THE AUTHOR

Not much is known about Sven Olsen and that seems to work well with him.   When asked to provide some biographical details for the ABOUT THE AUTHOR section of the book, Sven referred all our inquiries to his dog, Hilwa.  

So as the publisher of the book, I guess I know him about as well as anyone else around town.   Sven is a pretty quiet and private kind of guy.   He is like a lot of people in northern Minnesota: they have a good sense of civic responsibility and a better sense of wanting to enjoy the peace and quiet.   I think he agreed to let me publish this book because he felt it might do some good, what with all the health problems we are finding out about.

It was a chance meeting at the YMCA in Grand Rapids, Minnesota where I heard about Sven’s pretty good way to lose weight and get in shape.   We were both doing some stretching and I complimented Sven on his t-shirt and asked what sizes they came in.   He said the usual sizes and then, quite unlike him, he just started telling me all about how he had to switch from a large to an extra large t-shirt a while back.   Then one morning he put on an extra large t-shirt and it felt a little tight.  

So he had a cup of coffee and pretty much put together the whole routine right then and there.   Pretty amazing, eh?

One of the most enjoyable parts of this project was choosing the images with Sven.   My brother, Bill McDonald, and my son, Brian McDonald, drew the illustrations and I took most of the photographs although various family members and friends contributed a few.   Sven will tell you he is not artistically inclined, but we sure spent a long time going over each and every image that appears in the book.   I think he has a great eye for seeing something simple that has a lot of meaning.

After Sven started losing weight and getting in shape, he had the idea to make an
t-shirt.   I am not sure who drew the bowl, I think it was one of his nephews or nieces.   When we talked about using some of the images from the book on the t-shirts, Sven got a little worried about the cost but his wife Maxine assured him it was a good idea.  She knows a lot about clothes, so she took charge of designing the t-shirts.  

Maxine really enjoys her morning cup of coffee and likes to drink tea in the afternoon, so she came up with the idea of having mugs for sale along with the book and the clothes in THE SHOP.   I can’t say that Sven was real enthusiastic about selling other things, but he felt better when we all decided to give some of the profits to charity.  That is an example of the civic responsibility thing I was talking about earlier. 

Actually, the real story is that Maxine told Sven to stop fretting because the book and the other things would make nice gifts for people to give to other people that they cared about.  Maxine is a good friend of my sister-in-law, Margaret Kelberer, so the two of them are running THE SHOP.  They were the ones to ask Sheila Johnson at the Coffee Landing up in International Falls if she could make a special blend of her roasted coffee just for us.  Sheila said no problem.      

Sven has told me that he does not want to get involved with the promotional side of things, so I will do the best I can.   If you like the book, please tell your friends about it.   I have e-mailed all my family and friends asking them to do the same.   The Village Bookstore, the YMCA, Treasure Bay Printing, Arrow Embroidery and L&M Fleet Supply are all selling the book in Grand Rapids, Minnesota along with the Coffee Landing Metro in International Falls.   Let me know if some place in your town would like to sell the book.   Thanks.

David McDonald,   Publisher of