He’s a devout Christian who struggles to preserve the light of God’s love and human decency in a world devoured by darkness. He wants to follow Christ. He wants to walk the righteous path. Sometimes that path is through the “valley of Death” and it daunts him; still, he perseveres. In the end, his documents are used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.

I called the biography Under God’s Sun, because of a conversation he recalled in one of his letters, which I believe encapsulates the story as a whole fairly neatly. He reported (while in prison) that a man who was sympathetic to his cause had confessed to him that he didn’t understand his decisions. He had a happy family, a good job, a lot of joy in life without a lot of want…and then he burned it on the altar of dedication.

Upon reflection, our friend writes: “Maybe Maass was wholly right: with what was given, what you are to me and the children and what I have outwardly achieved, I could have been the happiest man under God’s sun. Why this self-occupation with the things of the general public — but these are thoughts which leave again.”

To me, that giving of all to God is the heart of the story. Those actions which reflect Christ in their sacrificial love of God and neighbor, those decisions which make sense only to the Christian, is what makes the story worth telling and retelling again and again. This book is my “thank you” for all of that.

7. What is your favorite topic/subject to write about?

The tension between allegiance to God and earthly government.

Julien Dupré – 1. artdosug.ru 2. The Art Museum at The University of Kentucky

8. Favorite scripture verse.

Zephaniah 3:17.

The Lord, your God is in the midst of you,

a Mighty One, who will save,

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you by his love;

He will exult over you with loud singing.

9. What are you currently working on?

My two primary projects are Under God’s Sun, which will be the first biography dedicated solely to detailing the life of Hans von Dohnanyi in English. The other notable factor here is that I include much more extensive references from original source documents than books referencing Dohnanyi tend to include and I run the story through the death of his wife, Christel, whose heroic struggles in the post-war era often go unmentioned. So, there’s a whole clean-up chapter of post-war trials and the realities of dealing with occupation and grief that has been largely ignored by the academic community, but I’m pleased and proud to have the details here to include. I hope to have that book available for you by the end of 2028.

The other project, which is actually nearer to done, is the first of a trilogy, titled Good Fellows: Debt & Dishonor. Dignity & Strength and Shadow & Sword are the two I plan to follow. I believe that we have become inoculated to certain portions of history, because we have become too familiar with it. We’ve heard the stories too many times, consumed too much media, and heard too much hype about it. Popular history becomes like popular media; it becomes meaningless. So, this is painstakingly accurate historical fiction, set in another world. I’m hoping to catch people off-guard and make them more sensitive to things they’ve heard a million times by immersing them in a foreign land. It’s real people, real storylines, real quandaries, and actual stakes. All I do is change the names, invent some dialogue based on the voice of historical characters, play a bit with the pacing, and hope to bring the past to life.

Good Fellows: Debt & Dishonor is a socio-political thriller, detailing the collapse of the Weimar Republic (there called the Republic of Garma) in limited third person narrative with shifting perspective. The primary viewpoints are those of a charismatic politician and rising-star, hell-bent on restoring the Garman Empire and restoring pride to his people, a Justice Ministry staffer, driven by a heart of compassion and devotion to law, and a tormented theologian who gets caught in the crossfire. Debt & Dishonor covers the Good Fellows’ rise to power and shows how easily democracy can breed its own destruction.

Flag of Weimar Republic (1919–1933)

10. Name a favorite saint or Catholic or some other figure who inspires you in your life.

I’m very partial to Thomas More.

11. Who is your favorite Living Writer?

I am an eternal fan of Jeff Shaara. Gods and Generals is one of the most skillfully crafted novels I have ever run across, and it changed my life reading it. I love it forever. Not to mention that listening to interviews with Shaara is always a joy. If he gets talking about memories of his dad or his time as an antique coin trader, that’s really a treat!

But as a child I loved Cornelia Funke, and I never got over that, either.

12. If you could have lunch with any deceased writer, who would it be, what would you eat, and what would you talk about?

I want tacos. I always want tacos. But I’m letting them choose. So, I’m going to be limited by whatever my guest is having. Upon further reflection, we’re probably in Heaven, eating manna, aren’t we? As a sidenote, I would like to popularize the awareness that “manna” is a transliteration of a smashword in Hebrew, literally translating as: “whatsit”, “for they KNEW NOT WHAT IT WAS” [Exodus 16:15]. What are we eating? Whatsit. It’s white like coriander seed and tastes like wafers made with honey, but what it is, who can say?

Mike McCune – originally posted to Flickr as carnitas

As for the author, I’m tempted to say Ricatta Huch, but her name is Ricarda Huch; I just always butcher it by mistake. I’m eternally upset, because she was actively working on a book that I would very much like to have had the opportunity to read…when she died, tragically. There are so many lost notes, letters that I know exist but have so far failed to track down. I want to hear her story. I want to know her motivations for the book’s construction and hear the stories first hand that I’ve missed. I want to know about the interviews she had with people I could only dream to speak to, those souls who have since passed on into a world where I must deny myself tacos in favor of unidentified honey wafers…and/or the other place.

13. Name a favorite movie/tv show or music you find worth sharing with others.

I love Charité: at War (Staffel 2). I think it is masterfully done. The dramatization of the history is brilliant. The acting is superb. The characterization is amazingly lifelike and believable. This mini-series grips the audience and instantly invests us in the world of the Charité clinic and the lives of its many players. Everything is done with dignity and respect, true to period, true to life, and there is such an adorable romance between this random stroke patient and his wife in episodes 3 and 4. *cough, cough* They are a refreshingly wholesome contribution to the media. And the whole Christmas episode is fantastic.

The first season of the show was well done, too, but it was painful to watch and much more reminiscent of a train wreck. Plus, the morals of everybody are in the dirt.

14. Can you see one of your books being made into a movie or tv series? Who would you want to star or direct?

If I could get Maximilian von Pufendorf to play Martin Edelmann in a Good Fellows adaptation, that would make me really happy. He has successfully convinced me that he is perfect for the role. He’s a great actor, he understands the part, and he has kind eyes.

Max von Pufendorf (2018) Olaf Kosinsky – Eigenes Werk

15. Favorite historical event.

The resurrection of Christ.

The icon of Holy and Great Saturday, portraying the Harrowing of Hades

This interview was published on October 8, 2026

The day these other Historical Trivia events happened

1645 – Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital of North America in Montreal.

Monument to Jeanne Mance, sculpted by Louis-Philippe Hebert, in front of the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal

1829 – Stephenson’s Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials.

1918 – World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

York in uniform, 1919, wearing the Medal of Honor and French Croix de Guerre with Palm

1944 – World War II: Captain Bobbie E. Brown earns a Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Crucifix Hill, just outside Aachen.

16. What else do you want people to know about anything.

About anything…? We frequently underestimate the worth of human example as a witness of Christ to the world. It is my earnest desire that we should return to the Biblical understanding that what we do, how we live, and the words that we speak…our decisions make a difference to someone. The story of our lives, the story we leave behind, makes a difference to someone.

I have a shirt that says, “Mir hat Gott keinen Panzer ums Herz gegeben.”—“God has given me no armor around my heart.”— It’s a quote from a man who risked his life smuggling Jews out of Germany during the Holocaust, and it’s the title of a collection of some of his letters from the period. One day, my sister told me that my shirt was “cringe” and stupid and I shouldn’t wear it, and I told her, “This shirt means a lot to somebody.” Because somebody knows that the sentiment expressed on my shirt is the reason they’re alive.

Mir hat Gott keinen Panzer ums Herz gegeben.”—“God has given me no armor around my heart.”

Two weeks later, I was wearing my shirt, heading into a drugstore, and I saw an old woman with a broad sunhat and a walker coming towards the exit doors. So, I waited and held the door for her. While I was waiting, she started through the doorway and raised her head with a small smile to thank me. Then she saw my shirt and interrupted herself to give me the biggest smile I have ever seen. It was a genuine, earsplitting, and her face lit. She thanked me again with utmost emphasis, quickly following it with the words, “I like your shirt!” She waited for me to open the next set of doors for her, then stayed and chatted with me for a short while, showering me with the kindest, most genuine, teary-eyed encouragement and said, “God BLESS you,” most sincerely. And I knew in my heart she was one of those somebodies to whom those words on the shirt meant a lot more than the cashier at Best Buy, who called them “beautiful poetry.”

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