AUTHOR ELMA SCHEMENAUER
"ELMA MARY FROM THE PRAIRIE"
History, Adventure, Mennonites, Faith, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Community, Travel, and More
Endorsements for Consider the Sunflowers
-Consider the Sunflowers…is hard to put down, with tension-filled chapter endings and well-crafted flashbacks, as well as a tightly wound plot. Janice L. Dick in Mennonite Voices USA, Dec 2014 and in Mennonite Brethren Herald, Mar 1, 2015
-Author Schemenauer grew up in a community much like her fictional “Dayspring in the Municipality of Coyote, Saskatchewan.” Her intimate and affectionate understanding communicates itself to the reader as the story unfolds. Her characters accurately reflect the time and place. Joan Soggie, in Kamloops Downtown Echo, Jan 22, 2015
-Consider the Sunflowers is a credible rendition of the tenuousness of marriage and the nature of romance (and even lust) as it matures into committed love, with inherent warnings about the wisdom necessary in selecting a mate, the selflessness needed to weather the trials of relationships, the inevitability of disappointment, and the hope of redemption through trusting Jesus Christ. Deb (Neufeld) Elkink in BC BookLook, Aug 4, 2015
A useful timeline of Mennonite history in an Appendix helps place Tina and her people in the context of their church and the wider world. Karen Kressin, Lawrence, Kansas
-There is a spiritual thread that’s organic to the novel, but it’s not about preaching. It’s about how the believers live their lives…We also see the effects of self-pity, complaining, self-exclusion and manipulation, and in the seeing we may gain insight into our own lives. Blogger Janet Sketchley, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Consider the Sunflowers
My 1940s-era novel Consider the Sunflowers is a story of love, Mennonites, and family. It paints a colourful picture of life on the home front during World War II and after.
As the story opens, it's 1940 and Tina Janz doesn't want to marry the man her pious Mennonite parents have chosen for her. He's as boring as turnips compared with the dashing half-Gypsy Frank Warkentin. Obsessed with Frank, Tina leaves her job in Vancouver and marries him. However, her joy is soon overshadowed by loneliness on Frank's farm in the prairie community of Coyote, Saskatchewan.
When Frank shuns local Mennonites because some of them scorn his mixed parentage, Tina feels torn between her Mennonite heritage and her husband. Their son's death drives the couple farther apart. Then Tina's former boyfriend shows up, setting off a series of events that send her and Frank stumbling toward a new understanding of love, loyalty, faith, and freedom.
Consider the Sunflowers is 299 pages, $19.95 paperback, published in 2014 by Borealis Press of Ottawa, ISBN 978-0-88887-575-4. Ask for it in a bookstore or library. Or order online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo, or Borealis Press.
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I grew up near the prairie village of Elbow, Saskatchewan, halfway between Saskatoon and Regina. Years later, Elbow became the inspiration for the village of Dayspring in my novels Consider the Sunflowers and Song for Susie Epp.
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I'm a first-generation child of Mennonite immigrants from Russia. Their stories and traditions were part of what inspired me to write Consider the Sunflowers and Song for Susie Epp.