By: Staff Writer
May 28, 2021
An upcoming Trinidadian author said she channelled God and her mistakes to create her first book, using the COVID-19 lockdowns as the space she needed to accelerate the two year process to where she is now presenting it to the world.
Shellyann Patrick, told Caribbean Magazine Plus that she always “loved” to write even though she never saw herself as a real writer. “One day at a leadership conference, this woman walked up to me, held my hand and prophesied that there was a book in me. From that day I took a step of faith and I started writing my first book ‘The thief that Stole my Time,’ she said.
Shellyann told us what inspired her to write the book and said, “As I approached age 40, I started to look back at my life and where I was in my life as opposed to where I thought I would have been at that age. I then started to evaluate my journey and some of the lessons that I learnt along the way through my mistakes. I decided to write about my authentic journey sharing the lessons that I learnt through my missteps. Its purpose was to help young people to not make similar mistakes. I also wanted to let they that share a similar life stage as me to know that there’s hope in God. “
Shellyann is a 40 year old Trinidadian woman that lives and works currently in Trinidad and she will be presenting her book at the virtual Caribbean Literary Conference (CARCICON) this upcoming June 4-6, where she will be sharing the platform with writers from around the Caribbean diaspora.
Using her experiences she took an interesting approach to conducting the research for the book, where she said: “This book caused me to delve deeper into the scriptures to find out what God’s word was saying regarding the different topics and in the process, I found answers to many of the questions that were plaguing me. The entire process of writing this book and pouring my heart on paper brought healing to my own soul.
Shellyann also said: “Because this is my first book, I can’t say that I completely understand or can identify my creative process or when a book is coming along. However, whenever I become emotional or passionate about an issue or a struggle that I or someone else is battling I immediately feel the desire to write. As I channel my pain or passion to writing the words just pour out.”
Using her pandemic downtime effectively, Shellyann came through with a piece of work that no doubt will be dedicated to God and using her mistakes as a testimony of her survival through it all.
All in all producing this book took Shellyann two years to complete. She added: “I would regularly start and stop and then start again. However, in 2020 when COVID-19 forced us to lock down I started writing again. This time I was consistent. I encountered numerous setbacks along the way in the self-publishing process some of which were financial constraints but in the end I was able to give birth to what is now my first published book.”