It all starts with story.

Author Rachel Mishenene and her son Jade at launch of The New Smoke Signals: Communication is a Digital World

Every time you wake up the story begins anew. Our lives are a continuous story. Rachel Mishenene wove stories into her book about social media and told us some last night. She also told us a few of her own stories: for example, she used to be called Joanne. Who knew? And along the way, she did a mean imitation of local dialects.

The book, The New Smoke Signals:  Communicating in a Digital World, gives tips and explanations about the most popular social media sites - Twitter, Facebook, Linklin. Written for  adult literary students and launched last night at Waverley Library, the book produced sheer delight in everyone who rifled through the pages.  I note here the illustrations and the general layout were also a delight. The cover is a stand-out.

Rachel and son Jade are off to a new job in Toronto and so her story continues.  Ours ends on a sad note. Thunder Bay will miss her talent, honesty and her warm smile.

Rachel talked about never seeing herself in any of the books, readers and stories she encountered as a child. Northern Woman's Bookstore has a fine selection of Aboriginal stories for native and non-native kids.