As a kid, there is nothing better than finding a stick either on a walk or at the park and using your imagination.

A year and a half after Derek Jory's son, Denver was born, the two of them started to go camping four or five times every summer. Living in Vancouver at the time, the two of them went camping all around B.C. and Washington State. 

"I wanted him to grow up appreciating the outdoors, nature, animals, everything as much as I grew up loving it," said Jory. 

A common theme on these camping trips is Denver loved to find different sticks in the woods and play with them.

"It would turn into sword fights and laser guns and he'd be mixing grass and pine cones with water and the stick would be what he was stirring with, like it was a witches brew," said Jory. "As he got older and older, now it's a bat, he's hitting a home run, now it's a hockey stick, now he's holding it and we're walking a tightrope. And then it was Harry Potter. As soon as he got into that, it was magic wands, and then drum sticks and were in a band."

"It was just a kid, out in nature using his imagination and the adventures we had were just incredible," added Jory.

Through the adventures, both Jory and Denver started taking notes of their trips, from writing down experiences to bringing home their favourite sticks, but it wasn't until nine years ago that an idea clicked in Jory's mind.

During a camping trip on Aug. 6, 2015, Jory was adding to his notes and said to himself "Yeah, this is a book, this is a children's book and I'm going to write this children's book someday." While the book wasn't written that day, the title was - The Perfect Stick.

At the time, Jory was working for the Vancouver Canucks and kept the book as a passion project on the side. Eventually, the book started to really come together during the pandemic. 

Jory finished the manuscript and gave it to illustrator Derek Toye, who is the only illustrator Jory wanted to work with on the project. The two of them met as Jory would hire Toye to help with graphics while working for the Canucks. Toye also worked on the book on the side, as he also has two kids and works in illustrations for kids' shows on Netflix. 

The book never has a hard deadline, said Jory, who now resides in Lake Country. At the start of July, Tellwell Talent, the book's publisher told Jory and Toye the book was done.

On Friday, July 26, nearly nine years to the day the idea clicked in Jory's mind, he announced on social media that he had written a book which was being released that day. The next morning, he opened Amazon to see his book available and ordered his own copy. After getting his copy, he emailed family and friends and continued to market the book on social media.

"That dream became a reality, it was very surreal holding the book, that was the first level of surreal," said Jory. "Now I'm getting texts from a lot of family and friends and tagged on social media with kids holding the book and reading it before bed and that's just the next level of awesomeness, that we can be a part of someone's bedtime reading routine."

The book is already among children's books 'hot new releases' and number 26 overall on Amazon, alongside Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.  

"Wow, my name and book are up here with these," said Jory.

A friend of Jory's helped grow the book even more than imaginable in the first week. The two of them were talking about the book and the friend told Jory about an Instagram page called , where people all over the world can rate and review sticks. The page currently has 1.5 million followers.

Jory emailed the people who run the page and they were immediately on board to help promote the book. He went on to make a video showing the stick collection he and Denver have from over the years, which the Instagram page shared. 

There's something fundamental about kids and dads and sticks, it's tapped into something here, sticks are fun, said Jory, who added he has not had as many moms love sticks as much as dads do. He's also said he's had so many messages from people expressing their love of finding sticks while out and about. 

On top of the fun aspect of sticks, Jory has a very practical reason why he likes to have one on him when adventuring. While hiking, Jory has never seen a bear or a cougar but he likes to have a stick on him for protection on the off chance he does come across one.

"When I have a stick, I at least feel like I can poke them in the eye," said Jory. "It's so delusional, it's so insane but it gives me some layer of protection,"

For now, The Perfect Stick is only available on or on the book's . Additionally, the more sales on Amazon in the first month, the better chance it will be in local bookstores like Indigo and Mosaic in the near future. Jory is also hoping to conduct book signings and readings, as well as school visits.

"This was to see if I could write a book and to give [Denver] something to have... although, if this would've happened when he was seven, he would've loved it more. He's now 14 and he's like 'cool.'" said Jory with a laugh.

However, Jory's daughter is now asking where her story is, so a sequel is already in the works.