Two members of the Grainews family have recently released books that are sure to be of interest to readers in Western Canada.
Former Grainews editor Larry Gompf is the author of A Slimmer You: A Natural Way to Lose Weight, released this past June by publisher FriesenPress. Meanwhile, First We Eat columnist, dee Hobsbawn-Smith, is the writer of Danceland Diary: a novel, released in October by Radiant Press.
Gompf, who had a lengthy career in agriculture before joining Grainews, says he was inspired to write A Slimmer You after seeing a picture of himself a few years ago and noting how much weight he had gained since retiring. He recalled an old episode of the TV series Front Page Challenge in which well-known athlete Jackrabbit Johannsen noted the key to his longevity was his ability to back away from the dinner table even though he often felt he could eat more.
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Gompf took that message to heart and ended up dropping nearly 30 pounds, he says, by simply cutting back on how much he ate and being more physically active. After noting how many fellow farmers struggle with the battle of the bulge in retirement, he decide to share his approach to living healthy in A Slimmer You. He stresses the book’s focus isn’t on dieting, but on the benefits of eating healthy and being active.
“I’m pretty hard in the book on retired farmers,” he says. “I say if you want to continue to eat as much … as you did when you were working on the farm, if you continue to do that once you are retired, you are going to put on extra weight around your belly you don’t need.”
Although it’s been some time since he worked for Grainews, Gompf says his experience from his newspaper days definitely helped shape A Slimmer You.
“When (former editor) the late Andy Sirski first hired me, I said I don’t know how to write. He said we’ll teach you and it kind of developed from there,” he recalls, laughing. “But working at Grainews definitely helped me with my writing skills.”
In addition to her food column in Grainews, Hobsbawn-Smith is the author of several collections of poems and short stories including the award-winning memoir Bread & Water. Danceland Diary is her first full-length novel. It tells the story of Luka Dekker and her sister Connie who are the inheritors of a secretive and disturbing family history that dates back three generations. The story is played out in downtown Vancouver and rural Saskatchewan and offers an engaging examination of intergenerational trauma and forgiveness.
Danceland Diary was officially launched at The Artesian in Regina on Oct. 18 and McNally-Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon on Oct. 19. Hobsbawn-Smith is scheduled to give a number of public readings from the book throughout October and November.
