You see, my publishers received a wonderful grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board (thank you, Saskatchewan Arts Board!) to help them market and distribute their books this fall - including me, of course. I'm their 'pink book'... and I just became even more wonderful (if I do say so myself). I am now a National Bestseller in Canada, and I have been recognized with an Honorable Mention award in the Biography/Autobiography category of the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival. Nice, huh? My friend Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver won an award this week, too - an Honorable Mention in the Cats category of the 2013 Animals, Animals, Animals Book Festival. Yay!
Anyway, my publishers are marketing and distributing their books this fall through extensive book tours that include trade shows and a pile of author/publisher presentations and events at schools, libraries, book stores, seniors' homes and more. My author Deana told me she has 22 presentations to make this week alone in east central Saskatchewan. They have the Canadian Western Agribition trade show and one in Saskatoon still plus some promotion planned in Alberta still. Pretty exciting, huh?
So before I get back to talking about my wonderful trip to Europe this summer, I want to show you what my author/publisher Deana and Publisher Al have been up to this past month and a half.
Here's Deana, ready to speak at the Weyburn Public Library.
She's talking to students at an elementary school in Estevan, Saskatchewan here.
Here's Deana and Al with a customer at an Estevan trade show.
They also helped Regina author Shae Therrien launch his book Interrupted with Bipolar. Shae has received more than 150 electroconvulsive therapy treatment to help his mental health stay stable. His book includes his journal entries and tips on understanding mental illness. My publishers had a lot of fun at Shae's launch. He has a great sense of humour, so you should check out one of my new friends, Interrupted with Bipolar by Shae Therrien.
The older students at Avonlea School were an interested bunch, listening to Deana talk about her writing career, the writing process, the books that she has written and the books that DriverWorks Ink has published and helped other authors self-publish.
Deana and Al travelled to Brandon, Manitoba in October and happily reconnected with Audrey Hanlon (on the right) and Elaine Rounds during Deana's presentation at the Daly House Museum. Audrey's late husband John Hanlon is the subject of Deana's book The Sailor and the Christmas Trees. You should really put this book in someone's Christmas stocking this year. It's a wonderful true story that will bring tears to your eyes.
And last but not least.... they've spent some time with our beautiful Dionne Warner - our favourite eight-time cancer survivor. (She was fighting her fifth, sixth and seventh cancer diagnoses when I was written. She's a walking miracle, for sure.)
Here, Dionne joined Al and Deana to sign and sell books at the Moose Jaw Whistlestop craft show.
The Riders lost that day, but that didn't stop them from having fun with Dionne's head gear (she had soft balls, I was told).
Here they are in Saskatoon, where they promoted me, the Never Leave Your Wingman book. They're having a little fun before their CTV Noon News interview (above)...
... and with host Jeff Rogstad, who enjoyed their pink get-ups in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, of course.
They signed books at Coles Midtown Plaza and then ...
... Deana and Dionne talked with the audience after Dionne spoke at an event at the Alice Turner Library.
And finally, Deana spoke to elementary students in Hague, Saskatchewan one morning. She says she is looking forward to the many other presentations yet to come this fall.
But now it's time to put the focus back on me and my Excellent European Adventure...
When I last left off, we were in Nice, France and I was loving the water and sand. From there, a day trip to the municipality of Monaco was one of the best days we'd had to that point.
Some of the world's wealthiest people own yachts that they dock in Monaco's harbour. The fees can be ridiculously expensive, but Monaco is home to more millionaires per capita than any other place on Earth.
And speaking of AWESOME... Publisher Al could hardly believe his eyes when he saw this red Rolls Royce convertible just sitting out there on the street in Monaco.
He asked my author to take a photo of me and the angel hood ornament so we could show our angel Dionne and her wingman Graham the cool car we saw. Imagine Al's surprise when he lifted his head up after this photo was taken, only to see two more Rolls Royce convertibles within a few seconds. You don't see that on the streets of Regina... or too many other places really. Wow.
Well, that's enough for this post. I'll get back to you soon with the next adventure in this series. Take care, everyone.
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