Achieving a personal goal

St. Vital

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This article was published 10/01/2023 (713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. Vital resident Shannon Savory recently crossed an item off her bucket list of lifetime goals when she self-published her first children’s book, We’ll Always Share the Moon.

The St. Vital resident said achieving this goal took her about 11 years as she juggled the demands of her family – husband Mike and two young sons, Austin and Dylan — and her career in publishing.

“When the kids were small, there was never enough time.”

However, she began composing lines for the book in her head while driving her sons to and from school, to other activities and at other quiet moments, then tried to record them later.

Savory said the main theme of We’ll Always Share the Moon is a reminder for children that no matter how far apart they physically are from their parents, other family members and friends, they will always share the moon with those they love. She would repeat this phrase when she was travelling apart from her family and her sons were younger. “I wondered if I could make this into something.”

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic also slowed her progress as she put the book on the backburner before determining that she needed to finish writing it. She also began looking for an illustrator to help bring her words to visual life on the page. “I was interested in having someone local.”

She was pleased to find fellow Winnipegger and graphic designer Arianne Quinn. Savory said they discussed different ideas for illustrations and decided to use Savory’s own family members as the main characters. This includes her beloved cat, Daisy, whose image can be found in every drawing.

The overall look of the illustrations is soothing and dream-like and Savory’s story is written as a poem. She ends the book with advice for young readers to not be afraid to reach out to adults for help if they’re feeling lonely, angry or sad. Savory said the book is aimed at children aged three to 11.

She opted to self-publish through Amazon.

Savory said she’s now looking for ways to promote it and hopes to have copies placed in local schools and libraries. While she’s happy if she sells copies of We’ll Always Share the Moon, she said she hopes the book’s message will help parents, caregivers and teachers open discussions with youngsters about feelings they might have when being apart from a loved one.

Now that she’s made a start as a children’s author, she plans on continuing. Savory said she has five other books at different stages on her computer.

“I love the creativity involved.”