It's an old saw often quoted to the literary novice: Write what you know.
But it has worked wonders for Sherry McMillan, whose latest book, My S's Are Messes was children's literature winner in the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards – the largest readers' choice awards in the country – announced early this year.
The White Rock author's current career as a writer of children's books has come about directly from lived experience – including a moment of magical epiphany.
The life-changing experience that set her on a new and successful course took place in 2020.
McMillan – who admits she had been a frustrated writer for years while working in the technology field – was paddling her kayak in Semiahmoo Bay.
"I bought it during the pandemic," she explained. "I usually kayak alone. I've found it a great relief for stress – something I do for 'me' time."
She was at the westernmost end of Semiahmoo Bay, towards Crescent Beach, when something broke the water in front of her.
Suddenly she found that she was looking directly into the face of a seal – she'd never seen one so close before. Just as startlingly, she saw that the seal was looking right back at her with equal interest.
It was what McMillan describes as one of her "lightbulb moments of empathy" – a sense of kinship with another creature, and, by extension, all of nature.
McMillan, who said she had accumulated a closetful of unpublished manuscripts – novels, song lyrics and poems – over the years, had recently had advice that writing books for children was a good path toward publication.
That, plus her love of crafting poetry and the inspiration of her encounter with the seal quickly fused into a new project – a book that would both help children develop an appreciation of nature and would celebrate the wildlife McMillan was discovering daily near the shores of her home town.
To create the right visual elements to accompany her rhyming text she called on a childhood friend, Carla Maskall, who had become an award-winning artist (her mural can be seen adorning Crescent Beach's iconic Sunflower Café).
The result was What The Seal Saw – literally a seal's-eye view of life in the bay – in which Maskall's charming illustrations formed the perfect counterpart for McMillan's poetic text and empathetic, upbeat outlook.
Since its publication in October of 2021 through Friesen Press, it has been a bestseller on Amazon.ca, at Black Bond Books and at Indigo/Chapters, where it became one of 'Heather's Picks,' a select list of 10 outstanding books per year chosen by CEO Heather Reisman.
The success spawned a land-based sequel, What The Raccoon Saw (also illustrated by Maskall) in what McMillan terms their 'Naturally Curious' series (a third volume, still under wraps, is currently being readied for publication by the collaborators).
But McMillan's latest book, My S's Are Messes, while a departure from the others, still hews to her mission statement "To nurture a love of nature and language in little ones with big imaginations."
Again featuring the bright and imaginative imagery of Maskall, the book is aimed at children with speech differences – by someone who knows all too well what that is like.
It's the kind of positive, uplifting book McMillan wished she'd had as a child growing up with speech differences, something written by somebody who understood, and could take the fact and make it, rather than a source of shame, a source of fun – even including some tongue-twisters.
McMillan pointed out that some 40 per cent of us will have some kind of communication challenge at some point in our lives – and for many that happens during childhood.
Speech differences or delays (which used, in less-enlightened times to be referred to as "speech impediments") can include lisping, stuttering, articulation challenges or differences related to ADHD, ASD (autism), apraxia and more.
"I'm among five per cent of the population who have permanent speech challenges," said the author, who was born in New Westminster and raised in Langley and lived for years in Burnaby before she and husband moved to White Rock some 10 years ago.
"As a child I was pulled out of classes to go to a speech therapist (the preferred term today is speech pathologist) and embarrassed in front of my peers. The therapist would record my voice, which was also embarrassing.
"Everything about my speech challenges felt heavy. Even when people were well-intentioned and wanted to help and encourage me, I felt alone and pressured."
McMillan said she started thinking about the book when she discovered that speech pathologists were recommending What The Seal Saw to the children they were working with.
She reflected on the fact that even later in life, working in a field that involved video calls (even before the pandemic) she had learned to discipline herself to participate, even though it is still a source of stress.
Investigating the existing literature, she realized that there was a need for a book aimed at children learning to live with their speech differences.
"There were no other books like it – certainly none written by somebody with personal experience of a speech difference."
Maskall also had a personal stake in the book as the parent of a child with a speech difference, and McMillan noted that the book has also proven important in helping parents and other relatives gain understanding of the issue.
"For My S's Are Messes, I had to go on an internal journey – what does this feel like; what am I really trying to say," McMillan commented.
"I tried to describe the experience authentically. One thing I tried not to do was become didactic – I just write poetry, and it's wonderful to see children reading it for themselves."
McMillan's kayaking not only helped provide the inspiration for What The Seal Saw – it's also become an important part of her creative process.
"There's something about the rhythm of kayaking that's conducive to poetry," McMillan said.
"I have a voice-recorder with me and I will speak out what I'm writing to make sure that it's as clear and simple to read as I can make it. I usually manage one verse for each kayak trip, and much of it will be about what I've seen."
