It’s no secret that I love books, but how does one go from reading something they love, to attempting to write something people would enjoy reading? This is my writing journey, where I tell you why, when, and how I ended up writing my debut children’s book, "From Here and There."
I grew up watching my mom read, and her love for books soon became mine. Growing up, I was a voracious reader, and my favorite place to go whenever we went out of town was the bookstore (read my "about the author" section to find out why I needed to leave my town for this). That is, until I got to college.
Isn’t it ironic that I stopped reading during my college years? The place where we read the most! Of course I read the textbooks, research papers, and peer-reviewed articles, and let’s not forget the philosophy books (even though I was a biology major). I know what you are thinking—isn't all of this reading? Well, yes, it’s reading. But I’m talking about reading out of love! for enjoyment, entertainment, and relaxation. I finally had almost unlimited access to books, yet I had no time to read them, except for the one time I read The Twilight Saga in four days. But let’s not go off tangents here; the fact of the matter is that I had no time or energy to read anything other than the university’s curriculum texts, and when I did, while on vacation, I was too tired for them too, needing a break from anything with pages and words. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed reading and discovering about my major too. I've always loved learning, and those were my golden academic years. Yet, I still missed the novels, the historical fictions, and the characters that became your friends. Years later, I graduated. I immediately got married and went on to have children. All of this also made reading as a form of entertainment hard to attain.
A few months into my motherhood journey, sleep training happened. It happened very intensely. And no, that wasn’t for me. If you are wondering who in the world would need sleep training, I’m here to enlighten you. Babies are precious and God sent, and I’m so grateful for all of my babies, alhamdulillah (thanks be given to God). Fun fact though: they are not born sleeping eight hours a night. So if a mother wants to get any sleep at all, she begins researching sleep training. I quickly realized that I needed to establish a sleeping routine, and the one I chose included warm baths, lavender scents, and BOOKS! (Don't forget, this is all for the baby.)
And that's when my love for children’s books started. Baby and I started cherishing those night routines. Reading to a baby who was only a few months old but clearly enjoyed being read to became my newfound passion. The bond that the stories provided to my child and me during those short minutes every day was incredible, and I was finally able to read for enjoyment again. I began to binge on researching and buying good children’s books. Who knew that children's books could be enjoyed by adults as well? The amount of comfort and depth I found in those books touched me deeply on an emotional level and in the best of ways. As my baby grew, so did my fondness for children's books. Fast forward some years, and I now have many of them, both children and books =), lying around the house.
How did all of this affection turn into "I want to write a children’s book?" Well, when you like something, you want to produce one of your own. At the very least, it crosses your mind. I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to provide readers with the same feelings that books provided me. Reading to my children became a source of love and connection for me, and as they grew older, seeing them begin to read on their own was like seeing love. Tangible love. Love you can touch, smell, feel, and, why not, taste (if you have a toddler, you know what I am talking about). But turning all of that into actual writing wasn’t easy. I had many ideas about what I wanted to write. Being in a cross-ethnic marriage and having a cross-cultural family meant that I wanted my kids to see themselves in the books too. I wanted my children to have access to stories to which they could relate. But that wasn’t enough to get me spilling out words yet.
By God’s will, I found out through one of the lovely kids’ book authors I follow on social media about a children’s book writing challenge by Naima B. Roberts, who happens to be a book writing expert. I signed up, and soon Naima and Coach Hend from her team helped me with the tools I needed to develop the confidence to turn my dreams and ideas into written words. Sooner than I thought possible, I had a manuscript I loved and thought was valuable to my children and other multicultural, mixed-ethnic kids.
From there, things seemed to open up for me, and through the same author, I found the perfect illustrator for "From Here and There," the book that was now coming to life. I’ve found something I am passionate about, and I have not stopped working on this book since the challenge. I now think I’ve found my voice in the children’s book world, and I am so excited to keep going. Let's see where it takes us! I would love for you to continue to be part of it. Let me know in the comments below: What’s your favorite children’s book, and why?
Click below if you would like to know more about my debut children’s book:
