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Today would have been my Grandma Lorna Miller Hansen’s 120th birthday. She was born in 1900 and died in 2000 at one hundred years of age. I always thought of her as my Bohemian grandma. When I filled out family nationality charts in grade school, I was told that she was 100% Bohemian, which meant my dad was half Bohemian and I was a quarter Bohemian. But the reality was, she was half Bohemian and half German. So began the curiosity that sparked my new mystery, PLUM TART IRIS, which is dedicated to Grandma Hansen and her mother, my great-grandmother, Mary Eukel Miller Danielson, who we called Grandma Danny.
I knew my Grandma Danny until I was a young teenager. She was very precious to me, and very proudly Bohemian. I can still remember watching her make homemade noodles, sweet dough, and kolaches. She had large, strong hands, and was famous for doing cross stitch so precisely that it was as beautiful on the backside as it was the front. When I knew her, she lived in Minnesota, next door to my Grandma Hansen in a trailer ringed in snow-on-the-mountain and Johnny Jump-Ups. When my dad was young, she lived in St. Ansgar, Iowa, where I now own a B&B and Tea House.
My Great-Grandpa Miller died of cancer when he was a young man. My dad never knew him, so rarely spoke of him, and I never questioned but that he was Bohemian, too. When I went to live in Germany when I was twenty, no one mentioned that I was part German. I was there for three years and had no idea that I had roots in the German soil and culture. When I came home, my family fell in love with the jaegerschnitzel and homemade spaetzle noodles I prepared. When we adopted German food as our preferred holiday meal, we joked about how odd it was that we preferred it over longtime family favorites even though we had no German blood.
I should have known something was amiss, but no one in all those years had ever cooked us German food, or talked about German traditions, or even mentioned anything German.
As I got older, I finally realized that the surname Miller was not Bohemian, started to question my dad about his heritage, and found out that his Grandpa Miller was a migrant farm worker – German – who came to the Eukel farm – Bohemian – looking for work. He was hired and told he could live in the barn. They were not happy when he fell in love with their daughter. Although they married and had four children, it was evidently easy to forget his contribution to our family tree and pretend the whole episode never happened when he died.
This was my first clue that the enmity that has impacted German and Bohemian history for centuries had touched my family. My curiosity led me to research historical documents from different periods, to start plotting a book set in Bohemia, and eventually, to plan a trip to the Czech Republic where I was able to see the land from where my ancestors immigrated and learn more about my heritage.
I chose today as the release day for PLUM TART IRIS, my first Wildflowers of Bohemia Mystery, to honor my ancestors, and the secrets and surprises that are part of my heritage. What happens in Plum Tart Iris is purely fictional, but it was sparked by a fascination with my own family’s history. Whether you have a bit of Bohemian blood, a bit of German blood, both, or neither, I think you’ll enjoy taking a look at the history of two families who lived in Bohemia when World War II came to an end, and how what happened impacted the lives of the generations that followed.
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I just read an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of a new series by S.E. Turner. Because the new book I got to read (Sorceress of the Sapphire, Book One – Kingdom of Durundal 2) isn’t out yet, I can’t write a review, so I thought I’d rave about it here. I’ve never done this before, but I think this series is the perfect read for the situation we’re in now – so here I go…
The Kingdom of Durundal series is listed as fantasy, a genre I don’t normally read – but I think it’s much more than that. The characters feel too real, and the problems they face too immediate, to be fantasy. To me, it feels like a historical look at what clan life used to be like in Scotland, or some other ancient realm before recorded time. And we all know that history repeats itself, like it or not. For the same reasons I love J.R. R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’s novels, I am completely drawn to The Kingdom of Durundal.
Why? Horrible things happen to Turner’s characters, but they rise above their challenges and survive. Heroes spring up and save the day when least expected, when all seems lost. Whether old-fashioned ingenuity or analytical minds applying themselves in a genius way, or something just a little magical or beyond our understanding, the battle is always won. There is loss, there is heartbreak – people die and worlds change so much that you know deep down things will never be the same, but somehow, in the end, good always prevails over evil. Hope blossoms when you are sure that all hope is lost. I don’t know about you, but I find that inspiring, now more than ever.
In the author’s own words, The Kingdom of Durundal’s five books are made up of the following elements: Fantasy, history, ancient mythology, sword and sorcery, battles, apothecary (herbal medicines), spirituality, honour, betrayal, vengeance, magic, sacrifice, coming of age, love, strength, courage.
It’s an amazing combination. Some things that I personally love about these books – the author interweaves themes like greed and selfishness, a struggle as contemporary as it is ancient – and redemption! Forgiveness, and second chances, delayed gratification and patience, make the characters so perfectly imperfect that you will fall in love with them just as I did.
https://www.amazon.com/S-E-Turner/e/B078Q7LZW9/
Click here to check out S.E. Turner’s novels on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/S-E-Turner/e/B078Q7LZW9/
I can’t tell you to rush out and buy Sorceress of the Sapphire, the first book in the new series, which I am thrilled to report, takes place a decade and a half later, but still in the Kingdom of Durundal, because it won’t be available until May 1st. But if anything I’ve said sounds interesting, it’s the perfect time to read A Hare in the Wilderness – Book 1, A Wolf in the Dark – Book 2, A Leopard in the Mist – Book 3, A Stag in the Shadows – Book 4, A Moth in the Flames – Book 5. By the time you’re done, the first book in the continuing series will be available for order, and you will thank me for recommending them.
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Please indulge me… I don’t mean to brag, but both of these reviews were recently posted on Amazon Canada by a new reader of my books and touched me so deeply that I wanted to share them with you. If you’ve questioned what my books are about, or whether or not you should try reading one of them, perhaps this will help.
NIGHT and DAY
“Sherrie Hansen’s book Night and Day blew me away.
This was my Sunday afternoon read and the storytelling was so engaging I didn’t stop turning the pages until I was finished. But it still me kept me up late into the night because I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
This NEVER happens to me! First, I can’t remember the last time I finished a book in one sitting! Second, it’s rare that I lose sleep over a book unless I’m reading it!
Night and Day is not a typical contemporary romance novel. It is sophisticated, mature, exceptionally written, and deeply, emotionally engaging. I am not a romantic, not really, but Night and Day has me questioning my cynicism, believing in romance, and seeing men through a new lens.
Sherrie Hansen is not only a beautiful storyteller, but she is also an accomplished writer. Her characters are vivid, realistic people that carry the weight of their pasts into their current lives. I identified and bonded with Jensen, a late-30s unmarried woman clinging to her roots while at the same time aware that time is ticking and she’s failing to realize her dream of having a family and a happy ever after.
Jensen leapt off the pages for me and became real, a friend I wanted to have, a woman I wanted to be. Jensen has little character quirks that if not well-written (and seldom are) can be off-putting, but under Hansen’s careful handling, they become endearing, sometimes a little maddening, but an integral part of who Jensen is and what makes her so believable.
Jensen is loved by two men – Ed, who gives her the physical love she needs, but his own painful past prevents him from letting go emotionally and Anders, who loves her with all his heart, who tells her in his words and his emotional support but can’t be a presence in her life because they are separated by distance and their own stubbornness.
The story is so skillfully handled that I couldn’t predict the outcome until towards the end of the book. And it wasn’t a prediction by then, it was Hansen leading me to its beautiful conclusion.
Another element to this book that’s important to note is the deep ties Jensen has to her past, to her great-grandmother, Maren, who emigrated to the US from Denmark. A bundle of letters written by Maren in Danish tell a story of love, romance and difficult choices. Hansen deftly weaves the two love stories together using the letters as a catalyst for the growing relationship between Jensen and Anders. It’s beautifully done.
Night and Day is an emotional rollercoaster of a romance novel. It’s contemporary but set in the early days of internet, when dial-up connections were slow and unreliable. This is a clever inclusion as it adds an intense element to the story telling, an atypical roadblock on the often, rocky path to love.
I think this was Hansen’s first book and it is so obvious that she wrote it with love in her heart. I did not want this book to end, ever. I didn’t want to let go of Jensen’s story. I cannot wait to read Daybreak, Sherrie Hansen’s sequel to Night and Day. I just have to wait for another lazy Sunday afternoon because I have no doubt how I will be spending it.”
DAYBREAK
“Sherrie Hansen is a storyteller and understands the vagaries of life in all its messiness. She doesn’t write perfect characters which ironically is what makes her characters perfect.
They are right and wrong in their thoughts, their relationships, their selfishness and their desires. They struggle with the difficulties they encounter, get side-tracked by them so badly sometimes that they lose sight of the big picture. Like every single one of us!
It’s almost impossible to review this book and do justice to it at the same time. It had me on an emotional roller-coaster from page one because the interplay and conflict between the characters is so identifiable.
This extended to the relationship between Jensen and her parents, Jensen and Anders, Jensen and Bjorn (her stepson), Anders and his son, Anders and his boss and so on.
It subtly showed that life is not perfect and that sometimes everything spins out of control in a way that takes you away from what you believed were your dreams, your beliefs, your priorities. In their desire not to hurt one another, Jensen and Anders do exactly that. Their story left me fuming and crying and frustrated. But also made me reflect on my own behaviour towards the ones I love and what truly is important in life.
Finally, this book, like Night and Day, was beautifully written and exceptionally edited, two critical components of a five-star book.
I shall be reading a lot more of Ms. Hansen’s books.”
Blue Belle Books... a Blog by Author Sherrie Hansen 