This Sask. couple's inside joke became a bestselling children's book

What started as a prank became a popular children’s book called Flowman and the Magic Mullet.

The book has since sold over 5,000 copies, and now the authors are putting the finishing touches on another entertaining hockey-themed story.

Once upon a time, a hockey injury led Konn Hawkes to meet his future wife, Emily, at Sacred Heart University.

“I blew my knee apart first shift, first game against Colgate,” said Konn Hawkes, co-author of Flowman and the Magic Mullet.

“When all the other guys were on the ice practising, I was up in the hockey office getting rehab from the trainers. Emily was in there doing administrative work to make some extra money.”

After spending a few years in Washington D.C. working in the political field, the couple moved back to Saskatchewan to the family farm.

The idea for the book started as a joke with their friend Greg Lowman, who had recently created a line of hockey hair products and was known for his flowing ‘do.

“He’s just one of those guys who has unreal hair,” he said. “We gave him the nickname: The Hair. Nobody really knew his name for a long time.”

With Emily’s artistic and storytelling skills, Konn lent his knowledge of hockey lingo. Together they created Flowman and the Magic Mullet.

They released the book and had a few laughs with friends, never expecting the book to sell many copies.

But after everyone had a copy, it kept selling online, and was chosen as an Indie Book Awards finalist.

“Actually this morning, I checked and we’ve just sold our five-thousandth copy of Flowman, which is crazy for a self-published prank,” said Emily.

Since the success of Flowman, the couple chose to immortalize the hectic and hilarious day when a cow got loose, wreaking havoc on the small community of Watrous.

“The book is about 90 per cent accurate,” said Konn. “They went to the vet, the cow got loose. They called the RCMP; they shut down the school because the cow was just losing it.”

But the Hawkes’ are excited about their next hockey-themed book, loosely based on a family friend who grew up with 12 siblings.

“We’ve gone back and forth with the titles, but it’s the Petawawa Peach and the Curse of the Golden Hockey Helmet,” she said.

Hawkes says the next book should be available sometime in the summer, and a French-language adaptation of Flowman is expected to hit shelves at Christmas.

Flowman and the Magic Mullet, and Runaway Cow: The Story of Cow 1422B are available at SaskBooks.com.