Deana J. Driver's Blog, page 18

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 2

Hello! It's me again, the Never Leave Your Wingman book. What a fun summer I've had. First, my publishers took me to Austria on my Excellent European Adventure. Then we headed to Italy.

I know! Exciting, huh?

So here's our look at the Italian Alps. 

Just about as beautiful as the Austrian Alps, but we did not see them up close. We kept on driving to get to that beautiful city of more than 100 islands separated by canals - Venice (Venezia).



The closer we got, the more vineyards and orchards we saw. A unique feast for our eyes.
There it is! Venice! Oh my gosh! We just had to go over a long, long bridge and....

...hop on a vaporetti (water taxi)....
...then admire all the wonderful old buildings along the water's edge as we made our way ...
...into the heart of the city.
This was the view from our bed and breakfast room. In the morning, we woke up to hear the animated voice of an Italian grandma (we're guessing) across the alley from our room giving animated, correct instructions (we're guessing) to the younger woman who also lives in the apartment. 
Ah, breakfast is served - Italian style. Yogurt, croissants, jellies, dry rye bread, fruit punch, strong coffee and hot chocolate (my publishers' beverages of choice for Day One in Italy).  
This is my version of taking a gondola ride. Beautiful, isn't it?

Gondolas, gondolas everywhere. What a pretty sight.
My publishers took a 'selfie' in front of this mirror along the Grand Canal. Selfies. What a strange word. In the old days, those would have been called 'creative self-portraits'. HUGE mirror, though, huh?
One of the many interesting shops I saw in Venice was this one, with very original, handcrafted books that were being purchased for use as diaries and journals. I just liked the pretty colours.
Too soon, it was time to say goodnight to beautiful Venice.

Then it was on to Rome! Here I am, on my first train ride in Europe. This was a pretty interesting drive. I had a seat all to myself...
...and I even got to look out the window as the train drove through hills, valleys and tunnels to get us into Rome. I should explain that my publishers were told that it would be smarter to park their rental car in a town about an hour away from Rome, then take a train rather than drive in to Rome, so that's what they did. So we added train travel to our list of European experiences.
The Trevi Fountain, completed in the 1700s, is one of the prettiest sites in Rome.
Especially at night... as these tourists would all agree.
Then we rounded a corner some time later, we came upon this magnificent building...
The Pantheon. Are you kidding me? It felt like we'd walked into a movie set where this giant structure had been plunked down in the middle of modern-day Rome. It was a spectacular sight at night. The Pantheon was built between 27 and 25 B.C. as a temple to all gods and it stands where the founder of Rome died. Check out its many records here.(Oh, that's my publisher Al, posing for a picture, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.)
I had a front-row seat (for a book, of course), enjoying the view of this enormous building from the edge of a fountain in that square.

On our walk back along the streets of Rome, we came upon this unique restaurant entrance. Upon entering, you walk over this floor panel that holds a number of wine bottles and corks. Fascinating.
Rome reminded me of my subject, seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner. Dionne loved her trips to Italy before she met Graham and then again after they were married. Here she is in Italy in 1994... Pretty lady.

 Oh, and just a reminder of Dionne with Graham... here they are in July 2010, all dressed up to go into Dionne's chemo treatment as she fought Stage IV liver, lung and bone cancer.The theme that day?'Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy' of course.
Now, back to Rome this summer...
We visited the courtyard at Vatican City. No sighting of the Pope, but we did enjoy the buildings and people-watching.

Guess what this is.
It's one of the world's biggest and fanciest McDonald's restaurants. My publishers fluked into finding this extravagant building as they were looking for a quick supper. They just had to take some photos of the inside. Would you like fries with that?
Oh, here's me with my author. We're going underground in Rome. Literally. 
We got a kick out of this sign on the inside of the subway car door. You'd better not get caught in the door or your private parts - and your back - are really going to hurt! Ouch!
Sadly, we watched helplessly one night as a man getting onto the subway car had his wallet stolen by a pickpocket at the last second before the doors closed. Sigh. Real-life in Europe.

We couldn't help but feel the drama and the history of 2,000 years ago when we visited the Colosseum.
It was easy to imagine the roaring fans as the gladiators did battle in the Colosseum. Pretty incredible site.
I'll be back soon with the next part of my summer vacation.Read my first blog about my Excellent European Vacation.

Never Leave Your Wingman's Excellent European Adventure - Part 1

Hello there. It's me, the  Never Leave Your Wingman  book.

You may know that I am already a widely travelled book. I have heard from my author (Deana Driver) and her husband Al (who are also my publishers) and from my subjects (seven-time cancer survivor - oops, excuse me - eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner and her wingman husband Graham) that copies of me have been enjoyed by readers in Canada (where I'm from), the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Austria, Australia, England, Italy, Brazil, France, Israel, and several other countries.
Personally, I am pleased that my happy story ... er, Dionne and Graham's happy story ... of love, courage and hope is being shared by so many readers in places far away from where I was created.
So imagine my surprise when my author told me that she was taking me on vacation. And not just any old vacation to the beach or to see the family. She was taking me to Europe!
Wow. What an adventure!
I not only get to tell a beautiful, bestselling, fun-filled, inspiring love story about a multiple-cancer survivor who dresses up in costume and dances into chemo with her romantic wingman-husband at her side... I get to go to Europe, too!
You could have knocked me over with a feather when she told me about the vacation. Of course it would have had to be a very BIG feather because I am a full-bodied girl - at 272 pages (including the 32 pages of full-colour photographs).
Anyway ... I just knew this was going to be a marvelous adventure... so it only seemed right that I should share my experiences with you, my loyal readers. So hang on tight! We're going to have some FUN in Europe!

Here I am, peeking out of my author's bag, ready to go to the airport in Regina, Saskatchewan - my home city - to start my big trip.
I AM SO EXCITED!

Here, I'm waiting to board the WestJet plane to Toronto, Ontario - which also happens to be where the lovely Dionne Warner (the main subject of me) was born.

There's the plane! There's the plane! Oh my gosh, I can hardly wait!
Those WestJet folks are pretty nice - and funny, too. I can't say I visited with them much on the flight, though. I was resting up for my big journey.
Once we got to Toronto, we had a short wait in the airport before boarding our Condor Air flight to Frankfurt, Germany. 


My publishers have done a lot of travelling in North America, but this was their first trip to Europe, so they told me they were kind of unsure about a few things. They had not heard of Condor Air before this trip and they joked that they hoped the plane wasn't like the Condor Air from the Flintstones cartoons - a giant bird with a little seat on its back. Silly publishers.
To our relief, it was definitely not a giant bird. At least not a real bird. The flight was great and we all landed in Frankfurt safe and sound about eight hours later.
The first stop on our journey was the resort village of St. Johann im Pongau in Austria. Skiing in the winter, sweltering in the summer, pretty all the time.



I liked it in Austria. Of course, I like adventure and mountains and exploring new things, so I was a happy girl. My author was a little uncomfortable, though. Although she also loves the same things I love, it was 38 degrees Celsius outside and there was no air conditioning inside. Canadian Prairie girls aren't used to that much heat. Even on our hottest days of summer, it rarely gets past 35 degrees. Anyway, we all got through it just fine and enjoyed the sights in beautiful Austria.
First, we drove to Salzburg.

I didn't drive, of course. I'm only a book, silly. Publisher Al did all the driving for the three of us. Thank you, Al. And the rental car had a LOT more kilometres on it (9,348 to be exact!) by the time we were done our excellent adventure.

Anyway, Al drove us all to Salzburg for a day trip and I happily went along wherever and whenever my publishers invited me to come and see the sights.
In Salzburg, we took the funicular (a gondola-type elevator ride) up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress which overlooks the square. ...   
There's the fortress, behind and above this cool fountain.

Here's my author, showing me the great view of Salzburg from the steps of the Fortress. Nice, huh?
On another day, we travelled to Vienna (or Wien, as it's called in Austria). We ate lunch on a bench overlooking the gorgeous gardens of the Schonbrunn/Hofburg Palace, the former summer residence of the Habsburgs, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This palace has 1,441 rooms! Can you believe it? And I thought cleaning my little corner of the bookshelf was a tough job.

Can you see me in this photo?
How about now?
Yep, I am hanging out with some cute little bums on the back steps of the palace. There's nothing like cherubs to make you smile.

It was pretty darn hot in Vienna, too, in August, so we cooled down with a tasty treat - gelato. I like strawberry. Yummy!
Then came my favourite day in Austira - with a day trip to Hohe Tauern National Park.
Grossglockner is the highest mountain in the Austrian Alps at 3,798 metres. The Grossglockner glacier is the longest glacier in Eastern Europe.

I loved the view I got of the Grossglockner from behind these two chunks of mountain. 
The Austrian Alps are gorgeous, aren't they?


Here I am again, taking a front-row seat while we head back to the resort. I soon discovered that every single road we drove on in Europe - even in the small towns and countryside - was paved and in either excellent or great shape. Too bad we can't do that in Saskatchewan, but we do have more roads here than in any other Canadian jurisdiction and we do have a pretty small population by comparison. Sigh. One can always dream.
But we don't have tunnels in Saskatchewan. At least, not like this one and the dozen or so others we drove through to get to and around mountains, hills and various other bits of European geography. Publisher Al did very well driving us around western Europe. I am very proud of him.
So where did we go next? I'll give you a hint...


Stay tuned....

Words and Other Things In The Park - Regina

This has been an unusual summer because of a late spring, extra rain, and a late growing season. But the plants have finally grown and blossomed, and we are now enjoying all variety of outdoor experiences.

I've spent the noon hour for these past three Wednesdays in beautiful Victoria Park in downtown Regina - participating in Words In The Park.

On the first Wednesday, I was one of three writers who spoke, and I read from my non-fiction books Never Leave Your Wingman and   The Sailor and the Christmas Trees .


 We also heard from Marie Powell, who read some of her fiction...
 ...and Michael Trussler, who read some of his poetry.
(Here's a link where you'll see much better photos than we took that day. Thank you, Shelley Banks!)

For the last two Wednesdays, I was the host for Words In The Park, and I introduced these Saskatchewan writers:

Lt. Donald Aden Bowman wrote about his adventures at sea during the war.
Rolli read from his poetry and short stories. Leah Dorion read one of her children's stories...
... and Bob Friedrich read an article about Regina's downtown temples.

On my treks in and around the park, these are the sights that caught my attention:

The skyline - showing off Regina's 'twin towers'.

The setting up of the space for Words In The Park, with the Wednesday Farmers' Market in the background. 
This pillow, sitting so casually on a park bench, surprised me. Did someone put it there for others to use? Did someone use it and then leave it behind? Maybe it's just there for a photo prop. Hmmm.... my curious mind wonders (and often wanders, too).
This gorgeous two-coloured rose also surprised and pleased me.
Proselytizing In The Park. A young man loudly shared his evangelical Christian views, while another man carried a cross that stated "Are You Ready?' and another videotaped the speech and surroundings. At one point, a vendor had a chat with the speaker. She was obviously not happy about the effect the loud speech was having on her nearby farmer's market stall.
And then I saw Yoga In The Park - from the back side only. What a wonderful use of this downtown green space!

When I returned home, I stopped to enjoy my lovely flower garden before going inside to my home office to continue what I do best - write, edit and help others publish and market their books.




Enjoy the rest of the summer, folks! We certainly intend to do so!

We'll see you again in the fall!

A Journalist By Any Name

I began my writing career as a young child - writing poetry, short stories and epic-like letters to friends as a way to combat the boredom I felt as a farm kid with an overactive imagination. In high school, I used a 'Get Out Of Math Class Free' card to work on the student newspaper. I wrote whatever was needed to fill the pages of that monthly collection of trivia and drivel, after we'd inserted the gossipy sections of 'who likes who' (or more accurately - these initials likes these initials, and only four people in the whole school actually thought they could figure out the encryption) plus the artwork of an aspiring-hippy artist, of course. (He really was quite talented and he did go on to earn a living in that craft.)

Shortly before the end of my Grade 12 school year, the high school teacher who was our newspaper's adviser suggested that I should become a journalist. Honestly, I was such a naive country bumpkin (is that redundant?) that I had no idea what he was talking about. We only received two television stations and two newspapers in those days, which didn't really provide me with much inspiration or information of interest to a 17-year-old.

So I looked it up.

Journalism. Hmmm.

More or less, it's a profession of individuals committed to reporting the truth and informing the public of what is really happening in the world.

Well, I could probably do that. It involved writing, right?

So I chose the closest course to our hometown and spent the next two years swallowed up by the big-city goings-on of Calgary, Alberta - and engrossed in learning all I could about the big-city world of journalism, as taught by those who had experience in the industry. It was a great way to learn from the doers. It helped me jump into this industry with both feet - and I have only kind words to say about SAIT in Calgary.

During college, I met a young man from Regina, Saskatchewan, and we moved to that smaller city and married shortly after our course ended. We've made our home here ever since, enjoying long careers in the journalism industry - me as a writer primarily and he as an editor primarily.

In 2008, our occupational paths converged again when he joined me in our book publishing company. (You can find details of that exciting enterprise on our web page.)

But I really wanted to talk about journalism today - mostly because I saw some phrases about the profession recently (at Brainy Quotes, WikiQuotes and elsewhere as noted below) and thought I'd share them with you. These are among the phrases I saw that I could relate to (obviously), but there are many more - including several that are less positive about the profession that has been dear to our hearts for decades:

"I've always had standards about writing well. There is art in this business. There is potentially great art."
                                      - Gay Talese (Sept. 2006 in a lecture. Bullpen: NYU Journalism)

"I don't want to be part of the story. I want to be an anonymous, quiet onlooker who tries to work out what the hell is happening - it's not easy - and then tells other people about it. I don't like being a figure in the thing."
                     - John Simpson (October 2007 interview in Barnes, Nicky. BBC Norfolk)

"I think journalism gets measured by the quality of information it presents, not the drama or the pyrotechnics associated with us."
                   - Bob Woodward 


“We journalists make it a point to know very little about an extremely wide variety of topics; this is how we stay objective.”
                   - Humorist Dave Barry

And last but not least, I'll draw your attention to an article from CBS News called 'Best. Journalism Quotes. Ever.'  I particularly like Number One on this list.

Have a good day, all you writers - and journalists!

Keep on doing your best. That's all we can ask.

From Blanket to Coat to Book to Painting

One of the joys of publishing our stories of unsung Canadian heroes is the feedback we receive from readers, as well as the ‘ripple effect’ that comes from our books.
One such wonderful ‘ripple effect’ was the creation of a beautiful painting by Calgary artist Bev Tosh. She was so inspired by Alan Buick’s book The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story  that she created a portrait of Sue Elliott for a collection that is now on display at the National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek, Netherlands. The multi-media exhibition called CanadianWar Brides: a one way passage to love runs from June 6 to November 24, 2013 and features 22 portraits as well as artifacts of Dutch war brides to Canada. Sussie Cretier, 1944 before receiving the 'little coat'

Bob Elliott, May 945
Sussie Cretier was 10 years old in November 1944 when she met Bob Elliott, a Canadian tank commander from Calgary who was fighting the Nazis across the Maas River in the Netherlands. Sussie became a good-luck charm and little sister to the Canadian soldiers, bringing them laughter, songs and hope during a difficult time. They wanted to give her a Christmas present, so they asked a seamstress in that little Dutch village to make a coat for her out of a wool Army blanket. The buttons on the coat came off of the soldiers’ tunics. On Christmas Day 1944, Bob Elliott presented Sussie with the coat – the most precious gift she had ever received.
Bob and Sue each went on with their lives after the war but reconnected in 1981. They fell in love and married. Sussie – now known as Sue – still had her little coat. She brought it with her to Canada, where author Alan Buick saw it and decided to write the award-winning bestselling book The Little Coat.
In May 2013, Bev Tosh contacted Alan Buick to let him know about her painting of Sue Elliott being on display in the Netherlands. In describing the display, Tosh said, “Over 20 new portraits on wooden panels – all with story panels on silk – stand shoulder-to-shoulder beside Hetty’s wedding dress and a short film of her wedding in Gorinchem in 1945. A veil of vintage handkerchiefs, each embroidered by the artist with the name of a ‘bride ship,’ speaks of ocean voyages and tears.”
She added that “Sue Elliott is not a war bride in the narrow sense but hers is a story of mid-life love that is based on wartime friendship. There are several such stories that expand the scope and enrich the display. This would not have happened had it not been for your book, The Little Coat, which, fittingly, was recommended to me by another Dutch war bride living in Saskatchewan who is also portrayed in the exhibition. The story keeps growing!”
See image of the painting
Thank you, Bev, for enjoying our book The Little Coat and sharing that marvellous story with a new audience! Best wishes on the Netherlands exhibition!

Pobody's Nerfect #4 - Common Spelling Errors

Have you ever seen a lovely hand-painted sign on a house or cabin and just cringed because of an incorrect apostrophe ? It happens to me often - especially at this time of year when we visit lakes and see the beautifully decorated but incorrectly spelled signs announcing the owners of a particular cottage:

The Brown's

The Smith's

The Johnson's

Oh, dear. If you're thinking of ordering such a homemade sign, please check the spelling abilities of your painter before you place the order. Unless the sign ends with a description of what is owned by the individuals inside - such as The Browns' Cabin or The Smiths' Refuge. Otherwise, it should simply say The Browns or The Smiths - as in The Browns (the members of the Brown family) live here.

And here's a good word for you. Yuck. Or is it Yuk? In editing a document recently, I came across the author's word, 'Yuck.' It caused me to grab my dictionary and check for the proper spelling, since I had always spelled this word 'Yuk' in informal conversations. It turns out the word can be spelled either way, but I opted for 'yuck' in this case because the word without the 'c' has been used in connection with comedy - as in Yuk Yuks Comedy Club - and that's not the kind of 'yuck' the author intended in the context of that story.

Homemade - This is another word that often causes me problems. I have to look it up every time I use it.

And while we're on the topic, here are some other words I've had to double-check in the dictionary recently:

Double-check. I often want to make it one word with no hyphen. That is incorrect. But since I am aware that this word is on my list of words that I have trouble with, I almost always look it up. (I say almost always because pobody's nerfect and I make mistakes, too.) That's the key to good writing and good editing - knowing when to use a dictionary or, in my case, ask another great editor who happens to live with you. (Imagine my winking smiley face non-emoticon here.)

Seat belt. It's two words, but I can't seem to keep that detail in my brain. I have to look it up every time. Thank you, again, reliable dictionary.
In-patient versus outpatient. Don't ask me why one of these words is hyphenated and one is not. The English language can be really annoying at times.
Easygoing, roller coaster and payback. These are the correct spellings. It's hit-or-miss for me with these phrases, so I grab the Oxford Canadian Dictionary to be sure. We use the first version of the word as it appears in this dictionary.
So that's it for today's mini-spelling lesson.
Happy writing and editing!

Two Lines & Some Photos

So I feel like mixing it up a bit. Here's ONE LINE pertaining to our books, ONE LINE about whatever comes to mind, and A FEW PHOTOS thrown in because I love photography. Enjoy!
I'm excited to join the inspiring eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner and her wingman/husband Graham tomorrow at Relay For Life in Lumsden, Saskatchewan to hear Dionne speak and then we'll all sign our Never Leave Your Wingman books!

Dionne & Graham Warner arriving at Relay For Life in Yorkton, SK last year.
I love this photo I snapped quickly from the car while we were coming home from Yorkton last June:

We have a contest on our DriverWorks Ink Facebook page that you can enter before June 4th - if you live in Canada - where we're giving away a Running Of The Buffalo and a The Little Coat book to celebrate Father's Day.
I dislike dandelions. Immensely. (I know that's two sentences, but it's still one line. Stupid dandelions.)

I love many other non-pungent flowers, however, including African violets that grow for me (above) and the brilliant hibiscus (below) which remind me of my mother and her green thumb.



If you are a TEACHER or a LIBRARIAN in or near one of the following communities and would like us to visit and speak about our books this fall (at no cost to you) - please contact me: Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Winnipeg, Prince Albert, Tisdale, Yorkton, Saskatoon, Rosetown, Weyburn, Estevan, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Lloydminster. Email ddriver@sasktel.net with your ideas.

OK, that was more than one line - but we really want to hear from teachers and librarians as well as info about TRADE/CRAFT shows in those regions that we could attend... And I did throw in a few beautiful photos!


Shout out to Blondie's Gift and Garden Centre in Dunmore, Alberta - where the hibiscus above and the great signs below can be found!


This sign in particular made me smile. How often do we not recognize a sign when  it's in front of us?
It's raining here. I appreciate the rain's cleansing power... Less allergy problems and more greenery very soon!



I can hardly wait. Happy growing season, everyone!

A Bathroom Reader?

We've received many great compliments about my book Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope - and many of our other Prairie books, too.

So thank you for all those responses and keep 'em coming!

Tonight, I was chatting with a woman who commented that she hadn't read this week's selection for her book club and she wondered if she should even attempt it since there are only two days left until the Friday meeting. I replied that the book they chose might be one that is a page-turner that hooks her right away and causes her to stay up all night until she's finished the book. Those are the best books!

Then I remembered a great story that we heard shortly after Never Leave Your Wingman was published.

A woman told us that she was reading the Wingman book at bedtime and didn't want to stop reading when it was time to turn out the lights. While her husband went to sleep, she grabbed the book and snuck into the adjoining bathroom in the dark, turning on the bathroom light only after she'd closed the door to the room.

She read for a little while, then her husband awoke and called out to her. She turned out the light to the bathroom, then grabbed a flashlight and snuck away - to their closet! - where she sat on the floor and read the rest of the book with the aid of a flashlight!

Now THAT's a page-turner - and a great response to our book!

We don't care where you read our books - just as long as you read them!

Our friend and author, the late Ron Petrie was a talented newspaper humour columnist. He used to call his Running of the Buffalo  book a 'bathroom reader' - because you can take it into the bathroom and read one or two of his humour columns while doing your business, and then leave the book there until your next visit. As Ron used to say, "The bathroom is better than some places that my work has ended up - such as training puppies, the bottom of birdcages..."

So we hope you continue to enjoy our Prairie books - with or without a toilet nearby.

Remembering Mom

I once asked my mom why I got the unusual name in our family. And why didn't she spell it with two 'ee's - as in Deena - so people would pronounce it correctly?

"I was going to call you Mayris," she said. (Pronounced My-riss.)

"Umm... Deana is good," I replied. "Thanks, Mom."

My mom was a creative person with a crazy sense of humour. She loved to tease and invent stories, and I am thankful that she passed this gift of creativity on to me. She encouraged me at a young age to not take life or myself too seriously, but to work hard at what I do. I learned many things from Mom, including how to sew and embroider, write and create, laugh and tell stories, tease and love. She encouraged in me a strong faith and a desire to share what I have learned, to teach and help others.

My mom passed away in July 2011 of inoperable pancreatic and liver cancer, just a few weeks after we launched my book Never Leave Your Wingman - the true story of a seven-time cancer survivor in Regina, Saskatchewan who dances her way into her chemo sessions dressed in costume with her wingman husband. Dionne Warner's beautiful story of hope and love helped me and my family get through that very difficult time of my mom's illness.

I still had two chapters left to write of the book when I received a call that my mom had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. We visited her in an Edmonton hospital the following day and I was able to show my mom and siblings the photos of the beautiful, exuberant Dionne and her fun-loving husband Graham dressed as cowpokes, pirates, rock stars and much more as they faced Dionne's cancer treatments head-on with laughter and hope. Their joy took some of the fear out of Mom's cancer diagnosis for us. We saw it more as a part of life and something that we all now had to face together as a family.

I had numerous telephone conversations with my mom in the following months as she became progressively sicker. She asked about complementary treatments that Dionne had taken and she visited a practitioner who gave her hope. 

The oncologist initially told Mom she had six months to live. My mom honestly responded with: "I'd be surprised if it was that long." She died peacefully three months later.

Mom was ready to go, but we weren't ready to say goodbye. We will always miss her, but we will also always carry a large piece of her in our hearts and in our actions.

I will never know if my mom was joking when she told me about the Mayris name, but it doesn't really matter. I will think of the smirk on her face as she told me all these silly stories, and the love in her eyes as she taught me all she knew.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.

A Day in Saskatoon

So there I was, sitting at the table at the Coles book store in Saskatoon’s Midtown Centre mall last Sunday when a number of very interesting things happened:

A nine-year-old girl came up to me with her mom and they gladly accepted my leaflet describing our books. The girl, who was well beyond her years in intelligence, was excited that I am an author. I asked her if she liked to write and was told that she does. I encouraged her, as I do all young writers, by telling her that writing is a wonderful way to learn and develop your skills.
“Do you like to read?” she shot back at me.
Why, yes, I do. This young lady reads all the time apparently. (I wasn’t surprised.) “I’ve read the whole Harry Potter series and the Kane Chronicles,” she said. Good for her. At age nine, that was impressive.
We spent a few more minutes chatting and admiring each other’s talents and gifts. We had a mutual admiration going on for quite a while.
Some time later, the young man working at the cellular phone booth in the middle of the mall kept looking at my table full of DriverWorks Ink books. Finally, he walked over and picked up The Sailor and the Christmas Trees, which I wrote and Catherine Folnovic illustrated.
“This intrigues me. What’s it about?” he asked.


I told him the brief description of the book. It’s about a sailor from Manitoba who cut down some evergreens in Newfoundland in November 1944 and hid them on the ship for a month so he could bring them out on Christmas Day in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, surprising his crewmates and some little children on another ship in that convoy who were coming to Canada from England. 
       




“It’s a children’s book but adults are enjoying it as well because of the War connection and the inspiring story,” I told him.

“So it’s a children’s book!” he said, even more interested now. “My nephews and nieces love it when I read to them. I’m always looking for books for them.”
This prompted me to introduce him to SuperMom and the BigBaby by Dave Driver.

 “It’s a great children’s book for ages 2 and up, about a little guy who grows and grows into a giant baby terrorizing the neighbourhood,” I told him. “The parents have to figure out how to get him back home, so Mom grabs a mask and cape and becomes SuperMom and saves the day. The other thing is that the author’s wife talks in her sleep and everything that SuperMom says in the book is something his wife said in her sleep. It’s a funny story, kind of like a Robert Munsch book.”
“I love Robert Munsch,” he said, “but I’ve already got all his books… 
"The artwork’s amazing,” he said. 
I agreed. Guy Laird is a very talented artist.                          






Then the young man had to get back to work, but I watched him at his spot, reading our entire leaflet later that afternoon. Who knows if he’ll ever buy one of those books, but I had fun telling him about them and that was my goal for the day - to tell more people about our books and keep spreading the word about our great Prairie stories.
Next up on my list of interesting experiences was a pre-teen girl and her friend, who wandered by my table and then came back (once they decided I would be agreeable to their proposal, I guess). They attend St. Edwards School in Saskatoon, which has a focus on eco-justice issues. One of the girls had a class assignment that involved interviewing 20 people and taking their photograph. I didn’t ask a lot of questions (unusual for me, I know), but I did answer such things as my age, where I live, who I live with, what is my favourite colour (red, by the way), and what is my favourite thing to do (it took one second for both her and me to answer together - ‘write’).
So that was a new experience.
Then I chatted with a United Church minister that I have known as an acquaintance for decades in my work freelance writing for the United Church Observer magazine. I have not seen him for years, though, so it was nice to reconnect. He and his wife happened to be shopping at Coles that day, and there I was. Surprise!
I handed out bookmarks to numerous children who came by with their parents, which is something we always do at signings and trade shows. One of the funniest incidents happened when a boy about five years old accepted a bookmark and then showed it to his mom. As they were leaving the store, the mom asked if the boy had said 'thank you' to me. He had, but she didn’t know that, so he said it again. 
Being a grandma, I automatically replied, “No problem, hon. You’re welcome.” 
The little guy stopped walking, turned around and looked at me and announced, “I’m not hon. I’m….. (and then said his name).” He cracked me and his mother up. We burst out laughing and they carried on their way.
About an hour later, this little guy and his mom came by again and he proudly waved the bookmark at me as if to say, “See! I still have the bookmark you gave me! THANK YOU!” It was very cute.

The most fascinating event that day occurred when three teenage girls came up to the table to chat with me. They were thrilled to talk to a writer. One of them announced that this was the second author signing she’d been at within a few days. Her grandmother had just released a book and had a signing at another Saskatoon store, she said. (I made a mental note to check out the book.)
All three of these girls like to write, but the two on the outside agreed that the girl in the middle was the best writer of all of them. This led me to ask questions about the kind of writing this girl does (romance novels for teens), if she’s ever been published (yes, but not paid), if she wants to be a writer as a career (yes) etc. We chatted for a while and then they left.
Some time later, they came back and walked to the back of the store behind me. Soon, the girl with the grandmother author came up to me and handed me a cell phone, explaining that her friend is shy but wondered if I would read part of one of her stories – so I did.
And my official pronouncement is that – this girl has talent. To make a long story short, I gave this young writer some words of advice, starting with “people are 'who' and objects are 'that' ” and including suggestions of Saskatchewan publishers that she could approach about getting her work published - including us at DriverWorks Ink. 
I also advised her, as I suggest to all young writers, that she should keep track of every piece of her writing that is ever published. This helps to build a portfolio and credibility in the writer’s work. I recently had to dig up my records of my work 20 years after the pieces were published to submit information to a particular national project, so keeping track is valuable.
Also, don’t throw out your old poems, short stories or other written work. Find a place to store it so that decades from now, you can look back on it and know the answer (when you’re making speeches at schools, libraries and the like) to the often-asked questions: “When did you start writing?” and "What kinds of things have you written?" Then you can not only answer, but you can show them as well!
And finally a Coles Saskatoon that day, this great phrase came from a woman who asked me to tell her about Never Leave Your Wingman, which I wrote. 
After my brief explanation that this book is the true story of a fun-loving seven-time cancer (Dionne Warner) who dances into chemo with her husband, both dressed in costume like it’s Halloween every day, the woman said this:
“That is crazy. That’s a pretty triumphant story.”
I had not heard Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope described as ‘triumphant’ before, but it certainly is. 
It made me smile all the way home. And that’s a long drive.

P.S. If you'd like to win either a SuperMom and the Big Baby book or a Never Leave Your Wingman book from us, post a simple message (even a "Pick me! Pick me!") as a Comment on the Thank you blog below BEFORE MAY 15 to enter your name in the draw. Thanks!