It was, thankfully, a little less onerous than giving birth to my children.

Canada’s Endangered Animals officially came into the world on Sunday, June 28 at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve in Chilliwack. The book and I were surrounded by family and friends (and even a few strangers), and I was delighted to be able to send more than a dozen copies to their new homes.

(Of course, the book didn’t come into being at the launch, and you can check out my unboxing video of the first few copies if you want to see someone meticulously unwrap brown paper.)

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I thanked a few people in my social media posts about the event, but I want to make sure I go through a full account of everything who has been instrumental in getting this book out into the world.

Alex MacAskill is the amazing artist behind all the illustrations that have brought Canada’s Endangered Animals to life. Without his work, the book would absolutely not be the same.

I also need to thank Claire Bennet for all of her amazing edits on the manuscript, and for her advice on making the book more readable for kids. The exclamation point in the section on Ord’s kangaroo rats is entirely because of her. In fact, everyone at Nimbus Publishing needs a hearty round of applause for all their support of this book both in the early stages and now that it’s published.

There are also many individuals in my personal life who have contributed so much to this book and its launch: Sophie Allen-Barron has been one of my best writing friends and a reader of this project from the beginning. My daughter Claire has been instrumental in making sure kids will actually enjoy the writing, as has Amelia Buell.

For the launch itself, it would not have happened without the support of the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve, which graciously hosted the event. It was such a beautiful and appropriate place to celebrate a book about endangered animals, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Diane Mainer was also integral as the baker of the endangered animal cookies: people at the event were able to snack on spotted turtles, little brown bats, Gaspésie caribou heads, and piping plovers. Harley Kennedy and Athena Allen were my unofficial photography team leads — Harley is responsible for the photos in my social media post and Athena for the photo at the top of this post.

I also want to thank everyone who came to the launch, and who pre-ordered their copies of Canada’s Endangered Animals. After all, there’s no point writing a book if no one is going to read it.

(On that note, who knew that figuring out what to write when signing would be so difficult! Other authors, please chime in on how you figure out what to say when someone wants their book signed and asks for “dealer’s choice.”)

I do have one more book-related event coming up, so if you missed me on Sunday, hopefully I will catch you next weekend.

On Saturday, July 4 I will be at Vancouver KidsBooks (2557 West Broadway) to sign their copies of Canada’s Endangered Animals. I’m set to be there around noon, and will of course have many stickers and bookmarks to give out to folks who come and say hi!

Hopefully I’ll have a few more events lined up to tell you about soon. In the meantime, I’ll just be basking in the light at the end of the publishing tunnel.