Courier’s Own Anne Dyni Publishes New Book

BY DONNA CURRIE
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Book writing is not entirely new to Anne Dyni – in fact, this is her fifth book. This, however, is the first book to be published by the History Press, a publishing company based in North Carolina that previously had focused on east coast history.

Dyni didn’t start out as a writer or historian. She taught math and science for many years, and didn’t become interested in history until much later. But once she started researching the local history, she was hooked.

Now, Dyni is recognized as a local resource. “People call me for information,” she said.

Recently, History Press decided it was time to move beyond the east coast and mine the west for some history. The publisher started looking for newspaper writers who had columns that could be republished, and when they found Dyni, they had a goldmine of articles previously published in the Left Hand Valley Courier.

Once Dyni agreed to write the book, she had her work cut out for her. Not that she had to do a lot of writing, but she had to do a lot of sorting. She had hundreds of columns to choose from, and once selected, she had to organize them into logical subject groups, edit them, and create an index.

Dyni said that reading her old columns made her realize how far she had come as a writer, but bringing the old columns up to the quality of the latest ones was a lot of work. “I was in high gear for nine months,” Dyni said.

She credited her mother, in part, for her writing skills. Not that mom coached or encouraged her, but when Dyni used to write letters to her mother and there were errors, “she let me know in the next letter,” Dyni said. So she learned to be more careful with the written word.

History Press wanted to take advantage of the publicity – and the crowds – at Nostalgia Day, and wanted the book to be written, printed, and ready for sale for the event this year.

Mission accomplished, and Dyni will be selling – and autographing – the book at the Niwot Historical Society booth during Nostalgia Day. The book includes 66 of her columns, more than 60 photos, and is 142 pages long. When asked if she was excited about the big debut, she said, “I just want this book out.”

There’s an added incentive for buying a copy of the book at Nostalgia Day – Dyni is donating 10 percent of the gross sales to the historical society for all the books sold that day.