The Promise Seed: Saving Mother Earth
"The Promise Seed: Saving Mother Earth" is a historical fiction dealing with five genreations of Schulz's from Iowa. It's a love story of naive homesteaders to the prairie of northeastern Colorado. Only the wise counsel of a Cheyenne Native widower, Red Hair in Sun, and a famous seed specialist, Papa Paul, save them. Bitter blizzards, prairie fires, blistering summers challenge the best who live in dugouts with snakes, bugs, and darkness. Grasshoppers destroy their crops and even the wooden chairs in the kitchen. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, World War II are life-changing events but the family never loses faith in God/The Great Spirit. The children, like the seed crop, The Promise Seed, have talents of their ancestors: music, art, leadership, passion for seeds, and healing.The novel comes to a startling end as the grave reveals a long held secret.
Jody uses her profound observation and lyrical poetic writing in bringing to life well-rounded and developed strong characters. Women show strength as well as humor and men show wisdom as well as tenderness.Reviewers have given 5 stars in their reviews and one even says, "It's better than Steinbeck".Terror and fear are matched with unbending faith in God/Great Spirit in the love and connectios to all living creatures. This novel matches Haruf's "Plainsong". This first novel joins Glittenberg's five other writing awards in anthropology and psychiatric nursing.