About Me

If there's a book you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you have to write it yourself.

- Toni Morrison

2019:  I'm wandering through Slavskoye in 
Kaliningrad Oblast, the former Kreuzburg of East Prussia

Short story about me: 

I've gotten lost climbing on Hitler's mountain, perused Soviet secret police files in Zhytomyr, peered down Ukrainian farmers' wells for my mother's lost doll, and cycled through old East Prussia searching for amber. 

Back home in Winnipeg, I meander local trails while musing about character and plot.

                                                                 *************

Longer story about me:

Me and my little brother c.1964/5

I write the stories I wish I could have read when I was growing up. As the self-conscious first-born daughter of immigrants, I looked for my reflection in books. Disappointed, I escaped into Nancy Drew mysteries and longed to be a detective.

When I grew older, I studied literature at university (Masters' in 20th C. German), determined to find my family's stories in the modern novels of post-war Germany. While Heinrich Böll was my favourite author, I was mostly unsuccessful in my quest . . . probably because Europe was still divided.

At thirty, I entered the magic sandbox years, raising three active kids while practicing the art of multi-tasking. Years filled with a delightful chaos (and some not-so-delightful chaos, as well) and many stories. My all-time favourite was about the wisdom of different points of view in Ed Young's Seven Blind Mice.

Now the sandbox sits empty, the chaos has (sort of) calmed, and it's my inner child calling for those stories that I missed out on earlier. Through reading and listening, travel and writing, I'm finally making use of Nancy Drew's detective skills and bringing family stories to life.

My path to publication has been a meandering one. The Kulak's Daughter, released in 2010, went out of print in 2011 when its small Texas publisher shut down. That first book, with my mom on the cover, explored her childhood during collectivization in the USSR and came out before she died in 2011.

In 2015, a local publisher offered to republish it as Red Stone—along with the sequel—Broken Stone.  Unfortunately, they too soon folded. I had no idea that publishing would be so complicated.

Discouraged, but not defeated, I was thrilled to have the third book of this family saga released in the summer of 2021 by Ronsdale Press, from Vancouver. Tainted Amber, set in East Prussia (modern Kaliningrad), is a prequel to Crow Stone (Nov/2022) an end-of-war novel set in both East Prussia and the USSR.  Bookends to war, they tell the before and after stories of my mom's orphaned kulak family. 

Waltraut came out with Heritage House in September, 2024 and I'm so delighted to share this novel set here in Canada about an awkward immigrant girl who loves Nancy Drew. Pinch me! 

And yes, I'm still sleuthing, still exploring, and have more stories to tell.

             

Red Stone and Broken Stone are now out of print but you might find them at used online bookshops or just contact me. I have extras I purchased from publisher before they shut down.