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Get Ready to Recognize the College Campus in D.W. Saur’s Latest Book

Posted by Monica Hoel
D.W. Saur’s newest book has some familiar locations like “Hillman Hall” and “Van Dyke” – which just makes the storyline that much more impactful.

D.W. graduated from Emory & Henry in 2005, and he has already published 4 books. He got started on this journey as a middle school librarian. “In order to be a better librarian, was reading books that my students were reading, and I often thought, ‘This is horrible. I could do better than this!’”

So he jumped in to try his hand as an author. He started with Metal Like Me which offered up lessons about bullying and acceptance. He says it led him to a better understanding of the Virginia laws about bullying, and he was a little disheartened. “I had a student getting picked on, and I found out that it didn’t qualify as bullying under the law.” He uses his book to offer strength to those students who might otherwise feel defeated by that sort of cruel treatment.

He also says he didn’t like the way he saw women portrayed in books in movies. So his second book, Dark Days, has a strong female character who is called on to be stronger than everyone expects a young woman to be. “I just felt like women characters weren’t being justly served.”

He even wrote one book on a dare! He had written a children’s book and a fantasy book so someone dared him to write a romance novel. He says The Last Christmas is “Hallmark-esque” and got picked up pretty quickly for publication.

But his most recent book is called Just Friends, and it has special appeal to E&H alums because part of the story arc includes the main character going off to college to a little school in the country where he is greeted by students who help him move his things into Hillman Hall. “You write what you know! And after four years I knew the campus well. Although…after visiting campus recently I saw that I didn’t know it as well as I thought because so much has changed! It was phenomenal to see all the improvements. The president and his team have made an amazing place even more amazing.”

But no matter when you graduated, you will feel very much at home in the Emory that DW creates in Just Friends. The main character, Sam, finds his personal strengths and self confidence while getting started in college – and he finds he will need this newfound strength to face what lies ahead of him.

We’ll stop talking there and encourage you to read the rest.

You can find Just Friends and all of D.W.’s books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Learn more about the author on his webpage. You can enjoy a conversation with D.W. Saur on the Duck Pond Wall podcast where he also shares his advice for getting started as a writer. And look for him to return to campus for a book-signing during our 2022 Homecoming event on Oct. 1.

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D.W. Saur E&H Class of 2005 Author
D.W. Saur
E&H Class of 2005
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  • <div class="lw_news_image"><span class="lw_item_thumb"><a href="/live/news/2283-eamph-mass-comm-student-story-colton-williams-gets"><picture class="lw_image"><source type="image/webp" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,0,927,1167/11065_IMG-0721.rev.1648510170.webp 2x" data-origin="responsive"/><source type="image/jpeg" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,0,927,1167/11065_IMG-0721.rev.1648510170.JPG 2x" data-origin="responsive"/><img src="/live/image/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,0,927,1167/11065_IMG-0721.rev.1648510170.JPG" alt="Jenny Poston Bishop E&H Class of 1993" width="345" height="225" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/68/width/345/height/225/crop/1/src_region/0,0,927,1167/11065_IMG-0721.rev.1648510170.JPG 2x" data-max-w="927" data-max-h="1167" loading="lazy" data-optimized="true"/></picture></a></span></div><div class="lw_widget_text"><h4 class="lw_news_headline"><a href="/live/news/2283-eamph-mass-comm-student-story-colton-williams-gets">E&H Mass Comm Student Story: Colton Williams gets the scoop on Jenny Poston Bishop’s luck</a></h4><div class="lw_news_summary"><em>This is part of a series of stories by members of the 2022 E&H Mass Comm 302 Class. This story is by E&H Sophomore, Colton Williams.</em><br/><br/>Even though 1993 graduate Jenny Poston Bishop has won a ridiculously wide array of prizes, she says that there is more to it than just plain luck. <a href="/live/news/2283-eamph-mass-comm-student-story-colton-williams-gets" class="link-with-arrow gold">Keep reading</a></div></div>