Episode 2: Spotlighting Published Authors

SPEAKERS
Alice Hsiung, Shirley Merith, Joanne Dominico, Shakira Ahmad, Philip Alalibo

Alice Hsiung
Do you dream of getting your work published? In this episode, Shakira Ahmad gets up close and personal with Philip Alalibo, Shirley Merith, and Joanne Dominico, published members of The Writing Circle to discuss their success stories with us.

Shakira Ahmad
Well, hello everyone. My name is Shakira. I work at Centennial as a pathways and agreement support officer. We have with us today three very interesting, diverse authors who work at Centennial. And without further ado, let's go ahead and meet each one of them. First up is Joanne.

Joanne Dominico
Yes, hello. Thank you for having me. So my name is Joanne Dominico. I work at Centennial as a Learning Strategist with the Library and Learning Centers department. Love, love, love what I do. And I've had the opportunity because of my learning expertise to be featured in a few articles. And I also publish a blog on my website.

Shakira Ahmad
Thank you. And next up, Shirley.

Shirley Merith
Hello, everyone. My name is Shirley Merith. I'm faculty in the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts. I enjoy writing, of course, like everybody here, and I write blogs, article pieces. And uh, recently I've written a short fiction, short story now.

Shakira Ahmad
Thank you, Shirley. And last but not least, we have Philip.

Philip Alalibo
Thank you so much. Always a pleasure to be here. My name is Philip Alalibo, I'm a faculty member at the School of advancement. I'm also a coordinator for General Education and Liberal Studies. And hey, I have four publications that I will be discussing in this, in this podcast. So thank you.

Shakira Ahmad
Thanks, everyone. Let's just learn a little bit more about their publications. Joanne, would you like to tell us what you've written? Perhaps a little bit about the target audience?

Joanne Dominico
Yes. So I mentioned I did a few articles, I was actually approached by some different media outlets as a result of some news segments I did during the pandemic, when so many people, parents, students, educators didn't really know what to do in terms of helping to support student learning. So I have an article in the Toronto Star, the Calgary Herald. And even a little clip in the Today Show, which was a big deal for me, it was very exciting. And I started the study with Joanne, probably about five years ago, now just realizing that there's a big gap between students actually being taught how to study and learn. And as a previous occupational therapist, I love to be very holistic in my approach. So the blog on my website talks about wellness and self care and time management, organizational skills. So I write blogs that are typically inspired by the, the things that come up when I meet with my students. So I have blogs on my website for parents, students, I have blog posts about wellness, and productivity. Those are the main areas that I like to discuss.

Shakira Ahmad
Sounds really great. And a blog can be somewhat interactive, because you can get comments as well.Right?

Joanne Dominico
Yes, definitely.

Shakira Ahmad
Beautiful. And Shirley, what have you published?

Shirley Merith
I have a few blogs as well, and articles mainly to do with travel and tourism, because that is my passion and I love to travel all the time. But in this particular case, I, my publication is a fiction short story. It's a book called Walking Through and Other Stories, it's a combination of short stories with five authors, particularly women of color. So we thought it was an interesting angle to look at. So mine is a genre fiction about focusing on the theme of human connection. And the stories that are in the short story publication is not connected with each other at all, that is individual stories. Mine in particular is a romance story, which some of you might like. And it's interesting with that, because I'm not a big romance reader, but I decided to take it on and I, and, work through this romance. But it's about two main characters, Camille and Kyle whose lives intersect to a chance encounter on a plane ride on the way to London, England. So it's quite interesting in that regards, and, and romances do happen on planes, people. So keep that in mind when you do decide to travel. So it is a fiction story that I put together.

Shakira Ahmad
Yeah, it sounds too, like the women of color. You could have a volume two.

Shirley Merith
Absolutely. Yeah, sure. We, we thought about it. We haven't decided yet. But yes, some of us are doing our own thing, but it is still a possibility for sure. Sure.

Shakira Ahmad
Exciting. I might be interested. So keep me in mind. And next up, Phil, do you want to tell us what you published?

Philip Alalibo
Yes, thank you for that question. So, essentially, I have four publications and the first one is a book of poetry. It's a collection of 40 poems and the title is A Sahara Voice, Sahara as in the Sahara Desert, Sahara Voice: Poems from the Heart of Africa. And the poems really tell of my experience going through life. Way back when I was young, in high school, you know, going through college and university, those experiences, some academic experiences, some life experiences, you know, societal experiences, so forth. And the other ones are books that deal with, you know, race and society. And essentially dealing with the intersection of race and gender, and how that plays out in everyday, in everyday life, going to the grocery store, for example, how you are viewed as a black person, specifically as a black man. And, you know, the interaction you have with people and so forth. So the first one is dealing with that, is titled A Day in our Skin: The Struggle between Grace and Resilience. So, it's a struggle between grace and resilience every day, you're going through just a daily routine supply. The second one deals with how we can interact in a very harmonious way, as members of society, and focusing on the Black History Month, and how the month should be celebrated essentially, and the importance of the month for to, black folks from the cultural in the perspective, but also from societal perspective. And the third one deals with interaction in the classroom, dealing with students, dealing with diversity of students, of curriculum development, and delivery, our students and, and the intersection of race, and as well as gender in the classroom, and how that plays out. So these are really books that are very helpful to give an insight into some of the experiences of racialized people, faculty people in our society, and, and all three of them, you know, really point to one theme, which is harmony, the need for all of us to get along as members of society, and to forge ahead towards a common goal.

Shakira Ahmad
That's wonderful. I mean, certainly very personal, close and dear to yourself, I was thinking that your set of poems sort of memorialize your early life, which is really interesting, and it's great to have that, that, that other viewpoint. Just wanted to know how each of you came to choose that topic or genre that you wrote about. Joanne?

Joanne Dominico
Well, I always get my inspiration from the students I meet with, and also from my own life. So I typically focus on what are some common challenges or problems that I'm seeing with the students that I meet with. And I take that, and then I think about tangible solutions. And then I really like to, I like to talk. I'm a talker, it's just my nature. So I like to talk. I like my blog posts to be like I'm talking to the reader. And I like them to be able to be like, oh, I can relate to that problem. This is something that I'm experiencing. And at the end, I like to have those takeaways. Okay, so I have this problem. And now I know what steps I can try to try and solve that. Here's a potential solution that this learning expert has given me. So that's sort of my, how I go about the process and where I get my information from. Yeah.

Shakira Ahmad
It's a, It's a really good skill, and you, you speak very well, I must say. Clear and engaging and just a joy to listen to. So Shirley, how did you come about, or decide what you were going to write about?

Shirley Merith
As I mentioned before, it is a romance novel and romance genre, it's one of the most popular genres out there, and there's millions, if not millions upon millions of people who read romance novels. So I thought maybe that might be somewhere to start, when I decided to do something a little bit bigger. And as I, as I mentioned before, this is a book of short stories. So, there's four other ladies that wrote with me, different stories, of course. So we thought about what would be the theme behind the book, and the theme would be human connection, we decided to do that. So everybody's story has some kind of human connection in a different way. So again, romance fit right into that category. So when we put it all together, in, in with all the different short stories, again they're different, but the concept remains the same. I like the idea of romance in regards to writing. We all have seen those Hallmark movies and read their Harlequin books. I'm not a big Harlequin reader, but I do know many friends that are stuck with that, those books. So there's always something warm, and I wanted something light and easy as well, something that was an easy read. And I felt that that fit into, fit in to the category, and it worked well in their publication that we have.

Shakira Ahmad
Oh, that's excellent. You're right. We all could use a little bit more love in our life and human connection. We have, I think, just going through the period these last few years, we really learned how important it is. So, thank, Yeah, so thank you for that. I haven't read yours, but I'm looking forward to reading it. And Phil, how did you come to choose what you decided to write about?

Philip Alalibo
Uh, it's actually very natural and very, again, intense of the choice. And I wanted to reflect really, on experiences, life experiences, and leave something really for the next generation, and a legacy so to speak. And it was quite easy to decide on, on what to write, to write about interactions, and race and, and social justice. These are things that we really need in our society, and especially in light of recent events in the US with, you know, police brutality for black men, it became very essential for me to write about these issues and to put it out there essentially. That way people know what the experiences have been like, but more importantly, what we can do collectively about those experiences, about moving forward as one in society, and making sure that we are really ensuring that everybody gets, you know, it gets moved along. And we are aware of our issues of racial injustice, and how we can address those issues, effectively in society. So these are some of the motivations and Mandela, Nelson Mandela was a huge motivation for me as well, his fight for justice, and, but more importantly, his fight for reconciliation and what he stood for, and believing in, in harmony and and everyone coming together towards a common destiny, a common goal. So those, that, he was a huge motivation for me to write this and to also put it out there to encourage people to have discourse, you know, because it's only by discourse and awareness that we can get to the next level. And that next level is to get in is harmony, and, you know, working with one accord in society, again, towards the common goal, and that goal is, you know, to be there for one another, to have each other's back, so to speak.

Shakira Ahmad
Well, it looks like you're in the right place. I mean, as an activist college, Centennial is certainly a great environment to promote, and to learn about these ideas that you have to share. So we're going to move on to our next set of questions. So Shirley, can you tell us a little bit more about the process that you went through from your idea to final publication?

Shirley Merith
Sure. The idea being it a fiction, and everybody, more people know that fictions are creations, it's not something that's already happened to you in a nutshell, you're starting from scratch. You have to first think about what are the characters, or who are the characters you're going to be having in the book, and what is the storyline. So I mean, you create a storyline, and then you have a story arc. And in a romance, most people will be aware that its usually starts off that the end up meeting somewhere somehow, and then they connect at some point. And then they have some kind of controversy or some complication that happens and then they more or less end up together at the end. So the process is something that you have to think about. I always create an outline. I start off with an outline of what I'm planning on doing, then I put the characters together, and bear in mind that the characters will change throughout the story. So I changed the character's names, like at least four times when I was writing it just because I thought I wanted a name that everybody can relate to. So you change a character, you might change a setting or the scenery, you might just, you have to decide where you're going to be starting from. As I mentioned before mine started on a plane, it could have started in any way. But I chose that because I was comfortable with that. So you start off with your outline and you have the characters, and you, you move through to the story itself and you, you navigate your way through the storyline and you make adjustments as necessary. You always have to bear in mind that whenever you said, let's say you said something in chapter four, in chapter six, if you're going to refer back to it, it has to connect that so if you have them walking through a park in four, in chapter six, you can't have them now in Australia, and not tell the reader how they got there. So it always has to make sense in that regard. So you go through all of that and then once you put it together, you get editing. You know, we hired an editor, an editor had to be involved. And we always remember an editor, they might take away some of the good parts of your story. Because they see it as not fitting, even though you loved it, they might pull that card away, and it hurts a little bit because that might be the part you like the best. But you've got to be able to understand the end of the story. So once they do all the editing, then you have to decide how you're going to public, public, sorry, publish your book. And so we went through a process of, you know, different people, how we wanted to publish the book, and once we've published it, then you've got to remember that doesn't stop there. Of course, the book is published. You see it in print, it's lovely, that's great. But what now, what do you do with it? Well, you've got to market it. Okay, and the marketing is a big, big process. And it's a lot of work. Even if you're a well known writer, you still have to market your book somehow, you know, unless you're, you know, established by James Patterson or something, but you still have to market your book. And for us that involves doing, going to radio stations. And we were featured in CBC radio's book club, Here and Now, then we went to the bookstores. So like your Indigo, your Chapters, and we managed to get them in all of the Chapters Indigos across the GTA, then you have to do book signings. So you have to do book signings, we did book signings, we went to, you know, we did book anything that was going on festivals, any of that stuff. So what I'm getting at is it's not as easy as it seems. It's a long, drawn out process. And, and it still continues today, we were now in the central public libraries, and we're in book clubs. So it's a long thing. Don't think you're gonna finish today and tomorrow, it's going to be all over the place. No, it can take months, if not years.

Shakira Ahmad
Yeah, I think as long as you keep that goal in mind, that end product, it might be long and drawn out but it sounds also exciting. Certainly achievable if you put the work in.

Shirley Merith
It absolutely is. The best thing is to see your book on the shelves in the bookstores.

Shakira Ahmad
Oh, yeah.

Shirley Merith
Made to some, beside some of the top known authors, not if, it's very exciting. And that was exciting for us.

Shakira Ahmad
Well congratulations. I mean, kudos to you. It's a great achievement. And so Phil, do you have anything to add about your, now you, yours is more based on your life. So it's nonfiction. Is there a different process? Or were there some things that are similar for you?

Philip Alalibo
Uh yes, there are some similarities from what Shirley has put out. In my case, I see writing as a lifestyle and by that, I mean, it's an ongoing process. And every, every experience is part of the process. And so for me, it's about journaling. And I journal a lot of my experiences, and starting off with, you know, the traditional journaling method of, you know, pen and paper, and then of course, with electronics, all over the place now, you know, transferring to electronic gadgets, etc. And every experience is, is, is channeled and there's something even one time I remember, I didn't have any writing materials with me, I was on a TTC bus, and I just picked up a transfer slip, and started writing my experience, right on the bus, you know, interacting with students and other people. And so it's an ongoing process. And once you get to a point that you think you have enough to go to, you know, essentially to start writing, then you start writing and put things together. And for me, that time really came when the pandemic hit. And if there's any silver lining in the pandemic, it's writing, been locked down and just allowed to go for food and medicine, I saw that's an opportunity to really write and, and put things together. And, and then, of course, when George Floyd's situation happened, for me, that was a turning point. And that's when I really put my foot on the, on the gas pedal and said, we have to really get this story out. Because essentially, what happened to George Floyd could have happened to any black man, in my view. It wasn't about the dollar bill, the $20 bill, it was about the skin color. So I felt the need to pull out the experience there. Again, the whole idea is for awareness. And making sure that folks are aware of these experiences. And actually was saying, once the book is out, you saw, you seek a publisher, and publishers have really a lot of leverage on what you do and what's in your book. Then, once you get to that point, the book is out, now it's a different challenge you're facing, which is the marketing aspect of it. You go through the platforms of Amazon and Chapters, and Barnes and Nobles, and so forth and many other platforms. And you know, every book launch is very helpful as well to put it out there amongst your network, so that they're aware of the book and promote it in that way. And the, the hope then is the book is impactful, has the desired impact. And of course, with a target audience, you want to reach that audience, and make sure that the book has that impact that you're seeking to have, and that impact, that is the message, is a message that you want to put out there, etc. So it's been a long journey. And it's been one that has taken quite a bit of time. And again, the pandemic was really helpful in this case, because they allowed me time to really focus and be locked away in the basement writing chapters upon chapters over coffee and tea. Can't remember how many cups of tea that were expended in this process. But at last, the books are here and it's all worth it.

Shakira Ahmad
That's excellent, thank you so much. I think now maybe we can do a little bit of a lightning round to find out a little bit more of our authors. So I'm gonna ask a quick question and we'll take turns. Joanne first, Shirley and then Phil, just to keep the continuity here. So what are you reading right now?

Joanne Dominico
I'm actually reading a book called the Think like a Monk by Jay Shetty. It's a, it's a great book, it's really teaching me a lot about gratitude, being in the present moment, mindfulness.

Shakira Ahmad
That's excellent.

Shirley Merith
Currently, I just finished reading a book by one of my favorite authors, which is Linwood Barclay. It's called Find you First and he's a Canadian writer. So I, all of his books, I'm just a big fan. And when I'm not reading him, I'm reading James Patterson because I also love all of his books. So those are the ones that I'm focusing on right now.

Shakira Ahmad
I hadn't heard of that Canadian author, intriguing.

Philip Alalibo
A lot of authors I'm reading right now. I have so many books on my desk and I'm taking turns reading them. But one of the, one of the books I'm reading is titled The Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga. This is a very interesting book and I have it here. It's a very interesting book that talks about racism, death and truth in northern city here in Ontario, about indigenous, indigenous people's experiences. And the, the book is unbelievable in terms of the insights it provides into those experiences in how they tried to navigate, you know, between society, governmental, governmental, you know, government interacting with government, internal people, laws and rules and regulations, in their own territory, etc. So that's what I'm reading right now. Again, it's called Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga.

Shakira Ahmad
Thank you. That's great. Who would you say, it's probably related, who would you say is your favorite author?

Joanne Dominico
My favorite author is James Clear. He wrote the New York Times number one bestseller, Atomic Habits, which I believe has sold more than 5 million copies. When I read that book, I was like, just eating it up. I just loved how he explained things. And similar to how I like to approach my blogs, he gave really digestible tips and strategies that you could try. And so many of my blogs, I, I cite him and some of his ideas, and I also subscribe to his newsletter. So he gives these bite-sized digestible tips every Thursday in my inbox and I look forward to it and I actually have a notepad, a note in my phone, where I reflect on some of his tips, because I, I tend to go back and use that either for Instagram posts, inspiration or newsletter or future blog post ideas. So yeah, he's my favorite.

Shakira Ahmad
Yeah, spread the love. I heard of him too, but now that you told me he's got, you know, a daily alert, Thursday's.

Joanne Dominico
Newsletter. Yes.

Shakira Ahmad
Yeah, certainly look into that.

Shirley Merith
Ooh, I just mentioned two of them that I really like, and anybody I'm really really a big crime mystery suspense fan, because of course, it's fiction, and that's what I like to write. So as I mentioned before, Linwood Barclay, great, James Patterson, I love Peter James in the writing. I like light crime, which is Janet Evanovich. She does a great job with that. And if I do throw in anything to do with romance, I like Iman Hildebrand, she's an going easy writer. And I like something like that way. So I have a lot of different writers, but those are some of the ones that come to mind.

Philip Alalibo
Uhh, it's very difficult to identify one person. I have several favorite authors. But the first top on the list is Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe, easily the, the best novelist out there in the 21st century. He's dead now, he's been dead for about 10 years. But he authored several books, among which is titled Things Fall Apart. And that's a book that was published in 1958 and has sold well more than 40 million copies, been translated into more than two dozen languages. And even though it was written in 1958, it's still very relevant today, talking about society, talking about politics and interaction on traditions, and culture of African people. So it's a huge book. I read it in high school as a reading material, and I've been reading it since then, essentially. But I also read authors like Tony Morrison, Tony Morrison's work, very, very insightful work, and Chimamanda Ngozi, who has written several books, including Let's All Be Feminist. That's one of her titles, and many other books along those lines, and very interesting opinions and views that she puts out there. So these are just some of my favorite authors.

Shakira Ahmad
I agree. I think we could all use a little bit of feminist qualities. Especially in this day and age, that's excellent. Thank you so much. Okay. Now we're just going to ask each one of you, what's next for you?

Joanne Dominico
Well, for me, I think one of the reasons I joined the writing circle is I really wanted to improve my writing skills. So for me, I feel like the natural progression from, to blog, is from blog to book, right? So eventually, I would love to write a book and be published and I think that it's totally doable. And now being inspired by people like Shirley and Philip, I think it's possible. So I'm really happy that I was able to connect with people who've, who've already done it so I can learn from them. So that's what's next for me.

Shakira Ahmad
Yeah. Support networks. So important. How about you Shirley, what's next for you?

Shirley Merith
What's next? I'm currently working on a mystery suspense novel. And so I'm three quarters of the way through that. So that's what's next for me. It's going to take me a little bit of time to finish it up, fine tune it. But I'm hoping to get back edited and published sometime next year. So I'm looking forward to, to working on that piece.

Shakira Ahmad
Oh, wonderful. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got written, too. And you, Phil, you've been really prolific this year. So I don't know. Are you taking a break? Or what's next?

Philip Alalibo
No, there's no break at all. It's a onward march. So I'm, I'm shifting a little bit to, to academic, academic work, and putting together sort of a, you know, resource book for my students that I teach on African, you know, African politics, and African, you know, contemporary African, you know, topics and so forth. So putting together a resource book for them that will capture some of the content and topics that we've been discussing, that's in the curriculum. So that's what I'm doing now. Hopefully it'll be done by September and ready to go with that.

Shakira Ahmad
Well, thank you to my writing circle companions, Joanne, Philip, and Shirley. And thank you Sowmya for helping, guiding us through this podcast. It's been a blast, you certainly motivate me to get up off my, my, my books and, and do some writing myself. And I really appreciate you spending your time with us today, you know, talking about your process, and everything that you've gone through, and very inspirational. And it's nice to know that you know, you're part of our community, and you're so approachable for anyone who really needs help, and I look forward to see what you have coming out next. Thank you so much.

Shirley Merith
Thank you for having us.

Philip Alalibo
Thank you so much.

Shakira Ahmad
Thank you. My pleasure, indeed. That's it for this episode of our writing circle podcast. Hope you join us for our next.

Alice Hsiung
Thank you for joining us today. Don’t forget to tune in next time when we chat with budding authors about tips and tricks to getting started with your writing. Make sure to listen and subscribe to the Centennial College podcast on SoundCloud, Apple podcast, Google podcast, and Spotify.