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Storyteller pens first novel

A compelling storyteller amongst family and friends, a 69-year-old Turner Valley man is now looking to much larger audience. What began as an idea for Dan Carruthers on a cold winter day turned into his first fiction novel, Anya Unbound.
Turner Valley author Dan Carruthers recently published his first novel Anya Unbound.
Turner Valley author Dan Carruthers recently published his first novel Anya Unbound.

A compelling storyteller amongst family and friends, a 69-year-old Turner Valley man is now looking to much larger audience.

What began as an idea for Dan Carruthers on a cold winter day turned into his first fiction novel, Anya Unbound. The book is about a 17-year-old orphan’s voyage to the United States, where she is unwittingly sucked into the world of sex trafficking.

Carruthers shared his experience as a new author, read excerpts from his book and discussed the issue of sex trafficking at the Sheep River Library on Feb. 9.

The novel was inspired by Carruthers’ mission work in southeast Asia where he learned of the sex trafficking industry in the southeast Asian nation.

“Cambodia is full of young people who have had no parentage,” he said. “They are extremely vulnerable and there are people out there who really take advantage of that.”

Penning Anya Unbound was a spontaneous move for Carruthers. He has worked as a wildlife biologist, ranch hand, fashion model, hunting and river guide, truck driver, park naturalist and construction labourer, leaving him little time to think about putting his stories on paper.

“I was a research scientists for most of my career and I used to write technical stuff all the time,” he said. “It used to drive me nuts because I wanted to write other stuff, but I never had the time.”

That changed 20 years ago when Carruthers joined a writers’ group at the insistence of his friend’s wife, who was a writer.

“We had a professional editor there and every week we had to have something and she would edit it,” he said. “In the course of doing that I learned a lot and I was encouraged a lot. People spoke highly of my writing.”

Carruthers continued to write short stories and essays in his spare time, as well as tell tales of his life experiences to friends and acquaintances.

“It was mostly reminiscences of experiences that I had as a boy,” he said. “I’ve experienced an amazing number of things in my life that have brought me a lot of joy and some pain. I just liked to write about them. I liked to relive them.”

His love for writing blossomed when he joined the Millarville Community Church Writer’s Group, led by Mount Royal University English professor and author Bill Bunn, five years ago.

Carruthers shared his short stories and essays, reliving experiences such as his life in the arctic and his Christian missionary work with youth in southeast Asia.

A short story he wrote about growing old called The Fence placed first at the Priddis/Millarville Fair about five years ago.

After years of writing about his own personal experiences, Carruthers decided to change his focus.

“I sat back one day and I said, ‘I’m going to start writing fiction because most of the stuff I write is based on true stories,’” he said. “I tried writing some fiction and I enjoyed it. It’s like playing God, you’re doing whatever you want.”

More and more, family, friends and members of the writers group encouraged Carruthers to transform his stories into a novel.

“My wife asked why I didn’t write all of these things down and make a book out of them,” he said. “I have a lot to draw on.”

“When I started to write this novel it was a cold winter day and I was at home by myself,” he said. “I just started to write. It was an amazing experience.”

Carruthers worked on the story from January through to April two years in a row.

“I didn’t sit down and think, I’m going to write a novel,” he said. “Publishing was the last thing on my mind. Even when I was writing this novel I wasn’t thinking about publishing it, I was enjoying writing it. As I got talking to people about it, it seemed like maybe I should publish this thing. In the end I thought, what the heck, I think I can afford it. I’m going to do it.”

Anya Unbound is available for purchase at bookstores online including Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Friesen Press. It is also available as an ebook.

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