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The Port Moody Public Library White Pines Local Author collection highlights local authors, poets, and illustrators in our community. Every month, we will interview and feature one of the authors from the collection on the Library website.
The featured author of this month is Shadi Shakeraneh.
Author of the Month: Shadi Shakeraneh
About the author:
Shadi is a passionate high school French teacher who is working on a Master's degree in Modern Language Education at UBC. Last year, she presented at Investigating Our Practices, an education conference, where she discussed ways to integrate practices of gratitude in the classroom - teaching students a helpful way to manage their mental health. She is very grateful for the people in her life, for coffee, for sunny days in Port Moody, and for her very first book, Gratitude Dude.
Was writing something Shadi always wanted to do?
As soon as Shadi was able to form sentences, she started writing. She has wanted to write her own books since she was seven years old. She wrote her first book in grade three. Her best friend illustrated this bizarre and surreal picture book titled: The Mystery of the Lost Ear.
How many hours a day does Shadi spend writing?
Shadi doesn't have a set writing schedule. She’ll often write on weekends when she has the time. However, she feels like she's always preparing for her books. She spends a lot of time observing things around her and making notes on her phone about ideas she has or words that she likes that she wants to use at some point.
About the book:
Life is tough for Gratitude Dude. He is missing a lot of things that other children may have in their lives. He doesn't have enough food or weather-appropriate gear. However, through shifting his focus on the little positives, he practices his gratitude and smiles through it all.
What inspired Shadi to write a children’s book?
Shadi is a high school teacher now, but before that she taught elementary school for three years. One of her favourite things to do with her class was to read them picture books. She loved the shared experience of the whole class getting immersed in the story and wanted to write something that she could share with her students and future children of her own. Even though she’s no longer teaching elementary school, Shadi will often use Gratitude Dude with her high school classes as a way to launch a discussion about the concept of gratitude.
Cool fact about the book: Shadi has been fascinated with the concept of gratitude since she was a child. Her parents would often talk to her and her brothers about gratitude, referencing the fact that their last name, Shakeraneh, means gratefully in Persian. These experiences heavily influenced the idea behind Gratitude Dude.
Where did the idea of Gratitude Dude come from?
Shadi's parents would invite her and her brothers to practice gratitude both when they were complaining about something and when they were happy. Shadi internalized this practice and wanted to share it with others. She revisited the idea of gratitude when she was studying for a degree in psychology by focusing on how practicing gratitude can increase a person’s happiness.
These experiences inspired Shadi to write Gratitude Dude as a didactic resource for parents and educators to help them launch a discussion about gratitude. She's included a parent/teacher resource section at the back of the book that she hopes will give people the tools to approach this topic.
What was the most challenging part about writing Gratitude Dude?
The initial writing process was very straightforward: Shadi wrote the whole book in one night. The challenges came afterwards. Since the book was so short, editing was very difficult. Shadi would rewrite the book then let it sit and breathe for a few months before revisiting it. She also asked friends and family for feedback, and found it challenging to sift through all the feedback and make the final decisions for the book.
What was the most rewarding part about writing Gratitude Dude?
There were many rewarding moments for Shadi, including:
- Holding the first physical copy of the book.
- Seeing her name and book featured on Amazon.
- Getting to share her book with friends and family at the White Pines Gala and having Gratitude Dude in the library where she took out her first book when she was a child.
However, the most rewarding moment was when Shadi first read the book to her high school students. She not only received compliments from them but was able to see firsthand the impact her writing could have.
What was the publication process like?
Shadi self-published Gratitude Dude with the help of Canadian company Tellwell Books. They matched Shadi up with an illustrator, helped her with formatting, and assisted her to get the book onto different sites and platforms. Shadi was happy with the process and enjoyed the clear path to publication that self-publishing provided.
Shadi would like to try the traditional publishing route as well but knows that it's more uncertain than self-publishing.
What is Shadi working on now?
Shadi has already written another picture book which centres around diversity, community, and connection. She is currently in the process of letting it breathe while she tries to navigate the waters of traditional publishing. She plans to revisit the book in a few months and do some edits.
If Shadi could tell her younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Shadi wishes she could take some advice from her younger self and not the other way around. Her younger self wrote with no self-doubt, no worry about what other people would think, or concern over whether a piece of writing was useful.
Shadi’s younger self would tell her not to doubt herself and just keep writing.
What advice does Shadi have for new authors?
"Be curious about your surroundings and write down what you see and observe during your day. Keep a notebook and make a list of these observations. Include things that aggravate you, things that make you excited, and things that invoke any other specific feelings. These are great ways to find a story.”
About the White Pines Local Author Collection
The Port Moody Public Library created the White Pines Local Author Collection to highlight and support local authors, poets, and illustrators from our community. We launched the collection in May 2019 with 12 inaugural authors. Learn more about this collection and how you can become a White Pines Local Author.
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