Hutterite Diaries Spinoff

It's true, one never knows what will happen once you get something published; the same is true when you answer the phone. Case in point, I got a rather unexpected call just before Christmas. I didn't know the person on the other end, and his name, Peter Slobodzian didn't ring a bell either. He told me that he and his family own and operate Q Lake Lodge here in Manitoba and that some of our guys, including my brother had fished there some time ago. As you can imagine, while he was telling me all this, I was wondering how I fit into any of it. Sure, I wouldn't mind spending time at a nice lake, but I don't care about fishing at all.

 "I'm also a substitute teacher and sometimes teach at Treherne School," he continued. "One day, while I was filling in for one of their teachers, I visited the library and found your book, Hutterite Diaries. Intrigued, I quickly read a few stories and liked what I read. Would you be interested in submitting articles for our Rural Outdoors magazine?"

A lovely surprise, for sure! In any case, I found my voice and asked him to tell me more about this magazine, since I'd never heard of it. Rural Outdoors is a publication he and his family publish a few times a year, as part of their Q Lake Lodge promotion. After chatting a few more minutes, we decided to meet for further discussions sometime after the holidays. After that meeting, I sent him a few of my stories for him to look at and decide if they'd be a good fit for his magazine. He was clearly excited about featuring a story written by a Hutterite, since he does business with some of the colonies.

Thus, the most recent edition on Rural Outdoors has one of my stories in it. It's one you've most likely read, if you've been following this blog for a while.  You can read an early version of it here. Or perhaps some of you, especially if you live in Manitoba, will get a chance to see it in Rural Outdoors. 

Feel free to share any of your own out-of-the-blue lovely surprises.