Salmon Arm author publishes children's story she wrote more than 50 years ago

A Salmon Arm author’s first children's book has been published after she held on to a copy of the original draft for more than 50 years.

Diane Johnson, a proud Salmon Arm Secondary School graduate, said she originally wrote the story in the early 1970s when she was attending the University of Victoria and living in a character home in Oak Bay alongside four other girls.

“I still had a copy of it 50-some years later, and I finally had some time to put into trying to publish it,” she said. “There were five of us living in the house at the time, so there are five characters.”

Her book, titled The Bad Manor Girls Save Picturia, is about five girls who move into Bad Manor and must stop the villainous Ig as he unleashes The Haze on the beautiful city of Picturia.

Johnson said her mother played an important role in helping her retain a copy of the story for all those years.

“It's quite miraculous, actually,” Johnson said. “My mom had typed out a copy of it. The first one, the original, was handwritten.”

The Bad Manor Girls Save Picturia is best suited for children transitioning from picture books to longer stories.

“It's a fairly simple story that children will enjoy, but it's also about being aware through tuning into your senses, what you see, what you hear, and so on," Johnson said.

Through living in Oak Bay in the 1970s, Johnson said her story was inspired by the burgeoning environmental movement as well as a new understanding of eastern spirituality.

The book features themes of appreciating the world around you and using your senses to centre yourself in the moment.

“Ig, at the time, was short for ignorance — which is a Buddhist idea of unknowing or not knowing, rather than stupidity,” she explained. “And Ig nowadays is Instagram. Of course Instagram can make you distracted, also.”

“it's about finding present moment awareness," she added. “That's the story within the story.”

The original copy of the book featured illustrations created by one of the inspirations for The Bad Manor girls.

“One of my roommates had done the original illustrations, but I wasn't able to find her so many years later,” she explained. “So I had to find new illustrators — and ended up with four different illustrators.”

Johnson said she reached out to an author from Kelowna she had read about in an article. This author had also published a story they had originally written many years before.

“She suggested her illustrator might be interested in working with me, and so I talked to her,” Johnson said.

That illustrator ended up being award-winning artist Catherine Anne Tower, the grand-niece of legendary B.C. artist Emily Carr.

“She did actually quite a few of the illustrations, including the characters and the cat,” she added. “So they're nice and colourful and kind of a bit of a modern take on the characters.”

The book also features illustrations from Johnson’s daughter-in-law Lauren Kate Johnson, as well as FriesenPress illustrators Patricia and Robin DeWitt.

Johnson said she has no concrete plans for a sequel, but she wouldn't rule one out in the future.

“It's sort of like this is the one where they save Picturia, what are they going to do next?,” she said. “Nothing's started or anything, but, you know, ideas float around in the head.”

At the moment, Johnson finds herself keeping busy with the promotion of her book, which was published in June of this year.

“They tell me that promoting is the third leg of the stool,” she said. “Write it and publish it and then promote it, so I'm busy doing that."

Johnson will hold a book signing at Bookingham Palace in Salmon Arm's Piccadilly Mall on Saturday, Nov. 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Bad Manor Girls Save Picturia is available in paperback and hardcover at The Book Nook, Eclectic Soul Gift Boutique, Hidden Treasures Book Store and online at Indigo and Amazon as well as in ebook formats.

To learn more about the book, visit The Bad Manor Girls website.