It is amazing that in just over 7 months, I have run out of 1000 books.  Yes, one thousand!  I learned from the Ottawa Independent Writer's Association that 93% of authors sell less than 500 copies.  I'm delighted to realize that I'm in the top 7%!  As a result, a second edition of my book went to Gilmore Printing today.
People are finding they can't get my book in many stores.  I've needed them for presentations I give to various social groups.  (See Book Tour Dates for more information.)   The second edition of "Perseverance Pranks & Pride - Tales of the One-Room Schoolhouse" should be available next week....stay tuned!

Today I accompanied my mother to a class at the Ottawa Heart Institute, as she has just had open heart surgery as will soon be going home.  In the class, I met Milfred Harper, also a heart patient.  He and his brother, Gary, attended S.S. No. 10 Oxford.  He and I were both surprised to learn his former music teacher, Miss Jean Joyner, is featured in my book on page 11.  He also fondly remembered another teacher, Miss Bessie Higgins.

Thank you to everyone for their best wishes for my mother and father.  My mother is recuperating well after open heart surgery and my father is looking better after a blood transfusion.  Even though I haven’t been blogging too much lately, people are still interested in my book.  Even a nurse in the Heart Institute wanted a signed copy as she had attended a one-room schoolhouse.

Yesterday, I met some lovely people at Waterside Retirement Home in Carleton Place.  Shirley MacMillan Gervais of Renfrew went to a S.S. No. 1 Osanbrook in Dickinson’s Landing along the banks of the St. Lawrence River.  Unfortunately Dickinson’s Landing was one of the ‘lost villages’ after they flooded the land with the installation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959.  The land was expropriated and entire communities resettled.  Some 6,500 people were moved to new homes and some 550 dwellings are transported to waiting foundations in the new Ontario towns of Long Sault, Ingleside and Iroquois.  Shirley’s family was relocated to Ingleside, just east of Upper Canada Village.

Kalle Boucher (from the Nepean Museum) and I have a wonderful program planned on Sunday, April 3 from 1-4pm.  Children will have a chance to be a student in a one-room schoolhouse and participate in mini lessons, story telling, writing with ink pens, play schoolyard games and make pioneer crafts all for 3 dollars....what a deal!  Hope to see you tomorrow!