Publishing stories of fascinating Prairie People and Unsung Heroes

Welcome to the blog of Deana Driver - author, editor, and publisher of DriverWorks Ink, a book publishing company based in Saskatchewan. We publish stories of inspiring, fascinating Prairie people and unsung Canadian heroes - written by Prairie authors including Deana Driver. We also publish genres of healing and wellness, humour, children's fiction, and rural poetry. Visit our website to learn more about our books.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Compliments & a Book Reading Party!

          We had several wonderful interactions with customers at the Yorkton Sunflower craft show this past weekend. While I was introducing our various books to a woman and her friend, another woman came up to the table, pointed to the Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope book and said to the complete stranger I was talking to, “If you buy any book on this table, buy this one! It’s so good! I loved it!” I thanked her very much for her wonderful compliment. She made my day.
            Several people said they had seen Dionne and Graham Warner and I being interviewed on CTV News At Noon, some had heard Dionne or all three of us interviewed on the radio and several more read the article about D & G in the Regina Leader-Post.
            A few people came by and said they had read Alan Buick’s The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story and they really enjoyed it. “That’s a great book!” A woman, typical of many we meet at these shows and book signings, told us she was getting goose bumps on her arms as we outlined the story of Bob and Sue (the soldier and the little Dutch girl) and the child's coat that drew them together forever.
            We heard compliments as well about Prairie Pilot: Lady Luck Was On My Side by Walter D. Williams. Women said their husbands loved the book and many readers have marvelled at the lives that Walter saved and the daring antics of this adventurous 1950s pilot.
            Ron Petrie’s Running of the Buffalo book also attracted some comments. One lady said she loved reading his humour columns in the Regina Leader-Post. “Tell him he’s appreciated because he’s very, very good,” she said. Another woman told us how she and her husband bought the book for her elderly mother last fall and her husband didn’t want to give it away at first. “Do we really have to give it to her?” he asked. Then he told his mother-in-law, “When you go, I want that book.” It turned out that the elderly mother-in-law died a few months later and her husband got the Buffalo book back, and he is apparently very happy with this bequest!
            The best story came from a woman who said she was a neighbour of Graham and Dionne Warner when they lived in White City, SK. She and some friends had a Book Reading Party with the Never Leave Your Wingman book. She bought the book and a number of her friends wanted to borrow it, but she wouldn’t let them because she was still reading it. So they decided to all read it at one party. So 20 people got together and passed the book from person to person, for five hours, reading it aloud to each other. “When one person started to cry and couldn’t read any more, we’d pass the book to the next person and they’d read. We had so much fun and a lot of wine!” she said. And, in honour of Dionne’s battle with cancer, each guest brought $5 to the Book Reading Party, which was donated to cancer.
            So we say a huge, HUGE THANK YOU to all of these wonderful people for sharing these stories and compliments with us. It makes our efforts as authors and publishers all that much more worthwhile and fulfilling.
             I can’t wait to hear what the people of Carlyle and area will tell us at their Homespun Craft Show & Sale this weekend!