Dan Lukiv

Everything I Own Smells Like Chicken Fried Rice, a story for children Dan Lukiv

Originally published as "Laura, a gentle story for children" in Six Children's Stories (Academic Exchange Extra [University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO)], 2005).

An excerpt

In 1902, Laura, a lonely dressmaker, lived with her cat, Snuggles, in Vancouver. She rented an apartment above a Chinese-food restaurant on Granville Street.

"Everything I own smells like chicken fried rice," she said, picking up Snuggles and pressing his nose to hers. "Even you smell like chicken fried rice."

She decided to move to the woods, near crystal No-bottom Lake. She bought a bungalow, and moved in.

How she loved that home. And how she loved to wrap herself in her goosefeather quilt at night.

But soon she knew that she was still lonely...

The authors

Christine Nelson's inspiration for this story came 29 years ago, when she was 11, an optimistic girl with a gentle spirit. Today she nurtures her son, Knox, loves her husband, and enjoys a cup of green tea and solitude whenever she can. She has a collection of shoes that Laura, the main character in this book for children, would have loved. She runs her business called Christine Nicole Photography, specializing in impromptu shots that celebrate family joy.

She studied nursing at the College of New Caledonia (Quesnel, BC) for one year, and then transferred to Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops, BC) to study business and accounting, where she completed an associate degree. Her artwork has appeared in CHALLENGER international, and her gentle spirit appears wherever her shoes take her.

Dan Lukiv is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). His creative writing has appeared in 19 countries.

He and his wife have four daughters (married), one granddaughter, three grandsons, one step granddaughter, and one step grandson. Their second daughter: Christine Nelson (co-writer). Over many years he taught a variety of subjects at award-winning McNaughton Centre (Quesnel, BC), a school for troubled teenagers. He serves as an elder and pioneer (full-time minister) in a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Victoria, BC. For part of 2015, 2018, and 2019 his wife and he served together as pioneers. Hobbies include longboarding, searching for haiku moments, singing and playing guitar, studying mathematics, and cycling.