By John M. Milner- Writer / Photographer

Even while keeping busy leading the campaign to have the Black Squirrel named as London’s official mascot, Lambeth’s Ric Wallace has found time to write a book.
Entitled “21 Lucky Lottery Tips”, Wallace’s book draws on his experience in playing and winning lotteries, including the Dream Home Lottery, worth $775,000 in May, 2004. Unlike other books about lotteries and/or gambling, Wallace is not selling any system and, instead is applying the ideas of positive thinking and goal-setting to the lottery.
“Nobody can give you numbers (from lottery software),” Wallace but adds that if you have a dream about winning the lottery, however, he suggests that you follow up on it.
“I’d say give it a try,” he says. “An investment of twenty to forty bucks I feel is worthwhile.”
With so much bad publicity about lotteries in the news these days, some people cautioned Wallace about publishing a book on the subject. However, Wallace says that “for every challenge we have…there’s something good around the corner.”
The book covers everything from lottery scams to picking which lotteries to play to organizing your own lottery pool. The book even has sections on subjects you might not expect to find, including how to deal with life after a major lottery win, including what it can do to you financially, health-wise and what it can do to your personal life.
The book is more than simply a few lottery tips that Wallace had. As anyone who knows Wallace from his Black Squirrel campaign can attest, “when I do stuff, I go all out.” Wallace adds “if I get something in my head or if I have a dream, I don’t believe there’s something that can stop me.”
Wallace believes that his book will be of more value to Canadians than others on the market because he has a history of winning lotteries. “If you want to climb Mount Everest, do you want to get information from someone who sells videos or books at a magazine store, or someone who’s stood on top of the world?” he asks.
The genesis of the book came from Wallace’s involvement with the white squirrels in Exeter. In 2002, Wallace lost a couple of business receipts through a new shredder he had just purchased. He noticed a Super 7 lottery ticket on his table and didn’t want it to be accidentally shredded.
He placed the ticket on his refrigerator with one of the white squirrel magnets he had made. After the draw, he checked the ticket and he had 5 of the 7 numbers. Wanting to repeat his luck, he put another ticket on the ‘fridge with the magnet and this time, won $2408 by matching 6 of the 7 numbers. A subsequent trip to the Pt. Edward Casino, wearing one of his white squirrel pins, netted Wallace $160 playing 5-cent slots over the course of about 20 minutes.
Wallace decided to market his lucky squirrel items and registered lotterycharms.com and began the process to have it become a registered trademark. Because the process would take approximately two years, Wallace embarked on his “2-Year Wealth Luck Process”, having several smaller wins leading up to a big win, which Wallace likens to “tremours before an earthquake.” If one includes the leap year (which he does) Wallace won the Dream Home two years to the day after he started his Process.
By this time, the sales of his lottery charms were “just going through the roof. Everybody wanted one,” Wallace recalls, noting that they were selling between $100-$300 US per day.
Phase 2 of the Process called for Wallace to publish a book by 2006, no small feat for someone who admitted that, “in high school, I hated even doing book reports.”
In September 2005, Wallace and his wife, Sheila Tofflemire, were looking through a Spectrum catalogue, and came across a course about book publishing run by Pauline Cormier (who Wallace had photographed dancing on her wedding anniversary some years before).
“I knew nothing about publishing,” Wallace admits but Cormier’s course taught him a lot and she became one of the proofreaders of Wallace’s book.
”I set up a lot of restrictions,” Wallace says, in terms of writing the book. He would not allow himself to write more than two pages per tip.
The entire book was typed up the in Word on the laptop that came with the Dream Home won in 2004 and Wallace designed the cover in Corel Draw (even putting in two white squirrels and a black one in the cover photo). By giving the printer the PDF file, Wallace saved them a lot of work and himself a lot of money, an amount he puts at “about six-seven grand.”
“It’s not that we wrote a book; we produced a book ourselves, Wallace says.
From start to finish, the book took about six months to produce and wasn’t without its hardships, which Wallace acknowledges in his own joking way.
“I’d like to thank the makers of Tylenol (for the aspirin he needed). I probably put on about ten pounds writing this book. I now have to wear glasses which I didn’t have to prior to this,” Wallace notes.
“The book has been ‘cultivated’ from a lot of feedback in the process,” Wallace says.
The book went through six proof readings (much done over the last long weekend of the summer) with Wallace getting feedback from a number of people, both lottery players and non-lottery players, from all walks of life, including Sharon Edwards who works at 7-11 and sells lottery tickets on a daily basis. Test-marketing the book extensively, Wallace made sure that there was nothing in the book that might offend someone and that people understood the point they were trying to get across. Tofflemire says that the proofreaders really helped and adds that a lot of changes were based on their input.
Wallace wasn’t afraid to hear criticism about his book and in fact preferred people who were critical over those who simply said they enjoyed it and didn’t want to be negative.
In addition to the proof readers, Wallace gives credit to one person for the creation of this book: his wife Sheila. “Without Sheila, this book would not have been a reality,” he says. Admitting that his spelling and grammar may not be the best, he refers to her as “my translator.” Wallace does laugh, however, in reminiscing about the arguments the couple had over him believing that Sheila had changed the tone of his writing, but says that “we haven’t killed each other yet.”
“He says that every bright idea that I come up with makes more work for her,” Wallace says of his wife, “I tire her out.”
One of the things that Wallace stresses in the book, and the promotion of it, is to “play at home, win at home” and to support the local community. Wallace played the Dream Home lottery in the first place to help support the hospital that helped him regain the use of his hand after a fall from a ladder.
“That money stays in your communities and supports local hospitals, that sort of thing.” Tofflemire says. She acknowledges that some people may frown on government-run lotteries because the government gets the money but she notes that the money is then put towards hospitals and education.
“I’m not a greedy person,” Wallace says, “If I can win $50-$80-$100 on a regular basis, it makes my day. I’m just as happy with a thousand or two thousand dollar win than a big win.” Wallace notes that because there is less pressure that you might “blow” your win, it feels like the smaller wins can buy more than a big win.
The book comes in four forms: a regular print version (retailing for $15.95 Canadian) and a regular print version that comes bundled with a lucky coin ($24.95).
If anyone scoffs at the idea of luck and lucky coins, Wallace simply points to LPGA Golfer Kristie Kerr and the 2002 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team.
There is also a large print version that will retail for $19.95. During the research he did for his books, Wallace talked to many lottery-playing seniors who said that would pay a little extra for a book that they could easily read and Wallace’s large-print version is also easier to hold for someone who has arthritis.
“To have a first-time published author spend the extra money to go a separate route is sort of unheard of,” Wallace admits.
An eBook version sells for $14.00 US. People can download a 12-page sample to read and then purchase it on-line. “The nice thing about that is (that) it’s fully automated,” Wallace explains, “I have to do nothing.” And because there is nothing to ship, it’s even good for the environment. “I’m not killing any trees.”
Wallace’s next book (which in keeping with his “Two Year Plan” strategy is planned for 2008) is to be entitled “Turning A Lottery Dream Into A Reality” and will be about his 2-Year Wealth Action Plan and will cover Wallace’s life from the 2 ½ years prior to the Dream Home win and then three years after the win and will include Wallace’s Black Squirrel Campaign.  Wallace hopes to find a publisher for the next book but if not, says that he is fully prepared to publish it himself.
After the media blitz here in Canada is over, Wallace will then turn his attention to the U.S. media. He has already received several responses from Kent, Ohio, where he is well-known due to his black squirrel campaign (the Daily Kent Stater and Akron, Ohio’s The Beacon Journal have supplied quotes for the back cover of his book).“A goal of mine, which I see obtainable (especially if London adopts the black squirrel) is try and get on Oprah. The sky’s the limits!” Wallace says.
For more information on Wallace’s book, visit www.luckylotterytips.com