Book One: Russian Mennonite Chronicles

A Continuing Family Saga.

1915 Southern Ukraine: Fifteen-year-old Katarina takes little notice of the Great War and the regional conflicts in southern Ukraine — until she's injured in a rebel attack on the family farm. Her wealthy sister, Anna, offers safety behind the secluded walls of her husband’s estate. For women, in the German-speaking Mennonite world, the apron strings of freedom are held tightly by tradition. But Katarina has unorthodox plans for her life. Then, Russia erupts into civil war. And Ukraine demands independence. And now the future is anyone’s guess.

1951 Germany: After WW2, Peter’s adopted mother Katarina is presumed dead. But as a former refugee from Ukraine and betrayed by Nazi Germany, Peter is keenly aware of Stalin’s gaslighting tactics and Germany’s lies. Scarred by grisly war memories and intergenerational trauma, he challenges his confusion and guilt into transcribing Katarina’s newly found cryptic diaries from the Russian Civil War — believing the secret to her disappearance lies somewhere within the pages of history. But if the lid to Pandora’s box is opened, can it ever be closed again?

Katarina's Dark Shadow - Book One of the saga Russian Mennonite Chronicles is now available in paperback and Kindle versions via your digital Amazon store. Buy it today.

Themes: conservative religion, Mennonites, Ukraine, grief, loss, trauma, emigration, politics, history, Christianity

An introduction to the historical, political, and cultural background of the Mennonite people living in southern Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian Civil War.

Book Two: Russian Mennonite Chronicles 

When darkness falls, faith prevails.

1918: Southern Ukraine. When the Bolshevik Army sets fire to the German Mennonite villages, seventeen-year-old Katarina and her wealthy pregnant sister, Anna, flee across the barren lawless steppes. Thrust into an adult world with sinister characters and a rapidly changing political landscape, Katarina learns to use her strength and wits to protect Anna and her unborn baby. But the enigmatic environment forces Katarina to grapple with her pacifist beliefs and face the darkness within herself. When there’s nowhere to hide, can she trust God to save them?

1952/3: Munich, Germany. As Peter faces the scary prospect of becoming a father, he struggles with closure to his mother Katarina's death. Fuelled by painful memories, he searches her diaries for answers but finds more questions. Will Peter spiral down into the darkness of the past, or will the burgeoning new life bring hope for the future?

Themes: trauma, grief, pregnancy, miscarriage, death, sexual assault, war, Ukraine history, ethnic Germans in Russia, politics, Christianity.

This book can be read as a stand-alone, but it is best to read book one to fully understand the culture and the history.

Themes: grief, loss, trauma, love, rape, religious differences, the German occupation of Ukraine, Bolsheviks, WW1, WW2, Mennonites in Ukraine, Christianity.

Coming January, 2025.

an anthology to support the children of ukraine

In 2022, fourteen authors from around the world joined to create this incredible short-story anthology to raise funds to help the children of Ukraine recover from the trauma of war.

Genres include: historical fiction, literary fiction, fantasy, and memoir.

Each story portrays a child finding strength as they learn to cope with the violence around them.

Through Vira's Eyes written by MJ Krause-Chivers was selected as the feature story for the book. 

All sale proceeds of this book are donated to Voices of Children Ukraine — an organization devoted to helping children of Ukraine heal from PTSD.

MJ Krause-Chivers is the sole Canadian writer included in this anthology, and her story Through Vira's Eyes is the featured first story.

Through Vira's Eyes: a five-year-old girl copes with her war trauma by trusting her guardian angels while she and her young friend flee a bunker in Ukraine for the safety of the displacement camp across the river.