A Robert Munsch kind of question

It came out of nowhere.

“Are you Robert Munsch?"

I was about to start an author reading at a school and a Grade 7 student asked me if I was the prolific children’s book author Robert Munsch. I've never been asked that before – for obvious reasons, including the fact that I am female.

Author-publisher Deana Driver in Southey, SK

Fortunately, I’ve presented enough author readings at schools and libraries across the Prairies that I was not flustered or stumped by this unusual question.

I simply replied, “No, I am not Robert Munsch … I don't write those kinds of books,” and I carried on with my presentation, talking about my career as a writer – of non-fiction.

A wall mural painted by students of Viscount Central School

I told the students how I began writing as a young child. A one-hour school bus ride from my family’s farm to the school in town and another hour spent on the ride home again was ample time to use my imagination and my other two favourite tools – a pen and a piece of paper – to write poems, short stories, and even notes or questions for fellow travellers. This developed into my love of the written word, my involvement in the high school newspaper, a busy two years of journalism classes at college in Calgary, a move from Alberta to Saskatchewan, and a subsequent career as a journalist, author, editor, and book publisher.

My recent presentations to the students of Robert Southey School and Viscount Central School were filled with fascinating questions from the students and, I hope, helpful or at least interesting answers from me. And maybe the Grade 7 student who asked the Robert Munsch question was just being a goofball showing off for his friends, but I am pleased to say I connected with him in some ways.

He looked serious when I spoke about the seven-time cancer survivor I wrote about in the Never Leave Your Wingman book and how Dionne Warner’s inspiring story has helped thousands of people live with courage, hope, and laughter. This includes my own family when my mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 and when my husband died in 2016 from colon cancer.

That same student laughed at my jokes and some of the funnier book excerpts I read. And it was great to mention to him and his classmates that I did happen to publish a great children's picture book that has a similar sense of humour to that of Robert Munsch's books. SuperMom and the Big Baby, written by my son, Dave Driver, tells of a child whose temper causes him to grow so big that his mom tries to come to the rescue. SuperMom uses phrases that were actually spoken by my daughter-in-law Kelli while she was sleep-talking.

At the beginning of my talk, the student who asked if I was Robert Munsch had jokingly asked for my autograph, but he surprised me by following through on his request after my presentation was done. So either I impressed him or he wanted to continue being silly and get my signature on a paper towel to show to his friends.

For my own self-esteem, I'm going with Option 1.

(Read about other questions asked during my presentations.)

Hockey, SuperMom and the Big Baby books, and Children's Wish Foundation

On February 6th, we had the privilege of attending a Regina Pats Western Hockey League game to sit alongside the good folks of Children's Wish Foundation, Saskatchewan branch, on Children's Wish Night.

Author Dave Driver, who also happens to be our son, brought copies of his funny children's book SuperMom and the Big Baby, illustrated by Guy Laird. Dave is a mortgage broker who wrote this funny story as a gift to his wife Kelli. The phrases that SuperMom speaks in the book are phrases that Kelli spoke while sleeping. The book has been praised by teachers, parents, and children ages two to nine in particular.

We offered a special deal to anyone wishing to buy the book that night. Usually, we sell the book for $13.95 and donate $1 from each book to Children's Wish Foundation. (We donate to numerous charities from sales of some of our books. The list is at the bottom of our Home page.) Last night, we sold the book for $10 and gave HALF of that money to Children's Wish as our donation towards their good work.

Here's a photo journal of that night's fun event:

     Dave posed for a picture while signing a book for this little guy before the game. Meanwhile, Al is busy visiting with the little dude. His 'grandpa' impulses kick in and he starts the teasing and visiting every time he sees a child.

Then it was Dave's turn to visit.

He signed a book for this young man...

...who couldn't wait to look at his new book.

     A Children's Wish Child was introduced to drop the puck at the beginning of the hockey game.

     We were impressed by the new $3.7-million scoreboard and screen at Brandt Centre, home of the Regina Pats junior hockey team. Wow! It's like watching TV in high-definition and the clips between plays add so much more entertainment to a night out at the hockey game.

     I've never seen a 'Kiss Cam' or those psychedelic 'Clap Your Hands' colours on screen at a Pats game before. 

     This family stopped by and the dad asked what we were doing at our display. When we told him we were selling our great children's book and giving half the proceeds to Children's Wish Foundation, the little boy (about age six or seven) told us: "I've read that book."

     I was a little taken aback and asked him. "You've read this book?"

     "Yes," he said.

     I looked at his mom and told her that her son said he's read this book. "Oh, maybe he read it at school," she said.

    The boy looked at me and announced," It's in my backpack."

     "Your backpack at home?" his mom asked.

     The boy nodded.

     I leaned down to the boy's level and pointed at Dave. I told the boy, "This man wrote this book. Isn't that cool?"

     Without missing a beat, the boy replied, "I know. I saw his picture in the book."

     Dad asked, "Do you like this book?"

     The boy nodded.

     "Would you like to buy a book so you can read it to your brother and sisters?"

     "Yes."

     So they purchased their own copy of the book, and we all smiled. For quite a while.

     Meet Kristen Allen (left) and Jillian Desautels, Children's Wish Foundation staff in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan respectively.

  

We had fun working alongside them and talking about their great charity.

 When the overhead lights were down and the game was on, Dave and Al enjoyed watching the Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades on the ice.

I asked Al to take a photo of me with Dave, to prove I was there. (The photographer is rarely in any photos - with the exception of today's selfies trend.)

While Al was busy chatting with Jillian and Kristen...

... Dave was waiting patiently for K9, the Regina Pats mascot, to pose with him and the SuperMom and the Big Baby book.

     It was a fun night in Regina, Saskatchewan, made even better when a gentleman came along and made a substantial donation to Children's Wish Foundation. He had a Wish Child several years ago, and they went on a vacation through Children's Wish. His selfless act made our night.

   We'll be doing this again next month, on March 17th in Moose Jaw, at 7 p.m. in the new Mosaic Place, when the Moose Jaw Warriors play the Swift Current Broncos. We'll see you there!

Award-winning Books & Their Foil Sticker Problems

Of all the problems for an author or publisher to have, this is a good one. Should you put a gold foil sticker on your award-winning book’s cover or not?

I’ve been saddled with this pleasant conundrum several times in the last eight years – ever since the second book I wrote (Never Give Up: Ted Jaleta’s Inspiring Story) won an Honourable Mention in the Biography category at the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival. That now out-of-print book was also shortlisted for Publishing In Education and for Reader’s Choice at the 2007 Saskatchewan Book Awards.

It is pretty exciting when a book you’ve written or worked on wins an award of any kind, so my business partners and I purchased gold foil stickers locally to announce the Hollywood Book Festival award. We were excited and decided to save time by carefully placing the stickers on the covers of most of our books, trying hard not to cover any part of the face of the book’s subject or any of the book’s title words. We thought we had made some clever decisions about sticker placement on that dark blue and black cover. A while later, we discovered that not only does a black, glossy cover show every mark and fingerprint, but a lower-quality foil sticker can show signs of handling, too, with scratches quickly appearing and some of the wording disappearing with the handling. Argh. Lesson learned, I thought.

A couple years later, Seeds of Hope: A Prairie Story by Mary Harelkin Bishop won several awards (Finalist in Children's Literature at the 2009 Saskatchewan Book Awards, Honourable Mention in Teenage/Young Adult at the 2009 Nashville Book Festival, and Honourable Mention in Teenage at the 2008 London Book Festival). Again, we purchased foil stickers. I can’t remember whether they were purchased locally or through one of the award competitions, but they were foil and presented similar problems. Although we placed stickers on only a few books at a time, the lettering would come off if we weren't careful with the books. Some of the permanent adhesive stickers also eventually showed signs of wear.

In following years, we added more books to our stable of award-winners:

-          -  The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story by Alan J. Buick received an Honourable Mention in the Biography category at the 2010 Hollywood Book Festival

-          -  Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner’s Story of Hope by me, Deana J. Driver, received an Honourable Mention in the Biography category at the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival

-       -     Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver by Sharon Gray received an Honourable Mention in the Cats category of the 2013 Animals, Animals, Animals Book Festival.

  

We did not purchase stickers for any of these books. We announced our wins via media releases and social media, with posters, and small Post-it notes on the covers at various selling venues. A temporary sticker seemed to do the job just as well, but we did add the words ‘National Bestseller’ to the cover when we reprinted The Little Coat.

We recently entered our five newest books in the 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival, and were absolutely thrilled that ALL FIVE books received awards. As a Saskatchewan Publishers Group e-brief stated, DriverWorks Ink “cleaned up” at the awards festival:

-          -  Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition and Work With Your Angels by Lisa Driver was the Winner in the Spiritual category

-         -   Homegrown and other poems by Bryce Burnett received an Honourable Mention in the Poetry category

-        -   After the Truck Hit: Jennifer Kuchinka’sTrue Story by Jennifer Kuchinka received an Honourable Mention in the Wild Card category

-          -  Gina’s Wheels by Mary Harelkin Bishop received an Honourable Mention in the Children’s Books category

-         -   Jamie and the Monster Bookroom by Kerry Simpson with Jamie Simpson received an Honourable Mention in the Children’s Books category.

So that’s a LOT of awards ... which is wonderful, but it brings us to the current conundrum of whether to put stickers on those book covers or not.

 

I admit that I am a bit of a purist when it comes to covering up our book covers. We work hard to try to ensure that our book covers tell the stories of what’s inside while enticing potential readers to pick up the books and take a closer look.

Which part of the artist’s creation or the carefully chosen photograph should be covered permanently to announce an award?

Do award stickers even matter? Do people make decisions to purchase a book because the book has won an award?

I’d love to hear your feedback on this. 

At our recent DriverWorks Ink Open House/ Christmas Party, a friend commented that she appreciates gold foil stickers to announce awards and we should definitely be purchasing some and placing them on all our award-winning books. She said she recently purchased an award-winning children’s book from a Winnipeg author. She told us that the author had one gold sticker on her display book and then, once our friend had purchased the book, the author placed a foil sticker on our friend’s book. Clever, I thought. But a bit time-consuming if you are at a busy signing or event.

What do you think?

Stickers or no stickers? Do they matter to you when you purchase a book?

While you’re at it, please tell me where you would place an award sticker on our newest award-winning books. I look forward to your response.

Our SuperMom children's book is not weird - or is it?

Two little girls about seven years old made me laugh out loud this weekend. They came to our booth at the craft fair in Lloydminster, SK/AB running ahead of their moms and enthusiastically grabbing our SuperMom and the Big Baby book (written by Dave Driver and illustrated by Guy Laird).

One girl called it 'Superhero Mom'. Then they walked away.

Then they came back and grabbed it again.

I told them the book is about a little boy who has a temper and the madder he gets, the bigger he grows.

I showed them the picture of the boy becoming a giant baby who runs down the street, which scares everyone.

Then I said that his mom grabs a mask and cape and becomes SuperMom to the rescue.

One of the girls looked at me solemnly and said, "That's just weird."

I burst out laughing.

I didn't ask which part she thought was weird. It didn't matter.

They walked away again, then came back a few minutes later and looked at the book again - this time, with their mothers. 

They showed the book to their moms, one of whom corrected them on the book's title. Then the girls and I had a discussion about which of Robert Munsch's books are weird and which are silly.

"This book is like a Robert Munsch book in its style of humour. It is silly," I said. "Have you read The Paper Bag Princess?"

"Yes," said one girl. We have that one at home!"

"That's pretty silly, isn't it?"

"Yes. And Mortimer," she said

"That's a silly one, too," I agreed.

"Yes. We read that at school!"

"Well, this SuperMom book is a silly one," I suggested.

The second girl looked at me and repeated her friend's initial pronouncement, "That's just weird."

"It's not weird. It's called imagination, silly," I teased.

They and their moms all laughed.

I love the honesty of children and their openness to new ideas.

The moms didn't buy our 'weird' book right then but, by the looks on their faces as they left, I had a feeling that SuperMom and the Big Baby just might be under their Christmas trees this year.

That will be a weird Christmas, won't it?

(See my blogs about the creation of the SuperMom book and how kids love the book.)

Authors See Their Books for the First Time

Authors spend months - sometimes years - writing their books. They put their hearts and souls into their writing and they work closely with editors and publishers like me to provide the best books they can to potential readers everywhere.

As an author, editor and publisher, one of the most rewarding moments in this process of creating books comes when the author - or, in some cases, illustrator - sees their book for the first time. That first moment can be exciting, scary, nerve-wracking, thrilling, rewarding, some combination of those emotions or so much more.

This year, we assisted several authors and illustrators in creating their new books. We hope you enjoy their reactions to their books.

***

We weren't with Swift Current, Saskatchewan rancher and cowboy poet Bryce Burnett when he opened his first box of Homegrown and other poems books, but we're pretty sure Bryce looked like this when he saw his book for the first time...

...  because Bryce is just a happy kind of guy.

We caught up with Bryce at Swift Current's summer fair. He happily launched his book there and signed autographs for folks as well.

This is Bryce's first book and we are receiving wonderful responses to his poems, which celebrate rural life on the Canadian Prairies, community connections, love, laughter, and spirit and soul. The poems are sometimes funny, sometimes gentle, sometimes enlightening, and always well-written.

* * *

In August, we received two more new books from the printers. 

 

Here I am, holding the book and the bookmark for Jennifer Kuchinka's inspiring memoir, After the Truck Hit: Jennifer Kuchinka's True Story. 

The book details Jennifer's recovery from an accident in which she was hit by a semi after she ran out of a hospital onto a highway due to postpartum depression. Jennifer's story is quite incredible. She has recovered to the point that she is back to work as a teacher and is speaking at conferences across Canada to raise awareness of acquired brain injury and of postpartum depression.

When Jennifer received her first shipment of After the Truck Hit books, this first-time author sent us this photo of her reaction:

Looks like a pretty proud author. Or a pretty, proud author. 

(Punctuation is important, but both sentences in this case are accurate - and thus correct.)

Jennifer's book is also receiving accolades from readers and is one of the 'Wow!' books we have in our stable of true stories written by Prairie authors.

'Wow' is what customers say to us when they hear the book's storyline.

* * *

The second book we received from the printer that particular August day has a special place in our hearts, because it was written by our eldest daughter, Lisa Driver. 

  

Here are the proud editors/publishers/parents Al and Deana (me) Driver, with Lisa's book, Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition And Work With Your Angels.

This picture of us was taken by our eldest grandson, who happened to be visiting that day and begged to use my camera to take this important picture from his six-year-old's view of the action.

And what did Lisa, another first-time author, think of her book when she first saw it?

No caption is really necessary for this photo, but let's just say she was happy with it.

Lisa's book is the first spiritual wellness book we've produced, and we're happy about the positive response to it and to Lisa's message of health and healing.

This is one of the books that we've produced which have prompted people to come to us and say, "I need this book." Well done, Lisa!

* * *

Ten years ago, I met Mary Harelkin Bishop (a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan teacher and award-winning, prolific author) at a self-publishing workshop in Saskatoon. We became instant friends and have worked together on Mary's books Seeds of Hope: A Prairie Story and Moving Forward: The Journey of Paralympian Colette Bourgonje. 

Mary, above left, visited us in July to put the finishing touches on her new children's picture book Gina's Wheels, based on a true story related to a little girl who met Canadian Paralympian Colette Bourgonje.

Mary and I always have fun when we're working together, as you can tell by the big grins on our faces.

When Gina's Wheels arrived from the printers' shop, this was Mary's reaction:

"Just picked up my books. They look wonderful!" she told us.

We're pleased. The book tells a great story with a wonderful lesson of tolerance and acceptance of others. A clerk in a bookstore told us, "This book needs to exist." We heartily agree.

Gina's Wheels was illustrated by Saskatoon artist Diane L. Greenhorn, with chalk drawings. Nice, huh?

* * *

The fifth book we published in the past few months is Jamie and the Monster Bookroom, a children's picture book by Kerry Simpson and Jamie Simpson, illustrated by Regina artist Erika Folnović. It's about a little girl who loves the library and reading, and has a marvelous adventure in one of the rooms of her local library.

Here's the book and bookmark:

And here is how artist Erika Folnović reacted when we showed her the printed book:

Nervous ...

... and then happy.

But really, Erika?

That's your reaction?

Come on, girl.

Show us how you really feel about your first illustrated picture book.

There you go.

  That's the Erika we know and love!

(Erika also created the cover and inside illustrations of our award-winning humour book Letters to Jennifer from Maudie & Oliver by Sharon Gray, by the way.)

At the launch of Jamie and the Monster Bookroom in Regina, Saskatchewan a few days later, we asked author Kerry Simpson to show us her response when she saw the book for the first time:

Thrilled. 

Nice.

Definitely another happy, first-time author.

***

So there you are, folks. We hope you enjoyed these glimpses into some of the special moments in our publishing lives.

We look forward to adding more of them to our list, as we help authors create more stories for your reading enjoyment.

We invite you to talk to us about how we can help you publish your first book. Check here for more details.

Until then, take care.

********

P.S. A few days after I posted this blog, we received word that ALL FIVE of these new books received awards in the Great Midwest Book Festival competition in Chicago! We were so excited! 

Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition and Work With Your Angels by Lisa Driver was the Winner of the Spiritual category!

After the Truck Hit: Jennifer Kuchinka's True Story by Jennifer Kuchinka was awarded Honorable Mention in the Wild Card category.

Homegrown and other poems by Bryce Burnett was awarded Honorable Mention in the Poetry category.

Gina's Wheels by Mary Harelkin Bishop, illustrated by Diane L. Greenhorn, was awarded Honorable Mention in the Children's Books category.

Jamie and the Monster Bookroom by Kerry Simpson with Jamie Simpson, illustrated by Erika Folnović, was awarded Honorable Mention in the Children's Books category.

Congratulations to our authors and illustrators!

These five titles have now joined Seeds of Hope: A Prairie Story by Mary Harelkin Bishop, The Little Coat: The Story of Bob and Sue Elliott by Alan J. Buick, Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope by Deana J. Driver, and Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver by Sharon Gray in our stable of award-winning books. Not bad for a small publishing house like ours!