The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia

Connie Braun

From the back cover copy: "... invites the reader to embark on a journey that traces the paths of ancestral memory over the steppes of the Russian empire to the valleys of Canada’s Fraser River." The smaller images below show the order of presented sketches. I really liked the idea of a mennonite carriage being left behind with the horse running away. The problem with this one and the other ones that followed was that I was using imagery that most Canadians associate with mennonites but they were fundamentally inaccurate. Here is comment from author : "Such imagery belongs to the Amish strain that immigrated from the Netherlands to North America in the 1700's (prior to the beginning of my story) and have nothing at all to do with my heritage ... the Russian/Soviet Mennontites of this story did not wear costumes, they assimilated - they had to, under communism."

The final accepted cover shows a red scarf blowing over the Russian Steppe.