Everybody has a story, the saying goes. But not all the stories have to be about the real world.
Local North Battleford resident Elizabeth Zakresky (or “Betty” for short) has a story to tell, all right, and it is about the fictional adventures of a little old lady called Weenana.
She’s written those stories and put them together in a new book out this year. It’s called The Weenana Collection, a 124-page book published by the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
The book is the culmination of work by Zakresky over the past decade, a period of time in which she wrote and published four short stories about Weenana and her various friends.
How Weenana came to be is an interesting tale and it begins with the author’s own love of storytelling.
Zakresky was born in Bruno in 1935 to Austrian immigrants to Canada, and she had taught in schools around Moose Jaw, Estevan and North Battleford.
According to her biography she enjoyed storytelling while growing up.
“My father would tell us stories, more so than my mother,” said Zakresky.
“He always spoke about his country and exactly how the property was around where he grew up. And when my husband and I went there to visit many, many years later, I could have closed my eyes and walked into that place – I knew exactly where everything would be.”
She also used to read to her kids, and then when the grandchildren came along, they would spend a lot of time at the lake.
Every morning, “it was tradition to jump into bed with Nana and tell a story,” said Zakresky. “And it grew from there.”
As time went on, her kids grew up and they all scattered to distant places such as Calgary and Regina.
Zakresky needed a way to communicate with the rest of the family. She also needed heart surgery at one point, which further limited her ability to travel back and forth.
About 10 years ago, her son gave her a new laptop computer.
“I asked him what do you want me to do with this? And he said ‘I want you to learn how to use it so you can be in touch with your children and your grandchildren.’ So I thought, well, I could try.”
Zakresky decided to try to get the hang of using a computer. She soon figured out a way to use the computer to connect with her grandchildren.
“To me, children love stories,” Zakresky said. “So the best way to communicate is in story form. So I created Weenana.”
What she would do is start a story and every two weeks she would send the next episode of Weenana out on email to her children and grandchildren.
Then at the end of each story she would ask a question of her small but devoted following: “what would you do?”
“And they would then communicate with me, and I would try and put their thoughts into the next episode coming up.”
Soon enough, she had a “stack of stories” that she didn’t want to get rid of.
She found an illustrator, Roy Bartlett, and “he and I worked to put together what Weenana might look like and we started the pictures.”
From there, Zakresky put together her first Weenana books, which were softcover books with coil binding.
The first one was Weenana, which introduced Weenana and the characters in her world.
“Once upon a time there was a little lady called Weenana, because she was so tiny,” Zakresky wrote.
“She lived in a very small house. One day a bad storm came and blew over a tree and wrecked the roof of her home. She didn’t know where she would live until her home could be fixed. She was very sad and went for a walk.”
From there, the Weenana’s stories took their twists and turns with Weenana meeting all kinds of new friends, many of them from the animal kingdom. In her first story Weenana took up residence in a boot that belonged to a giant named Giant John.
The second Weenana story was Weenana’s Adventures, in which Weenana is picked up by a storm and lands in Canada’s far north. She then travels to the Sahara Desert and to Australia, encountering strange animals such as kangaroos and the Tasmanian devil.
The third Weenana story was called Weenana’s Animal Clinic, in which Weenana goes back to school and opens up a clinic to help various animals who are sick.
Zakresky wasn’t intending to do a fourth Weenana story, but she had a grandson who had wanted a story where Weenana interacted with a dinosaur.
“Well, that’s a leap of imagination,” said Zakresky.
She came up with a story called Weenana and Hunter,, about Weenana’s interactions with a dinosaur.
Those initial Weenana books were printed in Battleford. They featured Zakresky’s stories and, at first, featured illustrations from Bartlett.
For the later editions, Bartlett stepped away due to eyesight issues. Her daughter Janet Zakresky and son-in-law Jared Gyoerick stepped in to do the illustrations. The idea was to do those in much the same style as the ones Bartlett had created.
There is also an educational aspect to the stories.
“The books are set up in a way that they’re not only entertaining, but there is some instruction there,” said Zakresky, with kids able to learn about different animals and different places. With the story about Hunter the Dinosaur, kids are also able to learn about creation and extinction.
Last December, Zakresky’s children had a special surprise in store. They had approached a book-binder in Calgary to bind all four of the Weenana stories into a single volume.
That volume was titled “The Weenana Collection.”
The story didn’t end there: the person who put the volume together in Calgary suggested they find a publisher so that so other children can enjoy it. Zakresky’s children approached her with the idea.
“They came to me at Christmas time and gave me the book, and said ‘Mom, here’s a contract. If you want to let other children see this book and enjoy it, it’ll be published.’ So that’s where we went.”
The Weenana Collection was then published in the United States as a paperback. The first batch of copies were received in May. The books are now available on both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com, and can be bought locally at the Battleford Boutique.
Zakresky has also been selling copies personally to anyone interested, and said she is interested in providing readings around the community at schools and the like.
For Zakresky, publishing the Weenana Collection is a labour of love. She is very happy to see the outcome of her years of hard work being shared with others.
“My whole idea was not to make money,” said Zakresky. “At first it was the interchange with the children, and then it got so they would love to have these books. And beyond that, where other children could learn to use them as books, too.”
Now the question is: is a potential sequel to The Weenana Collection in the works? As it turns out, Weenana’s adventures aren’t over yet.
“The stories have continued,” said Zakresky. She’s been doing a fifth installment, which involves even more adventures involving Weenana and Hunter the dinosaur.
In this latest episode, Hunter has evolved and grown wings, and travelled to an island and found another creature that’s like him. Zakresky says more story ideas are on the way as well.
That computer that Zakresky received years ago from her son turned out to be a very good investment.
“It’s added a whole new dimension to my life,” she said.
