Jane Dahl's Book

Oakley’s Jane Dahl had always known her mother had lived an interesting life, but it wasn’t until her mother became ill at 98 that her mom, Mabel, began to tell her stories of her childhood. After listening for a while, Dahl decided that the stories her mom shared with just her needed to be shared with others for their inspiration and faith. That was when she picked up pen and paper and started jotting down the memories of long ago.
“My mother retired from work when she was 79. She worked at a rubber plant that had products that went to the moon, so I already knew she had some wonderful stories,” Dahl, 84 said. “After I started writing her experiences down my family encouraged me to get the book published.”
When Dahl told her mother that she planned on writing the book, Mabel’s only concern was that she changed the names of the people in the stories. “You know something like, to protect the innocent. Of course I told her that it was so long ago and most of the people were long gone, but I respected her wishes,” Dahl said.
So much so that Dahl even changed the name of her mother, who is the lead character in the story from Mabel to Gertie. She explained that Gertie, however, is her mother’s middle name so it fit well. “Besides ‘Gertie’s Real Life Adventures’, sounds a whole lot better than Mabel’s,” she joked.
Dahl’s mother passed away 12 years ago and during that time Dahl worked on the book. When she felt she had it just right she began to send it to publishers but for one reason after another she received rejection letters. The reasons never appeared to be that the story wasn’t well written, just that it wasn’t the style of book that was selling at this time. Rather than lose heart about getting the book published, Dahl turned to her friend and editor to advice.
That led her to a print on demand publishing house out of Eugene, Oregon. “There was a little more involved in getting it published. I had to make sure I hired an editor on my own, which I got lucky with the help of a good friend,” she explained. She also had to pay for the book to be typeset, but Wipf and Stock Publishers decided to take on her project and now she is out working on helping to get it out to as many people as possible in hopes of providing some inspiration.
The story revolves around a 10 year-old girl living in the early 1900s in her hometown of Richfield, Utah. “During the book Gertie experiences three true story adventures that teach lessons of faith, love and the family unit,” Dahl said.
While Dahl admits that she took creative license by changing parts of the original stories her mother told the adventures are true to what her mother said. She didn’t feel that by changing some of the details that she changed the meaning of the story. For example, the story includes a young handicapped boy when in actuality the child was a girl. “I just felt like I had too many girls in the story, so I made him a boy,” she said.
The front cover of the book features an old family picture of Dahl’s mother and aunts, who are all featured in the book. She was especially happy to be able to present the book cover with the real people from the story.
Dahl said she didn’t really have a lifelong dream about publishing a book. She found that this book just called out to her to be done. She has in the past helped to write to other books. In the early 1970s she worked with two other authors to write books about working with mentally challenged children.
Dahl’s book is designed for children ages eight to 12, but she said that she has found from the reviews that the whole family has been enjoying it. It can be found online at wipfandstock.com, barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com.