Adam Bowen

Multimedia Journalist

After all the research, the writing and re-writing, editing and re-editing, local author Paul Sonsteby's labour of love "100 Years of Memories - Celebrating Strathmore's Centennial" is finally complete.

"I was done last fall, so there has been a waiting period, some re-edits but not a lot to do so the build up to this has been gotten quite exciting," said Sonsteby. "It's really exciting to see the book done and ready for the people of this town to look at."

Now that the process is over and the book has been published, Sonsteby admits that there the author has some mixed emotions going forward.

"There is a sense of relief now that the book is finished and obviously the excitement to be holding the finished work in your hands but it's also a little bittersweet," said Sonsteby. "I've worked with some awesome people on this project and I'm going to miss the daily interaction that I was having and I'll miss working with some of the people I was working with."

According to Sonsteby, the hardest part of putting together this book was the trying to locate information on some missing years as well as trying to trim the content down to ensure that the book was readable by everyone.

"There was some years that were missing, a couple of years in the 60's and I was having a heck of a time finding archives for the year 2000, I got some stuff from the Glenbow Museum and the legislature bailed me out but that was difficult," said Sonsteby.

"The very hardest thing was probably choosing what to cut. We wanted this to be a very readable and approachable book and not a tome."

Now that the finish product is ready for Strathmore residents, the author has is quite pleased with how everything turned out.

"I really like the look of the book," said Sonsteby. "Polished Publishing Group has made a gorgeous book for us and I am really excited with how it looks in the end."

For those interested in purchasing the book they can go to the Strathmore town office to purchase a hard copy or visit www.polishedpublishinggroup.com to order the book online for a cost of

$45.