Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Awfully Hilarious compiles embarrassing stories from across the Sea to Sky

New book launches at Whistler reading event on Feb. 1
e-arts2-heather-hendrie-awfully-hilarious-3004-photo-by-sarah-byrd
Heather Hendrie helped put together a new book called Awfully Hilarious, featuring embarrassing stories from the Sea to Sky and beyond.

 

Have you ever peed your pants? Been on a particularly cringeworthy date? How about a period blunder?

Everyone has at least a few embarrassing stories under their belts—but few people are eager to share them. However, there can be something inherently human about divulging your “shameful” secrets—especially when they resonate with others who have experienced something similar.

That connection was one of the goals of Awfully Hilarious: Stories We Never Tell, a compilation of tales written by writers from across the Sea to Sky and beyond.

“It’s the stories we haven’t told, but are worth telling to help people feel less alone and ashamed,” says Heather Hendrie, a clinical counsellor based in Squamish who spearheaded the book project.

It all started last fall when she went on a particularly bad date in the Sea to Sky—“the kind, unfortunately, too many women in this area have been through,” she says.

“I reached out to a girlfriend and she said, ‘I know, honey. It’s so painful. Let me tell you about what happened to me.’ At the same moment we were like, ‘Whoa, we’ve got so much material here.’”

From there, the conversation expanded to include other friends—and more diverse embarrassing topics that no one was
talking about.

“Who knew every single menstruating person has had incidents—because we don’t talk about this!” Hendrie says. “Suddenly we were like, ‘It’s awfully hilarious.’ It’s an awful thing that happened, but when you’re in a community, it’s hilarious.”

So, she and two other long-time friends decided to reach out to their circle and convince them to commit their cringe to the book, set to be released in early February.

Some were reluctant about sharing stories they had never told anyone, but when they framed it as a way to help others, most people got onboard.

“Some are light and playful and others could be really tough, but across the board, everyone sharing said the process of retelling the story in hopes of helping someone helped them reframe the experience in a different way,” Hendrie says. “The process of writing was healing.”

She recruited a local editor to help work with the writers—some of whom had no prior writing experience.

“She asked some good questions to fill in the blanks. It’s really hard to have your creative work edited, especially if you’re an emerging writer who hasn’t done it before,” Hendrie adds.

More than a year after that first spark of an idea, Hendrie is waiting for the books to arrive in the mail, ahead of a reading event at the Whistler Public Library on Feb. 1. Locals Pierre-Olivier Gaudrealt and Yin Zxi Ho, who also contributed stories, will be on hand to read. (That event starts at 7 p.m. and you can register by emailing publicservices@whistlerlibrary.ca.)

Books will be available at the library and at Armchair Books afterwards.

There will also be a reading in Squamish on Feb. 3 at the Little Bookshop from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. There will be tickets for that event with more information at littlebookshop.ca/pages/calendar.

“We’re launching the book now, so if people hear of it, they can get a copy into the hands of single friends feeling defeated or downtrodden or alone on Valentine’s Day,” Hendrie says. “That’s why it’s coming out this time of year.”

For more on the book, visit awfullyhilarious.com