Self-published book nets top Fanshawe honours

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: ERIKA FAUST
Fanshawe student Annette Dawm took home a prestigious award for her self-published book, Carl Goes to College.

In September 2011, Carl Juniper was in the same position many college students are when they first come to school. He was away from home for the first time and he was nervous about his classes and making friends.

Every day, from the day school began on September 1 to the last day of school on April 20, Juniper wrote in his planner about what happened. On the last day of school, he handed in that book as his final project.

Juniper is the titlular character of Fanshawe student Annette Dawm's award-winning book, Carl Goes to College.

Dawm graduated from Fanshawe's General Arts program in December 2012 and plans to head into the Advanced Filmmaking program in September.

What started out as a hobby turned into the book. "I wrote in the planner — each day I wrote something different that happened to this character, Carl. That became his planner." She began her hobby in September, and during her second-semester children's literature course, her professor assigned the final project: write a book for children. "I said, 'Oh good, I've already got one started," Dawm chuckled.

Many of Juniper's experiences mirror her own — they both come from a small town (Dawm is from Chesley, Ontario, and went to the same tiny high school as the singer Lights). "In the book I actually use some real-life experiences," explained Dawm. "In the book, Carl gets to go see Prince and I actually got to see Prince when he came to London."

Though she wrote it for a children's literature class, she said, the book is aimed at older teenagers — ages 17 and up. "It's for anyone maybe thinking about going to post-secondary school … It's definitely about growing up." She cautioned that the book contains swearing, sexual content and death, so "it's definitely not for five-year-olds."

Dawm used a website called blurb.ca to create the book. Users design and write the book they want published, and then the website binds the book for them.

"I handed it in and it came back with a 100 per cent (grade)," said Dawm. Her professor was so impressed she encouraged Dawm to submit it to Fanshawe's writing contest. She submitted it to the Academic Senior Vice President's Writing Contest for Excellence in Student Writing and took home the 2012 prize for creative writing. "I feel really good about that because it's something I've always wanted, to have an award-winning book," she said. "I'm 21 and got it out of the way."

She is currently working on a sequel to Carl Goes to College that will tell the story about Juniper's second year in school, "but because I don't know what I'm doing, Carl doesn't know what he's doing."

In addition to working on more stories about Juniper, Dawm is also hard at work on her other hobby: a Flat Stanley-type character she calls Schwartz Abdul. Dawm created Abdul in 2007 during one very boring day in French class, and the pair has since met a number of celebrities including Dan Akroyd, Jason Mraz and Victoria Pratt from Cleopatra 2025. Dawm has also self-published a book chronicling Abdul's adventures: Schwartz Abdul's Big Book of Celebrities.

To check out Juniper's and Abdul's stories online, head to blurb.ca/user/S_Abdul. If you're interested in purchasing a copy of Carl Goes to College, they are $25. Get in touch with Dawm at schwartz_abdul@hotmail.com to find out more.