Mother, daughter unveil books same day
The authors, Stephanie and Ify Okafor, during the unveiling
It was double honour for the Okafors in Lagos, recently, when the mother of the house, Ify, and one of her daughters, Stephanie, unveiled their books – Parenting with the father and Oakville School – on the same day.
Speaking on her book, Stephanie said she wrote the book when she was bored and could not sleep. Her book, which is a series of short stories of five chapters, narrates different experiences of children. One of the chapters is about a toddler that just finished nursery and about to start primary school.
According to Stephanie, the choice of the title of the book was just a flash through her mind that after she penned down her thought she felt it seated well. She disclosed that it took her about two months to write the book and hopes to publish another, very soon.
Thanking her parents for their support, especially providing the environment that helped her to write and publish the book, Stephanie said one lesson she took away from publishing the book was that you could go far with your imagination.
On her part, her mother, Ify, said her book, which is a 30-day prayer, guides its readers on how to converse with God on parenting.
“It is a series of conversation with God and practical guide on how to parent jointly with the father.”She is optimistic that the book will help many to parent better after reading through and making it a daily companion.
According to her, the book came, probably, because she has always been passionate about parenting, but the book content was particularly inspired by God; these prayers and the guides that accompany them.
“Parents need help, they are overwhelmed and see all sorts of things, this is supposed to be an easy book to help parents find their bearing.”
She disclosed the first 23 prayers took her just two hours to compose, reason she firmly believed that God inspired them because she just thought of one and in the process of writing it down, others came and within two hours she had about 23 prayers.
“I was also inspired to share the prayers one in a day. And I shared them one a day from May 1 to 30 and got 30 prayers.”
She recalled, the whole process of writing the book started in the last week of April and by mid-July, the book has been published. “I know that God had been all the way including getting it published on Amazon. I have been blessed compared with the challenges encountered in publishing the book.
“My publisher, Liam and Noel’s, was very supportive in cash and kind in being able to put the book together. So, I want to encourage Nigerians not to wait for finished works or everything to be perfect before they write because there will never be a perfect time and situation. What I can guarantee you is that as you call God into it, He will bring the solutions to your problems.”
Speaking on the lessons the process of writing and publishing the book has taught her, she said the first was to trust God, because when she got the prayers, she did not know what she was going to do with them.
“And He guided me every step of the way. I will hear a little voice, I will do it and it goes smoothly into the next step. The next thing is to be courageous, sometimes when we hear God talk to us, we doubt ourselves that we do not even take steps to start.
“Last, there is still a lot of goodness in the world because the amount of prayers and people who have reached out have really been massive and humbling.”
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