My father will soon be a published author...

When my Dad was little, he wrote stories, and his older brother illustrated them. When his brother died, he became determined someday he would be an author, to honour him. In some respects, he was already a writer - he was the editor of a science and engineering magazine at that point in time. But he wanted to write a novel.

Now that he has retired, he has. He has actually written two books, but one of them was a political humour novel, and something like that just doesn't have the shelf life a new author needs - the material grew stale. I am kind of sad about that, as he wanted me to illustrate that book, and I have the same name as his brother. I think he would have seen that kind of a joint project as the completion of his mission.

But there is his other book - a story about a government project to test the ability of older people to serve in the military, who then by accidental circumstances get caught up in a real conflict. It is quite good, and he was a finalist in a book chain's authoring contest when the book chain got bought up and the contest folded. It is so good, in fact, that a reknowned military leader wrote the foreward. He was not able to get the thing published the traditional way, as the czars of Canadian culture are far too timid to try out new authors. The book languished as his efforts to get published bore no fruit.

For Christmas, 2003, I snuck the book out of the house electronically. I got a set of sunset photos from my Mom that she figured he would like as the cover, and I typeset the book myself, and designed the cover. I had once worked at a publisher as a typesetter, and was even listed as co-editor of a poetry book, so I knew this was a gift I could give. A friend of mine had an idea for using gauze to perfect-bind the book without using the expensive equipment, and we did it. I sent him his own book for Christmas. He was stunned when he opened it - I don't think he ever imagined he would see it in print. I wanted to motivate him to ensure he would.

So he got at it again, and arranged to publish the book himself. It will come out in a month or so, if things work out. I am glad. It is a wonderful gift to be able to help someone make their dreams come true.