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.