Meet Emma and Anna and Emma

School house in Aztalan, Wisconsin.

 Emma was only half-listening to Mr. Cook. Instead, she admired the craftsmanship, from the even red brick walls to the white shutters beside the windows to the paved, from the stone walkway to the paneled front door. She trembled as she laid a hand on the stair railing. The Cook mansion next door was large and magnificent and reminded her of so many of the houses she had visited back East. Still, this school-house, perfect in dimension, was beautiful in its own way.

The interior was as impressive as the exterior. Rows of new wooden desks, a blackboard as clean and sleek as Mr. Cook’s well-groomed black mare, a potbelly stove still shiny from not yet having seen a fire. Piles of lumber under the windows suggested that perhaps bookcases were yet to be built. She could only imagine how much this had cost him. How could the town ever repay him?

"The books and other supplies are still in a storeroom at the mercantile. I’ll ask Saul and one of the other men to bring them down whenever you are ready to start your work here."

She nodded, still speechless, turning in one more circle around the room.

"I do need to show you the cellar yet."

Emma looked again around the room, wondering where the stairs were. 

"Here," he guided her to the corner near the front door and pulled back a braided rug. A door, with latch and hinges, lay flush with the floor. He bent down to grasp the latch. "Before we go down, however, I have something to tell you. And I have to ask you to keep a secret."

I haven’t shared any excerpts from “Prior to Now” in quite a while. Here, the school marm, Emma, visits her new schoolhouse and learns for the first time that there is a secret built within the building.

The novel revolves around the lives of the three women who become dedicated to saving this school. Of all of them, Emma grows the most throughout the story. We see her go from a girl fresh out of high school to an elderly woman, from being unsure of herself to being strong and independent.

Anna with her husband 
and four oldest children. 

I guess that’s how I picture my great-grandmother, Anna Wagner, my mother’s grandmother. She was born in 1871 in Germany, and came to the United States in 1889. She married Rudolph Steinbach in 1891, and they had had nine children over the next 19 years. She died in 1926 at the age of 55.

But for some reason, I named the school teacher in my book after a different grandmother, my dad’s mom. She was a tough German woman too. 

My grandmother Emma. 

I'm also still looking for more reviews of "Prior to Now" on Amazon. I'd greatly appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the book with the world. 

Goals and Life

When I started this blog in the summer of 2012, my intention was to share my writing story and my writing goals. I did well with that for quite a few years, posting long lists of goals I had for each week and how many of them I had accomplished the previous week. All while I was still working full-time!

I don’t know what happened. Life, I guess, but for the last three or four years, I’ve been posting here very sporadically. I think it’s time to put the train back on the tracks.

Last summer, I started writing on paper in a tablet my weekly goals. I think it helps to have that pad of paper staring at me whenever I sit at my laptop in my office. That doesn’t mean I am a rock star about accomplishing what I’ve written down, but at least it reminds me of what I wanted to do.

On that list for this week is:

1)     Study 3 John. Last summer I returned to the Bible Study group I had gone to seven years ago, but then when I went back to work parttime in September, I was no longer able to attend. I've been trying to keep up with what they are reading each week and hope to return to the group soon.

2)     Sew 2 bags. I mentioned those two weeks ago. The little book bags I’ve been sewing to sell with my books at upcoming craft shows.

3)     Edit the Covid Chronicles. Back when the Covid-19 pandemic hit three years ago, I started writing a journal of how my days were going, especially what it was like working in a family practice clinic and all the challenges we went through. I’d like to publish it, but sometimes I still don’t know; it's pretty personal. I’ll see how I feel after I get through this round of edits.

4)     Do something with health insurance. Well, this is too long a story to write about here, but I’ll just say that as I get closer to being fully retired, I need to get some sort of health coverage and marketplace insurance didn’t work out for me when I was on it for four months last year.

5)     Vacuum and wash the car. It certainly needed it, but the real factor was that Hubs and I have been talking about buying a different vehicle so I thought my current one should look presentable as a trade-in. 

Here it is Friday, and I can say that even though I haven’t accomplished all these goals yet this week, I have at least worked on all of them. 

Hmm? So here’s the question. Do I write this blog on Fridays and switch my list from Sunday thru Saturday over to Friday through Thursday? Or figure out a day of the week that works better for this blog? Can you see why I have such a hard time checking off anything on that list?

Oh, and one last thing. I need to do something to promote my latest book every week. I know you are sick and tired of hearing about it and even though I have two reviews on Amazon now, I need to keep pushing it! 

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading. Chris

And, as mentioned last week, I'm always planning road trips. 

 

A Plea and Other News

I’ve spent the last four months publishing and promoting my latest book, “Prior to Now”. You’re probably tired of hearing about it, but I’ll have to keep bugging you. My current goal is to get a dozen reviews, so if you shop Amazon.com and have read my novel, please, please, PLEASE write a review. Even if you didn’t particularly care for this book, mediocre reviews carry more weight than none.

The other bit of news which I have not shared is regarding the first three books I wrote.

Jeremiah Zeiset took a chance on me ten years ago and published my first book, my memoir, “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven”. His publishing company was Life Sentence Publishing at that time, but over the years, as their focus evolved, the name changed to Aneko Press. Jeremiah and the rest of his staff are wonderful to work with, have always responded to my annoying emails within hours, and treat their authors like friends.  

“A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven” was published in the fall of 2012, and the two devotionals followed a few years later. After any books have been in print for that long, sales dwindle. Thanks to the capability of Amazon to print books on-demand, they aren’t languishing on a book store shelf somewhere, but they still languish in the virtual world.  

Jeremiah contacted me a few months ago, asking if his organization could turn those books over to me. He would no longer have to keep track of those few sales the books are making, and I would have control over promotions, prices, and any future edits I thought were needed. It was a win-win situation for me and Aneko Press. But I do have to admit to a momentary grief as I cut ties with the publisher who gave me my start. I’ll forever be grateful to Jeremiah for that.

So, moving on, I might mention those three books a little bit more here and on my social media. Each of my books is a baby of mine, and I will never let one of them slip away.

Have a good weekend. Chris