Okotoks author Lorna Stuber will be hosting a book launch this weekend for Nut Bags and Num-Nums, a memoir of her childhood on her parents' cattle ranch in southern Alberta.
“It’s stories about me and my sisters, sibling rivalry, typical stuff like that, but there’s also some atypical stuff like hunting gophers where you’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s crazy,’” laughed Stuber.
The book launch is set for Sunday, Nov. 12 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Okotoks Public Library, where she’ll read excerpts from the book, talk about the writing process and answer questions.
An English teacher for almost three decades, including 16 years with the Calgary Board of Education, Stuber resigned from teaching — she’s quick to say she’s too young to retire — just before the pandemic hit and moved to Okotoks.
“I wanted to move in a different direction while I was still young enough to have brain power and physical and mental energy to do something different,” she said of the decision to step away from teaching.
She started her own editing/writing/proofreading business and threw herself into writing books.
She has self-published four books, the first two were business-specific and the third was titled Living My Golden Dream, which looks back on her time teaching English in Japan in the early 1990s, her first job after university.
Stuber’s end goal is to be a travel writer, especially a humourous one, adding she likes to think she’s hilarious.
Saying she’s passionate about travel and anything to do with other cultures and languages, Stuber has three manuscripts in various forms to work on over the next few years. She said the books aren’t your typical travel guides, but rather will tell of her experiences abroad, complete with funny anecdotes and out-of-the-way places.
“Crazy things happen to me when I travel,” she said. “I just got back from Jordan right before all hell broke loose right along the border. It was a little unnerving to hear it on the news after just having been there.”
Her next book, which she hopes to publish late next year or early in 2025, will detail her travels in Germany, followed by one about Iceland/Antarctica and another on the Middle East.
As far as Nut Bags and Num-Nums goes, Stuber said she decided to write about her childhood to let current and future readers know who she is and how she grew up in Hanna, Alberta.
And, no, she doesn’t know Nickelback, which is inevitably the next question she gets after telling people she’s from Hanna.
"It’s a mix of humour and also stuff that will tug at the heart a little bit. It’s where I came from and how I came to be the person I am,” she said.
“Part of it is to entertain and say these are some of the silly things that happened, and these are some sad things that happened.”
Stuber returned to Hanna for a book signing and will make stops in other small towns to promote it.
Nut Bags and Num-Nums is available at Yooneek Books as well as through Amazon and Indigo.
