Way to go, Prairie Women On Snowmobiles!

On February 4, Al and I were honoured to once again hang out with the inspiring eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner and her wingman/husband Graham. This time, we were at a fundraising event in Regina, Saskatchewan for Prairie Women On Snowmobiles. These 10 warm-hearted Saskatchewan women were in the midst of their eight-day journey through Saskatchewan to raise money for breast cancer research.

We were pleased to attend the fundraiser and support these women on their quest. We were also pleased they had invited our favourite multiple-cancer survivor to be the guest speaker for their event in Regina. Dionne is the subject of our award-winning best-selling book Never Leave Your Wingman, by the way.

Here is a photo essay of that evening. Enjoy!

The women who participate in this ride come from different communities in Saskatchewan. Some have joined for the first time this year and others have participated in the ride in other years as well. The 2014 trek had riders from eight different communities. They met in Prince Albert, then took the zig-zag route down south and were heading back up north again, ending their ride in Nipawin.

Eight-time cancer survivor had a visit with Gerri Moeller of Meadow Lake, SK, the lead rider for the 2014 trek.

Although a little fuzzy, this photo shows the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles crest, which the riders, pit crew and executive proudly wear on their vests.

We were all touched when the Prairie Women On Snowmobiles asked breast cancer survivors to come forward to receive one of their pins. Here, eight-time survivor Dionne Warner receives her pin. Standing behind Dionne is Linda Rattray, who is another strong, breast cancer survivor from Regina.

What a nice moment for these courageous survivors!

Shortly after arriving at the event, PWOS rider Sancia Diebel of North Battleford came up to us and asked, "What is DriverWorks Ink? It sounds familiar to me and it's driving me crazy!" We laughed and recalled that we met each other at the North Battleford Agri-Mex Home, Trade and Farm Show last year, where we had a booth to sell our books (and we'll be there again from April 3-5 this year).

What makes Sancia special - aside from the facts that she put her life on hold for 10 days to participate in this ride and that she remembered meeting us somewhere before? Sancia is from England and came to Saskatchewan nine years ago, following a 'cowboy' and making her new home in North Battleford. England's loss is definitely our gain.

All of the riders introduced themselves and told us why they were participating in the Prairie Women On Snowmobiles 2014 ride. They've lost moms, grandmas, godmoms, sisters, and friends to this disease. It's a cause near to their hearts, and to ours.

It was time for Dionne Warner to share her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30, and overcoming not only that but seven diagnoses of other cancers since. 

You could have heard a pin drop as Dionne shared her story of courage, love and hope.

"I'm never gonna give in. I'm never gonna give up, and I will fight back with every breath I have," Dionne said.

Prairie Women On Snowmobiles' treasurer Shannon Scott thanked Dionne for her words of strength and encouragement.

Prairie Women On Snowmobiles' president Carol Lueken shared statistics about the ride, which began in 2000 and has raised more than $2 million for breast cancer research to date! Way to go, ladies!

Here are the riders for this year, joined by Dionne and Graham Warner. Graham is the tall guy in the back row. Bet you don't hear that too often, do you, Graham?

Al and I posed with Dionne and Graham, surrounding the executive of this wonderful organization. (They're holding our Never Leave Your Wingman book. Nice, huh?)

From left to right: Al and I, Wanda Kiefer, Carol Lueken, Shannon Scott, Dionne and Graham Warner.

Thank you for the invitation to this great fundraiser, Prairie Women On Snowmobiles.

Ride on, ladies!

Time to Do Something About Cancer, World!

It's World Cancer Day and, frankly, I wish this day didn't exist.

I wish there was no such thing as cancer and that we didn't all have to even think about it. 

But wishes are wishes and this is reality. Cancer exists and we have to join together in this battle to raise awareness, to work on prevention, and to raise funds to beat this evil disease.

People are being diagnosed all the time. Canadian Cancer statistics note that:

• An estimated 187,600 new cases of cancer (excluding about 81,700 non-melanoma skin cancers) and 75,500 deaths will occur in Canada in 2013. 

• More than half (about 52%) of all new cases will be lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. 

• Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada and is responsible for about 30% of all deaths.

• About 2 in 5 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetimes and 1 in 4 will die of the disease. 

Frankly, that sucks.

But here's some good news:

• 63% of Canadians diagnosed with cancer will survive at least 5 years after their diagnosis. 

• At the beginning of 2009, there were about 838,724 Canadians living with a cancer that had been diagnosed in the previous 10 years.


And we're making more strides all the time to eradicate this disease or at least reduce it to the level of a disease that isn't so devastating or so deadly.

I enjoyed this article listing 10 Things We Can Do About Cancer, including how to live well, take care of ourselves, take care of others, and support the cause. 

My mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2011. We have also lost numerous other family members and friends to this horrid disease. Enough, I say.


Tonight, we're going to a fundraising event to support the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles as they ride through Saskatchewan and raise money for breast cancer research.  Eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner, the inspiring subject of my book Never Leave Your Wingman, is speaking at the event. My husband (and book publishing partner) Al and I will be there with Dionne her wingman, her husband Graham, and we will keep on spreading her story of hope and courage in this journey.

Let's keep on spreading hope and fighting cancer, world. Enough, I say.

The inspiring Dionne Warner, subject of the Never Leave Your Wingman book.

Pobody's Nerfect #5 -

As in all things, pobody’s nerfect... er... nobody’s perfect in the process of writing. But it is important to strive to be accurate, to use correct spelling and to fix typographical errors, and to use the correct words and phrases for what is intended.

These are lessons I’ve learned along the way related to the use of words and phrases. I hope they help you in your writing.

1.     Alternate – alternative. Alternate, used as a noun, means something used when the first item is not available. e.g. The book I wanted from the library wasn’t available, so I found an alternate. Alternative is used when there is more than one option. I don’t like French fries, so I ordered salad as the alternative. Also, see this explanation.
2.     Immigrant – emigrant. An immigrant is a person who comes to a country. An emigrant comes from one country to another one. Here’s another explanation.
3.     Accept – except. Think of the word ‘acceptance’ when you consider using the word ‘accept’. It means to welcome someone or something, such as accepting an invitation or an award, for example. Think of the word ‘exception’ when you consider using the word ‘except’. Except is used to differentiate one item from all the rest. e.g. All the towels were blue, except for one that was white. 
4.     Affect – effect. ‘Affect’ is most commonly used as a verb – to affect something – while ‘effect’ is most commonly used as a noun – the effect of what happened. Here’s an Oxford blog link to give further explanations and examples. When you affect something, you effect a change, says this blog.
5.     More than – over. Less than – under. When discussing a quantity, such as 10 carrots compared to seven carrots, the correct phrases are ‘more than’ and ‘less than’. When discussing an object’s relation to another, use ‘over’ and ‘under’. Think of these words as short forms of ‘over top’ and ‘underneath’. ‘The bridge is over the water. There are more than a dozen fish in the water. I placed my shoes under the table. There are less than three shoes under the table.’
6.     Ensure – insure. To ensure is to make certain. To insure is to guard against financially. For some great examples and the addition of the word ‘assure’ as well, see this link.

One of my journalism instructors taught me this: If in doubt, leave it out. 

I’ll add to that: If unsure, look it up. I know it doesn’t rhyme, but it makes sense. Use a dictionary, a thesaurus, or the Internet (find a reputable site) to make sure you are using the right words when you write. You see what I did there – right and write?

Okay. Good writing, everyone!

Swiss Cows, French Statues & World Peace - Blog Part 14

Switzerland! The last country we visited on our exciting European adventure. I was SO EXCITED!

I'm the Never Leave Your Wingman book and I've been blogging about our summer trip to Europe. I wasn't nearly as excited about seeing Switzerland as my author Deana and her husband, Publisher Al. They were anxious to see this country known for its alps, independence and beauty.

Where does Swiss chocolate come from?

 Swiss cows, of course!

We saw Swiss bison, too. That was unexpected.

Here I am, sitting on the dash of our rental vehicle, watching the world outside - including this Swiss ambulance.

We stopped at this shopping mall which extended over the highway. We wanted to see if we could buy a small souvenir of Switzerland without breaking our budget. Switzerland is expensive, you see. We'd already paid 40 Swiss francs (about $40 Canadian) for a permit to drive through Switzerland that day. 

We bought a quick lunch at a Burger King in the highway mall. One Whopper meal with fries and a drink plus an additional Whopper burger cost 24 Swiss francs - about $25 Canadian! That's probably close to double what it would have cost in Canada. You could have knocked our sandals off with a feather at that point!

Speaking of footwear...

...we saw these fashionable shoes in a mall shop and I had to pose for a photo with them. My subject - seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner - loves shoes, so I just couldn't help but think of her when I saw these shoes. Especially the pink ones. Have I said before that I LOVE PINK! I have? Well, there you go.

Have I said I also love silly things... like this cow and calf that were advertising a store in the mall. I wanted to get a close-up look at them. They're not the kind of cattle you see every day. 

Nor do you see this sight every day...  

...two balloons randomly hanging around in an elevator in a mall. It puzzled me and my author, so we took a photo. Just because.

So here you'll see my author/publisher and Publisher Al just standing by our rental vehicle in the Switzerland shopping mall parking lot. Again - just because.

A short while after our drive through Switzerland, we arrived in the town of Colmar, France. A woman we met at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris told us that we should visit Colmar because it is so beautiful. So we decided to follow her advice.

We knew pretty much nothing about the town except that it is in the Alsace region of France, near Germany's Black Forest. So imagine our surprise when we saw this view at a roundabout (traffic circle) on the northern edge of the town as we got closer to our hotel.

Yep. It's a replica of the Statue of Liberty. In France!

Why, you ask? 

Well... Auguste Bartholdi is the man who created the Statue of Liberty that sits in the harbour near New York City. And he was born in Colmar, France. 

So this is the world's largest replica of the statue. It was unveiled in 2004 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bartholdi's death.

We were among many, many passersby who stood in front of that 12-metre-high statue for a photo. Can you see me in this photo?

How about now?

Colmar calls itself 'La Petite Venice'. It does have a couple of canals. Pretty, but definitely 'petite' compared to Venice - or even Bruges, Venice of the North.

This corner honours local artist Bartholdi. 

This hat honours.... um... storks?

My author and I found this statue to be quite fascinating.

It is called Monument Pfeffel. Theophile-Conrad Pfeffel was born in 1736 and lost his sight in 1757. The monument says he "devoted his life to literature and teaching: in 1773 he founded a military academy for training young Protestants unable to attend the Royal Academy, and in 1803 was made president of the Evangelical Consistory of Colmar. He left a collection of poems, fables, stories and short stories. This statue which was made by Charles Geiss in 1927 is a sandstone copy of the original work by Andreé Friedrich (1859)."

Colmar has some beautiful historic buildings, like this chruch, ...  

Fancy door knockers...

... interesting intricate latches for window shutters...

... and a camel? Yeah, it surprised me, too. I think it was outside a Moroccan-themed restaurant. Publisher Al looks like he wants to take it for a walk, doesn't he?

What’s on the menu at this restaurant? Well, there's pork ... And me!
Thumbs up from the chef. Thank you, kind sir.

So Colmar, France marked the end of our wonderful trip to Europe. We returned our rental vehicle to the agency in Frankfurt, Germany.

Publisher Al drove 9,348.3 kilometres during five and a half weeks. We saw parts of eight countries plus Vatican City and Monaco and had an absolutely wonderful time.

We boarded our Condor plane for the long flight home, and enjoyed the view en route.
We flew over Greenland and Baffin Island - two more places I thought I'd never see.

We landed in Calgary and transferred to a WestJet flight to Regina.

Home Sweet Home. 

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) train in Regina, so this mighty moose is a reminder of that fact.  

Oh, yeah - the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the 2013 Grey Cup ... on their home field in Regina this fall. It had nothing to do with our trip but everything to do with where we live. Go Riders!  

Well, that's it. This is the final blog in my series. I hope you enjoyed following me as I revisited my Excellent European Adventure with my author and publisher. I had fun reliving our trip and showing you some of the sights we saw and the emotions we experienced. It was quite the adventure!

So... 

...with a French macaron tree...

...and a prayer candle that we lit in a church in France,

we wish you, your family and friends

a blessed holiday and a wonderful 2014.

And with this beautiful image we saw on a sidewalk in Switzerland, 

we especially wish you and the whole world

Peace.