We recently connected with Shay Jones and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shay , thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

My passion has always been working with young children. To see their faces light up means the world to me. That’s how I feel about my own child. Children have such huge imaginations, so I thought, why not write a children’s book about it. So that’s what I did. I wrote a book and dedicated to my daughter. Actually the book is primarily about her, but it also gives insight that when children use their imaginations they can make anything come true. My logic for this book is, when you use your imagination, you can make your dreams come true as well. Believe in yourself and never give up hope.

Shay , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As I stated previously, I’ve always enjoyed working with young children. I wanted to write this book in hopes that young children would enjoy knowing that kids all over the world use their imaginations and your imagination can take you to wherever you’d like to go. The tools that got me to creating this book was honestly my iPhone notes. I went to the app and just started typing page 1, page 2, page 3 and before you know it I had so many pages and my book was finished, well my writing was. My wonderful & talented Aunt, Saundra Jones who’s a Graphic Designer for the State of Maryland designed all of my illustrations. I came up with the concept of what I wanted on each page and she designed all of it for me. Saundra knew a wonderful printing office, who printed out layouts and page samples for me to pick from. From there the printing started and the books were created/ published. For this book I self published, which for me was a great way to get started on my first book. I’m most proud of the fact that this was one of my goals and I achieved it! It’s definitely a blessing. I will definitely have more books to come.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of this is that I created this book, I put my mind to it and got it done. This was truly a goal of mine and now I can finally say “I wrote and published my own book!”. Sometimes the smallest goals are the biggest reward.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

In life sometimes some of us start something but may never finish it or may take years to complete it or we may never complete it. That was me to a certain extent. I started this book journey before the pandemic and although I had the time because we were stuck in our homes I just never took the time to complete the book until after 2020. My advice is to never give up, it may take time but as long as you come back striving for your goals you’ll get there and if one goal doesn’t work out, try another goal you may have.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: bookcreations84

Image Credits
Saundra V. Jones