Welcome to my Blog! This is my first blog post for “Thiago’s Shell” and that in itself is quite exciting for me as well as daunting as I sit here and wonder what my first post should encompass…then I realised that ‘overthinking’ it is not the way I want to move forward with this. I would like to as much as possible, come from a place of inspiration, authenticity and to satisfy that niggling need to get an important message across.
Whenever I meet anyone and the subject of my book comes up, I always find myself answering the question “What inspired you to write a book?” It is always a pleasure for me to respond to this because in actual fact the inspiration came from such a special place but most of all a ‘real’ place…
The day I sat down, pen to paper, and starting writing this story I was actually in tears, yes in tears. It was very early morning and I sat down at a desk that I had hardly any time to sit at since I was a full time mother to two young boys. The mere act of sitting at the desk felt strange and I asked myself “What am I doing here?” I was stressed, I was overwhelmed, I was simply emotional and yet I felt a purpose. So I sat there and I started writing, I started writing about a little turtle who was struggling with his shyness. I was writing about a character whose sole purpose was to maybe help my own son through his own shyness. It is simply amazing how words can just pour through you as if you had heard them before. So I wrote. I cried. I felt something which I still can’t describe today because it was so powerful. I had fulfilled a huge need which was like a gaping hole in myself which had no name, I had been inspired.
A few weeks later, I sat down and read the story to my son at bedtime, there were no pictures just words. We were used to choosing one of his favourites from the shelf but tonight was different…He really listened and he got the message. Nothing could compare to the little smile on his young face, and nothing could compare to the feeling I had when I told him “Mommy wrote this story for you”. That moment was the moment I decided that I wanted to develop it further. Yes, he got the message, but what did Thiago look like? What did his friend look like? His Mommy? I must say the thought of suddenly having this little project of bringing the book to life for my children was so very very exciting! I had an outlet for my creativity and I was all “Gung-Ho!”
The rest of the story is really naturally what occurred after this moment. Over a period of a few years! I would like to save that for another subject since if I got started on why it took so long, I would have a myriad of topics to cover – starting with how to overcome self-doubt!
