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Wisconsin author publishes book with son, granddaughter

An AP Member Exchange shared by The Journal Times

MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. (AP) — Everything changed in Edwin Danowski’s life on a day 50 years ago when he was driving in his car and was rear-ended by a drunken driver.

“There was a three-year recovery period there where I wasn’t sure where things were going,” Danowski told The Journal Times. “I had to make some life choices.”

At the time, Danowski was 29 years old and was working in accounting for SC Johnson. He ended up staying with the company until he retired at age 55, but immediately after the crash he wondered how he could play with his kids.

Growing up in an athletic family — Danowski was named after his father’s cousin who played for the New York Giants in the ’30s and ’40s — he was always very active.

Before the crash, he played golf, baseball and was in a bowling league. After the crash, his playing days were over.

“I tried to do something I could do with the kids so I turned to art and I turned to writing,” Danowski said.

With his wife, Mardell, the two of them raised their children to be creative and tell stories. Danowski would make up some stories or would start a story and have each child add a line to the story.

“It was a game I could do because I couldn’t do physical things,” Danowski said.

Fast forward several decades and Danowski has just released his 10th book “Labyrinth of Fantasy,” a collection of fiction and nonfiction stories published by America Star Books and co-authored by his son Jeffery and Jeffery’s 10-year-old daughter Kira.

This is his first book with co-authors and to help write some of the stories, Danowski recreated the storytelling magic from years before.

“We just sit around and talk,” Danowski said. “I’d start a story and then say ‘Your turn, what happened next?’ They’d pick it up wherever we were at and keep it going. We never knew how they were going to end.”

One of the stories in the book was written by one of his other sons, Greg, which Danowski held on to for years.

“It was a reflection on how his grandfather pushed him to learn and get better,” Danowski said. “And he (wrote) that in high school, so I saved that. That one touched me, the way he wrote it, it’s a good piece.”

Danowski’s first book, “The Green Turkey and Other Holiday Classics,” included fictional stories he used to tell his kids when they were younger.

“They remembered,” Danowski said. “They picked out the stories that should be in (the book).”

The book came out in 2007 published by PublishAmerica.

After the book was released, his family pushed him to write about his childhood.

When Danowski was a child, his father was in the process of building their home when he lost his job.

“Everything went south for the family,” Danowski said. “All he had finished when things fell apart was one room. So we had seven people living in one room. We had a stove pipe going out the window, no running water and we made it through that.”

It took his family three years to recover, Danowski said, and along the way his pets – a dog, cat, crow and goose – became part of the family.

“I raised them together and they became like buddies,” Danowski said. “The crow eventually learned to fly and go on its own. Sometimes it would come home and peck on my bedroom window and it wanted to come in.”

The stories from his life would become his first nonfiction book, “A Dog, A Cat and a Crow!” published in 2008 by PublishAmerica.

Several years ago a major health issue put Danowski on a dialysis machine three times a week at Fresenius Kidney Care Racine, and there he had a choice. He could stare at the wall, watch TV, or write.

And with a needle in one arm and a pen in hand, Danowski would write about the accident and his life afterward in “Where is God? (Closed Doors and Opened Windows),” published in 2016, in hopes to inspire others.

“I’ve had a couple wake-up calls but I’ve come through them OK,” Danowski said. “I want people to see that no matter how tough things get maybe you can keep going somehow. Figure out something. Don’t just sit there and accept that this is it.”

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