Standing up to Bullies

Diversity mural at Bernie Wolfe School in Winnipeg

Last Wednesday was labelled ‘pink day’ supporting awareness about bullying. and I was delighted to share that theme as presented in Waltraut with local grade eight students. I suggested that a good way to not get pushed around by bullies is to have a strong sense of one’s self. When you know your own story, you aren’t persuaded to adopt someone else’s narrative. My protagonist, Waltraut, had an identity crisis and let others take advantage of her vulnerability.

As Canada gets pushed around by the USA, we find ourselves re-connecting with what it means to be Canadian. In my novel, Waltraut discovers her power comes not from imitating Nancy Drew, but from owning who she is, Waltraut Weiss.

Waltraut’s parents were very proud of becoming Canadian. It was a country they chose to raise their children. It is a country that does not aspire to be more like the Americans. It is a country that aspires to be what its steady stream of new immigrants dream it can be … more Canadian.

Check out 49th Shelf’s recent newsletter for other children’s books encouraging newcomer’s self-esteem and empowerment.

Mural supporting Ukrainian
Immersion program at Bernie Wolfe School 

 

Zhytomyr in the News

Recent headlines about rare minerals in Ukraine, remind me of the day trip we took while visiting Ukraine twenty years ago when I got to view a titanium mine near Zhytomyr. 

Titanium mine near Zhytomyr

Whenever I hear or see Zhytomyr in the news, I pay attention. That’s where my grandfather was arrested, interrogated and executed back in 1937. When I stayed there in 2004 it was a sleepy, maybe even depressed, town still boasting its Lenin statue. I was more interested in the secret police archives than in Zhytomyr’s mines. 

Now, Zhytomyr might become a hub for American mining companies—or not!  That will definitely bring changes to the area. I hope they’re good ones. This area, once known as Volhynia, has been through decades of dark times … expertly discussed in Timothy Synder’s Bloodlands. (Link to YouTube lecture he gave).  From collectivization to famine to Nazi terror to extreme poverty and neglect … maybe titanium will bring prosperity. But so far, Zhytomyr in 2025, has only more turmoil. 

With Lenin in 2004 town square of Zhytomyr

Zhytomyr ditch where my grandfather's body
was thrown after his 1937 execution

Ukraine Deserves Better

I've been a supporter of the Samaritan Ministries of Ukraine (SMU) for more than twenty years now. My minimal contributions have gone towards creating widow homes for the destitute women in the rural Zhytomyr region of Ukraine ... an area where my family once lived. While SMU's founder, Don Miller from Oregon, has sadly passed on, his widow, Nancy, recently posted a request of fellow Americans to stop Trump's skewed efforts at peacemaking. Ukraine deserves better!

Just in case I have American readers of this blog .... here is Nancy Miller's (of SMU) plea:

Please call on the Trump Administration and congressional leaders to do right by Ukraine. Use your voice to make a difference for Ukraine:

Calling tool (https://americancoalitionforukraine.org/) - Call EVERY DAY!

Email Congress campaign (https://www.votervoice.net/RAZOM.../Campaigns/121991/Respond) - Use once. 

Email Congress campaign (https://ujoin.co/campaigns/3568/actions/public...) 

These links will ask for a donation. We are NOT suggesting you donate to them. 

Thank you!

The Chaos of San Pancho

My time is quickly winding down here in laid back, tropical San Pancho. As I sit on my apartment terrace, sipping green tea and pondering the day ahead, I view the busy street one floor below.

Pineapple and watermelon vendors cruise the streets blaring ads for their produce. A garbage truck passes, its dirty rear end somehow less smelly as a yearning crooner serenades its workers through the drudgery of their day. Dogs meander around scooters, ATVs, golf carts, BMWs, tourists and locals. Some canines even hitch rides. 

Free-range kids play tag, free-range roosters crow, and giant, rooted cacti bloom amidst the dust and exhaust fumes. It’s an incredible cacophony of sound, of motion, of smells. 

Every few doors there’s a different beat, another song, another voice adding cadence to the mayhem of the street. Fruit stands, butcher shops, cafes, tequila and chocolate shops co-exist with pharmacies, yoga studios and meditation centres. 

Friendly nods, accompanied by ‘hola’ or ‘buenos dia’ spice up navigation along the cobbled roads. Pfew! It’s a lot for this prairie dweller to absorb. But soon I’ll return to Winnipeg where it’s -26 not +26 and I can chill back into my comfort zone. 

Room to Create

As I prepare a presentation for young readers and writers, I’m taking stock of my 'office'. Here’s a rough sketch. I like to refer my writing space with Virginia Woolf’s words, ‘a room of one’s own.’  It’s my happy place where I’m surrounded by books, maps, plants, rocks and photos. The room has plenty of natural light with a French door leading out to a garden. During the long winter, the garden turns white like a blank screen or an empty page. But in the summer, it turns green with growth.  

sleeping garden featuring my pride and joy 
... a linden tree

Inside my room, the bulletin board hosts a scramble of notes … some might call it clutter … I call it my compost pile.  Those bits and pieces are the raw materials for growing stories.  Obits,  postcards, lines of poetry, stickers, reminders, quotes, writing rules that I want to follow, etc. …  

indoor compost board

On my shelves, I have one wall devoted to history for my German side and on the other wall, the focus is on Soviet era research ... reflecting the two huge influences on my family's history and my stories.

I also have a shelf devoted to writing craft books that guide and support me on this lifelong journey.

In between the two walls, I have shelves filled with the wonderful books by writer friends. There's never enough room because my friends have had incredible success and because my friendship circle grows bigger all the time. Good thing I have other rooms with more shelves!

books as portals to other times and places

Scattered amongst the books, like garden art,  I have stones, photos, candles and random artifacts that feed my imagination.  And ... in a small corner ... I have my own little stack of published novels. Pinch me!  

Cicero said, "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."  I totally agree!

Immigrants

As I prepare for a rare family reunion (in Mexico, of all places!) I remember the family members who won't be there. 

My grandmother Matilde and her youngest son, my uncle Jonathan

... both died during Siberian exile

But, at least now I know they once existed and a little bit of the story. 

Former East Prussian refugees arriving in Winnipeg, Canada, 1953

Learning about those who never had the opportunity to immigrate. 

The orphaned children left behind in East Prussia

The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front

 

The immigrant church in Winnipeg filled with displaced survivors
who turned to faith for healing. 

Where a daughter of immigrants 
tries to figure out who she is

War in Real Time

Horrific headline news from 2022 focusing on Mariupol during the early months of the ‘special military operation’ is the backdrop to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's new middle grade novel, Kidnapped from Ukraine. As the main character, 12-year-old Dariia, shares her fear, her courage, her passion for Ukraine the reader follows her beyond the headlines into a bizarre world of lies.

The only drawback is that this war story is NOT historical fiction. The middle grade kids in this story are inspired by real events happening NOW and that’s absolutely terrifying. I appreciated how deftly the author incorporated modern technology into the story.  It's 2022 and the children use their savvy computer skills to stay connected with each other and to channel their hope for the future.

My favourite character might be Anton—the brainwashed Russian boy. The author shows us how powerful the media can be in shaping a country’s people. It’s really important for youth to learn to be critical of news whether in school, on TV, or online. Who’s telling the story? 

A sub-story to Anton is his mother's greed ... another important aspect of how Putin succeeds to influence Russians, along with his father's perspective from the front lines. I really appreciated how Skrypuch gives young readers a view of both sides of this conflict. Plenty of discussion points here.

Novels like this one are great openers to discuss the power of propaganda, of the lure of money, and of the reality of war.

Favourite line, spoken by Daryia’s friend, Vadim on page 215, reads: “Not all soldiers hold guns.” Marsha Skrypuch is a soldier for Ukraine. 

Reunion and Memories

I’m preparing for a trip to Mexico next month. This will be different than my time last year because it includes a family reunion. My nuclear family here in Winnipeg lived quite isolated from the pack of cousins out west in BC or back in Europe. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been drawn to writing family stories … I’ve always lacked that connection.

On the Baltic

Growing up without grandparents or cousins, I got used to having no extended family and now I don’t miss having them in my daily orbit. You can’t miss what you’ve never had. Great friends more than make up for lack of family.  

On the Pacific 

But I am curious. How have the cousins dealt with family history? We share grandparents murdered under Stalin’s regime. We share lost windmills, East Prussian cooking, and folksongs. We’ve inherited unresolved trauma from war, homelessness, hunger, rape and guilt. These were our mothers, aunts and cousins who didn’t want to talk about what happened. These were our uncles who killed under Hitler’s orders. 

This family reunion will be interesting. As we walk the beaches of Mexico’s Pacific coast I’ll be thinking of the beaches I biked beside the Baltic … of the beaches near Palmnicken (now Yantarny) where Stuffhof prisoners were forced into icy waters … nothing like the sun-kissed sands of Mexico. Family reunions are for survivors. 

Baltic memorial to victims of death march

Imagine 2025!

IMAGINE my word for 2025. Thanks to John Lennon for saying it so succinctly, back in 1971. Imagine a world of peace. And let’s never stop sharing our imaginations through novels, song, dance, art and theatre. Imagine.

I guess that’s why I’ll continue to write. It’s my way to imagine. 

Grateful to have ‘imagined’ the five books that I’ve written over the last ten years. They’ve helped me to understand my family’s past in order that I could better understand my own present. And I guess that’s why I write and why I read … to understand. It’s through research and imagination that I’ve been able to create. 

10 years of imagination

Red Stone (aka The Kulak’s Daughter) focused on an 11-year-old kulak girl exiled from her family farm in present-day Ukraine. The series goes full circle in Waltraut when an 11-year-old immigrant girl in Canada finds the courage to tell her story.

We’re all stories. We all have inciting incidents, page turning plots or sagging middles, and we’re all searching for that soul-satisfying conclusion. 

Wishing us all understanding through imagination. 

 Imagine there’s no countries … 

Nothing to kill or die for

                

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Livin’ life in peace

You

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

                                                                                                     John Lennon, 1971