About First Year

Stevie O’Neill, a young LA actress, recklessly marries visiting Robert Anderson and follows him to South Dakota. There, she discovers that her Hispanic/Irish ancestry doesn’t bother her blue-eyed blonde in-laws, but her lack of domestic skills does—a situation Mom Anderson is determined to correct.

This orphaned, metropolitan smartass becomes an unwilling Martha Stewart in a student trailer park—but her life is not all drudgery. In Los Angeles she’s a grunt in an army of wannabe celebrities; in South Dakota she’s a star because of a beer commercial. Her brief fame even gets her a teaching job at the University.

Stevie’s new existence is filled with adventures most city girls never experience—or want to. She goes pheasant hunting; she survives blizzards; she drives the Hereford Queen in the Homecoming parade. She’s thrown into an extended family circle and learns to deal with all that goes with family life.

In the first year of an impulsive, hormone-driven marriage punctuated by misunderstandings and reconciliations, Stevie discovers that her Prince Charming has skid marks in his tights. Should she stick with him? At least for one more year?

Praise for First Year

“…sidesplitting comedy. It’s an entertaining look into a realistic modern-day modern romance. Schnell’s writing is guaranteed to generate smiles.” Romantic Times, May 2004

“…I want to offer you my congratulations. What an amusing story you’ve crafted here! I flew through these pages, cackling throughout. This is a deft, funny, snappy book.” Joyce Engleson, freelance editor.

Selected Editor’s Choice by iUniverse Publishing.

To order, contact www.iUniverse.com or any online book merchant.

(ISBN 0-595-28826-X)

Contact the author at: Barbara@BAGMLIT.com

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The Epic of the Ordinary–

In Barbara Schnell’s “First Year” we embark on a journey into the “epic” of the ordinary as we journey with the talented protagonist–a young actress-- from “less than legendary” mythical Los Angeles into the unknown trials and tribulations of exile in– South Dakota!  After a whirlwind romance she marries and follows her husband to grad school in his hometown of Brookings, South Dakota where she wonders if she’s signed on for connubial bliss or miss. Thrust into the arena of in-laws, outlaws, academia, the pinch of gender generated expectations, and small town “prairie home” pragmatism, she encounters what seem at first like Stepford church ladies, and men with the emotional range of the nearby Mt. Rushmore gang. It’s enough to turn any girl an occasional “Medea.” As she turns from anomaly to influence, we see some of “the girls” turn into Trojan Women and explore new tactics and entitlements.  Greek drama got at universal truths through the epic stories of the gods and monsters and vulnerable human beings in all of us.  Schnell takes us on an endearing, enlightened, and thoroughly enjoyable journey to universal truths through the epic of everyday life.  En route I found myself nodding my head in recognition. I laughed. I sighed. I even cried –(which may be illegal for men in South Dakota). I know these people. “First Year” kicks our proverbial American Gothic flying buttresses– but doesn’t remove our quintessentially American underpinnings.  This isn’t a book of pot shots and good laughs at the expense of Midwesterners.  Schnell is an engaging storyteller– and a compassionate and wise observer of human behavior in her book that is very American, very universal, and very entertaining.  

James Koenig, Director/Founder of Scandinavia/LA Film Festival, author of And the Meter is Running…,