Horsefly resident Gloria Antypowich will sign copies of her first book Hearts at Risk this Friday, Feb. 10 at Save-On Foods from 1 to 4 p.m.
Although she has been involved in farming and ranching most of her life, Gloria says her cowboy romance novel is in no way a reflection of her own life experiences.
“It’s not my story, its totally fiction,” Gloria says.
In this romantic novel veterinarian Franke Lamonte flees her shattered life as a veterinarian in Alberta and finds the solitude she needs to heal in the anonymity of working as a ranch hand in the Cypress Hills of Southern Saskatchewan.
All is going well until Colt Thompson roars onto the scene and the sparks fly from every direction.
Gloria says she self- published the book last year and is very happy to have already recouped her investment.
“Just today I met two people who said they read my book and just loved it,” Antypowich says. “That’s music to a writer’s ears.”
Gloria grew up on a farm in Alberta and set the story in the Saskatchewan’s Cypress Hills because they have always fascinated her.
Gloria says she didn’t draft out a story line for the book, just let it evolve.
“Sometimes the story takes over, the people become real and the story just grows,” Gloria says.
For a number of years Gloria and her husband Lloyd farmed near Stettler, Alberta but in 1970 they moved to Elkford because she was asthmatic and needed the fresh mountain air.
Lloyd worked at the nearby coal mine, but Lloyd always missed farming.
In 1973 they moved to Horsefly where they raised their four children and are now retired with six grandchildren. Their granddaughter Jennifer Jackson and her fiance Tyler Maitland are featured on the cover of the book.
“My husband was a farmer at heart so as soon as he figured I could handle it we were out of there,” Gloria says of their Elkford days.
Four years ago the couple sold most of their ranch and retired to the 100 acres they kept for their own use.
Their daughter Cindy and her husband Gary Isaac built a house on the property which includes a bright daylight suite for the retirees on the ground floor.
“Its been a fabulous arrangement,” Gloria says. They can help with their grandchildren, and both families can take holidays knowing someone is home to take care of the house and animals.
Gloria says she started writing 20 years ago but it wasn’t until she retired and had more time that she started writing seriously. A writer friend had successfully self-published her book and encouraged her to do the same, so she decided to go for it.
With the success of Hearts at Risk Gloria is working on a sequel which she hopes to finish by spring so that she and Lloyd can spend time camping and fishing on Quesnel Lake next summer.