Stories About Storytellers is a nominee for the 2012 Lela Common Award for Canadian History. The other nominated titles are Richard Gwyn’s Nation Maker and Jonathan F. Vance’s Maple Leaf Empire. The awards celebrate a work of historical non-fiction on a Canadian topic by authors “honouring writing that achieves excellence without sacrificing popular appeal.” To find out more, head to the website for the Canadian Authors Association. The winner will be announced on July 28, 2012.
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Douglas Gibson 
Mr. Gibson, what a pleasure to meet you at BookFest Windsor in November. I have now read your book for the second time, enjoying every minute of it. You had me right from page 2 where you mentioned that Stephen Leacock died in March 1944, when you were only three months old. I was born July 18, 1944. In the next paragraph, you mention Scots and English, then on page three the word French jumps out at me. I am a mix of Scottish, English and French heritage. The “coincidences” or synchronicities jump out at me, page after page. I have relatives living from East to West and North to South in Canada and cousins who live in Lucan. My Uncle Rick Simons was Squadron Leader with the RCAF in Clinton. I spent many summers in Bayfield as a teenager where he and Aunt Janet lived in a mansion called Shangri-La. Aunt Janet was a friend of Alice Munroe. On a clear night, my talk show “Ye Olde English Astrologer”, on AM 580 CKWW, then AM 800 CKLW reached clear up to Bayfield and London from Windsor, down to Ohio and up to Northern Michigan. Aunt Janet never missed listening to it.
My three children were diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in 1970, life expectancy – 13 years of age. They lived to the ages of 25, 30 and 37, as you may have noted on the back cover of my dream book. They spent many summers at the CF Camp at Lake Couchiching.
Your book, “Stories About Storytellers”, is amazing. It is like an editing and publishing course all in one. I have been resisting my editor’s advice on changing the name of a book I have written about my three CF angels from “Teddy Bears and I.V. Therapy” to something else. She is the head of the creative writing department at the University of Windsor and is finishing up a second draft of my book. She also insists that I rewrite and expand a chapter on the discovery of the CF gene, since it was literally found through my daughter Denise. After reading your book, I am now ready to give in to her expertise and do as she wishes.
Once again, thank you for YOUR expertise and the help and information provided in your book. Oh yes… one more synchronicity comes to mind. I never watched George Stroumboulopoulos before. I randomly turned his show on the other night and there you were, giving us all some “Scottish” advice! I really hope your book, “Stories about Storytellers” wins many prizes. It is such an excellent book and a true gift for all to read.