Danny Evanishen's Newsletter 1993

Danny Evanishen's 1993 Newsletter

Being the official organ of Ethnic Enterprises, Social Wing, and the Canadian Duck Club.

Box 234, Summerland, BC, Canada, V0H 1Z0, Phone (250) 494-3205 Fax (250) 494-3131 Email: danny@ethnic.bc.ca

Composed by Danny Evanishen in December 1993 and posted soon after.

Writing Proceeding

I am still writing books, and I have decided to publish them myself under the name Ethnic Enterprises, Publishing Division. So far, I have one book out and two more in the works. The one that is out is a fax joke book. More on that elsewhere in this newsletter.

The other books are: one of Ukrainian folk tales retold in English and one of humorous short stories I have written. The folk tales book will include art work by my sister, my niece and my brother, if I can talk him into it. Since my father did the translations and I did the editing and retelling, the whole thing is a real family affair.

The short stories will be illustrated with old and new photos of relatives and friends. The stories are based on anecdotes told by various friends and relatives. The main character is Vuiko Yurko (Uncle George in English) to whom all these wonderful things happen. I won a prize in a writers' contest with one of the stories, so I am already ahead of the game on that one.

I'm hoping to launch these two books in Spring 1994 and spend the Summer travelling across Canada to the Ukrainian festivals and book stores to sell them.

Take that as fair warning. I may show up on your doorstep next Summer with a book to sell.

Fax Book

This book was put together to make enough money to print my other books. The idea was that I was going to go to Vancouver to test the market by sending a fax to everyone with a fax number in the city, and tell them about this wonderful book I have to sell. Then they would line up to buy it. Good idea, right?

Wrong! There were three times as many people mad at me as bought the book. Seems people don't like junk mail and, when they have to pay for the paper when you fax them something and, since you're tying up their machines and, since some people actually sleep in the same room as their fax machine and I woke them up, well, the whole thing was a bust.

Now I'm trying to sell the book by mail order. I'll soon have an ad appearing in some of the National Enquirer-type magazines in the US and Canada. Maybe that's the right way to sell a joke book. We'll see.

I was hoping to have a lot of time free to visit people while I was in Vancouver but, as it turned out, I had so many problems trying to get my computer to send out thousands of faxes that I wound up with no time at all. Next time.

Anybody interested in seeing (buying) the book can write to me. If I remember, I'll include an ad sheet describing it. Then you'll have a better idea what it's about. Some of it I wouldn't dare show to my mother.

Cars

I still have my 1981 VW diesel pickup truck. Good little truck, and running fine.

I still have the 1965 VW van that is still being prepared for camping and travelling. I don't know when it will be ready, but I'm hoping it will be in Spring.

I also still have the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk, which is still in the body shop on Salt Spring Island. I'm waiting to hear how much it would cost to fix it up, and then I can decide whether to fix it or get another body for it. The mechanical work is all done, but body pretty rough.

Travel

Last September my parents and I went to Sask and Alta for a very short time. Mom stayed at Johanne's in Eckville and Dad and I went on to Saskatchewan for a couple of days. It turned out to be a much quicker trip than I had envisioned, but a good one. We didn't have nearly enough time to see everyone we wanted to. Next time. (I keep saying that.)

What We Need This Time

No grants or research funds ever showed up to do the folk tales or pioneers' stories, so I am still spludging along there as best I can. Anybody knows where there is money for this purpose, let me know, quick.

I need a better computer. The screen on this one is pretty small, and it takes me a long time to scroll up and down trying to get the whole page made up. Gotta be Macintosh, though. Love my Mac!

Ethnic Enterprises