Why We Do What We Do at Alberta Pearl Publishing
By Emma Reynolds
I’ll never forget the day I cracked open The Will of Heaven. I was burned out, scrolling through endless feeds of superficial content, feeling disconnected from anything real. Then Debbie Ethell’s words hit me like a freight train—a woman clawing her way out of addiction’s courtroom shadows to stand among Kenya’s wild elephants. Her story didn’t just describe recovery or conservation; it fused them into something unbreakable. I read it in one sitting, tears blurring the pages, feeling for the first time in years that stories could actually change a person.
That book didn’t end when I closed it. It lingered, gnawing at me. How many others were out there, living parallel struggles—addiction’s grip, elephants’ vanishing world—without a narrative to make sense of it all? I’d always loved books, but The Will of Heaven showed me their power to bridge personal pain and global crises. It wasn’t abstract advocacy; it was visceral, human, urgent. Elephants mourning their dead mirrored the grief of families fractured by drugs. Hope in the grasslands echoed the fragile victories of sobriety. I wanted more stories like that: raw, redemptive, boundary-crossing.
That’s why I joined this publishing house. I wanted to hunt down and amplify voices that refuse easy answers, that demand we feel the weight of what’s at stake. Whether it’s a former poacher turned protector, an elephant keeper testifying in court, or someone rebuilding after relapse, these narratives don’t just inform—they transform. They make us ask: What am I doing with my one wild life? What systems am I complicit in?
Now, working here, I see it happen daily. Readers email us, changed. Advocates cite our titles in speeches. Our books, now in twenty languages, ripple worldwide. One story led me here. Now, we publish dozens, each with the potential to awaken someone else. If The Will of Heaven reached me in my numbness, imagine what our full catalog can do for a world that needs it most.