CONSIDER THE SUNFLOWERS
A 1940s-ERA NOVEL ABOUT LOVE, MENNONITES,
FAITH, DESPAIR & HOPE
Reviews, articles, and interviews about my novel Consider the Sunflowers have appeared in many online and print publications. These include Amazon, Goodreads, Chapters Indigo, BC Booklook, SaskToday, Prairies North, Clark's Crossing Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, Mennonite Brethren Herald, Mennonite Women USA, Algoma Anglican, India's Crown, and Geosi Reads (in Ghana). Here's a sampling of what people have said about the book:
JANICE L. DICK, AUTHOR Review published on Mennonite Women USA website, Dec 12, 2014, and in Mennonite Brethren Herald Mar 1, 2015
http://mbherald.com/vivid-book-ends-with-hope-consider-the-sunflowers/
Tina Janz, her father, Obrom, and Roland Fast, the man Tina’s father wants her to marry, are caught in a Saskatchewan blizzard. My senses are so piqued as I jump into the first scene of the story that I shiver in the biting wind, the pelting snow, fearful of the disappearing fence posts that are supposed to lead these people to safety. An apt beginning to a book about troubled relationships and, ironically, hope.
Tina does not want to marry “rich, boring Roland Fast,” because she is in love with dark, handsome Frank Warkentin, a half-Mennonite, half-Gypsy much maligned in the Mennonite community of Dayspring, Municipality of Coyote, Saskatchewan in 1940. Tina’s parents only want the best for her, but she has a mind of her own. She’s sure that if she can marry Frank, he will fulfill her purpose in life.
Frank is attracted to Tina partly because she is proper, something he secretly aspires to be. Haunted by his mother’s desertion in childhood, he reacts with distrust and anger to the meanness of those around him. This burden proves a considerable obstacle to his happiness and the achievement of his inner goals, both in his own life and in his marriage.
Consider the Sunflowers involves many intricate relationships including love triangles, childhood abandonment, societal insecurities, spiritual hypocrisy, peer friendships, to highlight a few. Characters are realistic, portrayed with both strengths and weaknesses, acting/reacting in plausible ways. Settings mirror the dreary isolation Tina feels on the treeless prairie of southern Saskatchewan, yet also offer a hint of hope for something better ahead. The book is hard to put down, with tension-filled chapter endings and well-crafted flashbacks, as well as a tightly wound plot.
Elma Schemenauer, seasoned author and editor of more than seventy books, enriches this difficult story with figurative language apropos of the farming community of the 1940s: “Sunlight was spilling across the snowdrifts like broken egg yolks” and “more wide awake than a pig the day before a sausagemaking festival.” The people of Dayspring still remember much of their homeland in Russia before immigrating to Canada, and “Hitler’s War” is constantly in the news. Consequently, the Mennonites are suspicious of outsiders and remain resistant to infiltration by “English” people.
Schemenauer has included an impressive, comprehensive Mennonite timeline at the end of the story as well as a study guide for readers. An excellent work worthy of recommendation.
ALAN D. BUTCHER, AUTHOR
It’s a nicely balanced story; I like the series of crises—marriage seems to fall apart, then the hero returns. Ah, a happy ending? No; Victor appears in Crisis No. 2, and everything very definitely seems lost. But no! There is a ray of hope, and you end with the promise that the marriage might be saved through the efforts of the hero and heroine themselves.
HUGHES, LIONEL. In "Saskatchewan's strong women of settlement." Prairies North, volume 18, no. 4. Winter 2016, pp, 20, 21.
Rural women enjoyed many of the benefits from modernization but increased urbanization created new complications. Author Elma Schemenauer has explored the new realities facing women like her mother in her fictional book, Consider the Sunflowers.
"My mother Agatha often talked about the differences between her life before and after marriage," says Schemenauer. "She had worked in Saskatoon and Vancouver as a young woman during the Depression of the 1930s. A lot of single Mennonite women worked in cities during those years, sending money home to their parents and siblings on the farms.
"Agatha enjoyed city life but felt lonesome for her boyfriend back in their small Mennonite community near Elbow and Loreburn, about halfway between Saskatoon and Regina. Eventually she returned, marrying him in 1940. However, she always missed city life, while my father love farming and the wide-open spaces of the Prairies."
From the historical foundation of her mother's life, Schemenauer imagines different, but entirely plausible outcomes for women like her mother. "My characters Tina and Frank live on a farm 12 miles east of Dayspring, Saskatchewan based on my parents' farm 12 miles east of Elbow. Tina realizes that Frank will never move to a city, so she tries to convince him to move closer to Dayspring." He refuses.
"I was a child in the 1940s so I personally witnessed the situation [of the times]. I saw it play out in the lives of my Mennonite mother, grandmothers, aunts, great aunts, and neighbours. I have vivid memories of those years and drew on those. In the Mennonite culture I grew up in, marriage is seen as a reflection of Christ, the bridegroom's loving relationship with his bride, the Church…. Mennonites, being human, don't always live up to these high ideals. However, I believe that having such ideals helps them navigate difficulty in relationships."
When Schemenauer's personal experiences ran out, she did what every good writer does. "My personal impressions weren't wide-ranging enough and they were those of a child, not an adult. So I supplemented them with information from other sources. For example, I interviewed Mennonite relatives and acquaintances. I visited Mennonite museums and communities. I read autobiographies, family histories, community histories, and general historical works. I enjoy such research and continue it to this day."
HELEN MARTENS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT CONRAD GREBEL (MENNONITE) COLLEGE
The novel effectively evokes many aspects of Mennonite life in the 40s, and moves well.
Article "Prairie life and Russian past inspire love story" by Hilary Klassen published in CLARK'S CROSSING GAZETTE, June 29, 2017
In “Consider the Sunflowers,” Tina Janz finds the guitar-playing half-gypsy Frank Warkentin much more exciting than the “boring as turnips” man her devout Mennonite parents want her to marry. She leaves her job in Vancouver to launch a campaign to get Frank to the altar. That done, life on Frank’s farm in the prairie community of Coyote, Saskatchewan turns bliss to loneliness.
Their love story was written by author Elma Schemenauer, who was born and raised in the Elbow-Loreburn area of Saskatchewan. Those prairie roots and the experience of some of her Russian forbears inspired Schemenauer to write the 1940s-era novel.
“As I was growing up in our little Mennonite community, I heard many stories from my grandparents and other Mennonite relatives,” she said. Those relatives were tremendous storytellers and when they got together, they told stories of what happened in the old country of Russia, what happened on the ship coming over, and what happened in their new life in Canada.
Schemenauer earned a B.A. at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Toronto. In Toronto, she moved into a publishing career and wrote 75 books including Yesterstories and Native Canadians Today. Today, Elma and her husband live in Kamloops, BC, where she writes and blogs.
Schemenauer started out writing her own memories. She began with a child’s point of view, but later wanted to look at those early years from an adult point of view. “My childhood meant a lot to me on the farm because we were very isolated out there. We were a long way from town and just being on the bald flat prairie made a huge impression on me in those early years.” Those memories and stories from Russia form the backdrop for Consider the Sunflowers.
Tina is crazy about Frank. “I know what its like to be crazy about somebody,” said Schemenauer. Tina’s parents want her to marry dependable and rich Roland Fast, a church-going guy with a good background, whose family had an estate back in Russia. Many Russian Mennonite immigrants left behind large estates to escape the Russian revolution beginning in 1917, and the Civil War.
The book traces the first seven years of Frank and Tina’s marriage. The influence of World War II is felt on the home front. Britain suffered from food shortages, and a lot of food – pork, beef, wheat – was sent over from Canada, Schemenauer said.
The unorthodox Frank has mixed parentage, a troubled background and doesn’t fit the mold. He was abandoned by his mother back in Russia and is haunted by the experience. The character grew out of Schemenauer’s knowledge of her father. “He never felt at home in the Mennonite community. I could never figure out why.”
Schemenauer’s mother went to work as a maid in Saskatoon in the 1930s, which was not uncommon for Mennonite women of that time, to earn extra income. She had an aunt there and when this aunt went to Vancouver, her mom went along. She enjoyed the nice weather, the fruit trees but always had her Saskatchewan boyfriend in the back of her mind. The Tina character in the book is modeled after Schemenauer’s Mom. Tina moves to Vancouver and works as a secretary for a physician. She visits Saskatchewan periodically and gives up her Vancouver job to be with Frank. Schemenauer ends her novel in a realistic way....“I’m after real life. I like to show life the way it really is. It’s not idealized.”
MARIAN SCHRAEDER, READER
I loved your opening line – feeling like liverwurst in a sandwich – who wouldn't want to keep reading?
WANDA BENNETT, READER Review published April 2015 on Chapters Indigo online, http://tinyurl.com/ny8smwk
Consider the Sunflowers is a 1940s prairie love story. But it is no ordinary love story. It is a story with family dynamics, past loves, a nosy neighbor, tragedy and a crisis of faith.
There is Tina’s dad who wants her to marry Roland, a Mennonite like them, but Tina’s man of her dreams is a handsome and exciting Gypsy-Mennonite.
Victor, a past love of Tina’s from Vancouver, pops in and out of the story at the most inopportune times, innocently and perhaps not so innocently, causing all sorts of trouble and uneasiness for Tina and Frank.
Then like every town, Dayspring’s nosy neighbor seems to always be saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. She has a good heart, but she sure is annoying!
Of course, there is also a local girl in Frank’s past that wants him all to herself and when Tina spots Dorrie sneaking to their wedding there are fireworks!
Like every marriage there are ups and downs and Tina and Frank face their share but there are some that try their union. Frank can be touchy and prickly and keeps Tina on edge. Tina wants trees by the house and Frank likes a wide-open view. But it is the loss of their second child that is truly devastating.
In her grief, Tina withdraws into herself and questions whether God is even there. Her mother consoles her with the story of the loss of Tina’s sister and Tina, in her desperate grief, “groped toward her mom like a ship toward its harbour.”
Frank was feeling the loss of his son in his own way. “How could he explain? Since Herbert’s death, he seemed to have lost his concentration. He felt like a machine whose controls had gone off-kilter. He needed to reset himself somehow.”
Frank leaves to work in Montana.
Consider the Sunflowers is beautifully written from the heart. The author can make you feel just how Tina and Frank feel and when Tina or Frank ask heart-felt questions, I felt I had asked the same questions of myself.
I have read Consider the Sunflowers twice and the second reading was just as good and perhaps better than the first. I think you will enjoy the book as much as I did.
While reading, I flagged some of my favourite places because they were beautifully poetic and thoughtful. Let me share some with you:
“Dorrie – the name skittered across Frank’s conscience. What if she came in right now and saw him watching Tina like a cat stalking a robin?”
“She wanted to be his bride. She wanted it more than anything in the world. But could she trust him enough to bet her life on him?”
“Her heart felt like a blind sparrow crashing from one rib to the other.”
“She wasn’t even sure she believed in God anymore. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that God, or somebody a lot like him, was always just around the corner, keeping score.”
“Frank’s laugh was as sharp as a Russian thistle.”
“The night air smelled of clover. From the barn came the fluted whinnying of an owl. High overhead, the stars glittered like peepholes into heaven.”
“She disappeared into the kitchen, her voice following her like a tail.”
“His and Tina’s love was a more gradual kind, a kind that improved over time.”
“Tina closed her eyes. Frank’s words were like a kiss from God. She leaned into it, savouring its sweetness.”
HYACINTH ALLEN, AUTHOR
The story reminded me of some stories in Jamaica. People will relate to your story, no matter where they are from. It is filled with the things that everyone deals with and the frailty of us all. I love Frank. There are lots of Franks in every walk of life.
JANET SKETCHLEY, AUTHOR Review published in several places including her blog Nov 17, 2014 http://janetsketchley.ca/consider-sunflowers-elma-schemenauer/
In 1940s Saskatchewan, Tina Janz schemes to win the man who fascinates her, instead of the rich-but-boring man who impresses her Mennonite parents. Tina and Frank marry for love—or at least fascination—but it’s a rocky trail. They each have insecurities, attitudes and suspicions, and Tina is keeping a secret that may come back to hurt them both.
Consider the Sunflowers is a skillfully crafted literary novel that opens a window onto small-town life in World War Two-era western Canada. Little snippets of news and daily life help us understand the times, while Tina’s and Frank’s efforts to save their marriage will resonate with readers today.
Readers learn about Mennonite culture and prairie life, and about feeling like an outsider. 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. Frank is honest about his inability to believe.
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. There’s a point in the story where Tina sees an amplified negative trait in another character and realizes she needs to change herself. As we watch her begin to change, it might inspire us to do the same.
My favourite lines:
Now she [Tina] was clinging to faith by her fingertips. One gust of wind and she’d reel off into some howling void of—what? She didn’t know; she’d never not believed before. [Kindle location 1408]
Adeline. The woman was like a poisoned well. She claimed Jesus poured springs of living water into her heart. Maybe he did, but Adeline poisoned them with her rudeness as fast as he poured them in. [Kindle location 1462]
He [Frank’s father] always shouted during long-distance phone conversations because they cost so much. [Kindle location 2184]
Do you remember old people shouting on long-distance calls? I do. I always thought they shouted because the sound had to travel so far.
For more about Frank Warkentin, check out my interview with him. http://janetsketchley.ca/meet-frank-warkentin/
JUDY GOEGAN, READER
I want you to know how very, very much I enjoyed it. And, the ‘history’ in the back was so interesting and informative.
I was even up in the middle of the night when I was simply too excited to fall back asleep and just had to get up and pick up that book. Thanks for the blessing, enjoyment and delight that the book brought to me. It was like a wonderful meal to a starving heart!
I would like EVERYONE to read it.....everyone who enjoys a wonderfully-written love story that holds your interest, and moves along in just the right way. The characters became one with me and I felt like a fly on the wall of their lives. The tender moments of their love were handled so delicately and sweetly. I highly recommend it and, again, thanks for the joy it brought me!
JOAN SOGGIE, AUTHOR AND FORMER LIBRARIAN Review published in Kamloops Downtown Echo, Kamloops, Jan 22, 2015 and elsewhere
Winter storms and Saskatchewan sunsets. A farming community in the Canadian prairie. Nosy neighbours and judgemental churchgoers. Birth, death, love and betrayal.
Author Elma Schemenauer’s clear prose and colloquial language immediately set the reader at ease. Yet this quiet little book, as unassuming as a housewife’s apron, contains all the elements of human drama. Frank and Tina’s lives are ordinary. But as Mark Twain famously said, “There is no such thing as an ordinary life.”
Set against the background of a Mennonite community in the 1940s, the story unfolds through Tina’s and Frank's alternating viewpoints. Tina – pretty, self-willed, enjoying her newfound freedom as a secretary in Vancouver- vacillates between desire for a stable marriage and love for her half-Gypsy, not quite Mennonite, hometown boyfriend. Frank, sullen, dark-browed and unpredictable, haunted by insecurity, cannot give up his oh-so-proper yet passionate sweetheart.
Both have deep ties with their community through family, church, school friends and neighbours. Some of those ties are burdensome, heavy with painful memories. Some are sweet and life giving. Sometimes irksome neighbours turn out to be the best friends. Sometimes good friends cause unexpected heartache.
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. Roland’s “ancestors had the same Dutch-German-Mennonite background” as Tina but was to her “as boring as turnips.” Frank “was hot peppers, red cabbage and wild mushrooms.” Frank’s heart “rears like a startled horse” and Preacher Schellenberg meets his wayward parishioner “near the Boston fern, under the picture of the Last Supper.” The solid ordinariness of everyday life in a mid-20th century prairie town underlies every sentence.
Yet the story, while shaped by the time and place, by major events like the World War and minor events like bad weather, turns on the characters themselves. This is not a simple boy-meets-girl love story. The characters wrestle with their own selfishness, doubts and spiritual hunger. Tina, Frank, Roland, Victor, Dorrie all grow, change and take on a reality of their own. The outcome, like life itself, is ambivalent and not an ordinary fairytale ending.
Elma Schemenauer has shown in Consider the Sunflowers the extraordinary struggles and joys implicit in everyday existence. This is a good read for anyone who enjoys the timeless human drama.
The final pages of the book trace Mennonite history from 1525 to the present and will be of special interest to those with a Mennonite background or anyone interested in church history. The study questions included make this an especially good choice for a book club or literature class.
DEBORAH GYAPONG, JOURNALIST & AUTHOR
Elma Schemenauer’s characters live. Her writing appeals to all the senses. A heartwarming story with lots of surprises. The characters are well drawn and believable and have a wide emotional range. The settings are not mere backdrops but vivid portrayals.
GEOSI READS Geosi Gyasi’s interview with Elma Schemenauer, published Sept 17, 2015, is below and at http://tinyurl.com/ohxm86s. Geosi is a Ghana-based teacher, librarian, poet, & book-loving blogger whose blog GEOSI READS features author interviews, book reviews, & literary news from many lands.
Geosi Gyasi: How much research went into the writing of “Consider the Sunflowers”?
Elma Schemenauer: I have strong memories of my early childhood in the 1940s. However, memories weren’t enough. I also interviewed people about life on the Canadian prairies during those years. And I consulted many books, articles, and other published sources of information.
Geosi Gyasi: How did you come up with the title, “Consider the Sunflowers”?
Elma Schemenauer: In 2006 my husband and I moved from Toronto to sunny Kamloops, British Columbia. I liked the gardens of Kamloops, especially the huge sunflowers that bloom here so I named my novel after them. In my novel sunflowers are a symbol of durability and cheerfulness in the face of adversity.
Geosi Gyasi: What do you personally remember about World War II?
Elma Schemenauer: I remember hearing Adolf Hitler ranting on the radio. I also remember the ration books my mother took along to the store when we shopped for groceries.
Geosi Gyasi: What has been the reception of your book, “Consider the Sunflowers”?
Elma Schemenauer: The book has sold quite well since it was published in October 2014.
Geosi Gyasi: Having grown up near the village of Elbow, Saskatchewan, can you tell me anything literary about the place?
Elma Schemenauer: Elbow, population 300, has its share of authors. For example, Rick Book’s collection of short stories “Necking with Louise” is about growing up in the Elbow area. Joan Soggie published a collection of stories about the Elbow area’s archeology, geography, and early history. It’s called “Looking for Aiktow.”
Joan’s son Neil Soggie wrote “The Young-Dogs of Elbow,” a historical fantasy for young readers. Neil, a psychologist, also writes books about psychology, philosophy, and religion.
Geosi Gyasi: You’ve written 75 books published in Canada and the United States. How does that mean to you?
Elma Schemenauer: I loved writing every one of those books. Some are quite short because they’re for little kids. For example, I wrote 12 children’s books about countries including Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda. Of course my books for older readers are longer. They include the middle-grade novel “Jacob Jacobs Gets Up Early” and the factual book “Native Canadians Today and Long Ago.”
Geosi Gyasi: Do you have a personal favourite among all the books you’ve published?
Elma Schemenauer: My favourite is “Consider the Sunflowers” because it’s my first novel for adults.
Geosi Gyasi: Besides living in Saskatchewan, you also lived in Montana and Nova Scotia. What took you to these places?
Elma Schemenauer: I spent two summers in Montana teaching Vacation Bible School to children living on ranches and farms. Later I went to Nova Scotia and taught junior-high English under the auspices of the Mennonite Brethren Church.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you have a formal education in writing?
Elma Schemenauer: I have a BA in English and psychology. However, much of what I know about writing and publishing comes from on-the-job experience. I worked for a Toronto publisher for eight years. Then I went freelance, writing and editing for a number of Canadian and American publishers including Nelson, Prentice Hall, and Grolier.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you belong to any group of writers?
Elma Schemenauer: I belong to the Interior Authors Group here in Kamloops. I also belong to the Federation of BC Writers and The Word Guild, a cross-Canada association of writers and editors who are Christian. Besides these, I belong to several online writers' groups.
Geosi Gyasi: What kind of books did you read growing up as a child?
Elma Schemenauer: As a child, I didn’t have access to a wide variety of books, but I read anything I could lay my hands on. When I was seven, I found a book called “Stories for Eight Year Olds.” I was so pleased to be able to read it even though I was only seven. I also enjoyed reading school books, Sunday School papers, and books from our tiny local library—whatever came my way.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you come from a family of writers?
Elma Schemenauer: I come from a family of storytellers. As I was growing up, I loved hearing my Mennonite relatives’ stories about the Old Country (Russia) and about their new life in Canada. A few of my relatives became writers. For example, Margaret Epp wrote many books of Christian fiction for young people. Rhoda Janzen, a relative by marriage, wrote the memoirs “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress” and “Mennonite Meets Mr. Right.”
Geosi Gyasi: Do you see yourself writing more books?
Elma Schemenauer: Right now I’m working on an adult book of short stories about mysterious and exciting events from Canada’s history. I’m also writing a second novel for adults. It features some of the characters I introduced in “Consider the Sunflowers.”
Geosi Gyasi: What do you regard as your greatest achievement as a writer?
Elma Schemenauer: Having my novel “Consider the Sunflowers” published by Borealis Press. That was a huge thrill for me.
Geosi Gyasi: What are your main research areas as a writer?
Elma Schemenauer: Canadian history, community life, Mennonites, church history.
Geosi Gyasi: Did you know as a child that you would one day become a writer?
Elma Schemenauer: At age eight I wrote a poem about spring, stuck it in a bottle, and threw it into a pond on my parents’ Saskatchewan farm. I think I knew then that I wanted to be involved in writing and publishing.
Geosi Gyasi: What is your personal view about literature in Canada?
Elma Schemenauer: I think we have some outstanding authors in this country. Among my favourites are Sandra Birdsell, Rudy Wiebe, and Mary Lawson. I also have a special interest in Canadian authors with a non-European background, for example, Esi Edugyan from Ghana, Rabindranath Maharaj from Trinidad, and Rohinton Mistry from India.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you write on a computer or in a notebook?
Elma Schemenauer: I usually write on a computer. However, if I’m having trouble with a particular passage, I find it helpful to write by hand. Or if I wake up at night with a wonderful idea, I write it out by hand.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you gain anything financially from writing?
Elma Schemenauer: Yes, especially from writing for educational publishers.
Geosi Gyasi: Do you have any “serious” advice for budding writers?
Elma Schemenauer: Read a lot. Be open to other people’s feedback on your writing. A good critique group can be helpful. Keep trying, even in the face of discouragement. Keep smiling.
RAY WISEMAN, COLUMNIST AND AUTHOR
A must-read for those who appreciate a good love story enhanced with adventure and historical accuracy, and enriched with insights into the human condition.
RAMONA FURST, AUTHOR Review published Dec 2014 in several places including Algoma Anglican and Goodreads
It is 1940. A small rural community in western Canada listens with interest about alliances being made against Great Britain and a man whose name is heard with greater frequency on the radio.
Residents of Dayspring, a Mennonite community, are still more interested in the affairs of the heart and farming than Hitler. Take Tina Janz. Her parents wouldn't mind if she married Roland, a man who she thinks is boring. Little do they realize she's more interested in marrying Frank. A man who carries a chip on his shoulder the size of Saskatchewan. Could Frank's self deprecating opinion of himself be true? "That [a] Gypsy [is as] unstable as molasses."?
Tina's faith in God established in childhood is severely tested when she and Frank get married and struggle with the death of a child.
Elma Schemenauer paints a vivid picture of a woman whose grief and search for love and meaning drives her spouse farther rather than closer to a God she thought she knew. As Frank says, "[There's] something almost holy about sowing seeds in...soil and getting food off it..[And] felt closer to God there than he ever had in church" but was that what his wife meant when she asked him if he believed in God?
Tina and Frank's unrealistic expectations of each other widens the great divide of misunderstanding and jealousy. As Tina harbors a secret, Frank is offered a job in Butte, Montana.
Schemenauer's description of the couple's quirky family and friends in Dayspring keeps the book from being an unrealistic portrayal of a Mennonite community in the Forties. The author's tongue in cheek humor and vivid word pictures in the novel are a real treat to read. As one of her characters says, "The Englische aren’t total heathens, you know."
Nor will I forget this line of the book when the author described a setting out of doors as "Sunlight was spilling across the snowdrifts like broken egg yolks."
GEORGE MARSHALL, AUTHOR
You are true to your characters. You have economy in your sentences. You use descriptive words sparingly and appropriately. I get a light, never forced, humor from your work too, which helps me get into your writing. Setting is realized well in the relationship of characters (feels small town) and daily activities, but you never spell it out for us. You obviously know how to trust your audience.
ROBIN TARNOWETZKI'S article "A familiar name writes book about Prairie life," published in SaskToday Jun 3, 2015 https://tinyurl.com/bdcrmtb7
An author with a name familiar to the area has released a book, Consider the Sunflowers, that draws heavily from her family history and Mennonite roots.
Elma Schemenauer, who grew up near Elbow and now lives in Kamloops, has written novels before, but this one was heavily based on family stories, and is 14 years in the making.
“It took me a long time, but it’s because I didn’t focus enough. I didn’t think enough about where it was going,” she said.
She began by doing a lot of research into her family’s background and then ended up writing a whole book about her Mennonite history dating back to the 1600s. When she realized that wasn’t the story she wanted to tell, she started on a new one, focusing on the viewpoint of a little girl, Clara. However, she wanted to tell the story from an adult viewpoint and so had to scrap all the parts that focused on Clara. Last October, the story she wanted to tell was finally released.
“I’ve always been interested in history and community and family and how families relate to each other,” she said.
Schemenauer’s publishing career began when she started work at a publishing company in Toronto. She was supposed to be an editor but did a lot of writing for people who asked her to write certain things. She said she loved writing about anything so she didn’t mind it, but now she’s focusing on her own writing.
“I’ve written so much and now I want to concentrate on my novels,” she said.
Consider the Sunflowers is about a couple in 1940s Saskatchewan and their conflicts in their marriage. It was based on stories she heard from her Mennonite relatives.
“We were very isolated on the farm so it’s kind of based on the isolation of that and how it affected my parents,” Schemenauer said.
Her favourite part of the whole book process is revision and editing. She also connects with writers online, getting them to give her advice. One is an author from Alberta.
“She has such an insight. When she comments, then I see how it can be made so much better,” Schemenauer said. “She draws it out of me.”
Another example is a 24-year-old male law student from New York state. Schemenauer found it useful to get a young male perspective from him so that her young male protagonist, Frank, would be realistic.
“What are the chances that, if we lived in the same town, we would develop a relationship like that? Not high,” she said. “Are we going to go out for coffee, a 24-year-old and this woman who’s way older? We wouldn’t have met other than on the Internet.”
However, her least favourite part of the process is simply finding a publisher. She sent the manuscript to many publishers and agents before getting a reply from Borealis Press.
“You have to develop a thicker skin because when they keep saying no, they usually say, ‘It doesn’t meet our needs at the present time,’” she said. “It’s kind of a nice way of saying it, but you know it’ll never meet their needs at any time. They’ll reject you and that’s the hardest part.”
She found out Borealis Press accepted her manuscript when her husband offhandedly mentioned that “Frank called for you.” Since her protagonist is named Frank, she was very confused at first.
“I thought, ‘Since when do characters in books call their authors?’ It was kind of creepy,” she said, laughing.
The small press is based in Ontario and was overall good to work with, but sometimes they didn’t really know what it was like in Saskatchewan. Initially, the cover design featured a woman looking out at a lot of trees, and Schemenauer said she had to put up a bit of a fight about it.
“It was just wrong,” she said. “It just doesn’t look like that on the Prairies … I really had to put my foot down and say it’s not like that at all.”
Though she said she based some characters on family – and her sister recognized a lot of people in the book – the reaction has been largely positive from her friends and family.
She’s currently working on a book set in the 1970s and would like to return to the 1940s again if she can get a new plot.
Some themes she wanted to get across in the book were to never give up and to have faith in God. The first theme kind of extends into her advice to writers in general.
“For other authors, it’s good advice to just keep trying,” she said. “Keep making it better and keep trying.”
LYN BALISTERI JENSEN, AUTHOR
I just finished reading "Consider the Sunflowers" by Elma Schemenauer and want to thank her for such a beautifully written, insightful story. Love isn't always easy, and the author pulls no bones about it; but this book is an uplifting source of hope for those who persevere in the face of all odds and hard times. Trying counts, even if we may not believe it at the time. Thanks for reminding us of that fact, Elma. Well worth reading!
EVANGELINE (WIENS) LUNDGREN, FORMER TEACHER
Review published on Chapters Indigo and elsewhere Aug 2019
This book is an enjoyable read. I was kept guessing as Tina struggled through her complicated relationship with Frank, the love of her life, and as she wrestled with her spiritual communion with the God of her Mennonite faith. How would she justify her marriage to Frank, a man who didn't share her deeply held religious beliefs and who had difficulty fitting in with her pious Mennonite church family? How would the death of her child affect her marriage and her relationship with God? How would she react when a former boyfriend comes back into her life? Would her marriage, already straining under the weight of her disagreements with Frank, survive? Her journey takes her through a range of deep emotions and encounters some unexpected twists and turns along the way.
My own Mennonite heritage made it easy for me to identify with the characters in the book and their way of life in rural Saskatchewan in the 1940's. The story is set in a fictional prairie town which closely resembles the author's hometown of Elbow, Saskatchewan. Since I taught school at Elbow in the early 1960's I recognized several familiar surnames used in the story and the references to the Scandinavian Lutherans who live there was noteworthy to me.
The Mennonite Timeline at the end of the book which outlines the history of Mennonites beginning in the 1500's and continuing to the present day was of great interest to me. Our ancestors sojourned through different areas of Europe seeking a land where they could freely live within their Pacifist beliefs. Military exemption was of utmost importance but this became an irritant to the political rulers where they lived. So, when in 1786 Empress Catherine of Russia extended an invitation for them to settle in her newly acquired land in the southern area of Russia, many Mennonites relocated there. Along with fertile farm land they were offered freedom from military service and control of their own churches and schools. However, the "golden years" in Russia ended with the Communist Revolution of 1917. Today, Mennonites are scattered throughout the world with significant numbers in Canada and the U.S.A.
SUSAN DEBEESON, AUTHOR
Tina Janz has challenges! Her Saskatchewan parents want her to marry a dull fellow. But she leaves her Vancouver job to marry Frank, an exciting half-Gypsy. Will they survive the hardship of farm life in their Mennonite community? Dealing with Frank's resentment of the rejection of his mixed parentage combined with their son's death brings about change. An excellent novel!!
KAREN KRESSIN, AUTHOR Review published on Chapters Indigo and elsewhere Nov 8, 2018
Sparkling writing brings WWII-era Canada alive
Mennonite farmers in Canada with recent experience living in Russia make up the society depicted in Elma Schemenauer's charming novel Consider the Sunflowers. As the story progresses, we get to know the protagonist Tina as a career girl in a coastal city and later as a young farm wife in a remote area of Saskatchewan. During the 1940s, she navigates the struggles of coming of age, finding a husband, and settling in to married life. Throughout, she takes refuge in her deeply held Mennonite faith. Meanwhile, her handsome husband Frank grapples with his own challenges.
The author presents the story with a generous helping of local and historical detail that brings the home front of World War Two era Canada alive. With sparkling metaphors like "dill-pickle crisp morning," "snoring like a threshing machine," and "eyes as curious as a village matchmaker," Schemenauer helps us see, hear, and even taste the features of life on the Canadian prairie. Details about farming techniques and the rhythm of the days and seasons place us firmly in that environment, but the novel also gives us a glimpse, like a fading memory, of life as it was in faraway Russia.
The book is peppered with humor and deftly drawn minor characters that delight at every turn. Schemenauer can convey a great deal about a personality with a small detail of a habit or a quirk. I came to care about the engaging and sympathetic Tina, and while I was reading the book, I always looked forward to my next opportunity to find out what happens to her around the next corner.
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.
Consider the Sunflowers will appeal to people interested in family life, relationships, love and marriage, farming life and rural culture, 20th century history, and the diversity that is Canada.
DORIS NURMI BEATON, READER
I was afraid reading the last chapter that it would have a "happily ever after" ending. Glad it didn't. Life just isn't like that! But sometimes it is. It would have just added to the pain of those struggling with less than ideal relationships!
SILVIA VILLALOBOS, AUTHOR Review published on her blog and elsewhere May 4, 2015
Tina’s father wants her to follow Mennonite tradition. He also wants her to marry Roland, a rich man, but she’s in love with Frank, a half-Gypsy who doesn’t share her faith. The novel pulled me right in with an extremely visual opening scene. Tina, her father Obrom, and Roland are trapped in a snow storm when their truck gets stuck in a ditch. This in 1940 Canada, and winters are brutal. Not far from there, however, is Frank’s farm -- Frank, the half-Gypsy Tina is in love with -- and after much effort the trio makes their way to the farm.
By alternating the chapters from Tina’s viewpoint to Frank’s, the author offers glimpses inside the love they share as well as the obstacles standing in their way. For example: what would Obrom do if Frank asked for Tina’s hand? Get very mad. Also, Tina wants to follow tradition Frank is not keen on following. Aware of this, he wants to break it all off, as he and Tina weren't that good together. Too many rules, angry words, accusations.
The author does a masterful job describing time and place. When Tina moves to Vancouver to work as a secretary, we see through her perusal of the Vancouver Sun, that Hitler still threatens to invade Norway. Germany and Italy to form alliance against UK. America remains neutral but for how long?
Also, in Vancouver, Victor Graf, a carpenter, enters the story. While Tina corresponds with Victor and sees him, her heart remains with Frank, the half-Gypsy back home.
Eventually, Tina and Frank find their way back to each other when she returns to Dayspring. The author’s descriptions of place and character are beautiful, with lines like: Frank with eyes so brown. She could lose herself in those eyes, follow their promises to the ends of the earth.
Theirs is not an easy relationship, and that is what captivates. Frank is an interesting but complex character. Having lost his mother as a child, he carries a certain burden with him, a situation complicated by the fact that he’d rather associate with Scandinavian and British than Mennonites in Tina’s community.
When they do become a couple, the tension only intensifies. We see Tina struggle to accept life on Frank’s farm as she hopes that even though he doesn’t accept her faith he will change. Later, we see her suffer a close and personal loss, a serious test of faith.
The author leaves us with a sense of hope, beautifully accentuated by artistic descriptions. Be sure to read the timeline at the very end. It summarizes the history of Mennonites who emigrated from Russia to North America as well as those who came from Switzerland and Germany.
I very much enjoyed reading this novel and highly recommend it.
