Our books won Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Three of our books published by DriverWorks Ink in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada have won Next Generation Indie Book Awards!

Such exciting news!

Fun On The Farm 3 - True Tales of Farm Life, compiled and edited by Deana J. Driver, was a finalist in humor/ comedy.

The book shares more funny stories of growing up on, working on, visiting and/or living on a farm. Twenty Prairie writers including author/ publisher Deana J. Driver tell their tales of annoying cattle, overly curious farm kids, stubborn pigs, confusing technology, and more. This is the third and final volume of the popular Fun On The Farm series and has been described as "even funnier than the first two!"

(A donation form books sold is being made to the Lung Association of Saskatchewan in honour of the Driver family's history of respiratory illnesses.)

Flight - Stories of Canadian Aviation, Vol. 3, by Deana J. Driver and Contributors, was a finalist in anthology.

This third volume of the Flight series shares stories of dangerous landings, mid-air optical illusions, hidden airstrips, irritating passengers, and long-distance flights carrying rehabilitated birds and other animals. There are 33 short stories plus an introduction – 6 stories and introduction written by author / editor / publisher Deana J. Driver and 27 stories written by 14 other Canadian writers: Bill Cameron, Will Chabun, Richard Dowson, Peter Enzlberger, Mary Harelkin Bishop, Dave McElroy, Vincent Murphy-Dodds, Curtis Penner, Don Riekman, Ralph Tweten, Walter D. Williams, Ken Wilson, Mason Adam Wray, and Bill Wunsch.

We've been told it's a great addition to the Flight series. "What wonderful reading – astonished at the work you did in putting the book together!"

Don't They Kick When You Do That - Stories of a Prairie Veterinarian by Dr. Gary Hoium was a finalist in career/ memoir.

If you like the James Herriot series All Creatures Great and Small, you'll enjoy Dr. Gary Hoium's amusing stories of his adventures, experiences, and interactions as a mixed-animal veterinarian in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Gary's style of writing is humorous, heartwarming, and illuminating - with fascinating insights into the people and animals he worked with during his 40 years as a veterinarian. Tales of cattle, squirrels, hogs, dogs, cats, sheep, and the men and women who love them are wrapped up in Don't They Kick When You Do That? "This witty vet is highly entertaining," said a reviewer.

(A donation from books sold is being made to the Saskatchewan Cancer Foundation in memory of Gary's sister Lois.)

Thank you to Next Generation Indie Book Awards for these honours!

New Tunnels of Treachery book coming soon from Mary Harelkin Bishop

Author Mary Harelkin Bishop and I are working on our updated edition of the third book in Mary's Moose Jaw Time Travel Adventure series. 

These exciting books for kids, age 9 and up, and adults share the adventures of Andrea and her brother Tony as they go back in time to the dark, dangerous tunnels below Moose Jaw in the 1920s.

Tunnels of Treachery will be released this fall. Stay tuned...

99 Year Old Bomber Pilot an Honorary CF Snowbird

I visited 99-year-old Reg "Crash" Harrison in Saskatoon recently to learn more about his fascinating life story, including the four crashes he survived as a bomber pilot during the Second World War. I wrote about those events in Volume 1 of Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation by Deana J. Driver and Contributors.

But Reg's story deserves to be shared wider and with various audiences around the world.

So this time, Reg and I talked about some other stories that we can share for a new kids' book I am writing about him.

In this video, Reg talks about his first Moose Jaw air show and his special connection to the CF Snowbirds aerobatics team.

Publishing books and sharing the stories of others is no ordinary thing

I’ve spent most of my adult life writing or editing or designing newsletters or book layouts, or publishing and selling books, and I sometimes forget how cool that is. 

So far, I've written five non-fiction books and contributed pieces to more than a dozen other books. And I've published more than 70 books written by 50 or 60 (mostly Western) Canadian writers. That's been my life since I wrote my first book in 2001.

 
My adult daughters sometimes remind me that “most people don’t do this, Mom. They don’t go to a bookstore to sign the books they’ve written.”
 
I've also been reminded that most people aren’t interviewed by the media about what they wrote or published either. Because I was a journalist doing the asking of the questions for 30 years, it was a little strange to suddenly be on the other side of the interviews when I began writing and publishing books, but I quickly got used to it. And since I prefer to put together books that are either fascinating true stories or based on such, members of the media regularly invite me or my authors to talk about our books. Which is wonderful. But, I suppose, not "normal". 

Again, I forget this sometimes ... until I receive a rather panicked call from an author who is facing their first media interview. I then take them through a "pretend interview", with me being the interviewer, and we both relax a little. Usually, it works out well.

So this is the unique sort of world in which I live and work.

But once in a while, I have an interaction with an author or one of the contributing writers for one of the anthologies I've been publishing recently, and I remember the importance and impact of my work again.

Case in point: At a recent open house for the Regina Flying Club, Mason Adam Wray came up to me and introduced himself. We'd talked by email and by phone last year when I edited and published his story (in Volume 3 of the Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation book series) about sneaking out of a cadet camp in Alberta to check out a derelict aircraft in a nearby "boneyard". 

Mason is a smiley, positive guy who hosts a YouTube channel called Wings of the Prairies. He LOVES aircraft! It was great to meet him in person. We took some photos together and visited off and on throughout the afternoon. 

Mason Adam Wray (left), Deana Driver, and Canadian Aviation Historical Society president Gary Williams at the Regina Flying Club, June 2022

Then Mason told me something that made me stare at him, mouth open, in awe.

He said his complimentary copies of the third volume of Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation had arrived in his mailbox on the day of his wedding.

On his wedding day, people! What kind of crazy timing is that?

He added that his family passed the book between themselves for that entire day and remarked on how proud they were of his achievement in being a published writer.
 
Wow.
 
Let me never forget that story and the beautiful trickle effect of my work.

What I do for a living is not ordinary. Not even close. The books that others and I write and that I publish add significant substance, historical record, and pleasure to readers and to the fabric of Prairie and Canadian culture.

I am often humbled by the people whose stories I share through my writing and publishing efforts. I am honoured that they trust me to do that storytelling. 

I never forget that!

How I published a book by Gridiron Greats Hall of Famer Jim Hopson

On May 20, 2022, Jim Hopson, a Canadian Football Hall of Famer, was inducted into Mike Ditka’s Gridiron Greats Hall of Fame at a banquet in Chicago.

Former Chicago Bears NFL coach Mike Ditka’s Hall of Fame recognizes NFL and CFL personnel for their player contributions and charitable work off the field. Jim was president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 10 eventful and successful years, and has volunteered for numerous community organizations including the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association.

This is the story of how I published a book written by the indomitable, inspiring Jim Hopson.

Running the Riders  - My Decade as CEO of Canada's Team by Jim Hopson with Darrell Davis

One day in early 2015, Darrell Davis, a former long-time sports writer for the Regina Leader-Post, phoned me to inquire about my interest in a book project. “Jim Hopson wants to write a book,” Darrell told me. “I said I would help him. Do you want to publish it?”

The conversation wasn’t as simple as that, and I have liberally paraphrased what we discussed, but that was the gist of it.

I was immediately intrigued.

Anyone who knows anything about sports in Saskatchewan knows the name “Jim Hopson”. Not just that he is a former football player who then led the Riders organization through some turbulent times and toward a profit and a couple of Grey Cup wins during his CEO period, but he is also known as a good guy and a fan favourite. Jim is a big man with a big, friendly personality, who gets things done.

I quickly conversed with my husband, Al, who was helping me in my publishing business at the time. Al would have to agree to this project since he would be the main person to edit this book.

You see, Al had been a copy editor in the sports and news departments of the Regina Leader-Post for decades prior to taking early retirement from his news editor position in 2008. Al was also a sports geek. He could happily spew a long list of sports statistics (alongside his sports editor colleague Rob Vanstone and others at the newspaper), and he had also edited hundreds of Darrell Davis's sports stories over the years as well as two books, Saskatchewan Roughriders – First 100 Years and Regina Pats – A Winning Tradition, for which Darrell Davis was a co-author. I was not surprised when Al quickly signed on to help with this book, which we would come to call Running the Riders: My Decade as CEO of Canada’s Team by Jim Hopson with Darrell Davis.

I had met Jim Hopson briefly at one point prior to this project, but Al knew him on a more personal level. They had both gone to the same high school in Regina and were on the same football team, with Jim a few years ahead of Al. When Jim and his wife Brenda later sent me photos to include in the Running the Riders book, it was a delightful surprise to find the teenage Al peering out of a 1968 Thom Trojans team photo, sitting two rows back and to the left of Jim, who was happily occupying the centre spot in the front row.

1968 Thom Trojans team photo. Jim Hopson is front row centre, #60.
Al Driver is third row, fifth from the right.

By the time Darrell called me in early 2015 about this proposed book project, he had already worked with Jim on creating an outline of the book and Jim had written several chapters in longhand. This handwritten method worked best for Jim, and as Darrell later typed Jim’s words into a computer, Darrell was able to adjust them where needed and add some sports statistics to complete the story.

Shortly after Al and I agreed to take on the project, Darrell provided me with a synopsis, which became the description on the back cover of the Running the Riders book: 

“The Saskatchewan Roughriders were mired in mediocrity, a decent football team that couldn’t advance to the Grey Cup as the franchise worked its way out of financial distress and tried to reconnect with its fan base. In 2004, offensive lineman-turned-educator Jim Hopson was hopeful that the Roughriders directors would hire him as the team’s first full-time president and CEO. He believed that the team, with its incredible fan base, could become a successful business that consistently posted strong annual profits while playing in and winning multiple Grey Cups.

And it happened. After a decade under Hopson’s leadership (2005 to 2015), the Roughriders became the Canadian Football League’s strongest franchise, appearing in four Grey Cup games (winning twice) and selling more team merchandise than the other eight CFL franchises combined. They obliterated their debt and posted a record-setting profit of $10.4 million after winning a hometown Grey Cup in 2013, which has been described as the biggest moment in the 105-year-old team’s history.

Hopson’s book, with the assistance of Darrell Davis (an author and long-time sports writer and Roughriders beat writer at the Regina Leader-Post), describes Hopson’s business plans, the resistance to change within the organization, the interplay with the fans of Rider Nation, difficult decisions made, and the euphoria of winning two league championships.

An emotional man with a firm disposition, Jim Hopson describes the highs and lows that went along with the job and the path he took, professionally and personally, to the biggest office with the franchise known as ‘Canada’s Team’.”

A few months after that initial phone call, Al and I met with Darrell and Jim at a nearby pub to sign our publishing contract and talk more about the project. These three men regularly veered off topic and exchanged tales of the good old days of playing the game, who they each knew, and how those people are doing these days. I didn’t mind. After all, I’d lived with Al for almost 40 years, so I was used to frequent forays into the sports world. He’d taught me all about high school football early on in our marriage, when he was covering that sport for the newspaper, and we’d had season tickets to Riders games in the 1980s – when I found that the most interesting thing on the field was often the players’ butts. Yes, I said it, and it still holds true. The 1980s were not the best years for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. And we were paying a babysitter at the time too – but that’s another story.

Now, back to the meeting with Jim and Darrell…

It was swell. It was a fun get-together that also accomplished our goals of sorting out details of the book’s style, format, selling locations, and more.

DriverWorks Ink publisher Deana Driver with Jim Hopson, Darrell Davis, and Al Driver, ‎June ‎20, ‎2015

The timing was right to publish a book about Jim’s career. He had just retired from the Riders organization and had left the team in a strong position, financially and on the field. We wanted a book out by that fall, in time for Christmas gift-giving, so we worked hard and fast.

I contacted Ian Hamilton, another Leader-Post sports writer, to help Al and me edit the book. He agreed and we were grateful for his additional eyes on the manuscript. Bill Dubecky of Royal Studios had been the Riders’ photographer for decades, and he graciously supplied many photos to use in the book. Erika Folnovic, a local artist, created the beautiful cover design. The Saskatchewan Roughrider organization gave us permission to publish some of their photos and use their team colours, and they later sold books in their stores across the province. Creative Saskatchewan provided us with a book publishing grant to assist with costs. To all these individuals and organizations, we are grateful.

Bad news came in August 2015, at the height of production, when Al was suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. He – and we – decided to fight it and to stay positive. Amid his stints in and out of hospital, our work continued on the book.

Al Driver editing the Running the Riders book Oct 2015

Al edited the final manuscript in early October as Ian and I met and compared notes on the typos or other details we’d each found that needed correction. I put all the pieces together and sent the layouts to Houghton Boston Printers in Saskatoon, a printer we work closely with on most of our nonfiction books. We had a book in our hands on October 30^th, 2015!

Jim Hopson and his wife, Brenda Edwards, and co-contributor Darrell Davis see their new Running the Riders book.

The Running the Riders book was a big hit!

We had to order a reprint after selling 3,400 softcover books in only two months – an extraordinary accomplishment for a little publishing house, but not surprising given the story Jim and Darrell told. We also created hardcover and e-book editions of Running the Riders, which puts our book into the Canadian national bestseller category with more than 5,000 books sold.

Bad news struck again last year when Jim Hopson was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. Strangely, it is the same illness that took Al in early January 2016, but their cancer stories are not the same.

Jim Hopson recently spoke publicly about his cancer diagnosis to Murray McCormick of the Regina Leader-Post in this article about his Gridiron Greats Hall of Fame induction. 

I’ve chatted with Jim a few times in this last year, and I continue to wish him and his family all the best. Anything I could have said that would be helpful, I have said to Jim.

Cancer sucks. That’s a supreme understatement.

Jim Hopson signing more Running the Riders books, Sept. 2021

It has been and is fun, lots of laughs, and quite an honour to work with Jim and Darrell and their Running the Riders book. None of us could have imagined the journey this would take us on, but I know we are all grateful that we came together for this project. Oh, the things we have enjoyed, learned, and shared.

The last words in this blog post go to Darrell Davis and Jim Hopson, as I quote from the epilogue in their Running the Riders book:

Hopson understood his position put him in the forefront of a franchise whose every move is scrutinized, yet he never ducked a question or avoided an issue. When Hopson said he wanted me to help him write this book, I asked him why he chose me, considering that we often had conflicting viewpoints during the years we worked “together.” He said he wanted to write an honest book, but he also wanted to be challenged while relating his uplifting, positive story of growing up in Regina to become the Roughriders’ president. He ultimately gave the book to me on hundreds of hand-written pages for typing and “embellishing.”

That’s how I describe my contributions, considering that I had already written about many of his Riders adventures as part of my newspaper work.

“It was important that when the book was done, people would say it was credible,” Hopson says. “I didn’t try to gloss over the bad stuff by just talking about the good. We had our challenges and there’s no way I would present myself as always making the best decision. I made more good decisions than bad decisions, but if you’re going to be a leader, you had better expect that you’re going to have challenges.”

(Signed copies of Running the Riders by Jim Hopson with Darrell Davis are available here.)

Prairie Veterinarian Tells Entertaining Stories of his Work with Animals and Their Humans

In April 2021, I received an email from Dr. Gary Hoium, a veterinarian in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Gary had begun writing amusing, intriguing, and insightful stories about his decades of experiences as a mixed-animal veterinarian. He asked me about the possibility of publishing those stories.

We met a couple months later in my backyard in Regina. 

 

We immediately felt a connection. Aside from the fact that Prairie people are generally friendly folks who are community oriented and have great stories, people from the Weyburn area have occupied a special spot in my heart for decades.

The first book I ever wrote was Just a Bunch of Farmers: The Story of Weyburn Inland Terminal, 1976-2001. That book project was so much fun and the people I interviewed for that book so terrific that it encouraged me to seek out more Prairie stories that should be made into book form. Since then, I have jokingly blamed the Weyburn Inland Terminal folks for the more than 70 books I've since published (written by myself and other Prairie authors) which cover my work and living spaces.😄 

So, yes, Weyburn people and their stories will always be of particular interest to me.

But back to that day last June...

While in my backyard, Dr. Gary Hoium and I discussed his numerous stories and the ways we visualized his book taking shape. We went to work immediately and planned to have a book in our hands by that fall for pre-Christmas gift buying. The timeline was tight, but we did it.

With the help of a co-editor (Gary's niece Courtney Hinz), a cover designer, and several publisher colleagues and consultants, we released Don't They Kick When You Do That? Stories of a Prairie Veterinarian in October 2021. The book has already been so popular that we are considering reprinting this fall.

What's in the book and why is it so wonderful? Let's hear from the author himself.

This is what Dr. Gary Hoium wrote for a "Read My Book" piece in the Regina Leader-Post's QC Magazine:

“How long did it take you to write this book?” a young lady asked at a recent book signing.

Looking up, I smiled. “About 40 years,” I replied.

She laughed.

Ride along and accompany me on my journey as a mixed-animal, rural Saskatchewan veterinarian.

My book has been called “an enlightening, humorous, intriguing, educational compilation of true adventures, experiences, mishaps and rousing successes that are sure to captivate and entertain.”

If you love animals… this book is for you. If you ever owned a pet or owned, managed or cared for livestock of any kind… this book is for you. If you ever had any thoughts or wonderment as to what a life (possibly even your own life) might have been like as a rural Prairie veterinarian… this book is for you. Your farmer/rancher dad or husband doesn’t read books? Based on many testimonials, he will read this one, laugh a lot, and love it!

As veterinarians, we are tasked with serving all the medical, surgical and welfare needs of a very diverse animal kingdom. Our motto: “If you do no good… do no harm.”

Learn how one evening, a clump of four grey fox squirrels, entangled and stuck tightly together by their tails, taught me the importance of compassion. The story went viral across our nation in days.

Extracting porcupine quills from a German shepherd resulted in my painted portrait, me in my green scrub suit, being distributed in a book worldwide.

You can live in my boots through the most fearful, dangerous and stressful noon hour of my career when an 1800-pound, wild-eyed, aggressive bull escaped my inner-city clinic and landed in a resident’s backyard. Flanked by an elementary school on one side and a comprehensive high school on another, students (targets) aplenty, this had the very real potential to turn out REAL BAD!

You will be introduced to a couple of compelling real-life characters. Terrible Terry … or was he? As an experienced “jailbird” fighting personal demons, he frequented our clinic and befriended me, and ultimately, me him despite many crazy encounters.

Cousin Jimmy will leave you laughing and craving more.

From cattle to hogs, cats to dogs, the creatures and the men and women who love them have wormed their way into my heart and my stories.

And do they kick when I do that? The surprising answer is .....?

Don’t They Kick When You Do That by Dr. Gary Hoium is available from www.driverworks.ca, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Chapters/ Indigo/ Coles, Handmade Saskatchewan gift shops, SaskBooks, Amazon, and other select stores.

Third Flight book shares more Canadian aviation adventures

William Cameron entered Grade 9 at Scott Collegiate in Regina in 1942 and soon became a member of the Air Cadets squadron as required by the school curriculum. Bill’s stories for the third volume of the Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation book series include his reminisces of patrolling several city blocks with the Regina District Civil Defence Corps, as a teenager, in case air raid sirens were activated and they needed to warn residents to turn off their lights.

Bill Cameron and friends with Lancaster bomber, Regina airport, 1945
Photo courtesy of William Cameron

Bill’s stories are three of the 33 stories in this third volume of the series, written by 15 Canadian writers including me. I wrote six stories about: Moose Jaw-based Laura Lawrence, the only commercially operating female aerial application pilot in Canada in 2017; Barb Stefanyshyn-Cote, who hadn’t flown over much water before she flew her aircraft from their farm in Leask down to Mexico and then Chile; Lisa McGivery, who had some annoying passenger experiences in her work as a flight attendant and now works as an aircraft maintenance engineer in Ontario; and Gerd Wengler, who transports rehabilitated owls and other creatures to safety and new homes in Manitoba and Ontario.

Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation, Vol. 3 by Deana J. Driver and Contributors

Ken Wilson wrote about touring the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa with his father Ron just prior to the museum’s opening. Ron, a long-time pilot in northern Saskatchewan, noticed that the Beaver aircraft on display did not have a specific piece of equipment that would have been standard gear when transporting supplies for anyone staying in the bush. Ken made that suggestion to the museum curator, resulting in a change to the national museum’s Beaver display.

Retired journalist Will Chabun contributed three stories to this third volume of Flight, including details of annual vacations that Regina resident Jean Thomas took to France for 20 years as a member of the Royal Air Force Escaping Society. Co-founded by her late husband Hugh, the Society maintains contact and offers aid to those who rescued and sheltered RAF pilots like Hugh, whose plane was shot down during the war. The fiddle playing of Regina Symphony Orchestra’s Howard Leyton-Brown is also chronicled by Will Chabun.

Hugh and Jean Thomas, 1945
Story by Will Chabun, photo courtesy of Jean Thomas

The stories in the Flight series are not about the aircraft or flight terminology as much as they are about the people who had these adventures and incidents. My interest in these stories is in why they did what they did and what we can learn from those activities and experiences. I’ve already received submissions for Volume 4 of the series. Stay tuned.

Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation by Deana J. Driver and Contributors are available from www.driverworks.ca, Saskatchewan Aviation Museum gift shop, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Chapters, Indigo, Coles, Handmade Saskatchewan gift shops, SaskBooks, Amazon, and other select stores.