First, if you have any thoughts about writing a book, screenplay or play, E MAIL me, I’ll share everything I can with you, with what we have learned. paulsveen@shaw.ca

Alright. We had played with the idea of The Awfalot, since Nernie and I first met, in 2004. It was always in the back of our minds to develop this story about the healing power of humor, into a book. I showed the story to friends and approached local artists about working with us. Nothing came of it sadly.

Listen, we all have ideas. Some of them are notions, passing thoughts, some are ideas that make it onto a napkin. Other ideas are explosions in our minds, with this energy that we absolutely have to take action and make this happen. Well, The Awfalot began with Nernie and I laughing until our stomachs hurt, and a story that was a play on words. I love to rhyme and Nernie loves poetry, so we were good to go out of the gate. Unfortunately, that gate closed as soon as we stepped toward it.

We either act on our ideas, or what happened to Nernie and I, we put The Awfalot on a shelf and moved onto other things, like, getting married, building a treehouse in the backyard, driving to Saskatoon, to get our doggie Ruby, finding a kitty in the colds of winter and naming her KOOKOO, and then the whole, struggling to make ends meet thing.

So, the years passed, and one day, during the pandemic, Nernie was cleaning out a book shelf and found the ideas we had for The Awfalot. She showed it to me and I exclaimed, “yah, we should do this honey!” Nernie replied, “That’s what you said 15 years ago Pal.” Yah, well I was busy binge watching H.R. Pufnstuf. Have you ever had that happen? Jotted down an idea on your hand, or have someone remind you of something you were going to do, get a Mohawk haircut, get your lips fitted with pirate rings, build a spaceship in the garage? And never do it? For me that was the 70’s, 80’s, most of the 90’s and, well pretty much every moment I’ve been awake.

So, Nernie and I played with the original sheets of coffee stained paper and put The Awfalot back together, the best we could. I had been performing Stand Up Comedy Nationally for over 30 years, and had been teaching Stand Up, as an Adult Instructor for over 25 years. Nernie and I had met a lot of great people over the years, and one of them, was one of my students, Emily St. Marie. She was now living in the States, sketching children’s books. I said, I said what???!!

Synchronicity and coincidence collided like my head and an awning, in an idea and long distance phone calls to the inner regions of Washington State. A phone call that wasn’t on any plan known to humanity. I called Emily, she loved the story and we began the year long Zoom and phone calls. The idea we began all those years ago, was rising from the ashes of my indentation on the couch. I had contacted a publisher and we sent our finished manuscript. There was another several months of back and forth, when the day finally came, that The Awfalot was now ready for publication. “Yay!!!”

The idea that refused to die about the healing power of humor, was brought to life. I guess the idea was always floating near the surface of our hearts, so, it was a natural process to not quit on this story because it kept nudging us.

https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000020867117

Here is the link to our book from our publisher Friesen Press. Our book will be available on Amazon and in all bookstores in a few weeks, once they update their catalogs.

This was our journey. If you know Nernie and I, you will see all the connections to us in our book, The Awfalot. We never gave up on this story because laughter and the million words that make that one word, laughter: kindness, friendship, healing, happiness, possibility, miracles… kept shaking us, asking us to get The Awfalot out there. And like me, being out there. so is the story for the young at heart, The Awfalot. “Yayyyyy!!!”