New hope, New books & More

Seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner
speaking to a provincial palliative care conference

We've had a wonderful but busy few days in our little publishing company. On Thursday, we went to Moose Jaw with seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner, to watch her inspire a palliative care conference audience with her story of hope and laughter - including sharing tales of the antics of her wingman, her fun-loving husband Graham. Then we sold some books, of course.

Dionne Warner received another well-deserved standing ovation!

Friday saw us signing a contract with a Saskatchewan author to help tell her story about the beginnings of a specialized local institution, while also working on the layout of another book - an interesting memoir about someone's career (can't tell you details yet - it would spoil the surprise!).

On Saturday, we continued layout work and packed for Sunday's trip to Saskatoon, to launch Egg Money, A Tribute to Saskatchewan Pioneer Women. That was a fun time! We've been working with the Saskatoon German Days Committee for more than a year on this book project that celebrates all pioneer women through the stories of 24 women who settled in Saskatchewan in the 1800s and early 1900s. We worked with the 24 families, who wrote the biographies, and we were happy to hear the compliments and gratefulness from many of them as they opened up the book at the launch to see the stories of their loved ones preserved for all to enjoy.

Reading the back cover of Egg Money

Some of the people behind the Egg Money book:

Seated left to right: Saskatoon German Days Book Committee members Barbara Stehwien, Brigitte Boldt-Leppin, Rosa Gebhardt & Barbara Hoggard-Lulay
Standing left to right: Sculptors Shirley & Don Begg, Saskatchewan German Council President Ilona Beck, Editor/Publisher Deana Driver, Publisher Al Driver

And we're delighted to have spent today packaging Never Leave Your Wingman books to send to bookstores literally from coast to coast. Oh - didn't we tell you? Cancer survivor Dionne Warner will be interviewed on CTV's Canada AM in Toronto, Ontario on Monday, June 11 at 8 a.m. EST!

She'll share some of how she successfully fought cancer seven times - but most of all, she'll share her story of staying positive, keeping a sense of humour and fighting back to show cancer who's boss! We are so excited to share this remarkable woman's story - and that of her strong, supportive wingman Graham - with many, many more readers across this great country of ours. The world needs a little more hope when dealing with this plague called cancer and we believe Dionne Warner - named by the American Cancer Society to be an International Heroes of Hope Ambassador this year - is one of the best people to help lead the way.

Life is great!