When Carmen Boden Stenholm was 9, she and her mother escaped Communist East Germany to West Germany, where they lived in hiding for a year.

Her haven in the underground and eventual passage to America were arranged by Carmen's maternal grandmother.

Those three generations of women form the heart of Mrs. Stenholm's novel, "Crack Between the Worlds," which will be launched at an invitation-only celebration at 7 p.m. March 26 at St. Clair Country Club.

The book, which the Peters woman said blends the family's story and historical facts with fiction, will be available at Peters Township Public Library in April.

The 300-page work was published by local publisher Red Engine Press.

"The story is primarily about women and their survival. It could be anybody's family. None of us would be here if courageous women had not made it possible," Mrs. Stenholm said.

While her ancestors provided the inspiration, it was Mrs. Stenholm's granddaughter who supplied the impetus to write the family story.

"When my granddaughter was born, I decided if something was to happen to me she would have no connection to, or information about, the people who came before her," Mrs. Stenholm said.

After settling in Grand Forks, N.D., with her mother and grandmother, young Carmen, who spoke no English, found school in the states tough in the post-World War II era.

"It was still a time of terrible feelings about the war. Kids in school would call me 'Nazi' and beat me up regularly that first year," she recalled.

But the experience did not cloud her appreciation of the kindnesses of most Americans, nor did it deter her lifelong joy in education.

After 25 years as an administrative analyst, instructor and mentor program developer at the University of California at Los Angeles, Mrs. Stenholm, 60, took an early retirement in 2001 to accompany husband Karl Stenholm to France for his work as an electrical engineer.

The couple -- each of whom has one daughter from a prior marriage -- moved to Peters in 2007.

That was when she decided to try her hand at her first novel. The novel begins in 1871 when her great-grandmother, who was orphaned as a girl, was married off at age 14 to her father's best friend, who already had four children. When her husband was killed while working in a factory, it fell on the young widow to raise his four and the couple's eight children.

The theme, said Mrs. Stenholm, is never to give up. "When they made the choice to go on in spite of the challenges, they gave us the opportunity to live," she said of the women in the book.

As the novel's narrative ends in the mid-1950s, might a sequel be in the offing?

"If I have interest from people, I will go on," she said.

For more information and how to purchase the book [$24.95 hardcover and $18.95 softcover], e-mail Mrs. Stenholm at: stenholm.phd@comcast.net.

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